Enhancing Personalisation of
Learning and Improving Retention
CRA 8th Residential Seminar, Manchester
21 November 2008
Sandra King,
s.king@glyndwr.ac.uk
Denise Oram,
d.oram@glyndwr.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer, Business
School, Glyndŵr University
Senior Lecturer, Computing and
Communications Technology,
Glyndŵr University
Chris Edwards, Lecturer, Centre for Outcomesc.h.edwards@open.ac.uk
Based Education (COBE),
Open University
About Glyndŵr University
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Formerly NEWI (North East Wales Institute)
Member of the University of Wales
Situated in Wrexham
Close to the border between England and
Wales
• Undergraduate, Postgraduate and
Professional courses
About the Open University
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Set up in 1969 – celebrating 40 years
Offers nearly 800 course modules
Around 180,000 students at any one time
The UK’s largest distance learning organisation
About 70 per cent of undergraduate students are in
full-time employment
• More than 25,000 OU students live outside the UK
Origins of ELLI - Effective
Lifelong Learning Inventory
• Developed over three years at the
University of Bristol
• Project funded by the Lifelong Learning
Foundation
• Identified seven dimensions of learning
‘that together describe the energy and
motivation to learn’
• an online profiling instrument which
provides a visual profile
Dimensions of Learning
• Knowledge, skills and understanding of the
curriculum form one strand of learning
• Attitudes, feelings, dispositions and
motivations form another strand of learning
• The seven dimensions of learning integrate
these elements together
Seven Dimensions
•Changing and learning
•Being stuck & static
•Meaning making
•Data accumulation
•Critical curiosity
•Creativity
•Learning relationships
•Strategic awareness
•Resilience
•Passivity
•Being rule bound
•Isolation & dependence
•Being robotic
•Fragility and
dependence
A Typical ELLI Profile
ELLI Claims – for Tutors
• Enables tutors to focus on learning and
learners
• Describes the energy to learn in terms of
seven dimensions of learning
• Provides a vocabulary and language to talk
about learning
• Describes ways in which tutors release
energy for learning in their classrooms
ELLI Claims – for Students
• Makes learning learnable
• Takes the mystique out of the process of
learning for students
• Enables students to focus on different
aspects of learning during tutorial sessions
• Gives a focus to reflect on learning
• Provides a way of celebrating
achievements in learning alongside
curriculum success
Project at Glyndŵr University
Business and Computing Students
Postgraduate International
Undergraduate
Project at Glyndŵr University
• ELLI introduced to 96 students:
– Business and Computing Year 1
– Business Year 3 multinational cohort
– Postgraduate (MBA & MSc)
• Raised awareness of ‘Learning Power’
• ‘Facebook’ groups used for communication
• ELLI questionnaire repeated 2 months later
with 46 students
• Students interviewed in focus groups
ELLI Research Outcomes
• No significant difference in the pre-scores
between computing and business students
• Resilience lower for international students
• Repeated survey:
– Some students improved dimensions
– Raising awareness had prompted other
students to recalibrate their responses to the
scales, resulting in some lower scores
Empowering students to
describe their learning potential
• Communication tool between tutor and learner
• Dropped barriers
• Provided a narrative of a student’s ‘Learning
Power’
• Raised awareness of how to learn
• Provided a learning language between
different cultures
• Identified strengths and development areas
Student Comments on ELLI
• “ELLI created an awareness that I did not have
before about how to learn…it enabled me to focus
on an entirely new way of learning”
• “the profile shows us where we can attempt to do
something better and can create a personalised
learning agenda”
• “It shows weaknesses in learning in a positive light
and this is more motivating”
• “I realised that learning goes beyond university and
that outside activities also contribute to my learning”
• “Definitely a worthwhile experience”
Outline
• Four groups of student participants.
– first-year art students
– first year technology students
– third year arts students
– third year technology students
• Intervention – undertaking, the ELOISE survey, and
approximately 2 months of normal study
Questions
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Can ELLI support OU students in their learning?
Could it help prepare new students for study?
Can it enable and encourage student confidence?
Is it a helpful diagnostic tool for tutors and advisors?
Process for Participants
Numbers of Participants
Outcomes
• Provides a framework to discuss ways of and
approaches to learning
• Most value reported towards the beginning of study
• Students often made links between the dimensions
• Learning relationships dimension complex for OU
• Students generally agreed with their profiles
• OU students have highest resilience and
• High in changing and learning, and critical curiosity
• ‘I think it would be a really good thing to do as an
induction course and then ... maybe half way or a bit
further along through whatever studies you’re doing ...’
• ‘It does make you sort of think, examine your learning
from a different perspective cos I think especially when
you’re in the midst of it, midst of doing a course, you
don’t think about the larger picture of how you approach
things.’
• ‘ ... because of my age, ... my learning has been spread
over it seems like centuries. So I look back ... my
comparison between school learning and today’s
learning is totally different. I mean my school learning
was all rote.’
• ‘You can really find out a lot more about yourself than
you realise on this ...’
Leitch Review (2007) and the
Burgess Report (2008)
• Inevitable change to recording
achievement in HE
• Capture the range of experiences in HE
• Describe a broader picture of
achievements
• Tell the story of a learning journey to an
employer
• Promote a culture of lifelong learning
• Increase employability
Personalisation of Learning
• The ELLI Project aims to develop whole people
and whole lives: what we think and feel and do in
our learning for life
• Key activity for personal development planning
• Accessible to students of all disciplines
• Tells a story
• Fun Activity
• Improving retention