I gave a presentation about the development of UWL’s Learning Analytics policy at the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference 2017, held at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy in March 2017.
In the presentation I outlined the 10 Principles that form the foundation of our policy and the steps we took to develop and implement the policy last year. I also gave an overview of our project that initiated the need for a policy: a predictive learning analytics project aimed at maximising the continued success and retention of UWL’s students.
I kicked off our second meeting of the UK Poll Everywhere User Group at City University, London with a competitive quiz using Poll Everywhere’s segmentation feature.
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It was a close run battle, ending in a fair 3-1/2 to 3-1/2 draw. The day as a whole went really well and I particularly enjoyed the team-based learning session expertly facilitated by Rebecca McCarter from the University of Bradford.
Further thoughts on the Jisc co-design consultation. Running short of time, so will keep this brief. The strand currently of most interest to me is ‘next generation digital learning environments’
Perhaps not unsurprisingly a lot of the consultation discussion has focused on the VLE. A student’s digital learning environment is, of course, much broader than institutionally provided systems (and today our institutional systems extend way beyond the VLE).
Looking back 10-years or so… could we ever have imagined today’s digital learning environment?
Err, yes. And no.
Little change
Ten-years ago I was at the LSE and for the majority there I’d say the institutionally provided digital learning environment was very much the VLE, some library e-resources and desktop-based software. From 2005-8 we investigated, piloted and implemented Moodle (replacing WebCT). Alongside that we dabbled with blogs, elgg (remember that??) and a little later I think, Second Life.
Ten years later and the 2016 VLE is little changed. Overall usage has grown, and the VLE’s use for e-assessment in particular, but what the systems actually do, look-like and enable… not so much. They are certainly recognisable. One area of change, in terms of systems, has been the arrival of new online tools and services, which have extended the institutional digital learning environment. I’m thinking of lecture recording and e-portfolios in particular.
Why not? It’s easy to blame the systems shortcomings and they could be better. But innovative practitioners who want to try new things, can do, even if it requires some clunky work-arounds. The inertia and lack of change ultimately comes down to people and the approach to teaching and learning at our institutions.
Two big changes
The big change we (certainly I) didn’t foresee in the mid-2000s was the social media (aka web2.0) explosion and the participatory nature of the Internet we have today. It was September 2006 when UK universities first got access to Facebook and not until 2008 that Twitter really took off. The bigger digital learning environment has changed dramatically in contrast to university provided tools.
A change we knew was coming, which is central to digital learning environments today was mobile. (Although personally in 2010 I suggested the iPad would never catch-on).
That will have to do for today. Tomorrow I’ll finally get to the #ngdle questions that Jisc are asking, the overarching one being:
What should the next generation of digital learning environments do?
Update: Never got around to writing that post and answering the questions. The time has passed. Oh well.
Some thoughts on the Jisc co-design consultation. Hopefully I’ll get beyond part 1 before the initial consultation closes on Friday.
There’s a lot of social media chatter about #codesign16 at the moment which is the Jisc Co-design consultation. So first things first… what are Jisc asking and why…
Essentially they are trying to decide what their future R&D project focus should be and which might be turned into technology services for their ‘members’ (aka subscribers).
Jisc “innovation pipeline”
Jisc are currently focused on three research and development projects:
digital capability
learning analytics
research data shared service
They are looking for the next set of projects and the co-design consulation is part of this process. It aims to produce:
Ideas for technology services that we could deliver to Jisc members to help them improve education and research
Jisc have proposed 6 areas for the community to discuss, some of which (three?) will be taken forward when the winners are announced in February 2017, followed by projects from March onwards. The 6, in no particular order, are:
What does the imminent arrival of the intelligent campus mean for universities and colleges?
What should the next generation of digital learning environments do?
What should a next-generation research environment look like?
Which skills do people need to prepare for research practice now and in the future?
What would truly digital apprenticeships look like?
How can we use data to improve teaching and learning?
That’s it for now. In part 2 (hopefully tomorrow) I hope to share some thoughts on the one that interests me most – number 2 or #ngdle
For now, having read up on the ultimate purpose of #codesign16 – ideas for technology services – one wonders would Jisc considering entering the VLE, sorry DLE market.
The 38th Heads of E-Learning Forum (HeLF) meeting was held at the University of Birmingham on 9th June, 2016. It was the first HeLF event I have organised as a new member of the HeLF Steering Group.
The focus of the meeting was Enabling Strategic Change and it included a panel discussion on TEL strategies, groups discussions on policies and frameworks, as well as 5 short presentations. There are resources from the meeting on the HeLF website. I was really pleased with how it went on the day and particularly with the large number of people I managed to encourage to present and facilitate sessions – 14 in total. So many thanks to Mark Gamble, Fiona Strawbridge, Chris Turnock, Peter Bryant, Stella Ekebuisi, Catherine Naamani, Sue Gill, Brian Irwin, Uwe Richter, Alicia Mcconnell, Sarah Hayes, Sarah Davies, Rob Howe, and Amber Thomas, for making it a successful day.
