Research playback event write up – exploring the Invoiced at Course Level (ICL) route to a postgraduate award and the overlap with Short Courses in the context of flexible study
On February 4th, we hosted an open invitation online session to share our insights on flexible study, short courses and the ICL route to a postgraduate qualification. This was of particular relevance to colleagues in related fields, such as Short Courses, Executive Education, Continuing Professional Development, and the part-time intermittent route to a postgraduate award.
The slides and recording are available for the event, and in this blog, I’ll summarise the learning shared during the event.
Download the session slides (University of Edinburgh staff login needed)
We wanted to better understand the part-time intermittent route to a postgraduate award and the broader context that it sits within
During our work on the Degree Finder Transformation project, we were aware that the presentation of the part-time intermittent route on the programme page was not clearly understood.
We were also aware that the part-time intermittent route touched upon, perhaps even overlapped with, areas that we didn’t know much about. We saw a benefit in defining the scope of this project to explore those areas of overlap at a higher level. This would mean that the Prospective Student Web (PSW) team would be better informed about potential ways to enhance the understanding of the part-time intermittent route. It would also help us more effectively collaborate with our colleagues working on overlapping initiatives.
The playback event covered:
- Introduction: how this project differs from a typical user research project
- How we collaborated with stakeholders to prioritise topics to create a project brief
- What we learned about Flexible Study
- Why offer flexible study?
- Characteristics of flexible study
- What we know about the target audience for flexible study
- What it’s like to find flexible study options on university websites, comparing that with the University of Edinburgh
- Insight from user research with current and prospective students taking a short course or part-time intermittent route to a postgraduate award
- Their understanding of the terminology used when describing flexible study
- Their responses to a flexible route to a postgraduate based on earning small units of academic credit (micro-credentials) and joining those together (‘stacking’) them towards a higher level of qualification
- Where they intuitively look for this flexible route to a postgraduate award on the University website
- Internal challenges of presenting flexible study
- The main challenge: student systems which aren’t design or built for flexible study
- The impacts of this challenge for School and operations colleagues
How this project differs from a typical user research project
Typical user research projects are a deep exploration of a single topic which is reasonably self-contained. The shape of this project was different. The exploration was broad and shallow rather than a ‘deep-dive’.
We encountered multiple themes on the subject of flexible study which were at different levels of granularity.
Some of these were at the level of University-wide strategy and others were at the other end of the spectrum at a very low level of granularity, for example, process for administering courses in the Graduate Schools and the student systems underpinning courses and programmes.
This is reflected in the learning we shared – broad observations and unanswered questions sit alongside distilled audience insights.
How we collaborated with stakeholders to create a project brief
We invited stakeholders who are connected to the range of flexible study to collaborate on setting priorities for a project brief. We used a Lean Coffee format, which is a structured but agenda-less workshop process.
Our stakeholder group included people who connected with the provision of flexible study formats:
- Student Recruitment and Admissions
- Online learning marketing team, developing the new short courses catalogue
- Curriculum Transformation Programme
- The College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
- The Bayes Centre
- Edinburgh Business School
- Edinburgh Futures Institute
The main topics which came up for discussion during the Lean Coffee were:
- Understanding the target audience – what is the scale, is there demand?
- Understanding the overhead of the current flexible study provision
- What would improve the online provision for prospective students
We finalised the brief to create a snapshot of the current state, observing where the challenges and opportunities lie and how the part-time intermittent route fits within the broader context of flexible study.
Our research approach
In our 3-month project we carried out:
- Interviews with University stakeholders in Schools and Operations teams
- Competitor analysis of 7 domestic universities which feature flexible education options
- University of Edinburgh website audit on the presentation of flexible study options
- A review of corporate admissions data
- A review of commissioned reports and market research on flexible study and the target audience (taught postgraduates, online learning, short courses, and the audience for the Data Science, Technology and Innovation flexible master’s degree)
- Research sessions with students on the part-time intermittent study mode, those taking a short course and those looking to study flexibly.
What we learned about Flexible Study
Why offer flexible study?
The short answer is that it’s a key part of Strategy 2030. The Curriculum Transformation Programme (CTP), which is a key programme within Strategy 2030, proposes new structures for taught postgraduate programmes, one is a flexible format.
In a video on the CTP SharePoint Hub, University Principal and Vice-Chancellor Peter Mathieson and Vice Principal (Students) Colm Harmon, highlight the need for flexibility:
- In response to the changing nature of the role of universities from information provision to educating on how to use information,
- for the provision of skills and
- the changing nature of work, where new graduates will need to operate in interdisciplinary settings.
The newly proposed flexible format for taught postgraduate programmes in CTP allows students to choose courses from different programmes and build up credits over an extended period (potentially unlimited) to build towards a qualification.
Flexible study is also a historic theme with increased focus in the current financial context.
Watch the Principal and Vice Principal talk about the need for flexible learning opportunities.
What do we mean by flexible study?
I encountered a range of characteristics of flexible study:
- Allowing people to choose their own pathway, selecting courses across disciplines
- Blending online and on-campus study
- Mixing cohorts of academic and professional development students
There is a significant amount of terminology specific to flexible study. We encountered this in the Lean Coffee and discovered that not everyone was using the same terminology, or the same definitions for it.
I’ve provided definitions for the main terminology to aid understanding of the topics discussed in the research and its playback. However, these are not necessarily the only terms which are used, or which are widely accepted throughout the institution.
From the Quality Assurance Agency for Scotland
- Micro-credential: is a discrete unit of assessed learning in a topic. It’s usually credit-bearing and designed to stand alone, that is, it’s not part of an overarching programme leading to a qualification.
- Stackable: refers to using micro-credentials to build up to a higher-level credential
- ‘Learner’ and ‘student’: a learner is someone who directs and supports their own learning. A student is a type of learner who enrols or registers for a programme of study with an education provider
From the University community:
- Standalone: is used internally and means not connected to or part of a higher-level credential
- Executive Education (ExecEd): also used internally, refers to Continuing Professional Development for senior professionals who need expedited access to high-level skills training on a flexible schedule
We identified understanding of terminology as a priority to explore with current and prospective learners and students.
The University currently offers a range of options for different goals:
- For professional development there are:
- short courses, online and on campus
- postgraduate programmes leading to an academic award such as a Master’s degree or Postgraduate Certificate
- academic credit-bearing courses which are separate from or attached to a degree programme
- For general interest/leisure:
- short courses, online and on campus
The flexible part-time study target audience is formed of two audiences united in their need for flexibility
- The audience for short courses, and
- The audience for the part-time intermittent route to a postgraduate award
Online learning is reflected as a high proportion of the flexible study audience, which is not surprising, given its benefits for flexibility.
Applications data comparing the part-time and part-time intermittent mode shows that 30-35% of part-time applicants typically apply for the intermittent route, a higher percentage of part-time applications than a number of stakeholders anticipated.
Applications data and reports commissioned for short courses and online learners show the audience to be:
- Global
- Career experienced
- Diverse in their reasons for study but weighted towards study for career
Finding flexible study options on university websites was often a low-quality experience
We reviewed 7 domestic universities to see how easy it was to find the flexible study options they offered and the terminology they used. Not many of the universities compared had clear explanations for the options or terminology and their routes to the flexible options were sometimes confusing.
With work it was possible to find some descriptions and explanations.
The Open University stood out above the other institutions, defining the mode of study at the point they presented it.
On the University of Edinburgh website, flexible options are spread across the web estate and can be found on Schools sites or micro-sites. It doesn’t have a dedicated content section describing the flexible options available and their benefits.
As we saw from the user research participants, it would be beneficial to explain available study options and their benefits and explain terminology.
Insight from user research
We did 20 research sessions which explored participant’s reasons for flexible study, their understanding of terminology and where they would find a ‘stackable micro-credentials’ route to a postgraduate award on the University website.
Participants were current and prospective students taking a short course or part-time intermittent route to a postgraduate award
- 9 taught postgraduates studying on a Part-time Intermittent basis
- 3 learners taking a short course
- 3 were not studying and looking for a short course
- 3 were not studying and looking for a qualification
- 1 was a current UG student and 1 a senior professional doing a DBA in Executive Education
Participants did not fully understand the main flexible study terminology used across different universities:
- Microcredential
- Stackable
- Executive Education
Responses to the ‘stackable micro-credentials’ route to a postgraduate award
There were several areas of confusion with a ‘Stackable micro-credential’:
- It was unclear what ‘stackable’ applied to – was it only short courses? Several participants described the PGCert and PGDip as stackable
- Unclear what ‘micro’ applied to – participants didn’t connect micro-credential to earning credit but to either a lower course fee than a degree, the shorter duration or a level of postgraduate award below Masters.
- Multiple participants identified the PGCert and PGDip as examples of a stackable micro-credential
Pros and cons were noted:
- ‘Stackable’ was seen as moving in a positive direction as opposed to an ‘exit award’, which had associations with failure. However, committing to a bigger goal of a Master’s degree shows commitment and can be motivating.
- It was uncertain what their ultimate qualification from a completely flexible programme would be and what it would qualify them to do.
- Several expressed a desire for suggested pathways and saw the need for some structure and limits
The most useful online provision would be to explain the flexible study options
Categories for types of learning are changing
We’re not only seeing new study formats and terminology, but we’re also seeing a change to previously clear and separate categories of types of study.
Historically it has been clearer that short courses and postgraduate degree programmes were different ‘containers’ with distinct ‘content’. Now we’re looking at offering the kind of flexibility where a short course can earn academic credit to work towards a postgraduate degree and where a course from a degree can be studied as a ‘standalone’ short course.
This blurs categories which used to be separate and poses challenges for where to make the options available online and how to convey any benefits.
When exploring where to find this stackable credit route to a PG degree using a prototype of the University website, participants concluded that it wasn’t possible to choose which was the better home between ‘Short courses’ and ‘Postgraduate Degrees’, and that it needed to be available in both. More importantly, they needed help to see what was available and the benefits of different options so they could make a more informed decision on what and how to study.
‘Part-time intermittent’ needs to be more explicitly defined on a programme page
Students need content which explains:
- That it doesn’t offer total flexibility
- Availability of courses, for example, are they available once or multiple times a year?
- The payment schedule and how much it’s going to cost per module – this is of high importance to those looking to study flexibly
However, it’s clear that some of this information is a challenge to provide owing to the structure of internal systems.
Major challenge: systems which were designed for a time before flexible study
This presents challenges in student data management and leads to local administrative workarounds.
Some of these workarounds can impact the prospective learner and student experience, for example presenting a busy senior professional with an application for Executive Education via University Admissions with a timescale that they don’t expect.
Another example is creating bespoke micro-sites to promote specific courses from a degree programme. This is an approach that the Degree Finder transformation is trying to move away from because it fragments the online experience for prospective students and adds content management overhead.
Increasing the volume of flexible programmes using the current systems and processes would be incredibly challenging for School and operations staff and I expand on this in the presentation which is available to University staff.
Next steps
The PSW team will focus on how to take these insights forward to improve the online provision.
We will also arrange to follow up with colleagues from overlapping initiatives to share more detailed insights.
