LO Study Conference

Developing e-Learning Tools for Trade Union Education

Anna KalsiE-Learning Support Officer, TUC Education

Background

• More than 58,000 union reps trained last year• Over 900 union officers trained each year• Work with more than 60 colleges across UK• 250 TUC trained tutors• Course materials developed and supplied by TUC• Government financed• Nationally recognised accreditation

Curriculum

• Course activities are varied – discussion based, collaborative, tutor facilitated, workplace activities, some self study

• Tools for a rep or officer: employment law, health and safety, equality issues, learning, representative skills, grievance and discipline, updates on new issues etc

• All levels, from basic skills through to pre-university

Successes in the classroom

• Very successful programme• High retention and achievement• Well established• Knowledgeable and trained tutor team• Strong tutor development programme

Our goal was to provide an online

offer

Online

“Ensure that the development of online courses provided by the TUC, would be of exemplary quality, highly valued both by learners and by

affiliated trade unions, and focused, like face to face course provision, on maintaining and developing

trade union education.”

Aims of the online programme• Develop a high quality and effective programme• Courses should be accessible and convenient• Meet the demands of reps• A comprehensive programme of courses• Highly valued both by learners and by affiliated trade

unions• Equal standard to that of the classroom based provision• Offer an alternative to classroom based courses• A programme to complement the established classroom

course programme

The online programme

• All TUC Education core courses are available online

• In addition – a number of specialist short courses are available, including courses exclusively available for study online

• Some hard to recruit short courses run online, but not in the classroom

• Online courses/programmes developed for affiliates – demand increasing

Success

• Demand for online courses is high• 81% enjoyed their online learning experience• 89% would enrol for another online course• 87% would encourage others to enrol• Evidence that learning is highly effective• Quality of learners’ work is of a very high

standard• Shift in attitudes towards e-learning

Next steps

• Despite the successes, there was room for improvement

• Aid retention• Improve accessibility• Improve quality• Previously had not taken advantage of

technological opportunities - mistake

Shift in attitude

• Leonardo da Vinci project• Developing e-Learning Tools for Trade Union

Education (DeLTTUE)• Successful bid in 2009• Project completes November 2011

DeLTTUE aims

• Create innovative materials for TU programmes• Develop guidance to ensure new technologies

are adopted effectively• Develop training for tutors • Produce collaborative tools for information

exchange• Establish quality assurance systems• Evaluate, disseminate and mainstream

DeLTTUE partners

• TUC (UK• SAK (Finland)• LO – Sweden• CITUB (Bulgaria)• GSEE (Greece)• ETUI (cross Europe)• The Open University (UK)• Lewisham College (UK)• Stow College (UK)

DeLTTUE products

• Guidance manuals that will become a practical toolkit

• Innovative video content to enhance courses• Vodcasts for trade union professionals• Rapid e-learning module about EWCs• Web-based community and project website• Evaluation reports• Training course for tutors - GREeT• Dissemination conference

DeLTTUEThis project has been funded with support from the European Commission.