3E Framework

The 3E (Enhance, Extend, Empower) Framework is intended to provide educators and those supporting them with guidance and examples across a range of learning, teaching and assessment activities that show how technology can be harnessed to increase active learning opportunities (Enhance), and to underpin increasingly more sophisticated learning activities that reflect how knowledge is created, shared and applied in professional and other contexts (Extend and Empower).

Screenshot from the interactive version of 3E Framework at Edinburgh Napier University

I originally developed the 3E Framework as the 3E Approach, to help Further and Higher Education lecturers in redesigning one or more of their courses within the context of the cross-institutional TESEP (Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience through Pedagogy) project. The expanded adaptation of the 3E Approach that became the 3E Framework was first published under Creative Commons in late 2011 as the basis for Edinburgh Napier University’s Benchmark for the Use of Technology in Modules.

Since first being made available through Creative Commons the 3E Framework, and the associated guidance and resources, have been widely adapted in various ways by universities and other educational institutions within and beyond the UK.

A selection of example applications and adaptations of the 3E Framework are outlined below, under the headings institutional policy and guidance; developing, sharing and evaluating practice; curriculum design and development; and other applications.

Institutional policy and guidance

• The University of St Mark and St John Plymouth were amongst the first to introduce the 3E Framework to their own staff, via http://www.marjon.ac.uk/student-life/e-learning/3e-framework/ and their tailored version of the Edinburgh Napier benchmark document. They also produced a video to explain the framework.
• York St John University based their TEL Quality Strategy 2012-15 and their more recent Technology Enhanced Learning Quality Framework on the 3E Framework.
• The 3E Framework was the basis for Hull York Medical School’s Standards for Technology Enhanced Learning Development Policy 2014-17.
• Leeds Beckett University used the 3E Framework as the template for their own 4E Framework for E-Learning, the development of which is covered in the paper Thomson, S. (2016) ‘To What Extent Do Academic Staff See An E-learning Framework As Being Effective In Supporting Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Discussions And Activities?’ published in JPAAP.
• At Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology in New Zealand the 3E Framework is a key component of NMIT’s Learning Design Framework. NMIT have also created various 3E activity design templates for staff to work with in their Learning Design Framework Toolkit.
• The University of the West of London (UWL) have drawn upon developments with the 3E Framework at both Edinburgh Napier University and York St John University in producing their recent UWL TEL Toolkit which was released in 2016.
• In early 2019 the University of the Highlands and Islands introduced their new ‘Benchmarks for the use of Technology in Learning and Teaching‘ which align their Learning and Teaching Enhancement Values with the 3E Framework and guidance for using the institutional learning environment and associated technologies.

Developing, sharing and evaluating practice

• The University of York applied the 3E Framework as an evaluation tool to gauge staff engagement with their Virtual Learning Environment and other technologies
• Liverpool John Moore’s University has used the 3E Framework in their TEL Stories Project as a means of collecting and sharing effective practice in the use of TEL.
• At the London School of Economics the 3E Framework was applied in reviewing course provision with in their Virtual Learning Environment in 2016/2017 to identify enhancements for implementation in 2017/18 https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lti/2017/05/15/moodle-recharge/
• The University of Saskatchewan, Canada, have applied the 3E Framework in similar ways to the above, as captured in the paper “Enhance, extend, empower: Understanding faculty use of elearning Technologies” http://headconf.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/5508.pdf (see also the example further below relating to the University of Saskatchewan using the 3E Framework to support adult learners to engage effectively in online learning environments)
• At Durham University the Learning Technologies team aligned their staff development provision with the 3E Framework to provide a ‘common language’ for promoting good TEL practice.
• Initiatives at Edinburgh Napier University to embed the 3E Framework and use it as a means to recognise existing good practice while also informing future practice are outlined in the paper Smyth, K. (2013) Sharing and shaping effective institutional practice in TEL through the 3E Framework. In S. Greener (Ed) Case studies in e-learning. Reading: Academic Publishing International, pp.141-159.

Curriculum design and development

• In Greece a government-funded education project led by Dr Panos Vlachopoulos applied the 3E Framework in helping Greek school teachers in the design of new technology-enhanced curricula.
• The Learning and Teaching Centre at Macquarie University in Sydney have been using the 3E Framework to support their Design Develop Implement (DDI) initiative involving team-based approaches to learning innovation and programme design http://teche.ltc.mq.edu.au/design-develop-implement-team-based-approach/
• At the University of Dundee the  Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in Higher Education uses the 3E Framework as the underpinning curriculum design model to support progression within the programme.
• The use of the 3E Framework as the curriculum model for the MSc in Blended and Online Education at Edinburgh Napier University has been well documented, including in the book chapter Smyth, K., MacNeill, S. and Hartley, P. (2016) Technologies and academic development. In D. Baume and C. Popovic (Eds.) Advancing Practice in Academic Development. Routledge, pp.121-141.
• At York St John University the design of the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice in based on the 3E Framework with each module of the three modules that comprise the programme aligning respectively with the Enhance, Extend and Empower stages of the 3E continuum https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/media/content-assets/registry/programme-specifications/postgraduate/education-and-teacher-education/teacher-education/1718/PGCert-Academic-Practice.pdf

Other applications

• Also at York St John University, colleagues have developed contextualised guidance on how to use various features and activities within Moodle in ways that align with the 3E Framework. The Moodle and the 3E Framework blog post and associated video by Daniel Mackley (@danielmackley) provide a further explanation of this work.
• David Walker (@drdjwalker) at the University of Sussex has been developing a version of the 3E Framework for assessment and feedback, and we are currently finalising a paper on this adaptation of the framework.
• At the University of the West of Scotland, the design of learning spaces in new Lanarkshire Campus is based on their adaptation of the 3E Framework to physical and digital space as outlined in this recent 2018 blog post by Gordon Heggie https://lanarkshirelearninglandscapes.wordpress.com/2018/08/28/3e-framework/
• Dr Vicki Squires at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, has been applying the 3E Framework in adult education contexts as outlined in the recent paper Squires, V. (2018) Using the 3E Framework in promoting adult learners’ success in online environments. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, Vol 64, No 2, pp. 126–140.
• University of Leeds have used an adapted form of the 3E Framework to co-design, with students, an institutional Digital Literacy Framework https://digitalpractice.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/73/2019/11/Being-Digital-Booklet-Nov-2019-final.pdf
• The University of Calabar, Nigeria, who have applied the 3E Framework to mentoring of nursing students. This is outlined in the conference paper ‘Clinical mentoring, motivation, and empowerment of baccalaureate nursing students in a Nigerian university: a mixed method study’. https://mafiadoc.com/queue/clinical-mentoring-motivation-and-empowerment-of-_5b991fee097c476f618b4598.html
• There are also some interesting examples in which the 3E Framework has been used by academics within their own practice. John Morrison from Edinburgh Napier is amongst them, and has been actively sharing his own work with the framework. See John’s blog post Extend and Empower -the Flipped Classroom: An application of student centred design principles, with emphasis on flipped learning approaches to a blended HE course, scaffolded on the 3E framework.

Several other institutions and projects are currently working on their own adaptations of the 3E Framework, and there are also cross-institutional initiatives in development.

Implementations of 3E Framework in policy and guidance (at York St John University, University of St Mark and St John Plymouth, Durham University, University of West London)