Papers by Stephen Farrier
International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments
This paper discusses the evaluation of two 3D simulated practice learning environments, Tiny Oaks... more This paper discusses the evaluation of two 3D simulated practice learning environments, Tiny Oaks and Play2Do, focused on supporting people working with children, families, and vulnerable people in special educational settings. Pre-test/post-test evaluation methodology was employed consisting of a questionnaire with 16 questions covering knowledge and understanding, professional practice, and transferable skills. Tiny Oaks had 530 participants pre-test and 423 post-test from six European countries, and results show a significant increase in learning across all questions. Play2Do had 318 participants pre-test and 301 participants post-test from the UK and Bulgaria, and again results show a significant increase in learning across all questions. The system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire was also used to measure the usability of the two environments, and usability was found to be excellent. Findings suggest that 3D simulated practice environments can provide a valuable learning exp...
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The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the main regulatory body responsible for registeri... more The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the main regulatory body responsible for registering people who work in social services and is responsible for regulating their education and training. In Scotland there are currently 191,000 social service workers who work with a variety of different people in a variety of different settings ranging from care home services for adults to early year settings such as nurseries and out of care clubs. Games‐based Learning has developed a reputation with educationalists for being a potential form of supplementary learning and has been applied in a number of different subject areas. The current state of computer games technology allows the creation of games beyond that of 2D games or web‐based eLearning games for increased engagement and immersion. It is therefore considered to be beneficial to use current computer games technology to create a realistic, 3D simulated practice environment for social and health care training. This paper will in...
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The importance of health and social services is increasing as European society grows older and un... more The importance of health and social services is increasing as European society grows older and unemployment and relocation across Europe increases. This growing demand for services is creating unprecedented pressures on health and social care systems. Despite differences in political approaches and institutional frameworks, health and social services across Europe face similar challenges in adjusting to demographic ageing, societal change, rising expectations and consumerism, changing employment and family patterns, evolving technological opportunities and funding issues. A key part of the sector deals with vulnerable people. Education and training plays a pivotal role in developing those who work with vulnerable people and, more generally, the social services sector. In many parts of Europe, the sector has a strong emphasis on learning and assessing skills for job roles in real practice environments ("practice learning"). In some qualifications, practice learning can be a...
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Summary CREANOVA is an EU-funded project that aims to undertake research on specific conditions a... more Summary CREANOVA is an EU-funded project that aims to undertake research on specific conditions and factors which are present in creative learning environments and promote innovation. While innovation is a defined imperative for European learning policy, there is a lack of evidence on what constitutes meaningful innovation and how it can be fostered and applied in learning. It is anticipated that the research outcomes from CREANOVA will inform innovative competence acquisition and development in formal and informal learning contexts, such as vocational education and training (VET), adult education and work-based learning (WBL). This paper maps the ways in which 18 UK entities demonstrate and reflect innovative learning. However, in anticipation of further research, special attention is paid to addressing the challenges of blending the learning environment. The blending of hybrid pedagogical imperatives and methodologies, within physical and virtual learning environments, has increas...
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In 1999 Northumbria University published a strategy document entitled "Towards the web-enabl... more In 1999 Northumbria University published a strategy document entitled "Towards the web-enabled University". This prefaced an assessment of need and of available platforms for developing online teaching and learning which, in turn, led in 2001 to the roll out and institution-wide adoption of the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) now referred to as our eLearning Platform or eLP. Within a very few years we had over 90% take-up by academic staff and the eLP had become integral to the learning of virtually all our students. What has always been relatively easy to measure has been the number of users, frequency of use, number of courses, levels of technological infrastructure, etc. However, with the publication of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) e-learning strategy in 2005 it became apparent that such quantitative data was not particularly helpful in measuring how the university matched onto the 10-year aspirations of that document and its me...
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This paper is of interest to those who use mediated platforms as VLE's/MLE's virtual lear... more This paper is of interest to those who use mediated platforms as VLE's/MLE's virtual learning environments and managed learning environments within the context of either a LMS, learning management system or CMS, content management system. These acronyms serve only to define the confusing and sometimes highly complex nature of that by which we now choose to mediate the communication and delivery of our learning programmes / products. The delivery of mediated learning has continued to evolve expedientially with greater emphasis being placed upon meeting new, more mobile technologies that are closely related to the user interface, as exposed by both the learner and the deliverer. The development of new and evolving learning technologies to enhance the learners experience has led to a greater reliance upon available ITC mediated VL platforms that appear to create a learning solution, academically and functionally, both for the learner and the learning provider. This has placed a...
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This paper is of interest to those who use mediated platforms such as virtual learning environmen... more This paper is of interest to those who use mediated platforms such as virtual learning environments (VLEs) and managed learning environments (MLEs) within the context of either a learning management system (LMS) or a content management system (CMS). The delivery of mediated learning has continued to evolve exponentially with greater emphasis being placed upon meeting new, more mobile technologies that are closely related to the user interface. The development of new and evolving learning technologies to enhance the learners experience has led to a greater reliance upon available ITC mediated VL platforms that appear to create a learning solution, academically and functionally, both for the learner and the learning provider. This has placed a greater pressure upon learning providers to meet both the commercial cost and the pedagogical implications of these as part of their strategic planning and development. The focus of this paper is related to the authors' experience in measuring and managing risk potential within the context of establishing capacity building, appropriateness, economic justification and sustainable platform evolution as a pedagogical and technological focus of Northumbria University's future strategic direction, as a global leader in the delivery of higher education. The implications of this study are of interest to those who understand the fragility to which large organic learning institutions such as Universities and colleges of further education are exposed in the form of the dictation of commercially driven products and the impact this has had on radically shifting the emphasis of the delivery of learning and the choices we make in relation to our stakeholders.
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Citation: Turnock, C.(2008)'Risk managing your VLE: strategic implications for learning prov... more Citation: Turnock, C.(2008)'Risk managing your VLE: strategic implications for learning providers', in Baptista Nunes, M and McPherson, M.(eds.) The IADIS International Conference on e-Learning, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 22-25 July. IADIS.
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Nurse Education in Practice, 2007
Using a combination of focus groups and questionnaires, data were obtained from 20 health care as... more Using a combination of focus groups and questionnaires, data were obtained from 20 health care assistants/pre-registration nursing students taking part in the OPEN Project, their 20 respective clinical mentors, three National Health Service Trust-based facilitators and three University Tutors. The aim was to evaluate development and delivery of the project by: Data were analysed using a combination of Framework Technique and descriptive statistics. The three main emergent themes were: Personal, Professional and Organisational learning. Through a combination of predominantly work based learning, teaching and assessment methods, students were able to demonstrate how they transformed existing knowledge into a usable tool on which to build further learning, while challenging previous assumptions about practice arising from their health care assistant role. Familiarity with the workplace while in the dual role of student/health care assistant allowed them to explore practice issues and implement changes while also gaining the credit to step onto year two of the Diploma in Nursing Science/Registered Nurse Programme. The main recommendations related to the issues of role identity for the students and infrastructure development in the Trusts and informed further similar projects.
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Papers by Stephen Farrier