The Higher Education Academy enhancing the student experience

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The Academy / JISC CollaborationA partnership in
support of Higher Education
Sharon Waller - Higher Education Academy Senior
adviser and Academy/JISC Collaboration Team Leader
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Programme
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Why are we here?

• to consider how technology can be used within
  different stages of the student lifecycle to
  enhance retention
• to gain an insight into the methods and
  technologies being used across the sector and
  different discipline communities to enhance
  student retention
• to identify the challenges and affordances
  presented by different technologies
• to increase understanding of the support needs of
  institutions and their staff to enable the
  effective use of technology to enhance student
  retention.

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A little backgroundThe Academy/JISC
Collaboration

• Collaboration team established to work with wider
  Collaboration Network (March 2007-2009)
• Support implementation of the HEFCEs e-Learning
  strategy (2005)
• Develop closer working relationships between the
  two organisations
• Provide coherent and co-ordinated support to the
  Higher Education sector in e-learning
• Simplify access to the range of e-learning
  resources and services provided by JISC and the
  Academy
• Identify gaps in current provision

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Maximising synergies

• JISC and the Academy bring a wealth of
  complementary expertise and resources
• JISC
• development programmes, tools, resources,
  content, repositories, research etc
• advisory services and regional support centres
• Academy
• pedagogy, overarching LT context, resources,
  professional development, research, staff
  development focus etc
• discipline focus through Subject Centre network

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Academy/JISCGeographical clusters
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Mapping the landscape existing resources
Aims

• to identify
• good practice,
• the impact and usefulness of existing resources,
• possible duplication/overlap
• to provide strategic advice and guidance to JISC
  and the Academy on future development areas.

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4 themes

• Use of technology to support
• Assessment (Sept 07 Jan 08)
• Academic staff (Feb May 08)
• Work-related learning (Jun 08 Jan 09)
• preparing learners for the work place
• supporting learners in the work place
• The student learning experience (Jun 08 Jan 09)
• learner-learner communications
• learner-tutor communications
• learner access to resources

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Student Learning Experience think-tank January
2009

• Recommendation - stage an event
• to raise awareness of the affordances of
  different technologies to support different
  stages of the student lifecycle
• showcase some of the different methods and
  technologies being used across the sector and
  consider their effectiveness
• explore the research/evidence base i.e. what do
  we know about the impact of technology on student
  retention and progression? And what are the
  implications for institutions and their staff?

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Responding to the sectors needs

• podcasts - using technology to support
• assessment,
• academic staff,
• the student learning experience,
• work-related learning
• collation of studies into use of ICT to support
  learning, teaching and assessment
• overview papers for each theme
• a collective guide to resources (Sept. 2009 _at_
  ALT-C)
• online tutorials, guides and workshops

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What do we mean by resources?

• A broad interpretation including, but not
  necessarily restricted to
• expertise advice and guidance
• events
• access to networks, communities, special interest
  groups
• audio-visual
• case studies
• course materials (ready made and/or capable of
  being adapted)
• publications e.g. effective practice guides,
  journal articles, project reports
• reusable learning objects
• tools e.g. interactive white boards, question
  banks, simulations, scenarios, software,
  templates,
• tutorials
• web 2.0 technologies e.g. blogs, folksonomies,
  wikis