North Devon College IT - Systems

In 1999 the work of David Hogan, Head of Research and Development in Information Technology at the North Devon College captured the attention of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, USA. As a result he was asked to make a formal submission to be considered for inclusion in the Permanent Research Collection of the Institution. This was subsequently accepted and he was invited to Washington in April of 2000 to receive an award as a Laureate of the Smithsonian Institute.

Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Case Study

A college and a school share teaching resource demonstrating how small, uneconomic groups join with larger groups to study via video links. Core studies are taught at student's preferred local learning centre, specialist studies are taught from the regional centre.

The North Devon College offers education and training to people over 16 years of age. Working closely with schools, businesses, industry and universities it develops programmes of study that are flexible, up to date and tailored to student's needs leading, in most cases, to internationally recognised qualifications.

The North Devon College sits on top of a hill overlooking the town of Barnstaple, North Devon, UK. It is an attractive location having panoramic views across the estuary of the river Taw and beyond to the edges of Exmoor. The education organisational scheme in North Devon consists principally of comprehensive schools that cater for pupils in the 11 to 16 years of age group. Also there are two small local colleges in the region, at the nearby towns of Bideford and Ilfracombe, where they cater for pupils from the 11 to 18 years of age group. At the age of 16, most students from the region who wish to remain in full or part-time education attend the North Devon College. In addition the College serves the further education needs of a wider area, lying as it does, in a thinly populated region of the South West of England. Very strong links are maintained with all schools as well as other institutions, so as to ensure comprehensive provision for both young people and adults in the area. The North Devon College maintains international links with a number of countries in Europe and Scandinavia and welcomes students from across the world.

Since 1993 the North Devon College has held incorporated status under the terms of the United Kingdom Further & Higher Education Act of 1992. Unlike the schools in the region the North Devon College is not controlled and funded by the Local Authority (City Hall) but in effect functions as an autonomous organisation. The North Devon College is mainly funded by the Further Education Funding Council, a Central Government body that defines the framework within which Colleges operate and provides the funds.

The North Devon College is organised into a number of Academic Departments and there is a large Administrative staff that controls all student enrolments, records, financial and reporting functions. The breadth of curriculum provision is extensive at the North Devon College, winning it the highest rating following a government inspection in 1997.
 
 

It is the North Devon College's mission in its tertiary role to be a centre of excellence in post 16 education for the communities of North Devon and to provide quality vocational training in the South West England region. It is the college's vision to be a key contributor to the economic and social wellbeing of the community. The college should be the first place that individuals and organisations look for education, training and related advice and support.

The college is always keen to explore new ways of fulfilling its mission and one way in which it has done so recently is demonstrated by a pilot project, which investigated the practicalities of delivering foreign language tuition on line using video conferencing as the delivery medium.

In a sparsely populated region such as rural North Devon communications, whilst not poor, are not as good as one might expect in a city or urban area. Consequently students will normally try to attend schools and colleges that are geographically close to home, thus eliminating or at least reducing travelling. Very often the "schools" do not deliver post 16 education. Where they do, they are referred to as local "Colleges"; the breadth of the curriculum delivered by these local Colleges is necessarily limited by the their size. For example a student might be dissuaded from attending the local College because it was unable to provide tuition in a specific subject important to the student's needs. Thus the student would be faced with a choice of attending the local College and so sacrifice the subject for which tuition is unavailable or attend the North Devon College which could be up to 40 miles away where the subject is taught.

As mentioned earlier, colleges such as the North Devon College, are funded by the Further Education Funding Council, a central government funding body. Such funds are paid to the North Devon College according to a complex formula in which the emphasis is based on provision. Conversely the funders for the local colleges are the local authorities (City Hall) and these funds are paid on a simpler per capita basis.

The example used in this pilot study concerned pupils attending Ilfracombe College some 15 miles away from North Devon College. The number of pupils at Ilfracombe wishing to study the German language might be insufficient to justify the provision of the course at the local Ilfracombe College (Local College). Pupils at Ilfracombe would thus be faced with the choice of dropping the subject from their studies in order to stay at Ilfracombe or to transfer to the regional North Devon College where the relevant courses are taught. If the pupil decided to travel to the North Devon College then such a scenario would not only impose upon the student the added burden of travel outside of their community but it would also deny Ilfracombe College the income received for that student from the Local Authority.
 
 

The project considered how video conferencing might be used to advantage by enabling pupils at Ilfracombe College to "join" German language classes held at North Devon College. Such an arrangement, if it worked, would enable pupils at Ilfracombe College to carry on their core studies at their preferred centre and also pursue their German language studies via a video conference link to the larger North Devon College. Ilfracombe College would retain their per capita allowance for the pupil and North Devon College would benefit through funding units from the Further Education Funding Council for the additional provision. The pupils would not be involved in unnecessary travelling which would cascade savings in money, time, resources and a reduction in environmental impact. It would also examine the possibility of expert facility at local colleges being made available to regional colleges via the videoconferencing medium.

The project began with initial discussions between the North Devon College and Ilfracombe College. These discussions focussed upon the political and practical implications of the idea; it was clear that there was considerable enthusiasm for a pilot study that would enable the efficacy of the idea to be judged. Technical advice indicated that video conferencing links could be established between the two sites and later in this study the technical data indicates how this was achieved. One of the concerns expressed early on in these discussions was the need to minimise the impact upon the normal teaching routine at the North Devon College and to make access by pupils at Ilfracombe College as convenient as possible.

To address these concerns it was necessary to introduce a video conferencing system which could be economically deployed to Ilfracombe College, perhaps at one central location in Ilfracombe College to which students could go for their on-line German language tuition. The requirement at the North Devon College was different in that the video conferencing facility would necessarily have to be available in a number of teaching rooms used regularly for foreign language study.

The North Devon College already had a large pervasive computer network with connections in all of the rooms where the video conferencing facility was required. It was logical to consider how this infrastructure could be used to facilitate video conferencing at those locations.

A number of potential manufacturers and suppliers were consulted and it was identified that technology was just emerging which could enable any workstation computer connected to the North Devon College's computer network to communicate using video conferencing. Not only would these computer workstations be able to communicate one with another on the same Local Area Network (LAN) but it would also be possible for them to "dial out" into systems elsewhere. Indeed, a service could be provided which could link the North Devon College's computer system to the rest of the world. Whilst this was not a required design feature it seemed desirable as it was becoming increasingly clear that video communications were likely to become the norm.
 
 

An ISDN (integrated services digital network) connection between the two sites was deemed to be the most appropriate method of effecting the link up, as it was readily available and a proven technology. Research was undertaken with a number of specialist companies including Intel, VideoServer, PictureTEL and Madge Networks and a solution was eventually selected from Madge through their partners Infodec. This comprised a Radvision Video Gateway that was installed into the Local Area Network at North Devon College. The LAN was then connected to the global ISDN network via a Initia ISDN switch. The ISDN network connection provided a maximum possible bandwidth of 30 x 64Kbit channels (ISDN30=30 x BRI). Because of limited funding for the project the absolute minimum number of channels, 8, was specified for the ISDN30 connection. This nevertheless provided the maximum bandwidth necessary to achieve a high quality video image. Due to funding restrictions the ISDN connection at Ilfracombe College was to a lower specification giving a maximum bandwidth of 2 x 64 kbit channels (ISDN2e=2 x BRI). At both locations PC's were equipped with VCON Video Conference software and hardware.

Project costings were assembled and a bid to the UK Further Education Funding Council was made in January 1999 under the project category of: "Projects intended to lead to the rationalisation of provision across post 16-Education". This bid was subsequently approved and the project moved forward in the spring of 1999 when equipment was installed and tested.

A number of "live" tests were made between Ilfracombe College and the North Devon College with considerable success. These tests involved pupils at Ilfracombe College moving from their normal tuition room to the room with the videoconference terminal and "dialling in" to the North Devon College at a prearranged time to join the normal scheduled German language class. It was possible for the remote students to receive tuition from the Language Tutor at North Devon College and for a two-way interaction to develop between them. A dialogue developed between students both on and off the North Devon College campus and whilst a little hesitant to start with it became more natural with time. The pilot concluded after these tests and a final report on the exercise was produced during the summer of 1999.

The actual teaching and learning experience using the system was evaluated by the teaching staff and the students at both institutions, some of this evaluation can be seen on the video and the "avi" file. Overall, the experience for the teaching staff was rather less problematic than was anticipated and as might be expected the students were quick to adopt the new way of working. There were several difficulties and these were emphasised by the nature of the teaching that the colleges were delivering. Language study requires that individuals learning and communicating in a new language can both hear and see each other clearly and this was not always possible. There was a problem with the synchronisation of the sound to the perceived movement of the lips of the individual speaking (lip-synch) which was disconcerting. The quality of the sound was also slightly muffled which impacted upon the understanding of new words, particularly where intonation conveyed meaning. Nevertheless those staff and students that took part in the tests were upbeat about the experience and agreed the potential for the idea was good.

Investigation into the difficulties revealed that although the available capacity of the connection provided at North Devon College was capable of supporting high quality video pictures and sound, the lower capability of the Ilfracombe College connection did not. In fact the overall performance of the videoconference operates at a maximum quality limited by the lowest quality connection. This was an inevitable consequence of the limited funds that were available to us for this pilot. Should the technique be adopted as permanent part of the institutions curriculum then the standard of the connection at all participating sites must be of the highest grade. Subsequently Ilfracombe College have increased the capacity of their videoconference connection which now brings it up to TV quality standard, effectively eliminating the lip-synch and poor sound quality.

Following these tests, the most the scope of the pilot project could afford; the project was brought to a close. It is only fair to conclude this paper by stating that had more resources been available then the pilot project would have undoubtedly developed into a major feasibility study. Such a study would have the potential of incorporating the techniques developed during the extent of the pilot into the curriculum of regional and local education centres. Were this to happen, we believe that the study would need to address such issues as staff communication between centres, the agreement on and exchange of teaching materials and student work, student exchange and transfer issues e.g. starting courses with a joint residential period. The project demonstrated quite graphically the potential for this form of on-line delivery of learning. The chosen topic of language study was a challenging one and the results demonstrated the importance of video quality. It is possible that other subjects taught in this way may not be so dependent upon video quality although we believe it to be a high priority.

Ilfracombe College's International dimension is now enhanced by the inclusion of regular videoconference links with a partner school in Germany under the aegis of the Comenius Project. This project focuses on partnership overseas and in addition to Germany Ilfracombe College also has more traditional links with France, Poland and Hungary.

Although difficult to quantify it is appropriate to record here the high level of enthusiasm expressed by all who took part. It seemed clear to all that if the theory worked the outcome could be significant. It is our belief that that is the case.

David M.Hogan
Head of Research & Development in Information Technology
North Devon College

The terms of the Case Study submission required answers to specific questions, these are listed below, together with the answers:

           "Has your project helped those it was designed to help? In your opinion,
           how has it affected them? What new advantage or opportunity does
           your project provide to people? Has your project fundamentally
           changed how tasks are performed? In your opinion, have you
           developed a technology that may lead to new ways of communicating
           and processing information? What change might unfold?"

           The outcomes of the project will be helpful to those who wish to
           embed the distance learning techniques we explored into their
           curriculum. Should funds become available to conduct a detailed
           feasibility study leading to the inclusion of these techniques in our
           curriculum then we have little doubt that students at local learning
           centres will benefit from our work. Students living long distances
           from the regional centres but close to the local centres will not be
           disadvantaged. They will be able to enjoy the benefits of a
           wide-ranging curriculum at their local centre albeit some of the
           provision provided by a regional centre via videoconference. The
           student's experience is fundamentally changed as they are able to sit
           at a videoconference terminal at their local centre while learning
           from and interacting with a tutor and a group of fellow students at a
           distant centre. The project undoubtedly identifies a significant
           advantage for smaller educational institutions whereby they can
           provide a broader curriculum for their students by collaborating with
           larger more distant institutions on specialist subjects via
           videoconferencing. The potential for the techniques we explored is
           enormous; adult learners constrained by disability or family
           responsibilities will be able to share in the group learning
           experience. Similarly students at home and overseas can share in
           each other's learning, enjoying the mind broadening awareness of
           foreign cultures. The prospect of wide access to limited and up to
           date resources will have an exponential effect on the progress of
           global education.

      Importance

           "How did information technology contribute to this project? Describe
           any new technologies used and/or cite innovative uses of existing
           technology. For example, did you find new ways to use existing
           technology to create new benefits for society? Or, did you define a
           problem and develop new technology to solve it? How quickly has your
           targeted audience of users embraced your innovation? Or, how rapidly
           do you predict they will? Does your work define new challenges for
           society? If so, please describe what you believe they may be."

           It has been possible for some years to videoconference from one
           fixed location, to another using videoconference booths. These are
           often at central locations rather than the desktop or workroom. The
           exciting new innovation that we adopted for this project is the "Video
           Gateway" concept. The Video Gateway is a piece of equipment
           which when installed into our computer network immediately
           transformed the "traditional" view of videoconferencing. It moved it
           from the videoconference booth to the desktop. This was very
           important to the North Devon College and to this project. It is clearly
           impractical to move whole groups of students from their normal tutor
           rooms to a specific location to facilitate the inclusion of distance
           learning students. With this equipment videoconference calls can be
           received and made at any workstation on the North Devon College's
           network. Thus students are not inconvenienced and remain in their
           normal tutor rooms for the videoconference sessions. As might be
           expected, the students were quick to embrace the new techniques and
           they did so with enthusiasm. This leads us to believe that this
           approach is a viable technique for the delivery of learning. Tutors
           however would have to think carefully about how material was
           presented to make it equally acceptable to both local and distant
           students. We do not believe that our work is a challenge to society,
           indeed we see it as a solution to the challenge that society faces - that
           of providing equal opportunities in education for all students
           irrespective of their geographic location.

      Originality

      "What are the exceptional aspects of your project? Is it original? How?
           Is it the first, the only, the best or the most effective application of its
           kind? How did the project evolve? What is its background?"

           The use of videoconferencing to support on-line learning is not a new
           concept. However, inclusion of students learning on-line in
           conventionally taught groups introduces a valuable new dynamic.
           Hitherto the on-line learner has been isolated from the benefits of
           group interaction by virtue of the "one to one" limitations of
           traditional videoconferencing. The design of the North Devon
           College videoconferencing system is such that remote access to
           learning groups in their normal teaching rooms can easily be
           facilitated. The project evolved out of the awareness that some
           students were disadvantaged educationally by virtue of their
           geographic location. Because of our rural situation there are many
           students who fall into this category. It was always possible for
          students living near local centres such as Ilfracombe to attend the
           regional centre at Barnstaple for their education where they
           particularly wanted to study a specialist subject not taught at the local
           centre. However this involves travelling and thus incurs financial
           penalties, time penalties and environmental penalties. The project
           successfully addressed and resolved these problems.

      Success

           "Has your project achieved or exceeded its goals? Is it fully operational?
           How many people benefit from it? If possible, include an example of
           how the project has benefited a specific individual, enterprise or
           organization. Please include personal quotes from individuals who
           have directly benefited from your work. Describe future plans for the
           project."

           Yes, the project has achieved its stated goals. These include:a) To
            achieve the effective linking of small remote groups of students with
           larger regional groups via videoconferencing - achieved. b) The
           production of a report that highlights the implications of this form of
           curriculum delivery - reports were produced. c) To effect
           collaboration between a regional college and a local college on
           curriculum development issues - achieved. d) The production of an
           effective review - achieved at a number of collective meetings. e)
           The production of an appraisal of the viability of this form of remote
           language teaching and to make comparisons with links with other
           options such as CD-ROM delivery, email and wave files - achieved.
 

            "...quite exciting although nerve racking ...but after a
           while you got used to communicating with somebody in a different
           place at the same time...picture quality good - no problem there...
           lip-synch needs to be fine tuned because if you want to speak another
           language you must make sure you see the lips of the person you are
           communicating with...students communicated quite
           successfully...sound could be improved...the students liked it."
      Sabine Etmanski, tutor North Devon College

            "...its very good, its
           really exciting to be part of this at this particular stage. I think we are
           going to be able to do some good things with the (North Devon)
           College. The students at our end certainly enjoyed the initial
           experience. I think we are going on to see how we can incorporate it
           as part of 'normal' teaching now"
      Kevin Cook, Assistant Head, Ilfracombe Community College

            "I was a bit nervous to start with
           because of people I didn't know and also talking a foreign language.
           But I found it really good"
      Lucy Bland, student North Devon College

           Evaluation confirmed that all contributors and observers derived
           benefit from the project. This is evidenced by the above comments,
           the expansion of the skills of the teachers and technicians at both
           institutions and the widened learning opportunity presented to the
           students. Although the pilot phase of this project is complete, the
           equipment remains in situ and the new links forged between the
           institutions are active. The new techniques that we have explored and
           developed through this process are not currently operational due to
           the absence of funding. As soon as the funding climate improves there
           will be opportunities to introduce the technique into the curriculum of
           the two institutions concerned and the wider educational community.

      Difficulty

      "What were the most important obstacles that had to be overcome in
           order for your work to be successful? Technical problems? Resources?
           Expertise? Organizational problems? Often the most innovative projects
           encounter the greatest resistance when they are originally proposed. If
           you had to fight for funding, it would be useful to include a summary of
           the objections you faced and how you overcame them."

           Although there was considerable enthusiasm from the Principalship
           for this project it was still difficult to find the resources necessary to
           take it forward. At times it was thought that the costs for us, a
           relatively small regional centre, would be too high. As it turned out
           the endeavours of our funding managers were successful and they
           found the money and we were able to proceed. Nevertheless the
           period of time that elapsed whilst the monies were identified was
           difficult. It would have been very easy to lose sight of the goals and
           enthusiasm for their achievement. Language tuition as the subject
           matter of the project was challenging. German language tuition was
           where the specific need had been identified and it was the natural
           subject to use for the pilot project. However it was testing,
           particularly when we discovered the implications of sound quality
           and lip-synch. The resolution of these problems was simply to
           increase the capacity of the connection between the sites. That this
           was not anticipated was a direct result of technicians making
           decisions that should have been the prerogative of the teaching staff.
           This illustrates well the imperative that projects of this type must be
           user driven. Some of the technical aspects of the project were new to
           us and indeed were new to some of the people advising us. Although
           this was a difficult challenge it was one we were pleased to accept
           because of the impact success might make in terms of the overall
           success of the project. Having identified that new technologies were
           emerging that could be employed to advantage in this project I was
           then presented with the prospect of acquiring and establishing the
           necessary skills within my technical staff. The new equipment utilises
           techniques and protocols novel to most networking engineers in the
           UK at the time. Consequently we were confronted with a very steep
           and demanding learning schedule. The resources at the centres of the
           supplying organisations were invaluable in helping us to overcome
           these difficulties. I am also certain that our experience and indeed
           some of our discoveries during this process will have been
           invaluable to our suppliers and their future clients. These obstacles
           were overcome not only as a natural outcome of the capability, skill
           and capacity of the staff involved but also through their enthusiasm
           and dedication.

David M.Hogan
Head of Research & Development in Information Technology
 
 

Project Team Leader - David Hogan, Head of Research & Development in Information Technology dhogan@hogans.org.uk

Project Team
Brian Vines, Head of Project Development, North Devon College bvines@ndevon.ac.uk
Dave Brock, Technician, North Devon College
Phil Brown, Technical Advisor, North Devon College
Jim Kelland, Modern Languages Co-ordinator (retired), North Devon College pandjk@hotmail.com
Sabine Etmanski, Lecturer in German Language, North Devon College postbox@ndevon.ac.uk
Sarah Heiser, Lecturer in German Language, North Devon College sheiser@ndevon.ac.uk
Kevin Cook, Head of Year Ten, Ilfracombe College ilfracom@rmplc.co.uk
Chris Wallis, Head of Modern Languages, Ilfracombe College ilfracom@rmplc.co.uk
Mike Wakefield, Systems Consultant, Madge Networks UK
Chris Wood, Technical Sales Advisor, Infodec Ltd., UK cjwood@infodec.co.uk
Keith Thompson, Technical Sales Advisor, Infodec Ltd., UK kthompson@infodec.co.uk
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If you have comments or suggestions, email me at dhogan@hogans.org.uk

contact the North Devon College at:
North Devon College
Old Sticklepath Hill
Barnstaple
North Devon
EX31 2BQ
Tel : +44 (0) 1271 345291
Fax: +44 (0) 1271 338121
postbox@ndevon.ac.uk

Page last updated: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 11:57