Collaborative Approaches to 14-19 Provision - Communities and ...

14-19 PATHFINDERS: THE SECOND YEAR142. A significant feature in some pathfinders was the development of e-learning toprovide a comprehensive framework through which the 14-19 reform agenda might besubstantially realised. This vision is particularly focused upon the establishment of virtuallearning environments which would encompass curriculum content, assessment tasks andmaterials, management information data, video-conferencing, websites, assessment data andso on. Taken to its conclusion this approach could theoretically lead to exclusively on-linelearning of elements of the 14-19 agenda, although even where this was seen as desirable itwas recognised as a distant prospect in all the pathfinders developing e-learning.143. These ambitious developments in e-learning are still in the relatively early stages ofdevelopment and there are many curricular, pedagogical and technical challenges to beovercome. Details of planned developments in e-learning can be found particularly in theLewisham, South Gloucestershire, Norfolk and Coventry case studies.144. Finally, in this brief review of innovative approaches to vocational learning, it isworth drawing attention to the development of personalised learning in the SouthGloucestershire pathfinder. This was the only one of the case studies which had explicitlyaddressed personalised learning (although at least some elements of the approach wereimplicit within the work of many pathfinders). In South Gloucestershire a PersonalChallenge for students is being developed throughout the 14-19 phase as a deliberateresponse to some of the proposals of the Working Group on 14-19 Reform (see case study formore details).145. One development which was particularly relevant to the conceptualisation ofpersonalised learning was the development of the tariff-based curriculum in the Nottinghampathfinder. The broad intention of this approach to assessment is to accredit and recognise awider range of achievement than can be achieved through GCSE. Credit ratings are attachedto a range of alternative qualifications. A broad range of assessment techniques can also beused. In these ways assessment is made more flexible and comprehensive in ways whichmay support the development of personalised learning (see case study for more details).146. When coordinators were asked about obstacles to the development of innovativeapproaches to vocational learning they raised many of the issues outlined previously in47