Everyone has been bounced into online learning - whether they have wanted it or not - just like all of us have been forced to using Teams, Zoom or Skype. It may not be our first choice, but how many conversations have we had in recent months about why on Earth we travelled around the country for an hour’s meeting that is so more much effective online with more people able to join? This is true for trainers and teachers as well

Throughout my life, I have watched technology become an integral part of work, home and education, and often been accused of trying to use it at the “bleeding edge” but the bleeding edge is rapidly becoming the norm.

When I started school, we had one Commodore PET(!) between 700 of us and my first, still cherished, computer at home was a ZX Spectrum. During my early teenage years, my weekend and holiday work was learning the first ever Supercalc loaded on 12-inch discs (with no undo) and I did a range of accounts and budgeting. In 2006, when I was principal at Oaklands, we introduced student IT champions on every course.  

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On the cover of a BECTA (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) report (remember them!), I was quoted as saying that lecturers and teachers would lose their job if they didn’t embrace technology, and it wouldn’t be me firing them - it would be the students walking away. Later, at OCR, we set up the the first MOOC for GCSEs. I could go on, but you don’t need my life history.  

Coronavirus: The shift to online learning

Most people don’t like change. Talking to many leaders in the independent training provider sector at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and colleagues from the college sector, many had been trying to change or planning to change delivery models to integrate online learning for some time - but resistance often was significant. 

Over the past six months, there has been no choice. There is a realisation that it is possible to provide a significant level of support through online resources and tools. We have all read of the benefits of flipped learning and allowing tutors and trainers to use their professional training to support the individual learner with the bits they don’t get - technology allows this approach to be done efficiently, but, more importantly, with high levels of quality. And let’s be very clear - technology in education is a tool to allow even higher quality individualised education and training. If it does not, we shouldn’t use it.

When I started discussions with the Skills Network, the provider I recently became chief executive of, around their online offer, and the country went into lockdown shortly after, I thought that if ever there was a time when a shift might actually stick, it was now. Indeed Bob Harrison, ex-principal and e-learning advocate, told me that a virus had done more to shift people to online learning in three weeks than he had managed to achieve in 30 years.

But what is online learning? A bunch of pdfs on a Moodle site? Not really. Watching my three teenagers attempting to learn online over the past few months has demonstrated to me that online learning is not sticking a bunch of resources online and telling the students to read through them and answer questions on Google forms. It is the difference between a library and a classroom - and everything in between.

What should we be striving for? 

I have been in my job for a month, so what am I seeing? What should we be striving for? What supports the learners, teachers, trainers, colleges, schools providers and employers - and keeps our many regulators happy, whether it be Ofsted, the Education and Skills Funding Agency, Ofqual or the hundreds of professional bodies? What would be on my check list - and what would be needed for full online learning, rather than a blended approach? 

• A system that allows the learner to enrol and provide all their details online, including a signature. 
• The ability to initially assess the students’ ability in maths and English and their competency and knowledge in the subject they will be studying. Ultimately, this should automatically adapt the learning for each individual, but that is likely be the medium-term goal.
• A programme of learning that uses a wide range of media, properly sequenced, to engage and stimulate the learner. If you are creating your own resource, any system must have an authoring tool that is simple but effective. 
• A system that automatically adds content where a learner may need to be stretched or challenged above and beyond their starting points. 
• E-learning content that focuses on the development of broader skills such as critical thinking, research and academic writing, in addition to the subject-related topics.
• The ability to formatively assess and ensure that the learner has learned throughout the programme.
• The ability to interact with the student individually and in groups, and groups of students to engage with each other.
• A system that allows tutors to engage through student request, and formal tutorial sessions again individually and in groups. 
• Ability to provide learner tracking and reporting to enable live targeted support where students are dropping behind or struggling to get through assessments.
• Final assessment fully online wherever possible and the issuing of electronic certification, badges or whatever record is required.
• A full suite of tracking reporting for tutors, administrators and those monitoring quality and funding as well as the leadership of the organisation. The data collected through the learning should be able to highlight units that maybe need adapting because groups of learners are struggling or tutors who aren’t performing as well as their colleagues and need some professional development, and students’ performance against their profile and starting point to help develop leaning approaches for different groups of learners. Much of this can only be done live, accurately and efficiently through online learning
• And, of course, no limit on access, time, location, device, learner needs or volume of learners.

To do this well takes time and requires investment - that’s why partnerships between organisations are exciting, sharing skills, expertise and investment. I am excited to be working with so many great providers and colleges in the sector. Online learning should - and must - be at the core of the upcoming FE White Paper. 

Mark Dawe is chief executive of the Skills Network