Piloting Glow in Further and Higher Education

Please note that this cookbook refers to Glow Meet using Marratech.  Glow Meet is now delivered over Adobe Connect which offers enhanced functionality.  To find out more about Glow Meet using Adobe Connect then click here.  The principles around the benefits of Glow Meet are the same regardless of the technology used for Glow Meet.

Overview

Peter Gilmartin is Learner Resources Manager at Dundee College with responsibility for libraries, e-learning/virtual learning environment and media service provision.

In this cookbook Peter describes how Dundee College have been piloting Glow to enhance school/college links, ease the transition from school to college and complement existing college education programmes.

Context

The current Glow contract does not extend to further and higher education establishments other than the teacher education institutes. In preparation for the next iteration of the Glow contract, a number of education stakeholders not currently covered by the existing contract, were invited to pilot Glow. Dundee College agreed to participate in the pilot exercise with a view to explore how colleges could contribute to and benefit from Glow.

The aims of the pilot include:

• To see how colleges could use Glow, both for their own students and for school link students
• To examine how Glow could enhance school/college links
• To look at how Glow might ease school/college transition for pupils going on to college

In this cookbook, we will:

• Hear Peter outline how Dundee College is using Glow

Recipe

In the first video, Dundee College Part 1, Peter explains how the college is set up in Glow and how they have used Glow to enhance school/college links.

In Part 2, Peter describes how Glow Meet sessions and Glow discussion boards have added an extra dimension to the Education Support Assistant course run by the college.

In Part 3, we hear Peter’s views on the impact Glow has had so far and how he hopes to progress the pilot further.

Impact

Although Dundee College have only been piloting Glow for around six months, Peter is clear about the positive impact Glow is already having. Peter points to the extra dimension that Glow tools, in particular Glow Meet, are bringing to existing course provision:

• School pupils are able to interact with peers at college seeing first hand the vocational courses they can embark on. This gives the pupils a relevant, real world taste of the college experience, enriching and adding relevance to skills-for-work school programmes.
• Pupils are more confident when they come into the college as a result of having interacted in the Glow Meet sessions prior to visiting the college.
• Students of the Educational Support Assistants course are benefiting from Glow Meet sessions with the schools where they might end up on placement. This offers them the opportunity to view the kind of work they will have to do from a variety of different perspectives and contexts.  They are able to ask questions of experienced ESA’s and, with these Glow Meet sessions being recorded and stored in a Glow Group, revisit the recordings to review and research further prior to their placements.

For more information on how to set up a Glow Meet, follow the link below:

Piloting Glow in Further and Higher Education5.051