Staff Development Vital for a Successful Digital Transformation

Steven Spence, Lead for Teaching, Learning and Innovation, The Sheffield College

Steven Spence, Lead for Teaching, Learning and Innovation, The Sheffield College

Steven Spence is the lead for teaching, learning and innovation at The Sheffield College. Having completed a masters in education he is now on the final bend of this doctoral study based on the integration of technology into educational institutions.

The use of education technology and online modes of delivery has accelerated considerably over the recent academic years, largely due to the pandemic. Following this experience institutions are now planning for greater and more effective use of digital and educational technologies, moving beyond emergency remote teaching (Hodges et al, 2020) to successful integration of online and blended learning. This presents wonderful opportunities for institutions to enhance both their curriculum offer and delivery (Spence, 2021).

Clearly, there are many contributing factors to a successful digital transformation to enhance learning in any institution. From networks enabling strong connections, systems that permit seamless technology integration for users, a clear vision and approach to both hardware and software, a digital transformation requires a collegiate cross-institutional approach. In addition, the development of the staff cannot be underestimated, and should be high on the agenda for any institution undertaking a digital transformation.

“Our vision for developing staff so they could use educational technology confidently was based on the premise that technological development was for everyone, not just the ‘tech evangelists’

This has been the case at my current institution - The Sheffield College - a large further education college in England. With close to 15,000 students per year and over one thousand staff. As the lead for teaching, learning and innovation across the institution creating a programme of development that will enable all staff to have the necessary skills and confidence to utilise education technology and deliver high quality online and blended learning was a high priority.

Ensuring support for tutors and lecturers is a vital component in the development of technical skills required for effective online and blended learning (Killen & Langer-Crame, 2021). My starting point was to ascertain current levels of knowledge and confidence of using educational technology, including the software packages that were in use across a large institution. This data was triangulated through a large staff survey, focus groups with staff and students, and data supplied from our quality team. Findings were in some cases obvious, but gave a great foundation to build from. For example, our internal survey corresponded with the findings from a study carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2018 that found less than 40 percent of educators felt ready to use digital technologies within their teaching (European Commission , 2020). However, our large survey did indicate that the majority of staff wanted to develop their use of educational technology. Moreover, results from both the survey and focus groups showed a somewhat convoluted approach to virtual learning environments and software packages. This all gave us a great starting point as an institution to build from.

Our vision for developing staff so they could use educational technology confidently was based on the premise that technological development was for everyone, not just the ‘tech evangelists’. Too often in my experience I have witnessed institutions believe that their integration and use of technology is good, but when looking at this further it is only a very small percentage of staff who actually use technology. Our plan was to ensure that all staff, no matter their starting point, would be able to develop their skills and confidence at their own pace. This led to the production of our Digital Development Programme, a differentiated programme of support and development for all staff. Due to the need to differentiate for all staff the programme was layered, progressing from basic skill development of certain tools in the foundation stages, up to more advanced critique and reasoning, focusing on the pedagogy behind certain tools and approaches. We have, for example, already had advanced staff running case studies on flipped learning approaches ((O'Flaherty & Phillips, 2015), and the use of virtual reality (VR) to replicate high-fidelity learning situations (Zhao, et al., 2020).

It was also clear that the inception of the Digital Development Programme required a clear support network, which we quickly established at the college. We have designated staff who are there to support both the technical expertise required, and the application in classroom and learning environments. These roles have been pertinent to enabling our digital transformation to happen at pace. For example, Bandura (1977) discussed how someone’s self-efficacy impacts on their success on a task with Compeau and Higgins (1995) stating that computer self-efficacy is no different, and related directly to the beliefs someone has on their competence in using technology. Moreover, research suggests that self-efficacy is the most important factor in the decision by instructors when integrating aspects of online delivery (Zhen, et al., 2008), and that skill and perceived skill played a huge part in the uptake and willingness for online learning (Tabata&Johnsrud, 2008; Shea, 2007). This also resonated with our own internal research and helped us shape both the development of our digital programme to encompass everyone (technology for everyone), and explicit support networks were in place to ensure ongoing development was endemic.

We have had great success to date, both in defining our VLE software and digital tools; and, in engaging staff across the college. To date, over 550 staff have made their way through the levels of our programme, with over 2000 CPD and coaching events recorded. We are proud of this. However, we still have much to learn and do, and one of our key aims is to develop strategies that ensures our delivery of online and blended models goes beyond simply replicating current practice in an online medium (Laurillard&Masterman, 2009), VR enhances learning across a range of curricula, and artificial intelligence (AI) is explored to support both learning and systems improvement. These innovations, amongst others will keep us all occupied at my current institution, but for now, it is great to reflect on how we have supported staff to be a part of our digital transformation, and for any other institution going through similar, starting with the development needs of the workforce is certainly something to consider high up the priority list.