The WEA is the largest voluntary sector provider of adult education in England, helping over 28,000 learners annually, often from the most disadvantaged areas. It is part of the mission of the WEA to equip learners for life and work, so helping learners to develop their digital skills is a key part of the offer. As such, the WEA has started to deliver new Essential Digital Skills (EDS) qualifications based on the national EDS standards for life and work introduced in 2019.
When the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) issued a grant call to join a DfE-funded EDS Champions programme, the WEA applied. The aim of the programme was to enable different types of learning providers across the FE and Training sector to explore opportunities for both staff and learners around the new EDS qualifications at Entry 3 and Level 1. The programme offered the chance for staff to upskill using EDS resources on the ETF’s Enhance Digital Teaching Platform and for a nominated individual to become an EDS Champion to advocate EDS and share good practice both within the organisation and externally with colleagues across the sector. The programme also entailed running a Reflective Exploration project in which staff could try out new approaches to EDS delivery, critically reflect on their practice and share their learning.
The WEA works with over 2,000 ESOL learners annually so decided to focus their Reflective Exploration on their ESOL provision. This is the story of what happened and what was learnt.
Senior Delivery Manager Sarah Howarth sets out the aims of the WEA in undertaking the EDS Champion Programme.
The main aim of the WEA’s Reflective Exploration project was to reduce the barriers to digital inclusion for ESOL learners, who mostly have a low level of digital skills and confidence, by embedding Essential Digital Skills into their ESOL course and linking digital good practice with ESOL good practice.
The aim for learners was to:
The aim for tutors was to:
The aim for the WEA was to:
Participants were supported by ETF Mentor Mary Moss.
The following learning points have emerged from the two explorations below.
Live Chat with Nusrat Bhatti on ‘Canvas Record Media’ (post by Nusrat Bhatti on the ETF community of practice with video and resources)
Live Chat with Nusrat Bhatti on ‘Factors that Influence ESOL Tutors from Embedding EDS into their Practice’ (post on the ETF community of practice, with video and resources)
Reboot Digital Inclusion cards (post by Nusrat Bhatti on the ETF community of practice with link to the resource)
Scheme of Work for ‘How to create your video CV’ for Level 1 learners (post by Cathy Kirk on the ETF community of practice with link to the resource)
Scheme of Work for the WEA ‘Step into Digital’ course for pre-EDSQ Entry 3 learners (post by Nutan Ramji on the ETF community of practice with link to the resource)
Nusrat Bhatti describes her role as EDS Champion and introduces the Reflective Exploration projects.
In the WEA Reflective Exploration, two tutors, an ESOL Tutor and a Digital Tutor, used the EDS resources on the ETF’s Enhance Digital Teaching Platform to assess and develop their own Essential Digital Skills, then worked with ESOL learners to develop a video CV to contribute to their final course assessment.
Nusrat Bhatti as EDS Champion was the Project Lead for the Reflective Exploration, providing support for the tutors to be part of the ETF’s online Community of Practice and to engage in professional discussion with colleagues, both internally in the WEA and across the sector through the ETF’s CPD programme. Nusrat also engaged in her own Reflective Exploration, undertaking a self-assessment of her digital capability using the teacher self-assessment tool on the Enhance platform, then completing all 20 of the EDS online training modules to gain an overall Essential Digital Skills course badge.
Nusrat met with the two tutors weekly to reflect on their progress. The tutors were encouraged to keep a reflective diary of their digital CPD journey and how they would apply the knowledge and skills they had gained into their practice in the classroom. The tutors were also encouraged to collaborate with each other and with different subject specialists to share good practice.
“This exploration project provided practitioners with the opportunity to reflect on their own practice, self-assess their digital needs, and engage in professional discussions through the internal WEA discussion channels as well as the ETF’s online Community of Practice. It helped practitioners to maintain digital subject currency and to reflect on their development needs. It was an exciting opportunity for tutors from different subject areas to collaborate and share their expertise within their subject specialisms and to explore ways to create cross-curricular links to EDS. We were also able to strategically target some of the existing barriers our learners are facing and look at how practitioners could help.”
Nusrat Bhatti, Project Lead
ESOL Tutor Cathy Kirk describes the activities undertaken as part of her Reflective Exploration.
ESOL Tutor Cathy Kirk worked with ESOL learners attending a City & Guilds accredited Level 1 Speaking & Listening class at the Nottingham Women’s Centre. Learners were mainly women originating from Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Kurdistan and Pakistan with language levels at Level 1 emerging / consolidating. Their digital skills were at beginner / elementary level (based on evidence of performance at the start of the course). The main course aim was to help learners pass the City & Guilds exam on ‘Finding a Job’. The EDS project aim within the course was to develop learners’ digital skills by creating and editing a video CV involving the following steps:
A number of challenges were encountered during the project and solutions were found:
Learners were reticent to make a video CV because of issues of privacy and confidentiality. For example, one learner was based at a women’s refuge. Cathy adapted to the task to ask learners to create an audio CV rather than a video.
There was no initial assessment in place to assess learners’ digital skills. Cathy was able to source a learner assessment tool through the ETF’s online Community of Practice.
“I soon found that learners’ EDS skills level did not always match their ESOL level. At times, I produced L1 ESOL materials and EDS materials differentiated according to skills level. An EDS initial assessment would have been helpful for me so that I could have had appropriate EDS materials ready before the course started.”
It became clear that learners needed differentiated materials appropriate to learners’ low digital skills levels. Cathy again sourced course materials from the ETF’s online Community of Practice and WEA colleagues.
Given the range of digital skills in the class and time restrictions on delivering digital skills within the main Speaking & Language course, it was a challenge to manage and meet the needs of all the learners in the group. To address this, Cathy ‘buddied’ more confident learners with ones who needed help.
“The Enhance Platform has supported my CPD in important ways. The Creating & Editing module was particularly helpful for developing learning materials for my ESOL students producing a video CV. This module signicantly updated my creating and editing skills, knowledge which I could then share with my learners. This module also motivated me to look beyond the apps I was currently using. I found a particularly useful mp3/mp4 editing app Easy Record and Trim while looking for simple-to-use apps. The ETF Community of Practice is a really supportive and friendly space for sharing ideas and materials. I’ve used ideas and suggestions posted in the community in my teaching practice with ESOL learners, which has added a lively dimension to my teaching sessions. The Enhance Platform has helped me to increase my EDS knowledge and confidence, as well as that of my learners.”
Be prepared to adapt. Learners may be reluctant to appear in videos because of self-consciousness or concerns about privacy and confidentiality. It is important to be able to offer alternative approaches such as audio recordings.
“Embedding EDS into an ESOL course where there is a focus on particular topics, for example, employability, health and well-being, can be quite a tough experience for ESOL learners. On reflection, I feel that ESOL learners would benefit from a course focussing on developing EDS, before joining a course where both EDS and English skills are being developed synchronously. A short EDS course during the summer would support ESOL learners starting a course in September.”
Digital Tutor Nutan Ramji focused on a similar learner objective in her class for Entry 3 learners:
To support her teaching of the EDS curriculum, Nutan undertook many of the EDS online training modules on the ETF’s Enhance Digital Teaching Platform, covering four of the key skills in the national standards: Using Devices and Handling Information, Creating & Editing, Communicating and Being Safe and Responsible Online, as well as the two overarching modules on:
Nutan found the modules and badges on the Enhance platform were motivational and encouraged her to continue her personal learning journey and update her skills.
“After completing the modules and achieving the digital badges, I felt confident, competent and proud in my EDS abilities and subject knowledge. When I used the knowledge gained from completing the EDS modules, I felt it positively reinforced key knowledge components from my skillset which, in turn, productively contributed to supporting the course digital skill outcomes/behaviours. The resources were also useful to refer back to.
“I would recommend the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform resources to other IT tutors when teaching EDS or wanting to learn further about digital learning.”
Nutan tried several approaches in her classes:
Nutan asked learners to work in pairs, recording each other’s personal profile video. They were asked to use the smart phone device and record their partner, taking turns and emailing the video to one another when completed. Working in pairs helped to overcome nerves and reticence. It also enabled peer support and learning.
Learners were able to correctly select the application on the smart phone device, navigate the screen and use camera features if needed, for example zooming in and out. They were then able to attach the video content within an email and send it to their designated recipient.
“Pairing helped them to just focus on one another. I feel working in pairs rather than smaller groups or individually made the learners feel less anxious and insecure about the whole class watching them. It was fantastic to see peer support and encouragement during the pairings and then afterwards collectively within our group discussion. Working in pairs enabled each learner to have enough time to complete the task and learn from one another as they practised also building positive rapport.”
Nutan felt that it would have been useful to encourage learners to look online for examples of other recordings of a personal profile CV video to help them form a video plan to make the most of the allocated time. For future lessons, she decided to find a positive and negative example of recording a personal profile for a CV to enable the group to compare and contrast.
Some of Nutan’s learners were not confident with the use of the keyboard or mouse, which are essential skills for typing up documents such as CVs. She decided for future classes to encourage learners to practise the concepts of typing and mouse movements via digital applications such as typingclub.com and mousercise in order to build her learners’ confidence. Nutan felt this strategy was both engaging and productive as it enabled learners to work at their own pace with no pressure to create a formal document.
Learners built up transferable skills which helped them to create their CV on Microsoft Word and progress to more complex concepts such as formatting text in terms of choice of font, size of text, emphasis, alignment, and so on. The learners were able to understand more IT terminology and functionality of specific keys such as Shift Key, Capslock, Backspace, Delete key.
A week before the module on ‘Smart digital devices’ was to commence, Nutan asked her leaners to bring in their personal smart devices for the session. Some did not know what a smart device was or whether their personal device was a smart digital device. Nutan felt this needed clarifying in the course material.
Perhaps because of the older age range of the learners, many of them did not feel comfortable with changing to a smart digital device. However, attitudes changed after seeing the user-friendly interface and use of smart phone applications, for example the WhatsApp messenger application to call/video call family and friends.
The outcome of group Q&As, in which learners were able to share their concerns and support and inform one another, led to learners feeling more positive and confident in relation to smart devices. Nutan decided that for her Entry 3 learners the module should be changed to ‘Introduction to smart devices’ and that the current module on ‘Smart digital devices’ would be more appropriate for Level 1 learners.
Cathy Kirk’s Reflective Exploration
Nutan Ramji’s Reflective Exploration
Project Lead Nusrat Bhatti summarises the outcomes from the project.
The WEA Reflective Exploration created a cross-curricular activity that focused on digital and language learning outcomes as the success criteria.
Practitioners developed their EDS capabilities and knowledge of the national standards using the EDS resources on the ETF’s Enhance Digital Teaching Platform.
Practitioners were encouraged to engage in the WEA internal Community of Practice and the ETF’s online Community of Practice, which helped them to reflect, inquire and put into practice new ideas, as well as to build and foster professional relationships with other like-minded individuals.
The EDS Champions programme enabled the EDS Champion Nusrat Bhatti to gain fresh perspectives as a project manager and to explore EDS cross-curricular links in employability courses being delivered on the BBO (Building Better Opportunities) WiLL project.
It enabled the EDS Champion to network and build professional dialogue and relationships with colleagues beyond the WEA in other organisations.
The project raised the profile of EDS and the support available from the ETF through the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform across the organisation.
The experience engaged more colleagues in discussion with how to deal with barriers for practitioners in delivering EDS and barriers for learners in developing their digital skills. This led to successful tendering for other funded projects to develop lower-level digital skills such as the LLEP (Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership) Digital Poverty Project.
Learners were able to develop digital skills alongside language and employability skills in a single course. Learners’ feedback:
“This helps with my learning at home. I can listen to my English and check my grammar and pronunciation.”
“I use WhatsApp to send images to my family. I can put an audio with my images.”
“I didn’t know you can make a video CV to send with your paper one. I think this will be very useful for me in future.”
Outcomes and impact
Next steps
The WEA is the largest voluntary sector provider of adult education in England and Scotland. A charity, the WEA is committed to delivering high quality and interactive educational opportunities to those who are most disadvantaged and who are hardest to reach in local communities. Last year, the WEA helped over 28,000 learners with improving their confidence and wellbeing, developing literacy, maths, digital and essential employability skills. Staff deliver courses both in local venues, mainly in centres run by local partners, and remotely via Zoom and Canvas. The WEA employs over 900 tutors and has over 2000+ volunteers and supported adult learners from some of the most disadvantaged areas across England and Scotland, including 2000+ ESOL learners annually.
The WEA digital offer includes a range of courses for beginners to support and bridge the learning gaps learners face in accessing EDS qualifications. The ‘Step into Digital’ beginners course supports learners who are not yet ready to start an EDS qualification.
The WEA has also rolled-out the delivery of EDS qualifications in a few regions and currently (March 2022) has three courses in delivery for EDS qualifications with many more planned for delivery over the coming months. The learners the WEA attracts for digital skills courses are mostly at a very low level of digital skill and confidence.
In September 2021, the ETF appointed six Essential Digital Skills Champions after a grant call:
The aim was to support colleagues from the FE and Training sector over a six-month period to focus on opportunities around the new EDS national standards. In each organisation, the EDS Champion has led a Reflective Exploration project to explore effective practice in delivering EDS qualifications and/or embedding EDS into the curriculum. The six EDS Champions have also led CPD sessions in the ETF’s national EDS programme and posted on the ETF’s community of practice for digital skills to share their experiences with colleagues across the sector. Our Newham Learning and Skills had to withdraw part way through the programme because of staff illness.