Tom Franklin Consulting Ltd

No 5

17-19 Elsworthy Road

London

NW3 3DS

07989 948 221

Tom@franklin-consulting.co.uk

Registered in England and Wales No. 6948162

Last updated: 06 October 2014

Franklin Consulting

Franklin Consulting has been offering strategic and specialist advice and consultancy to the higher education community on the implementation and use of learning technologies for over seven years.  It offers expertise in several key areas including:

• Process improvement – Many processes at universities are not well understood by all the people involved in undertaking them.  Managers may have an overview, but not understand all the details, while other staff may have detailed knowledge of their part of the process without understanding how it all fits together.  A review of a process, such as induction or quality assurance takes around a week and provides the basis for creating a shared understanding of that process which can lead to improvement and efficiency savings leading to better services for the user.
• Web 2.0 – Web 2.0 is changing the way in which both learning and teaching occur in formal and informal education.  It is also changing the ways in which organisations relate to their staff, students and customers.  Franklin Consulting can offer advice on the implementation of Web 2.0 technologies in order to support and advance institutional strategies such as widening participation, student retention and marketing.
• Project management – Franklin Consulting has managed many projects over the past seven years to over £500,000.  We ensure that projects are delivered to time and budget and that we meet, or exceed, the client’s expectations. The high level of repeat business demonstrating the very level of satisfaction amongst our clients.
• E-learning – Tom Franklin has written and taught on e-learning for many years and is particularly concerned with the integration of technology into the curriculum in such a way that it effectively becomes invisible.  See for instance e-learning, b*****-learning and f*****-learning or what is wrong with e-learning, which discusses the importance of starting from the pedagogy.
• Virtual Learning Environments (VLE).  - Most universities and colleges are still not paying enough attention to their selection of VLE.  Most universities and colleges stick with the same VLE for more than five years.  Care therefore needs to be given to selecting a VLE that will both meet current needs but will also offer the educational opportunities and affordances that are needed over the medium term.  Care in selecting and how they are implemented becomes increasing important as e-learning is increasingly embedded in the curriculum.
• Portals.  - Franklin Consulting provides consultancy to the Learning and Teaching Portal on Managed Learning Environments (MLE) –  Tom Franklin was responsible for JISC's initial work in this area, including setting up the FE MLE programme, and has provided consultancy.
• Standards. - Tom Franklin was responsible for the creation of CETIS (the Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards), and has been working actively in the area of metadata standards.