Curriculum 2016 Briefing Note G: Technology Enhanced
Learning
Chris Turnock, Joel Mills, Patrick Lynch and Elizabeth Cleaver, Learning Enhancement
& Academic Practice (LEAP)
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Introduction
As part of the Curriculum 2016 Change Programme the University of Hull is drawing on,
adapting and synthesising the insights of a number of existing theoretical and conceptual
frameworks for, and empirically-informed approaches to, curriculum design and teaching,
learning and assessment. Together these create a unique model and framework for
curriculum and pedagogic design at Hull.
This briefing document provides further information on how we can develop our
approaches to teaching and support learning of all students through our use of technology.
It forms one in a series of briefing documents which, together with LEAP facilitated
curriculum development sessions, will support programme portfolio teams to consider and
actively design the content of their curriculum and teaching, learning and assessment
approaches and practices.
Four key principles underpin this approach to Curriculum and Pedagogic Design:
a) Thinking outside of the module-box: prioritising coherent programme-level curriculum
design over individual module developments so that there is a programme level
philosophy on approached technology in the curriculum;
b) Involving a range of stakeholders: engaging students, staff (from both relevant academic
areas and a range of service areas) employers and professional, statutory and regulatory
bodies in programme-level curriculum design with a focus on what they think about
how technology can be introduced into the curriculum;
c) Making the implicit explicit: developing a shared understanding amongst curriculum
creators and users - teachers and learners - about how and why technology can be used
in the curriculum and associated approaches to teaching, learning and assessment; the
use of technology actively promotes student learning from an evidence based approach
with a commitment to evaluating impact upon student experience and learning;
d) Starting From the Discipline1: understanding how the epistemic2 and cultural beliefs of
the discipline form an important starting point for curriculum and pedagogic design.
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In the Curriculum 2016 Briefing Note series, Discipline is used as shorthand to describe the subject areas or
areas of practice that are fundamental to each degree programme; we recognise that many degree
programmes do not draw on a discrete discipline per se, but reflect a field of study or area of practice which
itself draws on a range of disciplinary and practice-based knowledge and understandings.
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The term Episteme is used to describe particular understandings and perceptions of what ‘knowledge’ is, how
it is created and how it is best communicated. We acknowledge that these understandings and perceptions
may differ across and even within each programme of study. However, it is expected that the core disciplines
and areas of practice that underpin each programme of study will play a key role in formulating each area’s
understanding of knowledge (their epistemic starting points).
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What is Technology Enhanced Learning and why is it important?
This briefing paper explores the greater use of technology in the curriculum to enhance
student learning. Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), also known as e-learning, involves
the use of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) in its widest sense to support
our teaching and to improve students’ learning experiences (Gordon, 2014). The Higher
Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE, 2013) state that TEL is a key part of learning
and teaching in higher education. In brief, institutions are charged with enhancing learning,
teaching and assessment practices through the employment of appropriate technologies.
The University of Hull also recognises the importance of provide learning opportunities,
utilising technology in a variety of ways, that meet the expectations and needs of staff and
students. Most importantly, technology should never be introduced for its own sake, but in
ways that can enhance the teaching and learning experiences of staff and students and
support student skills development.
A number of documents outline contemporary students’ perspectives on technology in
higher education. In particular, the National Union of Student’s Charter on Technology in
Higher Education (2011) states that technology should not replace existing effective
practice, but be used to enhance learning and teaching. Importantly, students expect
technology to be incorporated into curricula in ways that are relevant to their academic
success. And whilst students often express a desire for consistency in the use of technology,
this should not preclude programme teams from considering using a broad range of
technologies to ensure that a programme's pedagogical delivery model does not
compromise the student learning experience.
Programme teams also need to consider how their use of technology prepares students for
the world of employment. It is important that programme teams engage with relevant
stakeholders in order that the technology used in the curriculum reflects technology used
within work settings. Furthermore, the use of technology should also ensure that graduating
students have developed appropriate skills (sometimes known as digital literacies) to
maximise their graduate employment prospects.
Students are becoming ever more flexible in device use and expect flexibility with regard to
when, where and how they access the University’s ICT systems as part of their learning
experience.
Evidence is also emerging from across the sector of the benefits of certain technology for
students with particular learning requirements. For example, recordings of teaching sessions
are listened to by most students in preparation for summative assessments, however
students with learning difficulties and those for whom English is a second language have
been found to make use these recordings on a regular basis to clarify their understanding of
the sessions they have attended (Leadbeater et al. 2012). A new University policy on the
Recording of Lectures and other Teaching Sessions for Personal Use by Students is now
available which outlines the circumstances under which audio recordings of teaching
sessions can take place at the University of Hull.
In short, using technology in meaningful and appropriate ways can:
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free up contact time for face-to-face and interactive learning opportunities;
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allow students to study at times which are most conducive to their learning;
provide opportunities for self-testing to reinforce factual knowledge;
facilitate the collection of and feedback on assignments;
encourage peer support and greater participation from all students;
enable effective learning within and across different groups of learners, in learning
from guest experts, and engaging with relevant professional groups;
foster the development of key skills and attributes including collaborative skills,
autonomous learning and digital literacy (Smyth et al., 2011 pp.2-3)
What technologies are available and what support is there for their use?
The University has a number of core supported ICT systems in place to enhance the student
learning experience, including:
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eBridge (our Virtual Learning Environment);
PebblePad (our online portfolio tool);
Turnitin (our plagarism detection tool);
Grademark and Peermark (assessment tools integrated with Turnitin);
TurningPoint (our in-class audience response system); and
WebPA (an online peer assessment tool).
These core technologies are supported by the TEL team, who are able to provide help and
guidance on their use. TurningPoint ‘clickers’ for use in classroom settings are available for
hire from the TEL team and enquiries should be placed by emailing TEL@hull.ac.uk.
The team will also be able to provide advice on the use of non-core technology tools
including social media tools (e.g. Twitter), bookmarking tools (e.g. Diigo), screencast/capture
tools (e.g. Jing and Camtasia), wiki tools (e.g. Wikispace) blogging/web tools (e.g.
Wordpress), online presentation tools (e.g. Prezi) and podcast tools (e.g. Audacity).
The TEL team are developing quick-start and more detailed guidance materials on each of
these various platforms, tools and systems to support their effective use by programme
teams and their students.
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What does this mean for curriculum and pedagogic design?
At the programme level programme teams will be asked to consider, where practical and
appropriate, how programmes of study can use technology to enrich formal teaching
sessions and to create social and informal learning opportunities beyond the classroom.
Teams may wish to use technology for a variety of purposes such as programme
development and management (using learning analytics), the creation of digital content,
communicating with students, creating opportunities for online collaborative learning and
classroom interactions and for the setting and submission of assessment tasks. TEL advisors
will work with teams using the 3E Framework (Smyth et al. 2011); a framework developed
by staff at Edinburgh Napier University to support the meaningful incorporation of
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technology into learning, teaching and assessment. Depending on the stage of technological
adoption that teams are currently at, they can:
Stage 1: Enhance: adopt technology in simple and effective ways to actively support
students and increase their activity and self-responsibility; and/or
Stage 2: Extend: employ technology further, in ways that facilitate key aspects of
student’s individual and collaborative learning and assessment through increasing
their choice and control; and/or
Stage 3: Empower: develop students’ use of technology that requires higher order
individual and collaborative learning that reflects how knowledge is created and used
in professional environments.
Examples of possible technologically supported teaching and learning activities using this
approach may include:
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Student briefings prior to a formal teaching session;
The flipped classroom: a classroom where content and detail is provided prior to
teaching sessions and teaching time is focused on facilitating group learning and the
practical application of ideas;
Games to motivate students in learning related activities, e.g. team based learning
where teams compete in producing learning outputs;
Online student discussions to engage students in social learning beyond the
classroom environment;
Online quizzes and tests to check students have achieved expected learning
thresholds and to highlight where problems in student understanding may be
occurring. These may be ‘adaptive’, e.g. the nature of assessment activity can be
based on performance on previous exercise(s);
The provision of peer assessment opportunities and instant student/peer feedback;
Awarding digital badges for achievements mid-module;
Opportunities for group and individual collation of information and critical reflection
using blogs, wikis and the online portfolio tool. For example, these can be used to
enable students to collate digital assessment feedback to inform future learning;
Multi-media student presentations;
The management and assessment of placements;
The creation of assessment submission points and provision of online assessment
feedback that can be accessed by students on or off campus; and
The evaluation of student performance and engagement through the use of
analytics.
What will programme teams be asked to do?
With the ideas outlined above in mind, programme teams will be asked to work with the TEL
team to address the following questions when designing their programmes of study and
associated pedagogies:
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What technologies can be meaningfully incorporated into curriculum design and
learning, teaching and assessment approaches?
Do programme and module aims and outcomes explicitly reflect the use of
technology where appropriate and useful?
Are the technologies used relevant for the future work that students are likely to
pursue beyond university?
Are students actively encouraged to use technology to record, reflect on and share
their experiences as part of their learning?
Do all students on the programme have equal opportunities to take part in
technology-based and online activities? How might you support particular student
groups?
What support will be available?
Members of the TEL team in LEAP are available to work with programme teams to develop
programme curricula, assessment and teaching and learning approaches with a focus on the
use of technology to enhance student learning. A series of meetings will be planned with
each programme team to support them in the development work outlined in this document.
Future versions of this Briefing Note will include examples taken from implementation and
practice from the Curriculum 2016 Pilot Studies.
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References and further reading
HEFCE (2013) Technology-enhanced learning. [online]
https://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/lt/enh/techlearning/ (accessed 30.08.14)
Gordon, N. (2014) Flexible Pedagogies: technology-enhanced learning. Higher Education
Academy. [online]
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/TEL_report_0.pdf (accessed
30.08.14)
Jisc (2010) Effective Assessment in a Digital Age. [online]
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearning/digiassass_eada.pdf
(accessed 30.08.14)
Jisc (2014a) Developing Digital Literacies. [online]
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/digital-literacies/ (accessed 30.08.14)
Jisc (2014b) The Digital Student. [online] http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org/wp/ (accessed
30.08.14)
Leadbeater, W., Shuttleworth, T., Couperthwaite, J. and Nightingale, K. (2012) Evaluating
the use and impact of lecture recording in undergraduates: Evidence for distinct
approached by different groups of students. Computers & Education. 61(2): 185-192.
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National Union of Students (2011) Technology in Higher Education. [online]
www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/highereducation/2489/ (accessed 30.08.14)
Smyth, K., Bruce, S., Fotheringham, J. and Mainka, C. (2011) Benchmark for the use of
technology in modules. Edinburgh Napier University. [online]
http://staff.napier.ac.uk/services/vice-principalacademic/academic/TEL/TechBenchmark/Documents/3E%20Framework.pdf (accessed
30.08.14)
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