University of Derby - Case study

The University of Name web site is at http://www.uname.edu

The University of Derby is a university in the city of Derby, England in the UK. The main campus is in the north-west of Derby. The university additionally operates a site in Buxton, Derbyshire, known as the Devonshire campus. Courses are also housed in the Britannia Mill campus in Derby and the Chesterfield Centre for health education.

The university provides nearly 300 study programmes at the undergraduate level. Undergraduate programmes as well as short courses, foundation degrees, and postgraduate degrees are generally superintended by individual faculties/research groups and cover most popularly-recognized academic disciplines and subdisciplines. The university's Joint Honours Scheme allows students to combine over 40 subjects from across all four university faculties.

The University was founded in 1992 but its predecessors go back to 1851.

It has over 24,000 students of which 12,000 are undergraduates, 2,000 are postgraduates and 7,000 are FE students (doing non-degree courses).

Its web site is at http://www.derby.ac.uk

It is a member of the Open Learning Foundation, a member of EADTU.

Editors! When using this just as a template ignore all the information about 1-5 scales and comments.

Just cover each topic (bulleted list item) by a sentence or short paragraph. Note that several items are unlikely to be susceptible to desk research.

Institution

The present

General description of the institution in its current state, putting the e-learning into context

The university provides nearly 300 study programmes at the undergraduate level. Undergraduate programmes as well as short courses, foundation degrees, and postgraduate degrees are generally superintended by individual faculties/research groups and cover most popularly-recognized academic disciplines and subdisciplines. The university's Joint Honours Scheme allows students to combine over 40 subjects from across all four university faculties.

It offers many programmes including substantial e-learning with some delivered almost completely by e-learning.

The University is an active participant in UK development programmes in e-learning including Benchmarking and Pathfinder.

Students can study online for a foundation degree, honours degree or postgraduate degree in a wide range of subjects.

Studying for a degree online means that students can choose when and where to study - ideal if students want to study with a university but can't or don't want to come to lectures on campus all the time. Students can study at home or at work. All they need is a PC and an internet connection. With online discussion groups there's also plenty of opportunity for students to talk to fellow students from around the world.

Specific courses include:

Vocational

• Advanced Diploma in Cognitive Behavioural Skills and Studies
• Certificate of Higher Education in Supporting Disabled Students
• University Diploma in International Spa Management
• University Diploma in Psychotherapeutics

Foundation degrees

• Foundation Degree in Beauty and Spa Services
• Foundation Degree in Hairdressing and Salon Management
• Foundation Degree in Hospitality Management

Undergraduate degrees

• BA (Hons) Business Studies
• BA Hairdressing Salon Management
• BA Hospitality Management (Final Year Top-up)
• BSc (Hons) International Spa Management
• BSc (Hons) Nursing Studies (Adult) Top Up
• BSc (Hons) Nursing Studies (Mental Health) Top Up
• BSc Applied Psychological Studies
• BSc Applied Psychology

Postgraduate study

• LLM in Commercial Law
• MA Education
• MA Education: Guidance
• MBA (Certificate Stage)
• MBA (Diploma Stage)
• MBA (Master of Business Administration)
• MBA Logistics
• MSc Environmental Health
• MSc Environmental Management
• MSc Health Ergonomics
• MSc Strategic Information Technology Management
• MSc Strategic Management
• Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Supervision

Institution's annual budget

Not known.

Number of students in the institution

(a) in total? (b) as full-time equivalents?

Staff in the institution

(a) in total? (b) as full-time equivalents?

Institution's "business model"

(a) public (b) private (c) consortium (d) national programme. If (c) or (d) above, list the other partners (or the members) and for each briefly describe its role.

The University of Derby is a public institution.

Percentage of the institution's students based outside the home country

Not known.

Institution's approach to virtual mobility

Not known.

How the institution manages its "brand"

(a) in general and (b) in respect of any e-learning aspects

The University has a clear mission statement – “To be the learners first choice for quality and opportunity”. The e-learning provision is strongly marketed by a central marketing team and is linked via our homepage via "ways to study".

The past

Give a narrative description of the institution's history since its foundation, concentrating on key dates, recent years and any e-learning issues.

External environment

• What is the institution's funding from government as a percentage of annual income?
• Describe the way that funding is provided for institutions in the institution's country, or state that it is the same as for other institutions in the country.
• Describe the legal status of the institution.
• List the language(s) that the institution uses for instruction with the percentage of students studying in each. (Bilingual study can also be included.)
• Describe any specific cultural issues that affect the institution's students or state that that it is the same as for other institutions in the country. Mention any features relevant to e-learning.
• Describe the external quality assurance and/or accreditation regime affecting the institution, or state that it is the same as for other institutions in the country. Mention any features relevant to e-learning.
• Describe the approach to credit transfer with other similar institutions.
• List the main associations that the institution is a member of, with a note as to the relevance of each to e-learning (if any).
• List the main international partners of the institution, in the order of strategic importance, with priority given to collaborations involving e-learning.

Strategy

(Do not include annual plans.)

• Describe or provide a document describing the current institutional strategy.
• Describe or provide a document describing the current learning and teaching strategy.
• Describe or provide a document describing the current e-learning strategy.

Do not include or refer to annual plans except as necessary to provide budgetary information.

• What is the percentage of students (a) taking courses wholly or largely delivered by e-learning (b) taking courses where the amount of institutionally supplied/guided e-learning is "significant" (i.e. has an impact on staff or students) and (c) taking courses where the where the amount of institutionally supplied/guided e-learning is insignificant? In each case comment on the answer.
• Give the percentage of the institutional budget that e-learning represents. Comment on how it is measured including the assumptions made, whether it is appropriate and any trends.
• Categorise the role (if any) of external funding in fostering the development of e-learning as (a) not relevant, (b) useful, or (c) essential. Comment on the choice.

Structure

• Describe the institutional structure, preferably supplying an organogram.
• Classify the e-learning support model as (a) hub (b) distributed (c) hub and spokes (d) complicated (e) non-existent. Comment on the choice.
• Describe in more detail the structure for the e-learning operation and how it maps into the institutional structure.
• Describe the committees that oversee e-learning (including the rank and role of the Chair in each relevant committee) and their relationship to the organisational structure.

Learning and Teaching processes

This has a focus on learning and teaching with other aspects viewed from this perspective.

Learning and teaching design and delivery

• Describe how choice of pedagogies and technologies is made for a typical programme that is envisaged to include significant e-learning.
• Describe what scope staff have at delivery stage to refine or in some cases override design decisions made earlier.

Learning and teaching development

This includes materials and IPR.

• How much e-learning content is sourced from outside the institution? Use a scale of 1-5 with a comment (an exact percentage is useful).
• Of all e-learning content sourced from outside the institution, what fraction is OER? Use a scale of 1-5 with a comment.
• When staff in the institution develop content, is the content (a) owned by them and licensed to the institution, (b) owned by the institution but with some licensing back to staff, (c) owned by the institution but with no licensing back to staff, (d) unclear or disputed IPR position? Whatever option is chosen, provide a narrative describing the situation in more detail.
• When content is sourced for a programme within the institution, how much is sourced from other departments within the institution? Use a scale of 1-5 with a comment (an exact percentage is useful).
• What is the role of student-generated content in the institution's programmes? Use a scale of 1-5 with a comment.

Learning and teaching evaluation and quality

• Describe the quality procedures (a) in general terms and (b) with respect to e-learning.
• Describe the approach to evaluation of programmes (a) in general terms and (b) where such programmes have significant e-learning components.

Meta Learning and Teaching processes

Communications

• Describe how the institution communicates good practice in e-learning within itself, focussing on communications across internal boundaries.
• Describe how the institution communicates its good practice in e-learning to organisations outside.
• Describe how the institution communicates good practice in e-learning from outside organisations into its own organisation.
• Describe recent occasions on which institutional leaders or managers have made presentations with significant reference to e-learning.

Value for money

• Describe the annual planning procedure (a) in general and (b) how it handles e-learning aspects.
• Describe the decision-making process for a typical academic programme, with particular reference to how e-learning aspects are handled.
• Describe the decision-making process for a typical large IT project such as selection and installation of a new VLE.
• Describe the approach to budget management with particular reference to the staff versus non-staff issues in budgeting for e-learning.
• Describe the procedures in the institution for assigning or negotiating teaching workload to/with staff, taking account of non-traditional styles of teaching as well as classroom teaching and taking specific account of e-learning.

Staff

Teachers, lecturers, trainers and equivalent support roles

• Describe the approach to development of e-learning technical and pedagogic skills among staff, taking account of the different needs of different categories of staff. Set this within the context of staff development generally.
• Describe (a) the current level of staff competence in e-learning and (b) the expected level of staff competence in five years time. In each case use a 1-5 scale with a comment.
• Describe the extent to which staff attitudes to e-learning are favourable or not. Use a 1-5 scale with a comment.
• Describe the way that the institution rewards and recognises staff with competence in e-learning, in (a) monetary and (b) non-monetary terms.

Management and leadership

This subsection concerns leaders (Rectors, Vice-Chancellors, etc) and academic and support service managers (Deans, Directors, etc). These do not need to have specific knowledge of e-learning details but must have the necessary strategic, management, costing and foresight capability to preside over decisions on key e-learning issues such as procurement of a new VLE, development of a new distance learning programme, rebalancing the library and its staff more towards web 2.0 and less to books, etc. This will require appropriate manager and leader training.

• Describe the approach to development of e-learning-related skills among (a) managers and (b) leaders.
• Describe the current level of (a) management and (b) leadership competence in e-learning related skills appropriate to their levels. In each case use a 1-5 scale with a comment.
• Describe the extent to which (a) management and (b) leadership attitudes to e-learning are favourable or not. Use a 1-5 scale with a comment.
• Give details of the job description of the most senior manager/leader in the organisation who spends a significant portion of his/her time on e-learning matters (e.g. the Director of E-Learning).

Students

• Describe the approach to development of e-learning skills among students, taking account of the different needs of different categories of students. Set this within the context of students' more general information literacy and communication skills.
• Describe (a) the current level of student competence in e-learning on entry to the institution and (b) the expected level of student competence on graduation from the institution. In each case use a 1-5 scale with a comment.
• Describe the extent to which student attitudes to e-learning are favourable or not. Use a 1-5 scale with a comment.
• Describe the extent to which students understand the demands on them placed by e-learning systems (e.g. for assignment handling).
• Describe the current approach to handling student plagiarism, both prevention strategies and detection strategies.
• Describe the current (i.e. at last survey) level of student satisfaction with the e-learning aspects of their courses. Use a 1-5 scale with a comment.

Technology

For each of the following technologies relevant to e-learning describe how much it is used on a scale of 1-5 and add a comment if appropriate.

• VLE and/or content repository
• email or bulletin boards
• automated assessment
• Web 2.0 tools especially blogs, wikis and social networks oriented to the institution
• e-portfolios
• laptops - and comment on student ownership issues
• audio or video podcasting or streaming - and comment on student ownership issues
• mobile devices (not laptops) - and comment on student ownership issues

And finally:

• Provide a description of any other technologies with significant use in the institution.

Futures

• Describe the expected changes as they relate to e-learning within the institution's current strategic horizon (from the institution's strategy documents).
• Describe any changes further downstream that the institution is now considering or concerned about.
• Describe how the institution handles the foresight aspects of its operation with regard to e-learning.
• Describe how the institution handles advanced development oriented to e-learning (e.g. by a "sandbox" lab, innovation centre, etc).
• Describe how the institution analyses and takes into account present and future markets for its offerings.
• Describe how the institution analyses and takes into account present and future competitor suppliers for its offerings.
• Describe how the institution analyses and takes into account the views of other stakeholders, including but not restricted to employers, local authorities and the social partners (unions).

References and reports

Add what you can.

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