This is a series of occasional blogs by BESA members and is part of their paid membership service. These views are not necessarily those of BESA and a published blog does not constitute an endorsement.

How ONVU Learning worked with a leading university network in the UK to help schools and universities understand the benefits of video-based remote mentoring.

It’s vital in the EdTech sector to understand the issues facing education and in turn help schools understand how they will be affected – before trying to sell them products and solutions. At ONVU Learning, we recently took the opportunity to help schools and universities understand major changes that are coming to teacher training in England and saw a real return on our investment.

It was clear from the middle of 2018 that schools and universities were going to face major changes in teacher training. In January 2019 the UK Government published the new ‘Early Career Framework (ECF)’ – a commitment to enhanced support for qualified teachers in their first two years in schools from 2020. This was followed in November 2019 with the ‘Initial Teacher Training Core Content Framework (ITTCCF)’ – changes to the training teachers receive before becoming qualified teachers.

Both documents set out a commitment to more mentoring and the chance to work with more ‘experienced colleagues’ – a fine goal but one that will require much more efficient use of teachers and university mentors. Our Lessonvu discreet video-based coaching system is a clear option for those looking to solve this problem.

ONVU Learning used our existing strong relationship with UCET (the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers) to help them communicate these new ideas and open a wider discussion with colleagues in schools and other organisations that train teachers.

We used our technological expertise to interview experts including Professor Sam Twiselton (who led the ITT Core Content Framework review) at UCET’s Annual Conference and shared these interviews rapidly on our own and UCET’s social media. We also shared the keynote speeches from the event, many of which touched on the new challenges facing schools and created an online summary of the changes, drawing on feedback from the event. The interviews were viewed over 5,000 times on Twitter alone around the conference, while we, UCET and other media partners have since shared them much wider.

We were also able to use our insights to generate many highly productive conversations at the Annual Conference. Since then, we’ve been able to talk to schools, colleges and school trusts about the importance of the mentor/mentee relationship and how to improve teacher reflection and development – most recently at BESA’s LearnED event in Newcastle on 27th November.

Our interviews, key challenges for schools, feedback from an early career teacher who has worked with an ONVU Learning remote coach, and the UCET keynote speeches can be seen on the dedicated UCET event page. 

If you would like to discover more about how 360-degree video can be used to support teachers with self-reflection and further development, please visit the Lessonvu page on our website and make sure to get in touch to find out more.