Supporting the Deployment of Learning Technologies

Promoting and developing technology enhanced learning involves assessing the relevance of fast changing learning technologies to current needs. Creative responses include piloting new projects using real world examples that promote and stimulate dialogue and interest. Comprehensive testing of applications on different platforms and devices before rolling them out to staff and students is essential. Mobile-friendly design is very important for students, and these can be tested in browsers using the developer console window. All digital services must now meet specified levels of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1).

Description

As a Learning Technologist I provide front line support for educational and administrative staff in the use of virtual learning environments (Moodle), educational software, Microsoft Office and Google G Suite (in the past).

I also coordinate with the learning and teaching leads to ensure targeted delivery of continuous professional development in educational software and digital literacy. This includes working in concert with academic staff to help develop course content in order to introduce new and innovative methods of teaching.

I proactively research and test new learning technologies, identify staff educational and administrative objectives, evaluate and recommend solutions to improve the learning and teaching experience of students and staff, and create content and training materials for online and offline delivery.

In my previous role, I was selected to be part of the core team that was delivering the rollout of Microsoft Teams to the college. The initial phased rollout was accelerated due to the lockdown, and I worked with a colleague to produce workshop materials, including a checklist for participants to tick off items as they progressed through the workshop (see below). I worked with colleagues and lecturers to adapt Teams to deliver learning to external parties (councils and schools) and inform them on best practices. A specific complication arose for a programme for students still in secondary schools who would normally have attended some classes in the college – there were many technical difficulties that mostly related to students using school-provided devices and accounts, and confusions about setting up meetings in Teams and communicating the best way to log in. I worked with colleagues to develop guidelines for the coordination of the cross-departmental onboarding of external students and produce support documentation for the lecturers and external students (see below).

I also developed and delivered workshops on Kahoot! and Turnitin, gathering feedback on the workshop in order to improve and develop them further. (see below).

In my current role I have been assisting in the deployment of Kaltura, a video cloud platform, that started a few months after I arrived. I was fortunate to be able to learn the core functionality from my colleague who has experience with it from his previous university. We communicated with the relevant central department to coordinate efforts, and focused on gathering existing resources and creating new ones where needed, preparing workshops and other training (see below). Realising how much video content was already on Zoom, I prepared a guide on how to move Zoom videos to Kaltura. I also produced a short video (1m45s) to show the key features of Kaltura - in this video I show the features in action as I explain them, this is a key principle that guides me when creating training material as I believe that showing technology in action is the best way to motivate learners to learn more.

Reflection

I have had this role for more than three years now, and my previous role as lecturer and my longstanding interest in using and developing technology enhanced learning prepared me well for it. I enjoy the challenge of listening to staff, assessing their levels of digital literacy and interest in exploring different technological options, and finding solutions that fit their situation. However, I have learnt that the biggest challenge is to get more lecturers to try out and implement new technological approaches to their teaching. Further education lecturers have heavy student contact loads, and higher education lecturers have onerous research requirements meaning that the learning curve that requires extra effort before the benefits of technology enhanced learning become apparent puts many of them off trying out innovations. I have found that the most important approach is networking and developing individual contacts by providing careful support and advice, and this slowly builds confidence and the reputation of being helpful.

In my previous role, I worked with a colleague to put together a series of drop-in sessions and workshops where we physically moved closer to the faculty academic staff. I also increased internal marketing efforts by using email, posters and flyers.

We also provided workshops and used Google Forms to obtain feedback for further iterations and support. The workshops were focused on providing hands-on experience, and kept to one hour maximum. The trade-off here is the detail of explanation, and some of the feedback indicated that the workshop was too short. Following up individuals helps in this case.

The pandemic transformed this dynamic, catapulting most staff into using Moodle full-time and initially the demand for our services came flowing in. However, by now I feel that we are in a situation where many have reached a new comfort zone, and the challenge is to build upon the increased confidence that many have with using VLEs and other applications. We have decided that it is important to focus more on enabling staff to use what we already have well, rather than seeking to introduce new tools. This means a focus on using Moodle, Mentimeter, and Kaltura.

Kaltura is, however, a reasonably new tool to the university and the specific challenge is that most lecturers in my university have become used to using Zoom. However, recorded Zoom videos are not very easy to access and organise and we have promoted ways to migrate Zoom videos to Moodle, using the integrated Kaltura platform to organise them into playlists. The playlist feature in Kaltura is very effective and can significantly improve the student experience by providing one location to access videos in an interface familiar to many from YouTube. However, cognisant of the workload involved – we were also able to get the services of an intern to assist lecturers in moving their content (see below). By helping lecturers begin to do this with Kaltura, this can seed models of practice that can motivate others to follow. We have also learnt that lecturers who have spent time correcting the auto-generated transcript in Zoom are very anxious not to lose that work, and we explain that they can also carry that transcript over to Kaltura.