Engaging academic staff in the enhancement of teaching and learning
A case study by University of Otago for Taking The Lead: Strategic Management for e-Learning.
University of Otago
Infrastructure, systems and policy may all be necessary to support effective e-learning but unless teachers are willing to engage with the task of enhancing their teaching, these systems-level developments will be a wasted investment.
Professor Kerry Shephard, Director of the Higher Education Development Centre (HEDC) at the University of Otago, identifies a major task of his unit as “encouraging academic staff engagement in the enhancement of teaching and learning.” This objective might apply equally well to the University’s strategy for e-learning or to learning and teaching more generally.
This goal needs to be understood within its institutional context. The University of Otago is a large and complex institution. It has a devolved management structure which accords considerable responsibility to its constituent divisions, some of which have strong professional associations. It remains strongly committed to values of collegial governance and academic autonomy. It is a leading New Zealand research university and this focus infuses the whole institution. It seeks to consolidate its appeal as a student-friendly campus with ongoing investment in physical facilities.
The Teaching and Learning Plan 2005–12 lists the broad goals and objectives the University has set for its teaching and learning. Its institutional strategy includes imperatives to achieve excellence in research and in research-led teaching with commitment to ongoing development of e-research and e-learning capabilities. The Committee for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching (CALT) is charged with developing policies on teaching, learning and assessment, recognising and encouraging excellence and innovation in teaching (including the use of e-learning), fostering research and disseminating best practice in teaching and learning.
Chaired by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International), CALT brings together senior representatives of all divisions as well as of the major service agencies. This broad-based, senior membership helps ensure the commitment of all sections of the University to agreed positions. CALT is a subcommittee of the University Senate and any major decisions are considered by that body.
A review of the CALT minutes for 2007 shows the committee canvasses a wide range of issues. These include the application of IT to teaching and learning, the recording and podcasting of lectures, intellectual property issues, the selection of nominees for the Tertiary Teaching Excellence Awards, the leadership and direction of distance learning, regular reports from the Committee for the Integration of ICT with Learning and Teaching (CIILT) and the selection of awardees for a number of teaching enhancement grants. These last two activities further illustrate the emphasis given to encouraging academic engagement with teaching and learning as opposed to directing it.
CIILT is a sub-committee of CALT, expressly concerned with developing a strategy and action plan to guide the University in its integration of ICT with learning and teaching. CIILT is working to develop a strategy that is proactive in stimulating activity and providing direction; research-based in establishing processes for gathering data on what teachers are doing in this area; responsive in learning from what is discovered; and iterative in making links between research and practice.
The understanding behind these principles is that there is a great deal of innovative practice taking place already across the institution and the University needs to find ways to identify, encourage, evaluate and disseminate that practice. This realisation underlines the importance being given to encouraging research and evaluation of innovative practice at the University.
CALT administers a grants programme to encourage excellence, research and innovation in teaching. The major award category is for “e-Learning Enhancement” projects. Several grants are awarded each year to a normal maximum of $30,000 per project. The purpose of the grants is to provide a source of funds and skills to enhance the quality of student learning outcomes through effective integration of learning, teaching and ICT. The grants are also intended to promote and encourage teamwork, collegiality and collaboration between teaching staff and students. Grants are not normally available for developments that could be expected to be undertaken unaided by the department or programme concerned, though on a few occasions grants have been used to assist an entire programme to develop an e-learning programme. CALT is insistent that each funded project should be evaluated, reported on and, where appropriate, publicised and disseminated. The CALT website is one medium for publishing the project outcomes: http://hedc.otago.ac.nz/magnolia/calt.html. Grants to fund targeted research into various aspects of university teaching are another opportunity.
There is a further project under development to illustrate the University’s teaching and learning programme with good practice exemplars drawn from across the institution. HEDC is experimenting with video, sound and multimedia presentations for this purpose. Another important project is underway to illustrate the Teaching and Learning Plan with examples of good practice from across the University: http://hedc.otago.ac.nz/tlp/ The CIILT wiki provides a further example of this University’s approach to engage its academic community in a dialogue about the uses of ICT in teaching and learning: https://ciilt.wiki.otago.ac.nz/Main_Page.
All these initiatives share a recognition that, when it comes to teaching practice, university academics may respond better to encouragement than direction. CALT and HEDC look for opportunities to support innovation and excellence where they find it across the teaching community. They then seek to use these examples to encourage wider engagement by academic staff with the goal of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning.
Reflections
- Institutions commonly evolve from a period of encouraging experimentation by ‘early adopters’ to endorsing and even mandating a preferred approach to e-learning. The University of Otago, on the other hand, has chosen to support ongoing engagement in e-learning by its teachers and in that way promotes institutional learning. This approach should mean that the University is less likely to become locked into monolithic e-learning solutions that are likely to become out-moded quickly. However, it may also lead to a wide variety of practice that proves challenging both to support and to promote.
