Remit is an independent national training provider offering apprenticeships in the automotive, IT, hospitality, retail, business, food and care sectors, to more than 6,000 learners, as well as running employability programmes for the unemployed. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Remit’s training was primarily face to face and Development Coaches used to visit learners at work to undertake development and assessment activities. Everything had to transfer to online delivery because of lockdown restrictions, and Development Coaches varied in their skills and confidence to adapt to the new situation, especially in some curriculum areas. The move to online teaching was particularly challenging for those Development Coaches who had come from industry without prior teacher training, so were simultaneously having to develop teaching strategies, understand how these strategies might be achieved using technologies and deliver remotely in practice. Those less confident were falling back to lecture style deliveries using PowerPoint which was less engaging for learners.
Teaching Learning and Assessment Manager Joanne Shirley decided to apply to the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) to run a Reflective Exploration project in use of educational technology (EdTech) focused on two curriculum areas, Care and Motor Vehicle. The project would enable both Development Coaches in these two areas, as well as Teaching and Learning Coaches working across Remit, to spend time extending their digital skills using the CPD resources on the ETF’s Enhance Digital Teaching Platform.
The team selected to undertake the project included:
The participants were supported by ETF EdTech Mentor Sally Betts.
The stated aims of the project were:
“We wanted to introduce our Development Coaches (DCs) and TLA team to the EdTech digital skills learning modules [on the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform] as a stepping stone to address the development of digital pedagogy and to identify and explore a suite of digital tools to support different elements of a remote learning session. We also wanted DCs to be able to reflect on the impact of implementing identified tools into learning sessions and obtain learner feedback.”
Joanne Shirley, Teaching Learning and Assessment Manager
Practitioners were asked to:
The Project Lead was responsible for:
The ETF EdTech mentor Sally Betts supported the project through regular weekly meetings with the Project Lead and practitioners, providing coaching on tools and techniques and also signposting relevant resources on the Enhance platform to suit specific interests.
The Project Lead and the three practitioners all wanted to focus on modules in the Accessibility and The Digital Teacher categories of the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform, but each had different areas of interest where they wanted to improve their practice.
Sarah was teaching the Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training (DET) for ten Development Coaches from industry backgrounds without teaching qualifications and wanted to be able to support them in adopting digital pedagogies and tools – modelling some of the practices in her DET course. For example, she set up a Class Notebook for the project team. She anticipated working with Martyn Jackson to suggest ideas on how the knowledge and skills learnt from the modules could be contextualised to the Development Coaches’ specialist areas.
“I would like to look into tools that support my colleagues to plan effective sessions that do not take too long to put together. I also would also like to support my colleagues to plan differentiated sessions using a variety of methods, to include digital tools.”
As a Teaching and Learning Coach, Martyn wanted to familiarise himself with the EdTech badging system on the platform to be able to support colleagues. He also wanted to develop a CPD resource on digital pedagogy and digital tools focused on the ‘Learning Wheel’ approach.
“I would like to create a resource(s) and follow up sessions that inspire and build confidence in choosing the right tools to engage learners in sessions. I will investigate the different apps, tools, features and abilities of MS Teams and create a resource – based on elements of the ‘Learning Wheel’ – that identifies different ways teachers and learners can use these to deliver learning content and assess knowledge and skills. I will also look to provide guidance or comment on how accessible each tool is and evaluate this effectively.”
Care tutor, Amanda Robertson, wanted to extend her knowledge of digital tools for activities such as content creation and to test new delivery methods such as text to speech tools with learners, most of whom use mobile devices for learning.
Motor Vehicle tutor, John Romankiw, wanted to focus on the use of breakout rooms to engage apprentices.
In addition to completing bite-size EdTech training modules, the team submitted reflections on the #EdTechSwap Awarded Practice Wall on the Enhance platform to gain two- and three-star EdTech award badges. Samples of their reflections are included below:
Sarah Hudson-Tyler
Martyn Jackson
Amanda Robertson
John Romankiw
#EdTechSwap Awarded Practice Wall
Remit was already using the FUSE Learning Management System. Development Coaches had started to use Microsoft Teams for remote delivery along with Class Notebook but needed to build skills in online collaboration and use a wider variety of digital tools to enhance engagement. During the project the team looked at use of:
Sarah started using class Notebook as part of the DET course with ten Development Coaches. She also experimented with flipped learning and with better use of the chat facility to gauge learners’ understanding.
On Class Notebook:
“I have heavily invested in using Class Notebook and routinely use it as our contact method and for all things associated with the DET course. I am regularly looking at You Tube videos to learn how to use all of its features, and then I try this out with my learners. My learners have identified some anomalies, which has helped to understand Class Notebook from the learner perspective.”
On flipped learning:
“I tried a new activity this week, by using a flipped learning approach. I set research work for my learners on Nearpod to research the learning theories, behaviourism, constructivism and humanism. Then in the session I put the learners into three breakout rooms to collaborate on their research and to design and present their theory in visual format.”
Martyn produced a resource about the digital skills Learning Wheel for colleagues in Prezi but after applying lessons learned from the digital accessibility training on the Enhance platform, realised that the resource was not fully accessible for those with visual impairment. He is now looking for an alternative tool to Prezi for recreating the resource.
As a result of this exercise, Martyn contacted the curriculum design team in Remit about accessibility criteria in the approval process for new resources to go on the FUSE LMS and this is being reviewed.
Martyn also tried some new ways of interacting digitally and remotely with Regional Managers (RMs), who support Development Coaches, so that they could understand methods available and promote these ideas with their DCs to use with learners.
On use of QR codes and Mentimeter:
“I used a QR code and asked the RMs to use their mobile phones to access a Mentimeter activity which resulted in a word cloud embedded into my PowerPoint. When I practised this with two colleagues prior to this session, it worked well. However, with 30+ inputting into the word cloud, the PowerPoint slowed down and didn’t refresh as quickly as I would have liked, which meant a slight delay. I combatted this by switching to the Mentimeter webpage, which I had open on a different screen and ensured all participants could see this.”
On use of Padlet:
“I also used a Padlet for collaborative and individual activities where the Regional Managers had to contribute their thoughts on a topic. It worked well and was well-received by all. Some members of staff contacted me post-session for a guide on how to use Padlet. What didn’t work so well was that in preparation I had not ticked a button to show who had completed which comment. I will ensure I do this next time.”
On setting up a second screen to enable better learner interaction:
“I wanted to be able to see the chatbox, webcam, presenter notes and the shared screen across two screens. I wanted to ensure that learners could use the chatbox and I could respond instantly without relying on another member of staff to unmute and read the answers to me.”
Amanda trialled use of a text to speech tool and also a speech to text tool with different individual learners, with varying degrees of success but useful lessons were learned about the value of:
“We discussed the function on the phone and how this worked, I demonstrated via Teams using my phone so she could see the benefits of this… this became difficult as when using the internet, she had to switch off Teams and although she could still hear me, she couldn’t see me, and I couldn’t see her and what she was doing either, so talking her through what she was doing became quite difficult. She struggled to find the icon that I had used on my phone. So, this did not work well. I should have prepared her prior to the session and asked if she could check if she had the right settings on her phone. Knowing that she struggled with technology it might have been useful to have a user guide for her to check setting and then to follow instructions.”
“The learner was introduced to speech to text, as he struggled with writing things down but was able to explain thing well… The learner was quite nervous about doing this, so we practised with me asking a question and him verbally answering and showing that it was typing his reply. He took time to be able to ensure that the right setting on his laptop was set to be able to use the speech to text function. He did think this was a simple but effective way for him moving forward… The learner tried this on his own with work that had been set between our meetings. He reported back to me that he felt self-conscious about talking to himself and became confused with what he was saying so the text when he read it back did not make sense. He said that it was easier when he thought he was talking to someone. He is going to keep trying as he still sees the benefit of this and if he can get over his own nervousness then it will be a useful tool for him to use… We have also explored the ‘correct’ command rather than deleting the sentence or word. This has worked well and has made his workflow better. This is working well and we will continue to explore more commands as the need arises.”
John tried using breakout rooms in MS Teams with a group of apprentices but found issues with connectivity and engagement. After discussing with peers, John was able to try some new approaches with a better result. There was valuable learning about the need to be clear about learner starting points and expectations and how best to use breakout rooms.
“In the classroom we are able to have learners working in small teams… I tried this on a couple of my virtual training sessions but found that Microsoft Teams is clunky in that it takes time to allocate each learner to a room. If a learner has intermittent internet connections when they dropout they re-join – but need to be placed back in their rooms by the organiser. This prolongs the allocated time period, and we have limited time available. Many learners work shifts of 6 until 2 and 2 until 10 (the back shift).”
Sarah Hudson-Tyler
Martyn Jackson
Amanda Robertson
John Romankiw
Joanne Shirley identified a number of successful impacts:
“Practitioners are starting to understand the difference between effective delivery through remote learning and how different this is from face-to-face sessions/visits. Potentially, strategies that are being used remotely could improve face-to-face delivery.”
Joanne Shirley, Teaching Learning and Assessment Manager
“On delivery of the DET course the use of Flipgrid and Nearpod has been used and, as a result, a more independent learning approach has been encouraged which now includes having mini one-to-one fifteen-minute digital skills mentoring sessions for staff on the DET course who have low digital capabilities.”
Joanne Shirley, Teaching Learning and Assessment Manager
“All learners on my DET course are using Class Notebook well, some more than others but that is to be expected. I like that my learners are posting in-between sessions when they are not sure on work set or have a general question. Other learners are also replying to posts to help their peers, which is great to see. When I see a resource or video that I think the learners will benefit from I can just post it straight away and don’t have to wait until the next session.”
Sarah Hudson-Tyler
On use of a second screen:
“It [using a second screen for teaching] worked well. I was able to respond to the chat box in a timely way, which meant I could use it more often. When someone was speaking, I could identify who was speaking via their webcam. This made for a more interactive and personal session because I could address exactly the person speaking by name.”
Martyn Jackson
On setting a research task:
“I think the next time I use a research task I might provide the less able learners with weblinks to choose from. This would help them to get to what they need to research more quickly, rather than spending more time trying to find the correct sites to look at. I had been looking into the theory of learning about the differences between andragogy and pedagogy and the different theories of motivation. Andragogy being more about allowing adult learners to be more involved in their learning and how they learn. This gave me the idea to do the research task to get them to have freedom to choose what areas they wanted to research.”
Sarah Hudson-Tyler
On use of Padlet:
“From a session that was delivered by the Teaching and Learning Manager to the Regional Managers on the use of Padlet (which was new to the organisation), immediate feedback was that the Regional Managers wanted to book this session for their respective teams. To date the use of Padlet as a collaboration tool and a tool for Apprentices to upload evidence has been delivered to five different teams within Remit.”
Joanne Shirley, Teaching Learning and Assessment Manager
On use of Mentimeter embedded into a PowerPoint:
“This was interactive, engaging and visual. It encouraged Regional Managers to think independently whilst collaborating on one board, seeing other people’s responses and talking through them with the group. It led nicely into the next discussion/activity/learning objective and allowed me to identify prior knowledge.”
Martyn Jackson
On use of a speech to text tool:
“This has only been a few tries but already he [the learner] is not worried about putting written work in. He is growing in confidence. It has benefitted him as he knows that the correct word has been used.”
Amanda Robertson
On use of breakout rooms in MS Teams:
“I asked my learners involved afterwards to assess how the trial of breakout rooms was received. Over 85% considered it a negative experience with the remainder reporting it as being ‘nice for a change’ but with little benefit to them. One mentioned it was like being sent out of class for being naughty. When I ‘looked’ in about 50% were having discussions on things not relevant to their learning.”
John Romankiw
On use of Class Notebook:
“My learners appreciate the fact that I can contact them easily in-between sessions and that I upload extra work for them to do in-between sessions. They also like that they can read their feedback and not have to wait for this in the next session. My learners are also trying Class Notebook with their learners and are enthusiastic about the possibilities.”
Sarah Hudson-Tyler
Impact on tutors
Impact on learners
Remit is intending to continue use of the EdTech training on the ETF’s Enhance Digital Teaching Platform as part of ongoing CPD. The Teaching and Learning Coaches are now familiar with the platform and the EdTech badging system to be able to support Development Coaches across the organisation in use of the platform.
The Curriculum Development Team is going to review an Accessibility checklist developed as part of the project to ensure that new learning materials are fully accessible for different needs.
Joanne Shirley has set out the following objectives:
Joanne is developing a Digital Capability Framework for Remit and is using the experience of the EdTech Reflective Exploration project to inform the creation of a digital skills pathway of learning.
Remit is an independent national training provider based in the Midlands and offering apprenticeships in the automotive, IT, hospitality, retail, business, food and care sectors, as well as running employability programmes for the unemployed. Remit has approximately 100 Development Coaches and 6,000 learners.
Six Reflective Exploration projects were funded by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) from February to March 2021. The aim of the projects was to help teachers and trainers in six organisations to develop their digital skills by engaging with the resources and communities of practice on the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform. The projects were focused, in particular, on the opportunities for skills development and pedagogic dialogue around submission and sharing of reflections and resources to gain digital badges.
Practitioners worked in groups of up to three supported by a Project Lead, who was also involved in the reflective CPD process. All projects were supported by an ETF EdTech Mentor. Projects were invited to focus on one of the following six themes:
Participants produced reflective diaries and short videos to record their CPD experience and the impact on their practice. Feedback from the project is being used to help refine and develop the badging and community of practice models on the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform.