Guests:

Sarah Knight, the Director of Digital Transformation, supports senior and executive leaders in understanding the importance of digital strategy. Her role involves working on key challenges, such as curriculum and assessment design, and understanding students’ digital experience and expectations. Sarah has worked for Jisc for nearly 23 years.

Sheila McNeill is an independent consultant who has been working with Jisc on the Beyond Blended program for the last three years, having previously worked for a university and a Jisc innovation support center.

Episode Summary

Hosts Julie Lindsay and Jim Harris welcome special guests Sarah Knight, Director of Digital Transformation at Jisc, and Sheila McNeill, Independent Consultant working on the Beyond Blended program. The discussion centers on Jisc’s three decades of work supporting UK universities and colleges with technology, internet connectivity, and digital strategy. They trace the organization’s foundational work in learning design back to 2004, noting that issues like ensuring technical systems interoperability remain perennial challenges.

The conversation explores the complexities of the post-COVID landscape, including staff exhaustion, the persistent digital divide, and the political push to return to campus amidst the perception that online education is “second rate”. Sarah and Sheila emphasize that successful digital practice is less about “the next new shiny piece of technology” and more about co-designing with the sector, supporting communities, and explicitly developing digital capabilities for students and staff involved in transnational education. The discussion concludes with a look at global competition, the opportunities presented by AI, and the necessity of designing learning and assessment in a more inclusive way.

Tune in as Julie, Jim, Sarah and Sheila explore:

•  Jisc’s role as the UK national research education network, providing internet connectivity, security, and essential services for education and research.
• The evolution of Jisc’s curriculum design work, from early learning design projects (LAMS in 2004) to later four-year programs focused on technical systems and interoperability.
• The importance of tactile, paper-based artifacts (like the Viewpoints cards that informed the ABC work) in facilitating dialogue and co-designing practices with the sector.
• The challenges faced by students during the pandemic, including the loss of free campus Wi-Fi, lack of up-to-date laptops, and the resulting digital divide.
• The impact of hybrid teaching environments that caused significant cognitive shift and exhaustion for staff who lacked adequate training for new technologies.
• Why the concept of “digital natives” is challenged, and the necessity of being explicit about technology benefits to students, especially concerning future workplace skills.
• The Beyond Blended program’s focus on how the relationship with place and pace has changed post-pandemic, including the concept of asynchronous in place.
• Jisc’s international reach, including collaborations with Universite Cote D’Azur on the Digital Transformation Framework and the importance of learning from global best practices, such as those originating in Australia.
• The pressure placed on UK universities by financial constraints and competition from foreign competitors like Arizona State University, driving the need for accelerated digital transformation.
• The future outlook emphasizing greater collaboration and sharing of practice and refocusing institutional efforts on designing more inclusive learning and assessment in light of AI.