CRISSSCEL

CRISSSCEL - in full, CRItical Success Scheme for Step-Change in E-Learning, is the name of a workshop to be given by the Re.ViCa consortium and Sero at the World Forum (LATWF 2010) on Tuesday 12 January 2010.

Brief details are given at http://www.latwf.org/en-gb/Speakers-and-programme/Programme/Day-2/Day-two-programme/Innovation-exchange-two/Session-8/

Overview

The Re.ViCa project, funded under the Lifelong Learning Programme of the EU, is working with Sero Consulting, contractor to Becta, to pilot and refine the Re.ViCa conclusions for higher education on the management of major implementations of e-learning with a broader audience of higher education, FE (i.e. the post-secondary non-university sector), schools and other genres of Lifelong Learning providers.

The Re.ViCa conclusions are phrased in terms of a standard set of 17 Critical Success Factors and a set of up to 14 Key Success Factors which are relevant or not depending on the sector (e.g. FE), the genre (e.g. distance learning) and the project style (e.g. sustained innovation – or "new build" as with Ufi) of the major changes – see http://www.virtualschoolsandcolleges.eu/index.php/Critical_Success_Factors.

The Re.ViCa project was part-funded under the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture.

This innovation exchange session (Session 8 of Innovation Exchange 2) allows participants to explore the critical success factors and key success factors of the Re.ViCa project. Around 40 delegates from all sectors of education have signed up for this, coming from 18 countries covering Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The session is to be facilitated by:

1. Session chair: Bieke Schreurs, former Project Manager of the Re.ViCa project (sadly, Dick Moore, Director of Technology, Ufi LearnDirect, is unlikely to be able to attend)
2. Paul Bacsich, Sero Consulting and Re.ViCa consortium
3. Giles Pepler, Sero Consulting
4. Sally Reynolds, @IT (Belgium) and Re.ViCa consortium

Rationale

Though based on worldwide research over two years and cross-correlation with related EU and other international projects, it is expected that some HE bias remains within the Re.ViCa conclusions because of its core constituency. Thus this exchange is the ideal point - and the first such - to test out the expansion of scope to FE and beyond.

In particular, FE e-learning is somewhat neglected by international agencies and analysts: this exchange will go some way towards filling that gap.

The main theme that the exchange contributes to is Preparing for the Future. However the team has increasingly close links with UNESCO and regional agencies engaged in the moves towards a global quality scheme for e-learning and so there are also aspects of Striving for Excellence – one cannot strive for excellence unless one knows what it is.

International circles also make it clear that economic recovery, especially but not only in the less developed world, depends on rapid updating of skills, delivered by new styles of "lean providers", more innovative and market-led than traditional providers, and working within a context of limited growth in national budgets.

Re.ViCa is an international project, based on an EU consortium but with an International Advisory Committee drawn from HE (and some FE) e-learning experts across the world. Experience with smaller-scale workshops and international conferences – plus increased requests to present the material - confirm that this workshop will appeal to an international audience including those whose first language is not English.

Participants should engage in the debate in order to gain a better understanding of the driving and restraining forces on their own implementations - a strength of Re.ViCa is that across the world, many styles of institution can be found that are unfamiliar in other countries yet relevant to their concerns (if they only knew about such providers).

Tangible benefits for participants include taking away a usable and tested set of pre-prepared indicators to use as a basis (with local and sectoral adjustments) on which to benchmark their projects, and an invitation to contribute further to the debate e.g. via the ongoing project wiki.

The focus will be on colleges and universities (including CPD, WBL, and lifelong learning) and other genres of lifelong learning providers. The exchange will also be useful for large high schools especially those considering wider community and adult learning roles.

The Re.ViCa project will make available printed copies of the Re.ViCa Handbook to delegates.

This is also availabnle online at Handbook.

Benefits to Re.ViCa and to Sero

These include:

1. New suggestions for Critical and Key Success Factors correlated to particular styles of large-scale innovation that were not specifically covered in earlier work
2. Continuing the process of gaining international insights into the management of large-scale innovation in learning technology, with an increased focus on Becta's core constituencies of schools and FE
3. Sharing the final conclusions of the EU project phase of Re.ViCa so that others can not only critique them but also take them away to inform their own thinking and feed back modifications into the scheme.

Presentations and resource material

To be available shortly.

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