Bernie Morley

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching)

 

Project: Professionalism in the Digital Environment (PriDE) project

Programme: Developing Digital Literacies

 

The PriDE Project, situated within the research-intensive and science- and engineering-based environment, will define and develop discipline-specific digital literacies. The delivery of PriDE’s objectives will be achieved by:

• Working in partnership with key stakeholders including learners, academic and research staff, librarians and learner support staff, administrators, managers and institutional support staff 
• Establishing both discipline-specific and cross-institutional ‘learning communities’
• Adopting an action-learning approach within discipline-specific contexts
• Locating digital literacies within relevant local and national frameworks including a strong emphasis on employability, UK Professional Standards Framework and the Researcher Development Framework.

 

Alignment with institutional agendas and strategies

PriDE’s aims and objectives are set within the context of the University of Bath’s strategic priorities which include:

• Student Experience – student participation in all aspects of University life is actively encouraged and supported through, for example, partnership working between University senior managers and the Students’ Union
• Learning, Teaching and Research – informed by the student voice, the University provides a distinctive international learning environment which recognises the prominence of its discipline-based research is intellectually challenging and is applied with a strong focus on employability
• Employability – an outstanding portfolio of student support exists in this area including placements, with 60% of undergraduate students completing a placement year, many with blue chip companies

 

The university formed a group called the Student Experience Forum, which is professional services, academics and students discussing issues about how things will change. One of the key things that came out of that was the idea of greater emphasis on e-learning, digital competency and digital literacy. The university is also looking at the concept of employability combined with digital literacy (in the context of employability being a key selling point of the University). Placements are a key success factor in developing student employability and digital competence is important for students on such placements.

 

PriDE will be the vehicle which informs and shapes the digital literacies strand of the university’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy, a review of which commenced in autumn 2011 where new ways of teaching are being investigated such as placing more emphasis on discussions and understanding (rather than teaching facts) and similarly, with new approaches to assessment e.g. which are conducive to delivering good feedback.

 

Impact on staff culture and capabilities

Changing culture is a key goal of the university and the project is an important vehicle for achieving this. Already, it has touched between 80-100 people who now understand the importance of digital literacy and the need for change in teaching and assessment practices: it is the intention to reach a considerably larger number.

 

The university will draw out lessons learned about change management from the project in order to influence future change programmes, where the most important aspect will be about changing people and culture.

 

“Culture is the key, the change in the culture, and part of this project is doing that by looking at digital literacies, saying, ‘What does that mean? What does it mean to different people in different departments and different contexts?’”

 

“I think the mistake that was made, let’s say ten years ago, with e-learning was through technology, in the software sense, of ‘Do this, do this, do this…’ and yet nobody actually engaged. I think we’re doing it differently now.”

 

“It’s very similar to something I heard in primary schools actually, that it seems acceptable in this country to say, ‘I’m not good at Maths’ where it wouldn’t be acceptable to say ‘I don’t read very well’. It equally shouldn’t be acceptable to say ‘I don’t do computers’.”

 

Impact on the student journey

It is early days yet for the project, but it is intended that it will enrich the student experience not only from the learning and assessment/feedback perspectives but also from the employability perspective.

 

The project also relates to the work that the university is doing on transition from school to university and on those with widening participation backgrounds e.g. in online problem solving in maths, and it would like to take this concept further through e.g. use of virtual classrooms to help prospective students better understand the transition into different learning practices and cultures.

 

Impact on institutional efficiencies and effectiveness

It is anticipated that the project will help pull disparate projects together as the research is revealing a range of un-co-ordinated activities going on throughout different faculties and thus the project will enable greater coherence and effectiveness across the institution. It is possible that the project will also lead to greater efficiencies, though it is too early to say at this stage.

 

It is not anticipated that the project will lead to cost savings – instead the focus is much more on enhancement of the student experience. However, it is important that the university focuses on creation of a business case for such innovation projects (e.g. focusing on competition and recruitment), which would include a cost-benefit (financial) analysis. The university is already investigating its distance learning programmes to see if they can be run more efficiently and effectively.

 

“more is going on than you thought, but it’s dotted all over the place and what you need is more coherence.”

 

Impact on institutional management and wider engagement

The project has been driven directly from key strategic drivers for change relating to e.g. teaching, learning and assessment and employability. In this respect, sustaining and embedding the project is assured as the project activities all align with these strategic drivers for change i.e. the project is not an “add-on”. For instance, the project is having a significant input into the revamping of the learning and teaching strategy. In previous versions of the learning and teaching strategy, e-learning was a “tick-box”, element where faculties would only indicate that they are using it. In the revised version, there will be more sophisticated ways of specifying and evaluating the use of e-learning, which may include performance targets in respect of digital literacy.

 

The probationary programme for new staff now encompasses digital literacy and e-learning.

 

The institution is likely to incorporate aspects of the project into its next QAA institutional review, though it will have to focus on aspects such as impact and culture change.

 

The sector as a whole is very interested in the project, particularly in relation to the emphasis on engagement (rather than a top-down imposed approach).

 

“You could argue that the PriDE project fits within what we were already doing, it’s just enabled us to do it a lot faster. So from the point of view of embedding, it’s been embedded from day one, it’s not an add-on, because it’s something that we know we need to do.”

 

“Something that happens for two years and then disappears, possibly leaving something behind, but if it’s not sustained then you have to argue, would the money have been better spent doing something different that was sustained? But I think the key to the sustainability is to get people involved and to change people.”

 

Overall reflections

The encouragement of collaboration and dissemination is critical to preventing “silo” mentalities. Despite increasing competition between universities, academics and professionals services will probably still collaborate when it is about the betterment of the student experience.

 

A key area to focus on is induction and transition in relation to school leavers as well as in relation to “widening participation” students. The type of support and induction needed relates to culture change, teaching, learning and assessment practices and specifically, in relation to maths.