Wednesday 25 March 2015

Innovations in TEL

Interesting to go to a session on innovations in technology enhanced learning, to people who aren't technologists. It was about how to get TEL embedded in the institution.

Our academic staff have to contend with many innovations, but many don't become embedded, even though some are technically simple.
One of big things students complain about is inconsistent practices. Some modules use technology, some don't. Want a consistent approach.
Also complain about very simple, basic things not being right.

How do we get better benefits from our investments in technology enhanced learning?

Align TEL with strategic goals.
Such as NSS, employability, efficiency etc.
Support senior managers in digital leadership.
Measure impact of TEL.
There are efficiency gains from things like on-line submission, on-line marking.

Innovation overload.
In manufacturing they have processes to bring things from R and D to production. Do we?
Need a more orchestrated approach to innovation.
Need to work systematically with departmental heads to show how they can take ownership of technology to help them meet their goals.
Academic staff believe that technology always burns up time. Need to address this to get better embedding.
How much is carrot, how much stick? Dictate from top or bottom up? Work with departments so they understand benefits of TEL.

Use innovative staff/student partnerships to drive change. Students make good change agents and leaders. Extend these partnerships to include employers.

Barriers to adoption: Digital literacy of staff. Confidence with using technology. Workload. - TEL can take more time than traditional methods. There's also a perception that our systems aren't reliable so staff are wary of using them. Learning technologists like working with innovators. Have to have coaching skills to work with people who aren't as confident.


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1 comment:

Tony said...

Interesting. Having been involved with the online portion of Innovate UK for a few years it is interesting to see the various ways they support moving things from the lab towards market readiness.