Tensions for educational developers in the digital university: developing the person,developing the product

ABSTRACT

Digital education, now common in higher education, is particularly evident in the expansion of blended and fully online offerings at universities. Central to this expansion are educational developers, staff who support teaching and learning improvement in courses they do not themselves teach. Working closely with staff, students, and the curriculum, educational developers see first-hand how the digital learning agenda is both implemented and experienced. This article reports on findings from a national study of three educational development groups: academic developers, academic language and learning developers, and online educational designers, from 14 Australian universities. Although their institutional settings, roles, and work practices varied considerably, a central theme was the tension arising from a perceived shift in institutional priorities from ‘people development’ to ‘product development’: that is, from building human (educator) capacity towards curriculum resource development, particularly for the online environment. Participants reported a decline in autonomy, with institutional strategy and targeted projects increasingly directing both the work that gets done, and the skill sets required to do it. Their observations have implications for how universities conceptualise the development and support of the educational process.     

A case for rethinking inclusive education policy creation in developing countries

This article presents a critical analysis of the development and implementation of the 2014 inclusive educational policy in Samoa. While Samoan culture is traditionally founded on inclusive social practices, rather than reflecting these practices in their policy, Samoan policy developers have been under pressure to adopt or borrow policy from other countries. The findings of this intrinsic case study highlight the complexity of formulating inclusive education policies for small developing countries and why policy developers borrow from other developed countries. The theoretical framework used to analyse observation data in this study is based on the notion that national process of development is a powerful influence in educational policy. The authors argue and advocate for the existing but overlooked strengths of the local knowledge community capacity when policy is borrowed from other countries, and how the findings of the case study contribute to future attempts at policy development. We found that the draft policy needs to and does reflect Samoan culture, values and vision. However, adopting foreign practices such as the individual education plan and placement rules is not relevant to the Samoan context. The identification and development of inclusive education beliefs, skills and practices in schools is a priority.     

Educational development for responsible graduate students in the neoliberal university

In this article, we examine how our work in educational development, specifically in graduate student training, enacts the logic of neoliberalism in higher education in Canada. We approach this examination through a collaborative autoethnographic consideration of and reflection on our practices and experiences as educational developers, the design and delivery of a graduate student survey and our own experiences of and identification with ‘self-actualizing graduate students’. Further, we illustrate how neoliberalism shapes the work of teaching and learning centres resulting in offering programming, which compels graduate students to act in ways that can be read as responsible and capable of navigating an increasingly bleak academic labour market. Throughout the article we call attention to the ways in which our role as educational developers may either reinforce or disrupt neoliberal discourses. While we urge a critical approach, we also reflect on constraints to such criticism.     

Formative observation of teaching: focusing peer assistance on teachers’ developmental goals

Peer observation of teaching can provide valuable insights into effective educational practices. By adopting a developmental focus, peer observation can also provide insights into how practices might be enhanced and, importantly, how enhancements in practices might be aligned to teachers’ development goals. However, a review of peer observation of teaching undertaken at Australian universities demonstrates that observation instruments and protocols typically do not explicitly afford alignment of peers’ observations with teachers’ developmental goals. Analysis of observers’ uses of popular peer observation instruments through the deployment of the Peer Assisted Teaching Scheme through multiple institutions across Australia has informed the development and trial of a novel observation instrument and protocol design that is aligned with observer use characteristics, and provides a focus on development goals. This study will be of interest to teachers and academic developers researching and implementing goal-oriented curricular and pedagogical development through peer observation.     

Promoting a culture of scholarship among educational developers: exploring institutional opportunities

Educational developers tend to be located in centres and units of teaching and learning outside the academic mainstream. They have little opportunity to engage in scholarship. Through an overview of the literature on educational development and educational professional roles and responsibilities, the author suggests that promoting a culture of scholarship among educational developers will contribute significantly towards their pedagogical professional development. It will enhance the quality of professional consultation between educational developers and academic staff in the faculties. The discussion concludes with suggestions for implementing innovative strategies to promote a culture of scholarship within the higher education academic mainstream.     

Discipline‐based educational development

Abstract

This paper grows out of my academic journey from a long period teaching and researching geography to recently taking on the role of an educational developer. For most staff, their primary allegiance is to their discipline. In my experience, educational developers often fail to recognize and value staff's focus on their discipline ‐ or see it as an obstacle to improving the quality of their teaching. My central argument is that, to have a significant impact on the broad mass of staff, educational developers should work with these discipline‐based concerns. I detail how this can be achieved, drawing on much good practice from the UK, Australia and North America. Approaches include recognizing particular curricular and pedagogic concerns of the disciplines; helping staff to develop as scholars in the teaching of their discipline; for some staff to develop careers in the teaching of their discipline; and for educational developers to work with disciplinary organizations to promote discipline‐based teaching initiatives.     

Emerging learning environments in higher education: Implications for institutional change and academic developers

Abstract

Wright and O'Neil's (1995) international survey of promising teaching improvement practices in higher education (HE) placed the existence of teaching support centres close to the top of the thirty‐six item scale. One conclusion that may be drawn from their findings is that many of the responding institutions see the role of academic developer as significant in helping to monitor trends and planning activities that can lead to quality of educational provision. This paper outlines several scenarios relating to learning environments potentially emerging in HE, describes implications for institutional change, and defines key assumptions for bringing about a development culture. Additionally, the paper reviews how these contextual factors may impact on the role of academic developer and concludes with a suggestion for a ‘developers’ curriculum’ that may merit consideration by members of the International Consortium for Educational Development in Higher Education (ICED).     

Educational software usability: Artifact or Design?

Online educational technologies and e‐learning tools are providing new opportunities for students to learn worldwide, and they continue to play an important role in anatomical sciences education. Yet, as we shift to teaching online, particularly within the anatomical sciences, it has become apparent that e‐learning tool success is based on more than just user satisfaction and preliminary learning outcomes—rather it is a multidimensional construct that should be addressed from an integrated perspective. The efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction with which a user can navigate an e‐learning tool is known as usability, and represents a construct which we propose can be used to quantitatively evaluate e‐learning tool success. To assess the usability of an e‐learning tool, usability testing should be employed during the design and development phases (i.e., prior to its release to users) as well as during its delivery (i.e., following its release to users). However, both the commercial educational software industry and individual academic developers in the anatomical sciences have overlooked the added value of additional usability testing. Reducing learner frustration and anxiety during e‐learning tool use is essential in ensuring e‐learning tool success, and will require a commitment on the part of the developers to engage in usability testing during all stages of an e‐learning tool's life cycle. Anat Sci Educ 10: 190–199. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

Problematising ourselves: continuing professional development in higher education

The problem of continuing professional development (sometimes capitalised as CPD) of professionals in higher education is that it operates around a series of unresolved tensions: between higher education institutions as major providers for other professionals and as a relatively new provider in terms of its own professional development; between the prestige associated with continuing professional development in the service of research and that accorded to learning and teaching. These problems are compounded by a tendency to regard professional or staff development as comprising only those sorts of activities that are formally recognised. Rather than attempting to resolve these two tensions, the paper argues that problematising our conceptions of continuing professional development can open up space for debate. The paper re‐visits some of the recent history of CPD in order to pinpoint some of the contradictions. This allows new questions to emerge: for example about whether the multiple practices of continuing professional development constitute “domesticating” (Land, ) or more critical tendencies within the newly emerging regimes in higher education. The arguments have implications for practising educational developers in meeting the challenges of a broader mandate for CPD, and in recognising the importance of the non‐formal in development practice. The paper takes its examples mostly from an English context, but many of the contradictions highlighted are relevant to other state‐dependent higher education systems.     

A lasting impression: the influence of prior disciplines on educational developers’ research

Can research on disciplinary socialization and imprinting help us understand the extent to which educational developers bring aspects of their disciplinary training to their educational development research? In this paper, we explore the relationship between the research approaches developers associate with their original disciplinary training and those they actively use in their own educational development research, comparing and contrasting the strength of imprinting by discipline cluster. We discuss implications for how educational development as a field supports new developers moving into the field from another discipline and for how developers work with academic colleagues in other disciplines.     

Rethinking our underlying assumptions about what we do and why we do it: academic development as a case

In this paper, academic developers from universities in three countries explore underlying assumptions about what we as developers do and why we do it in relation to evaluating development programs. Through addressing three questions, key ideas emerge that highlight what is often overlooked in day-to-day practice: the fact that academic development has a ‘signature pedagogy’ defined by the ‘learning paradigm’; the potential role of different stakeholders in setting criteria for evaluation; and the inclusion of non-traditional academic development literatures (e.g., adult education, educational change, organizational development) to avoid perpetuating established practices. Our intent is to intellectually challenge ourselves and others to move beyond sharing program and evaluation activities to explore ideas and literature not often considered in our day-to-day work. While the context is academic development, we believe the questions and the answers that emerged are of value to all involved in staff and professional development.     

Using social network analysis to measure the impact and value of work that takes us beyond institutional boundaries

In educational development, accountability is paramount, in particular for activities that take educational developers away from their institutional boundaries to local, national, and international venues. Educational developers must demonstrate the benefits of such work to the home institution and its constituents. We asked educational developers from around the world to comment on the nature and value of their external work. Their responses made clear that such work expands valuable social networks and, concomitantly, builds social capital. Using these observations, we explain how social network analysis can be used to assess and demonstrate the impact of external work.     

Glennie,Jenny et al ed (2012) Open educational resources and change in higher education Commonwealth of learning (Vancouver) isbn 978‐1‐894975‐53‐7 291 pp cdn$12 (or free download) http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=412

This engaging book reviews current policy and practice in the development and use of open educational resources (oer ) internationally. It includes chapters that examine the current environment for oer development and use, including government and institutional policy, as well as a range of case studies that describe the development, re‐use and implementation of oer with a particular emphasis on developing countries. The book is useful for educators, educational leaders, learning resource developers, and government policymakers. Sara Hammer     

Developing the developers: Some ethical dilemmas in changing times

Abstract

Universities in Australia, like those in many Western countries, currently are being pushed to find for themselves an increasing share of their own budgets and to consider themselves as service providers to students, their ‘customers’. These students, having paid fees, may well expect to get what they have paid for and, in current labour market conditions, that may amount to a degree rather than an education. That is, universities are now under‐funded and, frequently, far from being seen as educational institutions, are seen as businesses whose role is to provide adequate service at optimum price. By and large, educational development staff do not teach students so they do not contribute directly to the income of the enterprise. The position of such staff and the units in which they are located is thus increasingly coming under threat as ‘economies’ are sought by academic ‘managers’. One poignantly pointed issue, then, is the extent to which educational developers might appropriately change the style and substance of their activities to assist in the evolution of universities to embrace and perhaps to thrive in the new environment. Would this amount to collusion or to co‐operation? Developers have, in the past, often attempted to develop themselves by embracing the model of reflective practice and implementing it both while carrying out their work (a kind of action learning) and at conferences and in journals and books of various kinds. However developers, and their clients (actual and potential), are under increasing pressure and for many survival, not thriving, may be the main issue. The issue for developers may well be the identity of their clients ‐ the university; its management; its teaching staff; its students (the university's supposed ‘customers'). In this paper I focus on the ethical dilemmas which may arise when educational developers try to develop themselves to serve various possible clients.     

Faculty Liaisons: an embedded approach for enriching teaching and learning in higher education

This paper explores the experiences of a group of academic developers who support educational development work as Faculty Liaisons at a large, research-intensive university. These academic developers inhabit complex ‘third spaces’, providing support through an embedded partnership relationship that requires lateral movement across functional and organizational boundaries to create new professional spaces, knowledge, and relationships. The authors utilize narrative inquiry and auto-ethnographic approaches to present an interpretive qualitative analysis of their experiences supporting Faculty and University projects across complex and evolving organizational boundaries. From this analysis, they highlight key roles and responsibilities associated with their blended context and identify challenges that academic developers who occupy third spaces within academic organizations face as they negotiate competing interests, identities, and requirements associated with the diverse range of their projects and the blended experience of working in scholarly and administrative, central- and Faculty-based roles. The lessons they have learned from these experiences will be of particular interest to academic developers who are experiencing the flux of change within higher education settings that are impacting teaching and learning practices both for faculty in the classroom and for those across the institution who support them.     

Producing CD‐ROMs for Schools

Abstract

The CD‐ROM market in schools is generally expected to be a growth area for computer software developers world‐wide. As a developer, publisher and distributor of CD‐ROMs for schools, the author is interested in the characteristics of CD‐ROMs schools will buy and the potential market. This paper looks at what developers must take into account when considering producing materials for this market. It focuses on school requirements as regards CD‐ROMs rather than the process of producing an educational CD‐ROM.     

Sustainability policy and sustainability in higher education curricula: the educational developer perspective

Various studies have investigated the views of higher education staff and students about sustainability, yet educational developer perspectives are under-represented in the research. This project gathered educational developer perspectives about sustainability in the curriculum. It sought to capture their views about a national sustainability policy; about the relationship between educational development and sustainability curriculum change; and whether sustainability should form part of their own roles. It was informed by the ‘theory of the second-best’ and involved nine interviews. Educational developers raised concerns about the policy, whilst opinions about their own involvement varied. It is argued that policy should provide clearer statements about curriculum, and educational developers should be involved in its development.     

Analysis of Propagation Plans in NSF-Funded Education Development Projects

Increasing adoption and adaptation of promising instructional strategies and materials has been identified as a critical component needed to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This paper examines typical propagation practices and resulting outcomes of proposals written by developers of educational innovations. These proposals were analyzed using the Designing for Sustained Adoption Assessment Instrument (DSAAI), an instrument developed to evaluate propagation plans, and the results used to predict the likelihood that a successful project would result in adoption by others. We found that few education developers propose strong propagation plans. Afterwards, a follow-up analysis was conducted to see which propagation strategies developers actually used to help develop, disseminate, and support their innovations. A web search and interviews with principal investigators were used to determine the degree to which propagation plans were actually implemented and to estimate adoption of the innovations. In this study, we analyzed 71 education development proposals funded by the National Science Foundation and predicted that 80% would be unsuccessful in propagating their innovations. Follow-up data collection with a subset of these suggests that the predictions were reasonably accurate.     

ICT,Leadership in Education and E‐leadership

Advances in information and communication technology are changing organisations, including those in educational settings. Old practices are being altered, and new practices, spaces and possibilities created. The changes are such that it is timely to consider whether our current leadership conceptions remain useful. In non‐educational sectors there is an emerging body of opinion and empirical research that is focusing on what is termed “e‐leadership”. Whilst e‐leadership is a recently constructed concept, with considerable conceptual ambiguity, there are significant differences in leading technology‐mediated environments. These environments appear to place greater emphasis on the ability of leaders to cope with paradoxes and dilemmas and the associated behavioural complexity, to communicate with team members and establish an appropriate social climate and to be able to convey exemplary interpersonal skills through the associated technology. There is a greater emphasis on dispersed leadership. In some situations, such as anonymous groups, formal leadership may be detrimental to group performance. More research is needed, but even at the early stage of the development of e‐leadership it is clear that leadership in technology‐mediated environments needs to be carefully considered. As more examples of these environments are developed in educational settings, e­‐leadership will become an important part of our view of educational leadership.     

Using technology for teaching and learning in higher education: a critical review of the role of evidence in informing practice

The use of technology for teaching and learning is now widespread, but its educational effectiveness is still open to question. This mixed-method study explores educational practices with technology in higher education. It examines what forms of evidence (if any) have influenced teachers' practices. It comprises a literature review, a questionnaire and interviews. A framework was used to analyse a wide range of literature. The questionnaires were analysed using content analysis and the interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings suggest that evidence has partial influence upon practice with practitioners preferring to consult colleagues and academic developers. The study underscored the difficulty in defining and evaluating evidence, highlighting ontological and epistemological issues. The academic developer's role appears to be key in mediating evidence for practitioners.