learning - Academic Conferences Limited

Web Conferencing for us, by us and About us – the Leeds
Met Elluminate User Group
Mark de Groot, Gill Harrison and Rob Shaw
Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK
m.degroot@leedsmet.ac.uk
g.harrison@leedsmet.ac.uk
r.shaw@leedsmet.ac.uk
Abstract: How do you implement a strategy for institutional adoption of web conferencing? What are the
potential benefits for students, tutors, support and administrative staff? What strategies can maximise those
benefits? How do you provide the relevant staff development? At Leeds Metropolitan University answers have
been sought by bringing together current users - meeting in web conferences naturally - to shape, to share and to
develop their ideas. This case study first describes the environment in which it makes sense for higher education
institutions to fast track the implementation of appropriate aspects of web conferencing. It next describes the
establishment and remit of the University’s web conferencing group. It analyses web conferencing benefits and
implementation recommendations as presented in the group and in core related activities. Finally it identifies both
the quick wins on offer and the challenges to be met from the institutional, student, and staff points of view. This
paper explores what is possible when the principles that underlie technology supported student centred learning
are applied to technology supported user centred staff development. It specifically addresses the suggested
conference theme: This
promising and productive experiment in both user driven staff development and, more generally, the
dissemination of ideas and sharing of good practice will be of interest to all responsible for shaping and
supporting their institutional web conferencing policies; providing insights into: The benefits and quick wins for an
institution prepared to adopt web conferencing The challenges and ways in which they can be addressed
Effective staff development strategies in a changing and economically restrained environment
Keywords: web conferencing, staff development, Elluminate, online learning, change management
1. Context and background
1.1 Changes in higher education, nationally and internationally
Increased flexibility of provision and efficiency of business processes will be essential in the response
of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) both to the Browne Review (Browne 2010) and the
Comprehensive Spending Review (HM Treasury 2010). The most recent government white paper
(BIS 2011) makes clear the government’s intention to promote student choice as a key way to drive
forward innovative forms of delivery.
This approach is entirely consistent with an earlier report, Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World, from
the UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC 2009). In challenging the inertia of the
established system the report provides an important analysis of the need for and the means by which
HEIs can adapt to meet the needs and expectations of students who are increasingly comfortable with
technology. The report states that the process of engagement, especially with those technologies that
support collaborative networking, develops a skill set that matches both to views of 21 st century
learning skills and to those of 21 st century employability skills –collaboration, creativity, leadership and
proficiency with technology.
Pressures of student numbers, increased competition and constrained resources are not unique to
the UK. Rapid advances in educational technologies, particularly internet based technologies, are
blurring the boundaries between institutions and between countries. Predicting the future virtualization
of international higher education Sohail Inayatullah suggests that as costs go down, over the longer
term current distinctions between virtual and real will disappear, with an important shift taking place
from merely more technology in the class room to actual, digital pedagogy (Inayatullah 2011).
1.2 Web conferencing in higher education
Web conferencing is increasingly available across the Higher Education sector and beyond (Murphy
and Ciszewska-Carr 2007; de Freitas and Neumann 2009).
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