Pathfinder

by Derek Morrison, 28 January 2010

Although the Benchmarking & Pathfinder Programme officially concluded in July 2008 its influences, outcomes and deliverables continue. For example, the recent publication of the book “Transforming Higher Education Through Technology Enhanced Learning” was stimulated by the programme.

Terry Mayes adds to the mix with a very helpful piece of work in the form of the Users’ Guide to the Pathfinder Briefing Papers. Terry’s annotated resource offers a very effective portal to the rich set of documents contained in each participating institution’s package of resources (zip file) and should be of interest to scholars, practitioners and HE managers. The Users’ Guide can be freely downloaded below.

Download
Users’ Guide to the Pathfinder Briefings (PDF, 148 KB)

by Derek Morrison, 20 November 2009

Although the Benchmarking & Pathfinder (B&P) programme officially came to an end in July 2008 we did indicate our intention to publish a book that would be informed by the programme. Towards this end we set up an editorial board which was chaired by Terry Mayes. We are happy, therefore, to announce the forthcoming publication of said book in early December 2009. The book is called Transforming Higher Education Through Technology Enhanced Learning and, as the contents page in the download below shows, it contains a broad spectrum of contributions from authors who generously donated their time to the enterprise. Some chapter authors had engaged with the B&P programme but we also invited contributions to the work from authors who have been informed by other contexts and experiences.

We are undertaking a limited print run with a number of copies being distributed at no charge to each institution that participated in the Benchmarking & Pathfinder Programme . The book will, however, also be downloadable in PDF format from the Academy web-site. We are also exploring a print-on-demand solution once the first print run has been distributed. The latter will depend on demand.

Download
Transforming Higher Education Through Technology Enhanced Learning extract (PDF, ~1MB)

Postscript
Readers interested in transformation may also be interested in the recent ALT call for papers for the forthcoming ALT-J special edition The Transformational Impact of Learning Technology to be published in 2010.

by Derek Morrison, originally posted 5 March 2009, updated 19 March 2009

There were two main Academy publications pending relating to the 2005-2008 Benchmarking & Pathfinder Programme. Both will be making their way to institutions, funding bodies and agencies by various routes over the next few months. For the digitally impatient with their own colour printer, however, here is the PDF version of the first of them. It provides an institutionally focused overview of the whole programme. Thanks to the editorial board who steered the production of this work, i.e. Terry Mayes, Peter Bullen, Harvey Mellar, Martin Oliver, and Prue Griffiths; plus another big thanks to all who contributed.

Due to the size of the file I recommend a right mouse click and then select download rather than waiting for it to display inline.

Update 19 March 2009

There is a slight amendment to the box on page 7. We did this in order to highlight ALT and JISC InfoNet’s role in developing the original CAMEL model.

Downloads
Benchmarking and Pathfinder Programme 2005-2008: Overview (PDF ~3.5 MB)

by Derek Morrison, 26 February 2009

The three Special Interest Groups have their origins in the Pathfinder Network Projects but they have gone on to do good works beyond this initiation phase. Readers interested in their current work may find Authentic Voices, Authentic Resources posted today in the Academy’s Enhancement Academy blog of some interest.

by Derek Morrison, 6 October 2008

We asked the Pathfinder phase one institutions to prepare brief accounts of their individual journeys and one or more briefings aimed at different audiences. A few of the institutions decided to also prepare collaborative briefings. There are also briefings from Pathfinder clusters C and F. The Pathfinder phase one projects have again risen to the challenge and so I now invite readers to download the zip files at the bottom of the posting and read these institution accounts at their leisure. Read the rest of this entry »

by Derek Morrison, 29 September 2008 (addendum 30 September 2008)

The end of the funded phase of the Benchmarking & Pathfinder Programme is marked by the release of this generally upbeat report about what has been achieved, how it has been achieved, and what has still to be achieved. Readers should keep in mind that a key principle of the whole programme was to provide participating institutions with an opportunity (and some support) to analyse and reflect on their own e-learning processes, provision and practices; and then translate that into action for self-improvement and evaluation thereof. The institution teams have achieved a lot and I thank all of them who participated in the programme for their superb efforts. So they should read and disseminate the report and then award themselves a well deserved pat on the back … but then return to that final paragraph of mine in the foreword to the report. As well as the download link below, the report will be available from the “Reports” section of this blogs menu as well as the benchmarking blog’s menu. It will also be linked from the Academy’s e-learning web site.

Addendum (30 September 2008)
The download below was updated to include a third briefing paper Podcasting student assessment feedback for the University of Chester’s entry in Appendix B: Pathfinder Projects by Institution (page 31).

Download

B&P Final Report (206 KB, PDF – right click to download)

by Derek Morrison, 12 September 2008

The QA-QE SIG web-site has just been launched at ALT-C 2008. New members are being invited to register for the SIG via the link on the home page. Members are expected to actively participate in the online community – for instance, participation in discussions and uploading (or giving links to) resources and case studies. The site also offers a webcast which shows the features and functionality of the member area – you can link to this from the home page. It’s great to see how the participating Pathfinder institutions have taken ownership and are attempting to progress the agenda in this extraordinarily important area. Well done all!

Downloads

QA-QE SIG ALT-C 2008 flyer (33 KB pdf). Link to this resource also in “Briefings (phase 1)” section of the blog menu.

by Derek Morrison, first posted 6 August 2008 (updated 29 August 2008)

The final Academy event in the Benchmarking and Pathfinder Programme was held at City University on the 26 June 2008. Many thanks to all of you who attended or participated in what proved to be a very full day. Read on for downloads from the day. Read the rest of this entry »

by Derek Morrison, first posted 6 June 2008 (updated 13 August 2008)

Respect! to all the Pathfinder institutions and individual authors that submitted papers for ALT-C 2008 and congratulations to the fifteen authors/teams that have informed us that their proposals have been accepted or are offering pre or post conference workshops. These are: Read the rest of this entry »

by Derek Morrison, 28 July 2008

I had intended to be at the University of Leicester’s CHEETAH Symposium (15 July 2008) but fate (and an injury) had other plans for me, so sorry Gilly, Ale et al, the mind was willing but the underlying vehicle became weak By all accounts the Symposium went swimmingly. From my perspective CHEETAH provides yet another excellent example of how the Pathfinder Network projects and their partner institutions have managed to capture and utilise that much advocated, but rarely realised as well as we would all like, cascading model. Well done all.

See also:

Progress Report on the Pathfinder Network Projects (Terry Mayes, 30 April 2008)

Pathfinder Network Projects (Derek Morrison, 4 February 2008)