Developing a Strategy for Technology Enhanced Learning at UEL

Changing the learning landscape

Welcome and introductions

Sarah Daviess.davies@jisc.ac.uk@sarahjenndavies

Sarah Knights.knight@jisc.ac.uk @sarahknight

Changing the learning landscape

Aims for today….to start a conversation… To share current thinking and best practice in the

development and implementation of technology enhanced learning (TEL) strategies from across UK higher education

To discuss the requirements for developing a successful TEL strategy at UEL

To identify approaches and models of implementation for the new TEL strategy

To explore models of engagement for both staff and students

Leading TEL change across the university

Changing the learning landscape

• Developing digital literacies of staff and students

• Student engagement – working in partnership

• Using technology to enhance curriculum design

practices and processes

• Technology enhanced assessment and feedback

practices

Approaches to implementing technology enhanced learning –

key ingredients:

Changing the learning landscape

Embedded change

Changing the learning landscape

The ingredients

• Clear strategic vision• Visible top management commitment• Model culture change at highest level• Modify the organisation to support the

change• Highlight the benefits of new practices• Connect the interests of the institution and

those affected

Changing the learning landscape

TEL strategy development

• Review where you are now with technology-enhanced

learning

• Link to other strategies and drivers

• Based on UEL’s distinctive mission and strengths

• Consider other initiatives in train

• Use visioning/scenario planning techniques – and sector

scanning

• Ensuring the ownership and governance of the strategy

by senior management

• What will look different if you’re successful?

Changing the learning landscape

Keeping it going

• Evaluation and review• Constant

communication• Celebration• Change managers

Changing the learning landscape

The process

Changing the learning landscape

Mainstreaming TEL in the sector

Changing the learning landscape

• Institution-wide investment and pushes on eg VLE+, assessment management

• Local innovation on collaborative learning, innovative pedagogies• Need to join up in ‘middle-out’

• Resurgence of interest in online delivery• Flipped classroom working well in some areas• Importance of admin, access, user-owned technology

and ‘hygiene factors’ to students• Staff inevitably in different places on learning curve

• If everybody did one thing differently…• But students value some kinds of consistency

Mainstreaming TEL - lessons

Changing the learning landscape

• Support communities of interest and cohorts• Develop roles of professional staff to support

others• Work with students as agents of change• Fund mini-projects in departments and services• Embed into the curriculum – get into processes,

guidance etc• Ensure infrastructure is supportive and up to the

job• Consider reward and recognition• Provide easy to access support• Importance of teaching staff and students telling

stories of successful innovation

Reflection point

Changing the learning landscape

• What does your current TEL landscape look

like?

• If your drive for change is successful, what will

look different in 3 years’ time?

Developing Digital Literacies

Changing the learning landscape

Student engagement – working in partnership

Changing the learning landscape

• Developing an institutional strategy

for student engagement (support

from NUS resources)

• Understanding students

expectations and experiences of

technology – Jisc Digital Student

project

• Institutional approaches to engaging

students as partners in curriculum

design, developing digital literacies

and assessment and feedback

Changing the learning landscape

Where does

UEL currently

sit on this 4

stage model of

engagement?

Reflection point

Understanding students’ expectations in relation to TEL

• Jisc Digital Student study explored students expectations and

experiences of technology use in higher education.• Literature review: overview of background work from Jisc, HEA,

British Library etc. Around 20 studies reviewed. Analysed in depth:• 3 national studies• 12 institutional studies

• Student focus group (x13)• Interviews with institutional practitioners (x12)• Interviews with stakeholders (NUS, SCONUL, RLUK, RUGIT, UCISA,

Jisc)• Join the conversation http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

Changing the learning landscape

A checklist….

Changing the learning landscape

• Manage student expectations

• Equip students to learn effectively with digital technology

• Support students and staff to use their own devices (BYOD)

• Ensure digital content is device neutral where appropriate

• Enhance the curriculum with digital activities and

experiences

• Engage students in projects to enhance their digital

experience

• Develop and reward innovators

• Encourage a culture of continuous organisational research

• Consider digital experiences alongside other aspects of the

student experience

Working in partnership – institutional approaches

Changing the learning landscape

• Some examples of institutional approaches to engaging students as

partners, champions and collaborators in the use of technology to

support learning and teaching:

• Students as digital pioneers –Oxford Brookes University, Greenwich

University

• Working in partnership –University of Reading and University of

Winchester/Bath Spa University

• Students as change agents – University of Exeter and Birmingham City

University

Students as digital pioneers – Oxford Brookes University

Changing the learning landscape

• Oxford Brookes InStePP project - Student partnerships offer a

way to join up provision for digital literacies for staff and

students across the institution by establishing, supporting and

building recognition for the role of student ‘ePioneers’

within existing core academic and e-learning development

activities.

Resources available: • 3-way partnership agreement model • Development wheel • Recruitment documentation • ePioneer Role descriptors• Endorsed professional body (ILM) scheme: FutureConsultants

 course outline

Students as digital pioneers – University of Greenwich

Changing the learning landscape

• Greenwich Digital Literacies in Transition project - cross-

university studentships foster a community of student-led

research to support and feed into all other aspects of the

project. Termed the IRG (Interdisciplinary Research Group),

this group of students, their mentors and members of staff

from all aspects of the institution will engage in baselining

activities as well as develop digital literacy OERs.

Resources available:  • Student journey questionnaire• Student journey badges• Resources relating to the Interdisciplinary Research Group e.g.

recruitment process

Students as partners – Reading, Winchester and Bath Spa

Changing the learning landscape

• University of Reading Digitally Ready project has worked with

students as partners in digital projects with academics,

students as researchers, students feeding in their stories to

inform work on the project and students undertaking work

directly for the project

• Student Fellows at Bath Spa and Winchester - The FASTECH project is focused on enhancing feedback and assessment processes through the use of technology.  The project has recruited Student Fellows to participate in research activities, generate ideas, develop case studies, write blogs and attend and present at conferences. They are the interface between the project team and students and lecturers.   

Student Academic Partners – Birmingham City University

Changing the learning landscape

• The Jisc T-SPARC project engaged with students through the University’s Student Academic Partners (SAP) programme as part of a review of curriculum design practices and processes.  

• SAP aims to integrate students into the teaching and pedagogic research community within BCU in order to develop collaboration between students and staff. 

• The T-SPARC project also produced a wider stakeholder engagement model which could be used when considering the development of student engagement activities.

Students as change agents – University of Exeter

Changing the learning landscape

Students have been given opportunities to work in partnership with university staff in order to address the challenges of using technology with large and diverse cohorts.

They have undertaken research on student views and perceptions, provided recommendations and solutions for practice, and have supported staff in bringing about wide-scale changes in teaching.

Much of this work evolved through the Jisc funded Integrate project . Resources are available on the project website.   The work continues through projects such as the Cascade Digital Literacies project which involves postgraduate researchers. 

• The Student Engagement Handbook: Practice in Higher Education; Edited by Dunne and Owen; ISBN: 978-1-78190-423-7

Establish the case for student partnerships including identification of needs and mutual benefits.

Establish the case for student partnerships

Good practice in setting up student partnerships should:

Change Agent Network

Establish the case for student partnerships

Identify drivers and needs

Identify potential benefits and impact for students, staff, employers and the institution.

Map the potential benefits and impact to institutional strategies

Engage stakeholders from across the institution in establishing the case for student partnerships.

Engage employers and professional/sector bodies.

Map the potential benefits and impact to policies for e.g. graduate attributes, employability, digital literacy, career planning, student experience, MIS, TEL etc.

Establish cross-institutional approaches to working collaboratively.

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Instituting student partnershipsBased on the Viewpoints model: http://www.viewpoints.ulster.ac.uk

Changing the learning landscape

Join the Jisc supported Change Agent Network –

http://www.ChangeAgentsNetwork.co.uk and consider attending

the event for staff and students at University of Winchester

on 18-19th February #CAN2014

Explore further guidance:

Jisc guidance - http://bit.ly/1aZunJW

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/students-as-partners

http://www.nus.org.uk

Next steps…

Reflection point

Changing the learning landscape

• What approaches to student engagement

would work well at UEL?

• What existing practices can be built on?

• Key points for noting for later discussions

Using technology to enhance curriculum design

“Curriculum design and approval is one of the few institutional processes in which almost all faculty level processes and central services have a stake.” –

University of Strathclyde

Using technology to enhance curriculum design

Considered use of technology as part of the curriculum design process can help you to:•develop new solutions to address organisational, technical and educational issues•communicate in new ways with stakeholders to facilitate discussion and collaboration•access, record and capture information to inform your curriculum design •improve access to guidance for those designing and describing curricula•model, test and refine new approaches in curriculum design

Using technology to enhance curriculum designConsidered use of technology as part of the curriculum design process can help you to:•improve communication flows both internally and externally•provide ‘single-truth’ sources of information that are accurate and can be interrogated and analysed to suit multiple purposes•develop effective and agile validation processes that are more responsive to employer and community needs•increase consistency both in terms of the learner experience and quality assurance•develop more efficient administrative processes

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/using-technology-to-improve-curriculum-design

‘The potential gain of technology-enabled systems is not just one of increased efficiency. A clear finding from those who have invested in them is that improved approval and review processes aid rather than inhibit good educational design.’

Changing the learning landscape

How does technology support the curriculum design processes and practices at UEL?

Reflection point

Manchester Metropolitan University – SRC Project• Manchester Metropolitan University aimed to develop curricula that

were more responsive to the needs of students and employers.

They developed streamlined documentation and transparent

approval and review processes including an

innovative board game based on curriculum design and approval processes

.

Faculty-based approval processes were replaced by a centralised

light-touch review and approval system ensuring a more consistent

student experience across all units of learning. This work ran

alongside another strategic initiative, that of

re-engineering the entire undergraduate curriculum to provide a

sharper focus on formative assessment.

"The most significant achievement has been the undertaking of a major institutional transformation programme. This has involved a re-design of the entire undergraduate curriculum, some 2400 course units.

The objective of this re-write was to focus on learning outcomes that students could understand, standardise the number of credits for any particular unit, streamline the number of assessments per unit and link assessments to learning outcomes and learning outcomes to a set of generic employability outcomes."

Birmingham City University – T-Sparc Project• Birmingham City University has developed

a radically new approach to course approval that facilitates the

integration of authentic, real-world practices into formal

approval processes.

One-off, paper-based validation events are replaced by a

continuous process of curriculum development and

enhancement captured via digital media and supported through

Microsoft® SharePoint®. A rough guide to curriculum design

takes course teams through the innovative approach and digital

recording issues are addressed within the

institutional data protection policy.

"Our intention has been to move from a position where curriculum design as a process is undertaken primarily as a prelude to an end-point approval event to one that embraces iterative collaborative design from which approval cascades."

Cardiff University – PALET Project• Cardiff University worked on several fronts to ensure more

effective communication of course information.

• They developed web services to enable academic schools to

manage the publication of module data; they also restructured the

information held in the student information system by developing

templates for module and programme descriptions.

• These developments have transformed the ability of staff and

students to access programme information and improved the

likelihood of providing consistent and accurate information.

"The headline achievement of the PALET project

can be described in straightforward terms: It is

to have created a new, holistic context for how

Cardiff University approaches the design,

management and communication of its

educational provision in the future.“

The Open University –

OULDI project• Curriculum design is an inherently collaborative activity.

Learning design tools enable curriculum designers to

model a new or revised curriculum proposal, then share

and discuss the outcomes with stakeholders.

• The Open University developed a tool providing

a compendium of approaches in learning design and built into the

design the ability to collaborate on design activities at a distance.

In addition, they have developed a set of

course mapping and profiling templates and activities to help

designers visualise the consequences of design decisions on

pedagogy, cost and the student experience.

"Challenge and change in curriculum design process, communities, visualisation and practice across six universities."

Reflection point

Changing the learning landscape

• Are there opportunities for TEL to support and

enhance curriculum design practices and

processes at UEL?

• Key points for noting for later discussions

Technology Enhanced Assessment and Feedback

Changing the learning landscape

• Jisc Assessment and Feedback programme

(2011-2014)

• 20 projects and 30 institutions involved across

the UK

• 3 strands focused on institutional change,

evaluation of technologies and software

development

• Supporting large-scale changes to assessment

and feedback practice through technology

www.jisc.ac.uk/assessmentandfeedback

http://bit.ly/jiscdsaf

Technology-enhanced assessment & feedback

Changing the learning landscape

‘The wide range of ways in which technology can be used to support assessment and feedback.’

These technologies may be generic (such as VLEs, wikis, podcasts, e-portfolio systems) or purpose-built (such as on-screen assessment systems and tools to support peer review)

Assessment and feedback challenges

Changing the learning landscape

• Strategy and policy

• Infrastructure

• Assessment and

feedback practice

• Engagement

Technology

Changing the learning landscape

Technology to support…

Reflection point

Changing the learning landscape

• What does technology-enhanced assessment and feedback mean to you?

• What are your current successes in this area?

• What are the ongoing challenges?

Engaging learners with feedback, and providing opportunities for ‘feedforward’

Changing the learning landscape

• Feedback is…

University of Westminster

Changing the learning landscape

“It has helped I think because since then mymarks have shot up.”

See Reflecting on Feedback video case study at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/digiassess

Employability – University of Exeter

Changing the learning landscape

Assessment Management – University of Huddersfield• Benefits - Students

‘There is strong evidence to suggest that not only is electronic assessment management their preference, but that those who came to

appreciate its attendant benefits then begin to see electronic assessment as their entitlement’

EBEAM final report

• Increased control and agency• Reduced anxiety• Improved privacy and security• Increased efficiency and convenience• Feedback which is clearer and easier to engage

with, understand and store for later use

University of Huddersfield

Key points…

• Policies and buy in needed around assessment and feedback

turnaround policies

• Rubrics providing criteria for marks and feedback need to be

clear

• Need to consider how long students have access to marks

and feedback

• Consider supporting staff professional development in the

writing of feedback that supports dialogue and feedforward

• Analytics can be a positive motivator and is worth pursuing to

inform decision-making

• AND need to remember that for some students and staff,

paper-based formats for assessment and feedback remain

important , and need to be considered

Manchester Metropolitan University: Assessment Lifecycle

MMU: e-Submission

REAP principles of good assessment and feedback• Good assessment and feedback should:

• Clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards).

• Facilitate the development of reflection and self-assessment in learning

• Deliver high quality feedback to students: that enables them to self-

correct

• Encourage peer and student-teacher dialogue around learning

• Encourage positive motivational beliefs & self esteem through assessment

• Provide opportunities to act on feedback

• Provide information to teachers that can be used to help shape their

teaching (making learning visible)

• Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006)

Principle-led change

Viewpoints approach - http://wiki.ulster.ac.uk/display/VPR/Home

“Workshops succeeded, impressively, in creating change locally but, importantly, in seeding change beyond the immediate participation experience." Emeritus Professor David Nicol

Jisc online guidance

• Four short guides are now available on four key themes:• Changing assessment and feedback practice – how to approach

large-scale change in assessment and feedback practice with the help of technology

• Electronic assessment management – using technology to support the assessment lifecycle, from the electronic submission of assignments to marking and feedback

• Enhancing student employability through technology-supported assessment and feedback – how the curriculum can help develop the skills and competencies needed in the world of work

• Feedback and feed forward: using technology to support learner longitudinal development

•  

Changing the learning landscape

Reflection point

Changing the learning landscape

• What educational principles underpin effective

assessment and feedback at UEL?

• Which areas of assessment and feedback are

key for UEL and how can TEL support this?

• Key points for noting for later discussions

Changing the learning landscape

Further information Jisc e-Learning programme: www.jisc.ac.uk/elearningprogramme The Jisc Design Studio:

http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com Assessment and Feedback resources:

http://bit.ly/jiscdsaf Digital Literacies resources:• bit.ly/diglitds Using Technology to improve curriculum design

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/using-technology-to-improve-curriculum-design

The Digital Student:http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

Change Agents Network:www.changeagentsnetwork.co.uk

Group discussion

Changing the learning landscape

Group discussion

Changing the learning landscape

Group Activity – Discussions in two groups:

•a) From what we have heard what do we need

to know more about?

•b) From what we have heard what are the top

three areas/topics that we need to focus on?

Actions and next steps

Changing the learning landscape