Premier Sponsor

Ministry of Education Tertiary (e)Learning

The Ministry of Education is pleased to sponsor e-Fest 2007. e-Learning has a vital role to play in strengthening New Zealand’s tertiary education system and helping it to better meet the needs of learners.  Work has been underway since 2001 to develop New Zealand’s e-learning capabilities in consultation with the tertiary sector.  The latest developments underway to assist the tertiary sector in planning for and developing its e-learning capabilities are:

The ICT Strategic Framework for Education

The New Zealand ICT Strategic Framework for Education (Strategic Framework) is the mechanism with which ICT investment is strategically planned and coordinated across the education sector agencies and the National Library. It is aligned with, and supports, the government’s goals and education priorities as well as the e-Government and National Digital Strategies and the international e-Framework for Education and Research.

For a copy of the ICT Strategic Framework go to: www.minedu.govt.nz/goto/ictframework or email ICT.Sector@minedu.govt.nz.

Interim Tertiary E-Learning Framework

Creating the 2004 Interim Tertiary e-Learning Framework (Framework) was another important milestone in achieving an effective e-learning environment.  It was developed by the Ministry with the National Library as co-sponsor and in consultation with other government agencies and the tertiary sector.

The Framework sets out:

• A shared vision of what e-learning can achieve;
• A set of agreed guiding principles; and
• Seven key areas that are essential to the development of sector capability.

The Framework is to be replaced this year by a strategy that is updated, and aligned with both the Tertiary Education Strategy 2007-2012, and with the ICT Strategic Framework for Education.  This is currently being undertaken in partnership with key tertiary sector and government stakeholders.

Connectivity

An action area of the Interim Tertiary e-Learning Framework is the “adoption of relevant technical and design standards for e-Learning developments”. Connectivity is also a key component of the ICT Strategic Framework for Education. There are two key initiatives being undertaken by the Ministry of Education (MoE) and other agencies in 2007 that support connectivity. 

The MoE (on behalf of the education sector agencies) is contributing to the International e-Framework for Education and Research (www.e-framework.org).  We join partners from the U.K, Australia and the Netherlands to produce an evolving and sustainable, open standards based, service oriented technical framework to support the education and research communities. The e-Framework allows the community to document its requirements and processes in a coherent way, and to use these to derive a set of interoperable network services that conform to appropriate open standards. New Zealand are contributing to the ‘Administration’ arm of the e-Framework – providing models of two key services – Education Sector Authentication and Authorisation (a single sign-on and identity management service for the education sector) and Education Sector Integration Services (a set of services to support information technology interoperability between organisations and systems).
 
Another key initiative being undertaken by the Ministry of Education is the development of a ‘Target State’ for the education sector. This involves modelling the education sector and defining the key business functions/services and how they relate to each other. Once this has been defined and agreed, it is then possible to identify the key ICT systems and services required to support the sector. This process also identifies the services and infrastructure that are common across ECE, schools and tertiary, therefore enabling the sector to develop a common agreed approach to delivery. From this modelling, a roadmap can be developed that will over time guide the education sector to a target state. Taken together, the roadmap & target state become a management tool which guides informed decision making in ICT investment in the education sector.

Consultation with each sector on this work will be undertaken in 2007.

For more information on the Connectivity programme of work, please contact ICT.Sector@minedu.govt.nz.

Tertiary e-Learning Research Fund

The Interim Tertiary e-Learning Framework (2003/04) included among its recommendations the need for robust research on e-Learning in the tertiary education sector in New Zealand. The Tertiary e-Learning Research Fund (TeLRF) was established in 2004 and is an on-going contestable fund for sector-based research into the current context and future impact of e-Learning in New Zealand.  Research findings are also being used to inform a scenario planning exercise, to provide the New Zealand tertiary education sector with pictures of the future, against which they can measure their own e-Learning capability and decide the future direction of e-Learning for their institution. 

Research reports for the first two rounds (2003/2004 and 2005/2006) have been completed and are available at http://cms.steo.govt.nz/eLearning/showall.htm.  Some recent research areas cover, for example:

• self-assessment processes for evaluating and informing TEOs’ development of e-learning capability and architecture
• the identification of trends and diversity in student needs, orientations and aspirations; and
• an examination of national and regional policy in the area of e-learning, a determination of the outcomes of the policy implementation, and a consideration of subsequent and proposed amendments and the reasons for those.

The third round projects (2006/2007) are now underway and are due for completion by February 2008.  These projects will create an e-learning professional development framework for implementation by TEOs.  In addition a survey of e-learning activity in the Industry Training Organisation sector and recommendations for best practice in implementing this will also be undertaken.

The RFP for the latest (2007/2008) round of the TeLRF will be released to the sector in April 2007.  The deadline for applications will be May 2007. Further information on the RFP and making an application can be obtained at www.elearn.govt.nz or http://cms.steo.govt.nz.  Alternatively you can email the team at elearning.research@minedu.govt.nz.

This information is correct as at 05 April 2007. For updates please visit www.elearn.govt.nz or email feedback.elearn@minedu.govt.nz.

For more information on these and other e-Learning initiatives and projects not listed here please contact the e-Learning team at: tertiary.elearning@minedu.govt.nz. 

Contact:
Peter Guiney
Ministry of Education e-Learning Team
Phone: 04 463 7557
Email:  peter.guiney@minedu.govt.nz