Developing Skills in E-Learning for Further Education Lecturers

Virtual Learning Environments have been adopted in the majority of Scottish Further Education (FE) colleges, however few staff have experience of them and there is still something of a culture change necessary to integrate e-learning into everyday practice (Dailly, 2003). There is a pressing need for training in e-learning as part of professional development programmes and core lecturer training, particularly as it is recognised that teaching staff need to develop confidence with the technology to use it successfully (Harris, et al ., 2004). In April 2005 over 50 lecturers from Scottish FE colleges took part in e-learning workshops as part of the University of Aberdeen’s Teaching Qualification (Further Education). These workshops delivered course content and provided first hand experience of e-learning tools. This paper presents findings from the evaluation of these workshops. It highlights the need for further training for FE lecturers and makes suggestions for the further development of e-learning skills for staff in FE.