When Covid-19 forced learners to set up makeshift homeschools on kitchen tables, delivery of further education changed significantly. Teachers, principals, IT staff and others in the sector threw their heart and soul into providing remote and online education, and we have seen success stories. But it was a massive and sudden change; many students have struggled to maintain engagement. 

Caution and care 

The picture is changing again. The government announced last week that England will relax the two-metre rule and that learners will return to face-to-face learning from September. This is welcome – but those working in FE remain cautious and careful. They are looking for long-term solutions and, from what I hear, that will mean that online delivery – with all its associated benefits and as well as all its associated complications – is here to stay.   

Background: Could GCSE resits be taught exclusively online?

News: Should FE expect 120,000 extra resit students?

Opinion: We need a better plan for English and maths

'A shift in student dynamic'

At the education and technology not-for-profit, Jisc, we’ve hosted a series of webinars since the pandemic hit UK colleges, at which people working in the FE sector have shared their struggles and successes. Many say it’s been an uphill battle to keep students engaged, to provide them with relevant learning resources, and to deliver the support they need. This is true across the board, but it’s especially acute for learners from deprived backgrounds, who – despite schemes and initiatives designed to help – still might not have access to a computer, home broadband, or have the money to pay for sufficient mobile phone data.   

Books in quarantine, computers scrubbed down   

Now is the time to address stumbling blocks, making it as easy as possible for learners to learn – and a number of colleges tell us that there remain obstacles to even the basics. In a world where books may have to be quarantined for five days in college libraries between borrowers and computers laboriously scrubbed down between users, our reliance on libraries and physical resources can’t be assumed. Learners aren’t going to be able to just “pop into” the library as and when they need; they’ll probably have allocated appointments with restrictive booking systems. The flow of resources is going to be really challenging – so smooth access to e-books and digital resources will be crucial. It isn’t, yet. 

Jisc has worked with publishers ProQuest, Pearson, Bloomsbury, Cengage, Hodder, and Taylor & Francis to increase the number of free e-books for FE available in recent months, and the collection is currently being refreshed, with 80 new titles available from September. Yet many learners are still being denied access when working remotely.

That’s because, while colleges that have a managed identity provider system (IdP) in place provide staff and students with a recognised login, which gives seamless and automatic access to resources regardless of where they’re logging on or from what device – including mobile phones – learners at UK colleges without a managed IdP system only have automatic access to e-books and digital materials when using college equipment or while on the college estate. When working from home, to coin a phrase: computer says no.    

Removing barriers to learning   

There is a solution, but it creates work for staff and drives learners crazy: individuals can request access to resources by emailing, saying who they are, where they’re from, what resources they want access to and why. A central organisation will then run an authentication check past the college librarian, who says yay or nay.

The learner, if and when approved, will then be given access to the specific resources they’ve asked for. There’s a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, it’s potentially quite time-consuming, it demands manual intervention, and it’s far from the smooth learning experience colleges seek to deliver. Worst of all, it disrupts workflow and puts learners off their stride. Colleges say it’s a barrier to learning; sometimes, learners simply don’t bother to request access.   

This challenge highlights a broader point; now is the time for college leaders to get together with their IT teams, to look at the systems and processes they have in place and see what might be improved to make sure that staff and students can access resources as quickly and easily as possible.

Concerns about students that don’t have access to digital resources could not be more passionate; ditto awareness of staff workload, safety and wellness. Buildings may be re-opening, but things aren’t going back to "business as usual". Let’s help learners access whatever resources they need, quickly and efficiently, whenever and wherever they need them.  

Jisc and OpenAthens are running a free webinar on managed IdP Systems on 30 June.