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‘Sweet’ strategies for higher education developers working in the third space

Photo credit: Ellen Lessner

Professor Rhona Sharpe Oxford Brookes University

SEDA Conference 2 Nov 2016

@rjsharpe

My interests

Learner experience research

Supporting online learners

Developing digital leaders

About the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development (OCSLD)

“OCSLD  specialises  in  providing  bespoke  staff  and  educa8onal  development  interven8ons  which  meet  ins)tu)onal  strategic  and  opera8onal  needs.  

About the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development (OCSLD)

Our  approach  to  working  with  you  is  dis8nc8ve  and  transforma8ve,  tailoring  and  delivering  work-­‐based  interven8ons  for  exis)ng  teams  to  meet  their  immediate  and  future  needs.  This  is  supported  by  strong  exper8se  in  evalua)on  to  monitor  outcomes.”  

Academic Development Framework

12 x

50,000

69 89%

1/4

OCSLD Annual Review 2015/16

www.brookes.ac.uk/OCSLD/About-OCSLD/Annual-reviews/

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Strategic Work based Efficient Evidence based Technology enhanced

Our approach to higher education development

Cartoon by Bob Pomfret

@Seda_UK_ www.brookes.ac.uk/OCSLD/Research/Participative-Process-Review/

5.1 FTE Educational Developers

Web Editor & intern

4.2 FTE Staff and

Organisational Developers

3 FTE Administration

Learning Technologist

2 x 0.5 FTE Researchers

Who are we?

I will argue that..

OCSLD exists in the third space between academic and professional services. Where we work as unbounded professionals . . . . . . who have evolved a SWEET approach to higher education development … which we use to help Brookes thrive in these changing times.

Recent changes in UK HE

§ Raising tuition fees § Removing number controls

§ Introduction of TEF § Efficiency targets from comprehensive spending reviews

§ Apprenticeships § Creation of Office for Students

§ Brexit

§ Changes in funding for student teachers and nurses

§ Research assessed by impact

§ Lower entry barriers for other HE providers

§ Application of Competition and Markets Authority rules to HE

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“We’re adaptable and flexible, and consider a fresh approach in everything we do - because we know our sustainability depends on a pioneering spirit.”

Confidence

Connectedness

Generosity of spirit

Enterprising creativity

http://www.paconsulting.com/our-thinking/higher-education-report-2015/

Why is the pace of innovation slow in HE?

§ Deeply entrenched culture of conservatism

§ Resistance to change among large parts of ageing academic workforce

§ Constraints of inflexible organisational structures, systems and processes

§ Risk aversion of leadership teams and governing bodies.

Can UK HEIs plan for growth?

https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/jan-16-deadline-application-rates-report.pdf

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Present product

New product

Present market

Market penetration

New product development

New market

New market development

Diversification

Ansoff’s growth vector matrix (Ansoff, 1957)

Growth in a competitive marketplace

Graduate Attributes

Degree apprenticeships

College Partners

MOOCs

Present product

New product

Present market

Graduate Attributes

Degree apprenticeships

New market

College partners

MOOCs

Growth in a competitive marketplace

Whitchurch, 2008 Whitchurch, 2008

Bounded professionals

Unbounded professionals

Professionals working in the third space

Categories of identity Characteristics

Bounded professionals Work within clear structural boundaries e.g. function, job description

Cross-boundary professionals

Actively use boundaries for strategic advantage and institutional capacity building

Unbounded professionals Disregard boundaries to focus on broadly-based projects and institutional development

Blended professionals Dedicated appointments spanning professionals and academic domains

Whitchurch, C. (2008)

Make it easier to disrupt institutional practices

 

The  stalled  progress  in  some  facul8es  was  an  uncertainty  of  which  budgets  development  of  MOOCs  should  be  coming  from  and  how  to  allocate  staff  8me  within  the  workload  planning  framework  (Roberts  et  al.,  2015).  

Faculty-based Open Online Course(s)

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OCSLD Open Online Courses -  Online mentors employed by

several universities (OBHE, 2013) -  Expert participants (Waite et al,

2013) -  Certificates and badges -  Light touch quality assurance -  Shared modules and credit

transfer -  Ability to negotiate staff roles,

responsibilities and workload

“A goal of all formal education should be to graduate students who live lives of consequence” - John Henry Brookes

Brookes Attributes

Embedding  graduate  attributes  into  the  curriculum  

“There is more to life than simply doing a job. The graduates of our higher education system will be more than employees/employers, they will also be future leaders in our world and our neighbours and so affects our lives at all levels. What do we want these people to be like?” (Haigh & Clifford, 2010)

Why graduate attributes? “Every undergraduate programme will include the

development of the five graduate attributes”

•  Graduate Attributes Roadshows

Awareness raising

•  Graduate Attributes in Action website

•  Case studies •  Mapping tools •  Screencasts

Programme mapping

•  Programme specification

•  Mapping document

•  Narrative

Documentation

What do we know about how lecturers design courses?

§ Pragmatically, in response to changing circumstances e.g. increasing class sizes (Sharpe & Oliver, 2007).

§ A social practice, governed by precedent and habit (Blackmore & Kandiko, 2012)

§ Within the constraints of practicalities e.g. timetabling (Masterman, 2013)

§ Visually (Masterman, 2013) § Informed by general design principles rather than learning theory (Sharpe & Oliver, 2013)

Course Design Intensives Dempster, Benfield & Francis (2012)

Working in extended teams

Visualising the learner journey

Challenging designs through peer review

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Documentary analysis of 90 programme specification documents. Sharing of examples of how graduate attributes had been interpreted within the disciplines The disciplinary differences between how graduate attributes are expressed are in explaining the ways and contexts in which elements of the attributes are put to use.

Evaluation Part 1 Staff Engagement Evaluation Part 1 Staff Engagement

Evaluation Part 2 Student Engagement

•  How much has your coursework emphasised the following mental activities?

•  How often have you done each of the following? •  How much has your experience at this institution

contributed to your knowledge, skills and personal development in these areas?

How often have you…? How much has Brookes contributed to..?

Graduate Attributes as a measure of learning gain

Learning gain in Active Citizenship Strategic Excellence project

ABC Learning Gains project with OU and Surrey

abclearninggains.com/���

openbrookes.net/cci/

•  Strategy for Enhancing the Student Experience defined 5 Graduate Attributes 2010/11

•  Mapping exercise in programme teams •  Revised Programme Specification docs 2011/12 •  Analysis of all new documentation •  Teaching Practices Collection 2012/13 •  Development of engagement survey •  Training for Validation and Review

Panels and Academic Advisors 2013/14

•  Benefits Realisation Review •  Revised Strategy for Student Experience 2014/15

•  Introduced Active Citizenship •  Learning gain funded projects 2015/16

Six years .. so far…

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‘Disregarding boundaries to focus on institutional development’

§ Embedding attributes within the curriculum to encourage contextualisation § Collaboration with QA to integrate documentation and processes

•  A careful, critical approach to evaluation which produces useable outputs

•  Multiple initiatives running over several years

Where do we go from here?

Is our approach working? How can we expand it Can we create third spaces for others to work in?

Student experience is a strategic priority. Student experience developments are highly managed. Proliferation of educational leadership roles.

Evaluating experiences of project managers

Confidential, anonymised, semi-structured interviews (ethical approval gained).

§  motivations §  expectations §  management §  enablers and constraints §  professional impact §  recommendations

2 x Program

Managers

2 x Principle Lecturers

1 x professional services

2 x Associate

Deans

Experiences of project leaders

Deeply committed

to their projects (not

careers)

Freedom and autonomy

helped them deliver

Academic identity was less fixed, more fluid

Enabling ‘light touch’ program

support

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Recommendations for working in the third space:

§ Take advantage of the fluidity of roles and structures to develop and implement innovative models for staff and student learning. § Conduct and share investigations and evaluations to inform decision making. § Use the lack of protocols to develop skills in new ways of working. § Expand this approach. Create and evaluate new roles and career pathways into and out of them.

The importance of evaluation

In this presentation I have drawn on the following internal reports: Moore, S. (2016) Oxford Brookes Engagement Survey, October 2016. Pavlakou, M. & Sharpe, R. (2014) Leading institutional change projects: a qualitative study and lessons for the second Programme for Enhancing the Student Experience.. Roberts, G., Llewellyn, S., Sharpe, R. & Benfield. G. (2015) Project final report: Developing Open Online Courses for Oxford Brookes. Sharpe, R., Benfield, G., Corrywright, D. & Green, L. (2013). Evaluation of the Brookes Graduate Attributes: Year 1 Final Report.

References Ansoff, H. (1957) Strategies for diversification. Harvard Business Review, (Sept-Oct)

Beetham, H. & Sharpe, R. (2013) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age. Second edition. Routledge. Chapters by Liz Masterman and Martin Oliver

Blackmore, P. and Kandiko, C. (2012) Strategic Curriculum Change: Global trends in universities. London and New York: Routledge.

Dempster, J., Benfield, G. & Francis, R. (2012) An academic development model for fostering innovation and sharing in curriculum design. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 49 (2), 135-147

Haigh, M. & Clifford, V. (2010) Widening the Graduate Attribute debate: a higher education for global citizenship. Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching. 2 (5)

OBHE (2013) Horizon Scanning: What will higher education look like in 2020?, Observatory of Borderless Higher Education.

Oliver, M. (2015) From openness to permeability: reframing open education in terms of positive liberty in the enactment of academic practices. Learning, Media and Technology, 40 (3), 365-384.

PA Consulting (2015) Lagging behind: are UK universities falling behind in the global innovation race? PA Consulting group Higher Education Survey 2015 http://www.paconsulting.com/our-thinking/higher-education-report-2015

Roberts, G., Llewellyn, S., Sharpe, R. & Benfield. G. (2015) Project final report: Developing Open Online Courses for Oxford Brookes, January 2015, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.

Waite, M., Mackness, J., Roberts, G. & Lovegrove, E. (2013) Liminal Participants and Skilled Orienteers: Learner Participation in a MOOC for New Lecturers, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 9 (2), http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no2/waite_0613.htm

Whitchurch, C. (2008) Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: the emergence of Third Space professionals in UK higher education, Higher Education Quarterly, 62 (4), 377-396.

Whitchurch, C. & Gordon (2013) Staffing models and institutional flexibility, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education: London.