Background to the UWS

The University of the West of Scotland (UWS) operates across four campuses in the west and south-west of Scotland located in Paisley, Ayr, Hamilton and Dumfries.  The Institution was granted University status in 1992 as The University of Paisley, and currently has approximately 18,000 students and 1,300 staff on around 100 undergraduate and postgraduate courses spread across seven schools.  Its faculty of Health is the largest of any Scottish University.

Activ the chosen provider for ECDL training and testing provision

Attracted by the opportunity to bring improved automated testing technologies to their ECDL course, The University of Paisley originally began working with Activ in October 2004.  In 2006, Bell College of Higher and Further Education also began work with Activ, at the time as an independent organisation.  In August 2007, The University of Paisley and Bell College formally merged to form the University of the West of Scotland (UWS).  Having identified ECDL and ECDL Advanced as providing the core IT skills required by Undergraduate students, the Qualification has been incorporated into a variety of University IT Modules.

As part of the merger discussions, ECDL staff at each Campus have been working together since early in 2006 to make arrangements for the smooth and continuous delivery of ECDL training and testing facilities throughout.   According to Karen McKay, ECDL Test Centre Manager at UWS, “an important part of our planning and resourcing since 2006 has been adopting Activ as our ECDL Testing and Training materials provider for all the students”.  
  
Karen continues, “there are both taught and distance learning modules available. We provide the Activ online learning materials either through a website or on CD-ROM.   Initially, a high number of ECDL enrolments were from individual members of the public. More recently, however, focus has switched to working closely with employers to provide them with a flexible online learning solution that allows their staff to gain the ECDL Qualification as well as recognised University credit.   As is the case across the UK, employers are recognising the benefits of using the ECDL certificate as a benchmark for measuring IT skills within their organisation”.   

User friendly products and support

Adding to the above, Karen states “each of the four University Campuses are approved to conduct ECDL testing under the UWS BCS Qualifications Test Centre with satellite / mobile testing also available at some nominated local employers’ sites as part of an agreed proposal.  Activ supports all of this activity, working closely with our own technicians to integrate new testing sites and e-learning access.  We have found the Activ learning materials to be very user friendly; students have commented on how well laid out they are”.

A special deal for universities

The University of Paisley initially took advantage of a development, uniquely available through Activ, of the Eduserve CHEST/British Computer Society Agreement for delivery of ECDL to HE.  In October 2006, Bell College also bought into this delivery option with Activ, making them the 9th UK HE Institution working with Activ to do so. Self-hosted delivery has meant that expansion across multiple campuses during the transition phase to becoming UWS has been straightforward.

According to Karen McKay, “the ActivTest system has reduced the administration work for IT tutors dramatically.  We can allocate learning materials, accounts, exams and practice assessment in batches and this reduces the number of individual instances of data input /exam allocation required to carry out our operations.  The solution from Activ is suitable as we have such high numbers of students; we have delivered approximately 1600 exams and 2000 practice assessments since the 1st of August 2007, and have 3000 enrolled students working through the learning materials”.

Looking Ahead

Karen proceeds “Our next phase of development will involve setting up one central server to support all four campuses, during which we will continue to work closely with the Activ support team to provide an effective learning experience for our students throughout the whole of Scotland”.

Dramatic Growth 

UWS are just one of nearly 50 HE Institutions to select Activ as their ECDL materials provider.  According to Keith Pearson, Business Development Manager with Activ: “When the Eduserve CHEST/BCS Agreement was originally conceived in Feb 2004, Activ had less than 5 UK HE clients. Our commitment to high quality materials at reasonable prices has seen dramatic growth in the Sector over the last 4 years that has mirrored our expansion across the UK market in general.” 

“Activ now has a wide range of HE clients delivering a variety of programmes incorporating staff development, student drop-in, faculty-wide basic skills and University-wide ECDL.  Many of those clients have transferred from other materials providers, looking for a single supplier of training and testing, a better level of customer support and lower operating costs.  Activ have a really special deal that is suitable for any organisation considering offering the Qualification to 400 or more students per year; alternatively, Activ has the lowest cost ECDL test pricing available for Higher Education in the UK today”.

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