Technology enhanced learning

To what extent do you access the digital capabilities of your students and use this as a starting point for development?

To what extent do you incorporate the application and development of student digital capabilities when creating learning opportunities for students and how confident are you with this?

For example, do you have an understanding of the technologies (such as Microsoft Office/Office 365, web browsers, learning platforms) that your students are familiar with? How are you going to build on these skills; have you considered how students will learn how to use subject specific software, are you going to provided them with guides or instructional videos?

To what extent do you design flexible approaches to learning and assessment; how does technology support this?

For example, how do you use technology to support learning beyond the classroom, lab or lecture theatre? How do you use technology to facilitate online learning communities? Does the design of learning allow flexible or blended approaches; have you considered chunking or creating micro-learning?

How do you develop your students’ employability skills? What role does technology play in this?

Employers have the expectation that graduates will have a diverse range of digital skills and that they are resilient when faced with using technology that is new to them. Graduates are sought after due to their higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills. How does the technology that they use during their study promote and develop these skills?

Are you providing learning that sparks students creative interests? For example, do you use a range of assessment methods that can be evidenced through blogs, podcasts, wikis, forums or other interactive media.

To what extent do you use technology to measure and track progress of learning relevant to individual starting points and to what extent does data and learning analytics influence the design of curriculum?

For example, do you use simple initial assessment techniques such as polls or surveys to gather data and information about your learners? Do you use this data and information to develop learning that helps students to create their best work throughout a module or semester? For example, you could create a short survey that self-assesses the students starting points in knowledge for a particular topic or theme; this could give students instant feedback to inform their own learning (it could point them to specific resources or texts based on their current knowledge) and the data collected could be used to inform your own approach to learning and teaching decisions with this group.

How do you support student’s safety and well-being whilst online and safeguard intellectual property?

Do you reinforce and embed copyright and plagiarism policy and procedure with your learning and teaching? How do you check that your students are aware of such policy and the consequences of not complying? Do you set ground rules for online interactions and collaborations?

To what extent does your approach to accessibility ensure equality?

Do you check websites or blogs that you have created yourself or recommended to your students against the recommended government standards? Ensuring online accessibility is now a part of UK law. You can follow these simple guidelines as set out by Government Digital Services Guidance - Doing a basic accessibility check if you cannot do a detailed one, Published 22 August 2019 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/doing-a-basic-accessibility-check-if-you-cant-do-a-detailed-one/doing-a-basic-accessibility-check-if-you-cant-do-a-detailed-one).

If you need to convert a digital resource into a more accessible format then the University Library offers SensusSense. This is an online resource that students and staff can use to automatically convert documents into a range of alternative formats, including audio (MP3 and DAISY), e-books (EPUB, EPUB3 and Mobi) and digital braille. It can also be used to convert inaccessible documents such as image-only PDF files, JPG pictures and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into more accessible formats.

Have you considered if there will be any barriers to learning when your learners are engaging with technology enhanced learning (TEL)? What additional support could you offer to overcome these barriers?