Wow, I can’t believe it’s being nearly a month since my first post!
My excuse is that I’ve been busy travelling around Australia and into Asia visiting clients and partners – 12 flights and nearly 30,000 kms later I’m back in the office and have some time to reflect on one of my presentations –
http://www.slideshare.net/NetSpot/roadshow-2014-bb-slideshare
In discussing what it means to ‘Stay Ahead of the Higher Education Curve’ in Australia I wanted to focus on the macro factors that impact the adoption of technology facilitated teaching and learning.
The list included:
- Casualisation of the academic work-force;
- Uncapped student positions;
- International student enrolments;
- Federal government ‘efficiency dividend’;
- Government focus on particular disciplines for the future employment market – STEM, STEAM;
- Common issues such as the challenges around technology, increasing scale, open access, MOOCs etc. Finding a business model and positioning Australian institutions in this arena.
Casualisation of the academic work-force is the itch I have to scratch! Much is written about the importance of the ‘student experience’ in higher education and much investment has been made in technology in a bid to enhance this. However, with casual staff now carrying more than half the load in undergraduate teaching what are the strategies that are in place to ensure these contingent staff are getting the professional development and support to effectively design and deliver technology facilitated courses?
We regularly undertake a health check of an institution’s LMS system but rarely are we asked to perform a health check of an institution’s LMS adoption. IMO both are needed to better realise the investment made in technology facilitated teaching and learning.