Since achieving CMALT in 2016 I have remained in my role as eLearning Project Manager in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, yet the role has continued to evolve.
I still support distance learning projects, but this has become a more discreet part of my role, largely focused on student support and annual content updates, since the main project (CPEL programmes for Social Workers) came to maturity and the processes, systems and support I had established have fully embedded.
This has allowed me to expand my remit of supporting the wider School of Social Sciences and there have been some notable successes in this. For example, I have co-led a series of small projects each summer that looks to enhance the online student experience across the School, and provide improved support and guidance for staff. This includes things such as an online essentials for students resource, online essentials for staff resource, VLE templates, and a module homepage 'app' within the VLE to support online student communications.
I am also more involved in a number of undergraduate modules with things such as learning design, formative and summative assessment, resource creation etc. As just one example, for our first year academic orientation / study skills module, I designed and supported a formative group assessment whereby students recorded and shared a Pecha Kucha presentation via our lecture capture software (Panopto), which was then viewed and peer assessed by other groups as an in-classroom activity.
There have also been larger, more challenging projects, such as my part in the (phased) rollout of lecture capture in the School. I have navigated a range of practical, political and ideological concerns to align my approach with both a changing (and somewhat flexible) University policy as well as an emerging (and sometimes confused) School approach. I have tried to support and facilitate discussion and to focus on supporting staff and students through whatever policy and process are put in place (including well-thought out training and support) rather than promote my own agenda. I have also undertaking a student partnership project linked to this, and overall I think my involvement in the lecture recording has raised my profile in the School and helped forge a lot of new relationships.
Indeed, I now feel an established part of the School, and attend various commitees (Learning and Teaching Committe, Boards of Study, Studet-Staff Panel) as well as regularly contributing to teaching development days and school away days. Interestingly this school-wide role bears much closely resemblance to my previous role in the University of Birmingham than the job I first started in Cardiff.
I have also looked beyond this though and engaged with the wider University. This has included being part of (and sometimes leading) a number of centrally funded innovation projects on a range of topics, including: bilingual quickmark sets for Turnitin Feedback Studio; audio feedback; creation of polling software; and co-design of elearning resources. I have also been instrumental in creating a peer support network for learning technologists within Cardiff University.
Outside the University I have in recent years become more involved with ALT; as well as attending a number of conferences, I have become a regular assessor of CMALT applications.
Overall my horizons have definitely shifted beyond my immediate job role, which I feel has helped make me a more complete learning technologist.