Shân Wareing, Pro Vice Chancellor Learning and Teaching, Bucks New University Changing the Learning Landscape Formulating Strategy / the nature of change

Contrasts Large scale nihilistic outlook Strategy Long term outcomes Think global Fleeing disaster Small positive steps Tactics Short term outcomes Act local Journeying with hope

Apocalyptic metaphors for Higher Education 1

Apocalyptic metaphors for Higher Education 2

Change and supercomplexity Multiple change agendas – e.g. employability; MOOCs; sustainability; student engagement: challenge fundamental assumptions about HE purpose and structure Institutional structures and connections; programme benefits realisation; linking up IT, pedagogy, disciplines, support systems, staff training, etc. Budgets: doing more, differently, with less Assumptions about time and space: who works when and where, how we calculate credit Challenge = aligning forces for change to increase momentum rather than cancelling each other out

Balancing Act between conflicting institutional needs e.g. for ethics, reliability, small turning circle (for future flexibility), price between robust integrated institutional structures and space for individual choice and experimentation between structured guidance, e.g. charts and matrices, and evolving, local, participatory communities of practice approach between the scale of the change we are trying to achieve, and the tiny steps of conversations held, an hour’s training attended, a new twitter account created, one module taught as blended learning

Our aspirations can seem so disproportionately high compared to where we are now

In the midst of prophecies of doom (Pearsons), I see green shoots

Small positive personal steps... Unlocking an ipod that’s been locked for 22,000,000 minutes by a two year old Twitter, blogs and skype, + build an avatar Leading to a renewed sense of the possibility of my own learning A respect for the diversity of disciplinary discovery, evolution, technical solutions

The hacker I can outwit

my homemade avatar

Landing a virtual jumbo jet in a virtual Gatwick airport – a discipline-specific digital solution

Recent Initiatives University of the Arts London Bucks New University Process Arts nt/dial-projects-and-activities nt/dial-projects-and-activities Digital Integration of Arts Learning (DIAL) Changing the Learning Landscape Strands 1,2 and 3

Activity Rank a range of project outputs/benefits 1-5 where 5 is high Draw on your own context in terms of relevance/significance Compare with a neighbour

Rank project outputs/benefits Artefacts – discipline specific digital learning objects Platforms - educationally focussed interactive sites and tools Partnerships across HEIs and other education providers Events – internal and external Measurable, specific increase in reported staff digital skills and confidence Staff development taking place across related fields– change management, project management, pedagogies Institutional capacity increased via distributed leadership of change projects Conceptual development – e.g. Identification of the need for social learning and networks in the ecology of repositories to realise the benefits Project participants able to articulate the power of openness in education

Rank project outputs/benefits Contacts – local, national, international, leading to... fertilisation of new ideas a sense of wider community a support network resources to call on and share potential for joint activities in the future Changing approaches to leadership and change Systems improvements (e.g. Integration of registry & learning systems and data)

Have we got the scale right? Are we going far enough? ‘Programme or be programmed’? Don’t agree with ‘we’re all doomed’ – but expect to see a de-bundling, fundamental change in course structures, pricing, quality processes, staff development, institutional structures

Can we change the story from fleeing from an analogue Armageddon, to be journeying purposefully towards somewhere welcoming, safe, and with hope?

Thank you