ICT in leadership and management
Leading and managing change with ICT
Further education colleges
Staff satisfaction
The three ICT Test Bed further education colleges recorded a good level of development through the maturity modeling process in 2005. However, the 2005 staff survey revealed that 50% of FE teaching staff considered their institution's methods of managing change to be unsatisfactory. It is important to note that the survey was administered to all staff in the college rather than only those in curriculum areas with ICT Test Bed funding. Nevertheless, the upgrading of MIS systems, with ICT Test Bed funding, could be expected to have an impact on management across the college. Staff reported that there was increasing clarity in roles and responsibilities within the colleges but there was a more mixed response to questions about the clarity of decision-making processes and an increase in the number of staff who do not believe that there are good communications or that they are kept well informed (62% compared to 34% in 2004).
These are disappointing findings that may, however, be partly explained by the size and complexity of the colleges' activities and infrastructure. It is also important to note that one of the colleges underwent major restructuring during 2004-05.
Models of successful management of change in the ICT Test Bed FE colleges
The work of the ICT Test Bed FE colleges provides evidence that clearly defined management structures and stable senior management teams are important conditions for effective leadership of change in major ICT innovations. The active support of a senior manager, and supportive interest of the whole senior management team, are essential.
To use ICT effectively, colleges are likely to need to make changes to their management structures, including making new senior appointments and establishing new committees to maximise staff participation.
ICT tools that provide structures for project management, collaborative working and financial planning/tracking (spreadsheets) are enormously powerful in managing change and tracking its progress.
Additionally, leadership strategies need to fit the existing culture of the organisation and play to the strengths of all participants. Standard business models of project management have to be substantially changed to fit the structures and culture of FE colleges which have very diffuse middle management responsibilities by comparison with business organisations.
The ICT Test Bed project provides two useful but contrasting models of change management with ICT in FE which illustrate this process. These can be customised for use by other colleges. (See Appendix 1 for a table setting out the features of the two models.)
In one college an experienced project manager was brought in from industry to manage ICT Test Bed and adopted what he called a 'franchise model'. He explained:
"It's like a series of franchises internally, that's the way I think of it. You have got schools, departments... you have got lecturers and each one is given an element of freedom for what they want to deliver, but they have to use the supplied materials. In the well-known franchises you are all similarly branded but in essence you are almost self-employed, and you have got a larger degree of autonomy."
In another college an experienced member of the senior management team led the project as an extension of his previous responsibilities for developing ICT in the college and he adopted what he called an 'empowerment model'. He explained:
"Initially, there were individual practitioners who were the obvious choice either because of the role they were playing or... [personal qualities]. But others have come through - the team has evolved a true sense of bottom-up implementation. At all levels it's welling up from practitioners across the piece. For example, the joinery technician has taken it on himself to video things and produce demo materials for students. It's been really empowering staff - it's about having the faith in staff to truly empower them, not just empower them as long as they are doing what you want."
Use of management information systems (MIS)
The three FE colleges had well-established MIS systems and development plans prior to the ICT Test Bed project. The impact of ICT Test Bed appears to have been in facilitating and speeding up the development of the systems, their embedding in the day-to-day operation of the college, and in increasing the access and usability of the systems for college academic and business support staff. Business support teams have been restructured and reskilled to become multi-skilled teams who ensure benefits are realised from the MIS systems. Colleges are different from schools in their level of financial independence and responsibility so there was a realisation from the start that new hardware brings an ongoing cost in terms of upgrading and replacement.
Sophisticated MIS systems are streamlining business processes across the college. It is easier to find out about courses and enquiries are processed faster and more comprehensively. Enrolment has changed drastically over the last few years because of increased use of ICT and the traditional delays and long queues are largely a thing of the past. Managing students on courses is more effective and efficient. Tutors are much more aware of student needs and the progress they are making. All of these factors are tangible benefits to the students and to the operation and efficiency of the college.
Historically, MIS systems in FE colleges have been perceived as inaccessible and difficult to use and as providing data that was often not accurate. This perception appears to be changing as the increased ease of getting accurate data improves staff perceptions of the systems. Staff interviewed were very positive about the systems and the benefits they derived from them.
Staff are much more aware of data and its role in what they do. Managers make regular use of data to help them manage the curriculum and their staff and to monitor performance. Tutors use data to manage their student cohorts and their progress.
Development of e-viewers has had a major impact in making systems more accessible and easier to access via web-based interfaces. Once complex tasks such as drilling down into specific aspects of the data are now routine and require only a few clicks of a mouse.
Staff are increasingly engaging with quality issues through easier access to quality procedures; this facilitates quality improvement across the organisation. Quality procedures themselves have become more manageable and easier for staff to update and amend.
Developments in MIS systems have had a significant impact on the whole college and its operation, particularly when considered in terms of the proportion of ICT Test Bed funding that was invested in MIS. As a relatively small part of the ICT Test Bed funding, they have acted as a major catalyst to changing the culture within the colleges.
MIS developments are likely to be sustainable developments and the rapid improvements seen during the ICT Test Bed project will have a lasting impact in the colleges and provide a solid base for future developments. College environments are increasingly complex and subject to frequent and unpredictable change - as staff leave or change roles, as departments move rooms, from site to site or to new buildings - and equipment may not be replaced or updated. In this environment, it may be that change in teaching and learning in the colleges is transient; there is perhaps a tendency to revert to the 'stable state'. ICT Test Bed could be viewed as a project designed to bring about change in teaching and learning. but given the limitations to specific curriculum areas within the colleges. it may be that the developments in MIS discussed in this report represent the real impact of ICT Test Bed for FE.
The Becta review (Becta, 2005) looked for colleges that were e-enabled. E-enablement is defined in the PwC report and reported in the Becta review as "An 'e-enabled' institution is one where there is clear evidence of strategic thinking around the use of ICT, self-assessment and future willingness to embed ICT are high and the institution fairs well in terms of the traditional indicators of the use of ICT." (PwC, 2005, p78) The review found that only 8% of colleges could be considered as e-enabled, a figure somewhat lower than that for schools (see Table 4). It is clear that MIS developments in ICT Test Bed have raised the level of e-enablement in the ICT Test Bed colleges.
| Late adopters | Ambivalent | Enthusiastic | e-enabled | Sample size (N) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FE colleges | 20% | 23% | 49% | 8% | 99 |
| All schools and colleges | 13% | 36% | 40% | 11% | 345 |
Source: Moving Towards e-Learning in Schools and FE Colleges (PWC, 2004a)
Development and integration of VLEs
The use of VLEs had been promoted in the FE sector since 2000 and all three ICT Test Bed colleges used some of their funding to upgrade or replace their existing system. This meant that in the colleges there was a focus on developing effective use of the VLE from 2003, early in the life of the project. In two cases the VLE purchased by the college proved not to provide the expected services and a switch was made to an open source alternative system in 2004, but real progress has been made since and VLE use is now much better established in all three colleges than it was prior to the ICT Test Bed project.
As a result, ICT Test Bed learners have excellent opportunities to access learning materials outside the classroom when they choose to do so.
The success of an open source solution to provision of a college-wide VLE should be noted. These have proved reliable, robust and expandable; they offer a high level of user customisation and the level of acceptance among staff and students is high. In the two ICT Test Bed colleges that changed their VLE during the project, this high degree of functionality has contributed to the rapid establishment of a viable VLE that is becoming a college-wide facility. Such moves will have far-reaching effects in the FE sector and the wider VLE market.
All ICT Test Bed institutions
Change management tools
Change management tools of the kind promoted within ICT Test Bed by consultants from the National Remodelling Team have proved to be powerful in enabling and sustaining change in schools and colleges - if their need is recognised by senior managers and they are used.
A comparison between the extent of use of these change management tools in schools and colleges (recorded by Becta) and the evaluation's maturity modelling data showed a positive correlation between the use of change management tools and the growing maturity of the ICT Test Bed institutions on a number of dimensions.
However, there are subtle differences in factors correlating with level of activity versus those correlating with quality of activity. The frequency with which such management tools were used - that is, the degree to which an institution opted into the change management ethos - was related to the maturing management systems, workforce and technological infrastructure. However, the quality and effectiveness of use were correlated with these and, additionally, with maturity of external technological links from the institution to the home and the community.
Readiness to opt into the change management ethos, linked to the maturity of the workforce, appear to be the keys to both the level and overall degree of change.