Clients
Previously we have completed work with and for a range of clients including:
• European funding bodies (EC, ESF)
• UK educational agencies (JISC,
Becta, SFC, SQA, SFEU, ALT, HE Academy, JISCinfoNet)
• Government departments (DfES, HSE)
• Health and public services (NHS
24, Health Scotland, SAGO, Linthouse Housing Association)
• Educational establishments (e.g.
Henley Management College, Lancaster University, Learning Lab Denmark,
University of Liege, IT-University Göteborg, University of Strathclyde
and others)
• as well as working closely with
business (e.g. IBM, SAGO, JelSIM).
Below are some examples of work we have recently undertaken. Please
contact us if you would like further
information.
Evaluation
• We are currently conducting a
high level external evaluation of the £1m SFC funded Blend2Learn project.
This project aims to establish a shared infrastructure between colleges
in the South of Scotland, to develop capability for flexible learning
provision in the area. The evaluation will provide formative comments
throughout the three year project and a summative report of how well
the project has met its objectives.
• We have recently finalised a second
evaluation for Health Scotland,
of their Health Impact Assessment e-learning pilot course. This follows
on from a recently completed evaluation of their first pilot e-learning
course on Physical Activity and Health. Both involved investigating
their chosen learning platform, the content, format and pedagogy of
the modules and providing recommendations on future developments of
the courses.
•An evaluation of the e-learning
programme funded at the University of Greenwich has recently been undertaken
by the consultants. This involved document analysis, interviews with
senior management, evaluation workshops with practioners and focus groups
with learners. The aim of the evaluation was to assess the impact of
the projects on the culture of the organisation, and whether they aid
implementation of the e-learning strategy.
• The consultants have recently completed
the formative and summative evaluations of the CAMEL (Collaborative
Approaches to Managing ELearning) project funded by the HEFCE Leadership,
Governance and Management Programme. (See our Case
studies page for more detail about this work). This work aided the
development of the CAMEL model, and Gill Ferrell of JISC InfoNet commented
"You made our job easier. It was a very positive experience." Gill
Ferrell, JISC InfoNet, Oct 2006.
• Designing and undertaking a formative
evaluation of the Scotland wide SOLAR project (Scottish OnLine Assessment
Resources) managed by the SQA. This project is developing a procedure
for creating and validating summative e-assessments for use with the
new HN units, and this process was evaluated in conjunction with practitioners
developing the e-assessments.(See our Case
studies page for more detail about this work).
• Evaluation of newly developed online
units when the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Moodle was introduced
to the New Lecturers and Teachers Programme at the University of Glasgow.
Consultancy
•The Scottish Qualifications Authority
commissioned Inspire Research to
develop a series of e-portfolio use cases and associated narrative summaries
around assessment workflow models they had identified. The use cases aimed to
aid both e-portfolio platform developers and national assessment bank item writers
in their understanding of the range of assessment procedures in use within a suite
of qualifications. Seventy existing assessment checklists were also mapped to the
workflows.
•Working as part of a mixed consultancy
and in-house team within a large public sector organization (NHS 24)
to establish an evidence base for the organisation’s transformational
change programme. This included running a workshop to capture learning
over the duration of the programme.(See our Case
studies page for more detail about this work).
• Advising NHS 24 on possible applications
of e-portfolios within their organization, for which a review of information
available in this area has begun to be undertaken.
Research
• We have recently worked with Becta to
develop their e-Strategy Balanced Scorecard for the Higher Education sector.
This will be utilised by Becta to assist the implementation of the DfES
e-strategy 'Harnessing Technology: Transforming learning and children's services'
launched in 2005, which includes initiatives across the sectors from children's
services through School, Post-16 and Higher Education.
• Led the JISC X4L Maps and Learner
Guides project (in partnership with SFEU) which aimed to encourage the
sharing and reuse of materials within UK Higher and Further Education
through developing a tool which maps on-line learning resources to the
Scottish Qualifications framework, and by re-purposing learner guides
to an online format.
• Involvement with the SHEFC (now
SFC) funded Higher Education Training Needs Analysis (HEtna) which entailed
identifying institutional approaches to e-learning development across
Scotland to assess the range of training options available and to identify
gaps in provision.
• Conducting a scoping study for
the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) on the implications of
assessing the impact of e-learning on learner participation, attainment,
retention, and progression in FE.(See our Case
studies page for more detail about this work).
• Managing and developing the Virtual
Learning Space (VLS), an online collaborative environment for education
professionals to share best practice, exchange ideas and establish self
help groups on topics relating to e-learning. This was followed by a
development project funded by the European Social Fund to encourage
cross-sector exchanges between the existing, mainly Higher Education
based membership and a new group of Further Education practioners being
encouraged to participate in the environment.
Partnerships
• Reviewing the experience of learning
within the EC funded Engaging Networks for Sustainable eLearning (ENSeL)
project. This project involved a network of over thirteen University
and corporate organisaions in repurposing the outcomes of earlier EC
funded projects for learners in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).(See
our Case
studies page for more detail about this work).
• Partners within the EC funded EQUEL
(e-quality in e-learning) virtual centre of excellence for innovation
and research in networked learning. Part of the research undertaken
by the consultants within this project examined the motivational effects
of individual learners’ perceptions of control and how this might
be related to their engagement with the learning.
Online event management
•Inspire Research are conference
organisers for the international online conference "Assessment design
for learner responsibility" sponsored by the REAP (Re-engineering Assessment
Practices in Scottish Higher Education) project. This has involved co-ordinating
all conference workup activities including reviewing and commenting
upon assessment case studies submitted for the conference (over 60 received);
managing input from experts in assessment; devising topics and a conference
programme to stimulate discussion around assessment theory and principles;
as well as directing the development of a bespoke online conference
environment. (View the conference site)
• Organising and facilitating online
workshops – for example the OTiS (Online Tutoring Skills) project,
funded by SHEFC (now SFC), used an entirely online approach to collate
international knowledge in online tutoring. An e-workshop to discuss
30 case studies of e-learning practice was held with over 100 participants
from 20 countries.