FE lecturers reacted well to online teaching but students had too few devices to access learning, study finds

Further education colleges in England adapted well to online learning during the pandemic but a third reported having more than 300 students on roll with inadequate internet access at home, new research from the Association of Colleges reveals.

The report showed that while 64% of colleges felt they now had sufficient devices for students to study at home, a third stated that they still did not.

The poll found that colleges quickly adapted to online delivery. During the third national lockdown from January 2021, 85% scheduled live online lessons for at least 60% of timetables sessions.

Colleges used a range of digital collaborative and learning systems to support delivery including Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Classrooms, Padlet and Moodle. Almost all — 97% — of colleges were using digital content and resources from their Awarding Organisations with around half of colleges using JISC e-books and digital content, among others.

Over the past year staff confidence at delivering online grew with 87% of colleges rating it as good or excellent.

The AoC report came days after a poll was published by the National Education Union, the UK’s largest teaching organisation, which found that teachers were willing to embrace new ways of working with technology in teaching and wanted online parents’ evenings to continue following the school shutdown.

In February, it was announced that more than 49,000 laptops and tablets had been delivered to FE colleges in England by the Department for Education (DfE), after the government announced last summer that colleges should use existing budgets to support learners in need of devices or other support, but could seek additional funds from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Subsequently, in January, the DfE said further education institutions could order laptops and tablets from the government to provide further support through the Get Help with Technology programme.

More than one-third of colleges, however, said the programme would not provide enough devices for each 16- to 18-year-old to have their own device to access learning remotely.

Some colleges, the survey found, received a good number of devices but not enough dongles to allow an internet connection, which rendered many devices unusable.

Others reported that students had to share devices with other family members. One college said it had 1,006 requests for laptops but received only 333 from the Get Help with Technology Scheme so had to resource the additional 673 laptops itself.

The overwhelming majority of colleges said that being from a low-income family was the main reason for students not having access to devices or an internet connection, with 86% saying that some students did not have their own device for learning, despite sufficient household income.

Overall, the study found, all students experienced a negative impact on their progress and development due to the pandemic. For 16 to 18-year-olds, colleges rated the pandemic as having high and very high impact. Academically, almost eight out of ten — 77% — of 16 to 18-year-olds were performing below expectations and three quarters were one-to-four months behind. For adult students, 69% were performing below expectations and 71% were one-to-four months behind.

David Corke, director of education and skills policy at the AoC, said: “Students have benefited greatly from the support with technology and internet access but over a third of colleges still don’t have adequate devices for students. With almost all colleges stating that being from a low-income family was the main reason students did not have access to devices or the internet, we need to ensure continued support is available every year.

“The scale of the issue should not be underestimated as we enter a period of hardship for many families suffering long-term financial instability from the pandemic. Get Help with Tech needs to be a permanent scheme for students beyond this year who will likely face further difficulty accessing their learning.”