In the immediate future, there are four foreseeable evolutions of projects detailed in this portfolio.
Following the successful pilot of Blackboard Ultra in our MBA cohort, SUMS has joined the university’s Early Adopters programme which sees an increase in the number of programmes moving to the Ultra interface (PV4). The programmes have been selected to be discrete so as to offer a consistent user experience, and involves two Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) postgraduate programmes and our entire first year undergraduate cohort. The rationale behind this expansion is to continue the development of our students, staff, and knowledge base; and to discover areas of incompatibility with our systems (PV3). I presented this proposal at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate Education Committee meetings, which was adopted unanimously.
The delivery of a functioning DECLS is the end of the beginning. Ongoing efforts will be in the areas of: user trials to render the interface as intuitive as possible (PV3); functionality testing and upgrading; facilitating user access to guidance at the point of need; designing, developing and delivering pedagogic examples which showcase the special utility of the DECLS (PV1).
I intend on investigating the creation of a framework for evaluating students’ development of group-working skills over the course of their programme, by collating and analysing data from multiple instances of peer evaluations using Buddycheck (PV1). The data may, if possible, be used to inform SUMS about the relevance and suitability of the question pool.
Based on recent experiences, I have identified these dimensions which have been crucial to my projects’ success:
Consult Experts Early (PV3)
Engage Stakeholders - develop a communication plan that engages stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle (PV4)
Contingency planning - anticipate and mitigate potential risks and challenges
Team Resilience - ensuring the team can adapt to changes and maintain productivity
Feedback Mechanisms - incorporate feedback mechanisms as a means of refining and improving the project approach based on stakeholder input (PV3)
Training - identify and participate in relevant training to maximise the possibility of project success (PV4)
My aim is to refine this into a framework which can be used as both a guide and a diagnostic for use in future projects.
These are ideas for initiatives using learning technologies to address current and foreseeable challenges faced by SUMS.
This idea was sparked by a chance conversation with a PhD candidate who was preparing for her viva voce. When she told me that she was re-reading her thesis and trying to anticipate what her external examiner might ask, I suggested that she prompt a GenAI (PV2) to adopt the persona of an examiner and to question her based on the contents of each chapter. This initiative would involve the design of a process map, identify the points where GenAI could contribute, engineer prompts, and validate each step (PV1). This could include for example, creating summary notes, formative self-tests, highlighting areas for improvement, and creating mock-assessments in a manner equivalent to commercial packages (e.g. Nolej) using Google’s Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI).
The Sheffield Graduate Attributes (SGAs) are skills or attributes which the University community and external partners have identified as being particularly beneficial to our students’ academic success, personal development and employability (https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/skills/sga). It is my intention to develop an initiative to highlight areas in SUMS’ curricula where these attributes may be demonstrated, and investigate the possibility of evolving this into a digital microcredential system (PV2). I am further exploring the use of ITVR applications (e.g. Bodyswaps) in support of evidencing students’ development of their SGAs (PV1).
The concept behind this initiative is Sheila Heen’s theory of “The Second Score”, popularised by Adam Grant, Professor of Psychology at Wharton. “In psychology we often talk about this in terms of giving yourself a second score,” says Grant. “Somebody might have just given me a D-minus, and I can’t control that. What I can control is saying, ‘I want to try to get an A-plus for how well I take that D-minus.’” (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/02/wharton-professor-adam-grant-how-handle-criticism-in-a-productive-way.html)
I think this could be a powerful framework for our students' response to feedback, and offers scope for a significant initiative in the application of learning technologies (PV1), for which my Directors of Education have expressed interest in participation (PV3).