Written question asked by Andrew Murrison (Conservative) on Monday, 2 June 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 4 June 2008. It was answered by Derek Twigg (Labour) on Monday, 6 October 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
Defence: Secondary Education
- Question
- To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) who has (a) contributed resources to, (b) offered to develop and (c) taken part in online polls relating to the Defence Dynamics e-learning tool;
- Answer
-
I will write to the hon. Member. Substantive answer from Derek Twigg to Andrew Murrison:"I undertook to write to you in answer to your parliamentary questions on 12 June 2008,""Official Report, columns 420-21W about Defence Dynamics. As you asked a number of questions I will answer each in turn.""Who had contributed resources to, offered to develop and taken part in online polls relating to Defence Dynamics.""Kids Connections are the agency commissioned by the Central Office of Information (COI), on behalf of the MOD, to produce Defence Dynamics. Under supervision of the MOD Schools Adviser, Kids Connections has been responsible for creating the site from conception stage through to its current maintenance and continuing development. Kids Connections work in partnership with a panel of practising teachers from across the whole of the UK.""As interest in the programme develops so more offers of assistance in developing resources have been made. Offers have mostly come from within the Department. The Department for Children, Schools and Families has offered to be more formally involved in reviewing materials.""What were the results of online polls and lesson ratings.""The online poll asks a range of questions relating to frequency of use, relevance, appropriateness and future planning.""On average 20 teachers participate per month.""On average 7 students participate per month.""The average lesson rating is 8 out of 10.""What representations have we received and what audit has been conducted of the e-learning product.""Many representations have been made on the materials contained on the website. Some can be found on the discussion strands on the site itself, others have been made by teachers in face-to-face contact at national Education Shows and in other meetings with teachers. Almost all reflect positive support for the resource. The remainder suggest ways in which lesson plans might be improved. It would be difficult to place these representations in the Library and they are best viewed in the context of the website at www.defencedynamics.mod.uk.""The resource was launched in November 2007 with the first major audit of the website due at the end of 2008. The audit will be managed by an external organisation selected by COI. I shall place a copy of the audit report in the Library of the House when this becomes available.""How many people have registered oh the website and how many students have used it.""2,961 teachers have fully registered on the Defence Dynamics website. Additionally non-registered teachers and Heads of Department also use the site.""It is not possible to track unique user hits due to multiple students sharing PC's and IP addresses in schools and there is no registration process. In total there have been 69,887 page views on the student website up to 12 June 2008.""Access, registration, usage and technical issues.""The following points address the questions you raised on access, registration and technical issues.""The total number of interactive exercises used is 131.""There are currently 174 registered classes. Each class roughly averages 25 students, thus approximately 4,350 students have been registered. If a teacher registers a class it indicates a commitment to using the site and reflects well on the quality of the material contained.""It is not possible to accurately report the number of individuals who have 'used' the teaching materials as they are available to registered and non-registered users.""1,774 teachers have viewed and downloaded at least one resource in the multimedia library.""2, 014 videos have been downloaded, however these may be shared and therefore no exact user figure is available.""23 teachers have taken part in 16 forum threads.""Number of complaints""The number of complaints by registered users is as follows:""Error in lesson materials - 5 teachers.""Registration issue - 7 teachers.""Technical issues -11 teachers.""How many schools have acquired and used the multi-media tool cited at page 25 of the Report of Inquiry into National Recognition of our Armed Forces.""The number of schools that have registered to the website to access the resources is 2,322 and a further 1,558 schools have registered to receive the CD Rom only but have not registered to the website. Other youth organisations and non-registered schools are also using Defence Dynamics resources - thus exposing more young people to these educational resources.""In addition, 1,774 registered teachers have downloaded at least one element from Defence Dynamics and 23,493 anonymous users (not logged in) have viewed resources.""Defence Dynamics and the former Schools Presentation Teams are not directly comparable because two different media are involved. However, we expect that the cumulative effect of students interacting with Defence Dynamics lessons will produce a similar result to that of the half-day Team presentation."
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 208881; 480 c250-2W
- Session
- 2007-08
- Related items
- Notes
- Question originally printed on 12/06/2008 at 477 c420-1W.
- Subjects
- Armed forces Recruitment Schools
- Link
- View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk
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