This month for RSC-MP3 I interview Andrew Comrie, the Director of the Edinburgh, Lothians, Fife and Borders Regional Articulation Hub (ELRAH). ELRAH is one of the five regional hubs being funded by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to support and enhance opportunities for students to use there qualifications to gain direct entry into years 2 or 3 of university degree programmes.
As part of this interview Andrew explains how ELRAH is supporting students using a combination of face-to-face support and virtual resources such as student-generated podcasts, as well as the creation of a national database of articulation routes. Andrew also describes how ELRAH is exploring non-traditional articulation routes from the workplace to university
Interview with Andrew Comrie
[podcast]https://hawksey.info/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/andrew-comrie-interview.mp3[/podcast]
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Duration: 20 minutes
Size: 14 MB
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Summary
0:45 – Description of network of articulation support advisors working with students and staff – helping organise visits, generate resources and support articulation projects
2:29 – ‘Message of support’ podcasts – student reflections on articulation visits. Expanded recently to include student requiring special support needs.
5:21 – Challenges of exposing students to the virtual as well as physical learning space. In particular, the problems with having student logins when they are not matriculated students. Andrew explained the relationship between Adam Smith College and Abertay University where an ‘associate’ student status has been created. Staff from Queen Margaret University library have been going on a roadshow to colleges.
7:15 – Online communities of practice project looking at using technology can be used to foster social cohesion prior to enrolling at university. As well as drawing on existing resources exploring exploring eportfolios and if data can be easily moved between systems.
8:55 – I asked how are the social connections being built? Andrew explained it was early days but as well as looking at blogging solutions as well as the possibility of using social networks like Bebo and Facebook.
10:12 – Challenges of collecting information about existing articulation routes and finding out if there is any formal agreement. Building a database of articulation routes, in the first instance for the ELRAH region, but there has been agreement with the other articulation hubs to use the same system to allow data to be collected nationally.
13:30 – Data collection templates have been created to allow evidencing of impact. The templates link to data from the SQA and SFC
15:00 – Andrew talks about ELRAH’s exploration of non traditional articulation routes from the workplace to university via modern apprenticeships and vocational qualification. Research has shown that employers are interested in workbased degrees. Report on this will be available on the ELRAH website soon.