Impact case study database

Work has contributed to enhanced teaching and learning through improvements in system interoperability, and been instrumental in supporting Open Educational Resources (OER), practice, development of analytics. Impact of the 2014 case study continues, but the inclusion of new research and impact means that it is not a continuing case study. In order to achieve maximum impact, the work is closely aligned to interoperability initiatives of key international partners, Jisc (UK), CEN (Europe), and IMS GLC (USA).

This work is important to stakeholders (1) Learners, (2) Tutors, (3) Institutions and (4) Industry; as a lack of interoperability can leave educational content, e-portfolios, course information and data locked into proprietary systems. This limits flexibility, freedom of choice, and prevents learners, tutors and institutions from communicating freely or exchanging data across educational platforms. The impact of the UoB work in specifications is as follows:

IMS Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) (Paper 3.1) and IMS learning Tools interoperability

(LTI) (p3.6)

IMS is an international educational technology specifications membership consortium with over 500 members. UoB wok informed the development of specifications including QTI and LTI. The contributions of Griffiths, Hollins, Cooper and Kraan into the development of the QTI specifications since 2010 cumulated in the publication of QTI 2.2 in 2015, with Kraan as author. QTI is the world’s only open interoperability format for computer aided assessment, and has been adopted by many of the world’s major eLearning companies (890 QTI and 262 LTI certified products) https://site.imsglobal.org/certifications (Accessed September 2020)

Benefits: (1) Access to digital assessment and assessment item banks across most VLE’s to improve learning outcomes. Seamless access to digital tools via their VLE.

(2) An ability to incorporate a variety of digital assessment pedagogic activities in most VLE’s. An ability to incorporate external pedagogic digital tools for deployment within their VLE.

(3) Effective and efficient application of digital assessment with seamless technical integration to their VLE of choice. An ability to extend the functionality of their VLE to tutors through the addition of digital tools.

HECOS (p3.7)

UoB was engaged by HESA as part of the HEDIP project in 2014 to undertake technical and social research to inform the development of a new course coding system. The HECOS system reflected both technical and community requirements for more flexibility than the previous set of fields and subjects in JACS. In 2019 HESA confirmed the requirement for all HE to move from the existing JACS system and to adopt HECOS as their primary coding for identifying the area of study of all courses. The system is now used in every Higher Education institution (165 in total) in the UK and used by University and College Admission Systems (UCAS), the students loan company and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Benefits: (1) Greater clarity for applicants to HE on the course content and modules.

1. To provide clear information relating to students relating to their course, content.

2. Efficient coding and clarity relating to their course content and module offerings.

Learning Analytics Community Exchange (LACE) (p3.2,3.3,3.5) and experience Application Profile Interface (xAPI) (p3.2,3.3,3.5)

UoB led interoperability work in LACE, researching the emerging landscape of specifications, particularly xAPI, and reflecting this back to the communities of practice working in the field. The work of LACE has contributed to the increase in the use of learning analytics in educational domains. The work has also stimulated and supported the use of learning analytics by a number of other European projects.

Benefits: (1) Improved learning outcomes supported by formative analytics.

1. The ability to monitor student progress to make appropriate interventions

2. mprove student retention through interventions and data information.

Realising an Applied Gaming Ecosystem (RAGE) project (Papers 3.4 ,3.6)

The project evaluated the use of xAPI in applied games and LTI for data exchange with VLE’s.

creating demonstrators for the use of LTI in conjunction with serious games and learning analytics. The recommended scenario of xAPI integration into Moodle stimulated early adoption by international games development companies in France, Germany and the UK. The success of the research, in collaboration with other partners (UCM), led to the inclusion in the RAGE asset portal of a number of demonstrations of the xAPI service as a viable asset in the RAGE ecosystem.

LTI Benefits: (1) Access to immersive learning activities through their VLE.

(2) The ability to incorporate immersive learning experiences through their VLE

(3) Improved data exchange across their systems and the ability to support pedagogic approaches involving immersive digital technologies.

(4) The ability to integrate their products with institutional VLE’s

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The impact that has arisen as a result of the research documented in section 2 has positively influenced primary and secondary schools across Bolton through the adoption of pedagogic practices and protocols that are substantiated by a high level of empirical educational research literature and refined in practice.

The Bolton Learning Partnership brought together 28 schools, 3000 members of academic staff and over 19,00 students to utilise the theories of action and instructional rounds documented within the curiosity and powerful learning. The BLP reported that the use of theories of action and instructional rounds where seen to increase academic success amongst pupils, improved recall during reviews of prior learning and in response to test questions indicated a stronger vocabulary.

Chris Bingley, Assistant Head Teacher at Thorn leigh Salesian college stated that through adopting the instructional rounds model has had an informal link to academic success, Improved recall during reviews of prior learning and responses to test questions has indicated a stronger vocabulary size, there's been a positive shift in learning climate because of the expectations that students use academic vocabulary in the classroom [5.2].

Simon Cordell, Assistant Vice Principal at Little Lever School stated that they have looked to create the perfect learning environment by adopting an entry protocol for all staff and students which is having a positive effect on the pupil engagement at the start of the lesson [5.3].

Rebecca McCarthy, Word of the week Strategy Lead at Rivington High School stated that the introduction of the language mastery initiative at Rivington had helped the students to access tier two vocabulary which assists students in developing their understanding in the curriculum in all of their subjects [5.3].

The impact however goes far beyond the 19,000 pupils detailed above as the BLP documented that their engagement with the research had significantly enhanced professional repertoire of all staff at the schools who had developed their own technical skills and knowledge through adhering to the protocols implemented. Through embedding the theories of action into school culture the positive effects are expected to pertain for the foreseeable future as the school adopts the practical guides to whole school improvement which has the potential to alter the trajectory of the next generation of children within the borough.

The Leadership for Powerful Learning school development programme took the next steps to ensuring those witnessed benefits to student outcomes then fully embedded within school practice as it delivered a series of six workshops to nominated educational leaders of primary schools in Bolton which increased the awareness of leadership in the pursuit of realising a collective moral purpose. To date the programme has supported at least 25 primary schools in strengthening their capacity to provide high quality teaching, enhancing student learning, and managing change effectively. Engagement with the programme has already resulted in a more strategic approach to school improvement, enhanced student outcomes that are attested to by LA school advisers. An example of the impact of the programme is provided by OFSTED in their inspection of St Ethelbert’s RC Primary School, Bolton, in 2018, which states that as a result of the programme “...leaders are successfully developing the curriculum in areas such as reading, writing and mathematics. Subject leaders work well together to provide pupils with opportunities to make connections in their learning across the curriculum and to undertake learning activities that excite and engage pupils’ thinking.”

As the understanding and evidence grew for the beneficial impact teachers and school leaders could have when implementing instructional rounds so did the attention of leading academics and practitioners around the world. As such, Professor Hopkins was invited to be a keynote speaker at several internationally acclaimed conferences such as; The Ministry of Education Cyprus (2016), Bastow Leadership Institute Melbourne (2016) and the Australian Council for Educational Leadership (2017, 2017) which significantly increased capacity within the field as the dissemination of the key research findings enhanced the fields understanding of school improvement and system leadership. The findings where then also presented at the British Educational Studies Association annual International Conference in 2018 which was hosted at the University of Bolton. in January 2018 Professor Hopkins presented his findings on the success of his newfound Curiosity and Powerful Learning approach in a keynote speech for the TEDxUniversityofBolton and as of today has been viewed a total of 5,888 times on YouTube alone and was also published on the official TED Talks account which holds more than 21.4M subscribers.