Educational Enhancement

Simon Overton: I’m very happy to welcome Dan Axson, Learning Technologies Manager in the Educational Enhancement team here at Sussex. Welcome, Dan.

Dan Axson: Hi, Simon.

SO: So it’s the start of a new academic year and the theme of this episode is looking forward, but before we do that I think it’s important to look back at the previous year. What were some of the highlights for you last year?

DA: Oh, it’s a really tough question. Last year, I felt like it passed by in about a day, but a lot’s happened. For me, the highlights have absolutely been seeing our team do what they do best and support each other. It sounds really cheesy and corny, but it’s absolutely true. We’ve had a really challenging number of months for different reasons: external factors, internal factors, staffing, the usual stuff. But the way they rally around and support each other is exceptional, and it makes me feel really good, but also makes me feel better about the decisions of hiring that I’ve made!

I think a couple of things spring to mind. One is, they’re a relatively new team still to the university, and universities do have very complex processes to get to grips with. But they’re all pretty much experts in that now. How they’ve responded to changes in the technological environment around us, artificial intelligence being one, has been remarkable. Their personal and professional development as well over the year, some of them doing PG Cert, for example, as well as their day job. So, I think the team has been the highlight of the year. Like I say, it sounds cheesy to say, but it’s easily the top one.

SO: When you say it’s a relatively new team, I mean, it did exist before as TEL [Technology Enhanced Learning]…

DA: Sure. What I mean by that is the people in it are relatively new. So, the last two, two and a bit years, most of the team have been with us. We had a bit of a refresh a couple of years ago, through retirements, promotions, and so on. They hit the ground running back then, but they’re just going strength to strength. They’re a team of very passionate, interested, caring people who have nothing but support and each other’s backs when they need it most. It’s great to see.

SO: Talking about AI, the AI Community of Practice was a really strong way to approach that and to grab the hot potato and run with it (if I may mix a metaphor).

DA: Yes, you’re right. With the AI Community of Practice, that was spun up and led predominantly by Sam [Hemsley], our colleague in Academic Development. We’re going to be more involved in that. What that highlights is, despite the day-to-day stuff of a learning technologist role or a team such as ours, Educational Enhancement, we get involved in some of the really mundane runnings of a university. But it’s important to remember that one of our core functions is to assess what’s out there, make sense of it, and help people understand it.

I wrote a blog post (a little plug on this!) a little while ago, likening us to noise-cancelling headphones. Helping bring a community around something that’s quite frightening to many academics and people, and help understand it. We get into the weeds on ethical and sustainable use, but also, what does this mean for me as a teacher? What’s the day-to-day going to look like with AI? Are my students all going to cheat? What about them? Helping people talk to each other and understand, we’re all a bit new to this. Let’s explore it together, and it’s okay. That’s been a highlight, seeing that develop over the last year. I can’t wait to see what that brings in the coming year.

SO: So what projects do we (E.E.) have in the pipeline? And how do you see them playing out this year?

DA: That’s a good question. One of my soapbox things is digital accessibility. When it comes to our virtual learning environment, Canvas, we’re doing a big project this year around the templates for modules. When we first got Canvas, it was the Wild West. Every module site was slightly different, and students quickly said they wanted something more consistent, but also accessible, easy to use, navigable. Then Web Accessibility legislation came in, not at a dissimilar time, a couple of years later. It made some of this obligatory, upfront rather than reactive in terms of accessibility and design. We’ve tried to make sure that our templates are consistent with that. We’re in a position now where many schools have templates, but there are still some inconsistencies. You get students doing electives or dual honours, and buttons aren’t in the same place or some websites have the “scroll of doom” on a mobile phone. We have to accept that the student population changes how they view their module sites and what they view them on.

A big project this year is looking at how we consolidate templates to improve the student experience, particularly for those on the margins with digital accessibility needs or other access needs. But also, it needs to be easier for staff to update because anything we can do to reduce admin of teaching and learning is good to give people more space for teaching and learning.

SO: I find digital accessibility interesting. I don’t enter into it too much in my role but for example making sure that you’ve always got “alt text” on images. I find that quite a nice exercise to go through because it asks you implicitly “What is the purpose of this image? Are you just sticking something in to make it look pretty? Or does it actually have a function? And can you distill that function down to a sentence or two?” That’s a real positive that’s come out of that for me, something that I’ve not really considered before, i.e.: people using e-readers, and that’s really helped me to reflect on my work.

DA: Yes, I agree. It is a helpful activity, and arguably one you should be asking of anything you’re putting out. Despite it being a legal obligation, it’s really easy to get away with not doing it, which is a problem. So, there’s two sides to that. One is, we need to make it easier for people to do this stuff, reduce the admin. But also, we need to raise awareness that there’s an obligation on tutors, support staff, and EE to do that work. Sometimes it is “work”, but it’s critical for many students. I think we can do better, and I look forward to seeing how that goes this year. We’re hoping to work with Student Connectors on that and have students directly involved in the development over the year.

SO: We always talk about AI. Not just in this podcast / blog but generally around the office and in our meetings, and in fact, we’ve already talked about it in this conversation, but let’s talk about it a little bit more. How or where do you see AI technology going this year, and how do you think it’s going to affect education further?

DA: Big questions that we probably won’t fully answer here. In short, I think over the next year, conversations will shift from “this is terrifying and must be stopped” to “how do we work with this?” What’s the right attitude to take? What should we be scared or worried about?

We know from speaking to colleagues across the university that some are flying with this. They’re well-versed in it. Some of them create it; they’re experts. Sussex has a rich history in artificial intelligence. When it comes to generative AI for teaching and learning, some are developing or using tools, while others are terrified and shutting it out, saying, “It’s a hard ‘no’, you’re not allowed to use it.”

There’s a real spectrum, but I think the ability to have an informed conversation will grow. There’ll be a more consistent understanding of where students stand, helping them have informed conversations, understand best practices, and maintain academic integrity without falling foul of misconduct, either purposely or accidentally. That’s what will change – a more common language will emerge. Our role will be creating that forum and helping colleagues, which is what we’ve always done with technology, whether it was Canvas or anything else. AI is no different, except that its potential for changing education is more significant.

SO: Any final thoughts or words of wisdom?

DA: When we’re bogged down in day-to-day admin like assessment, it’s easy to forget that this job can be fun. There’s a lot of fun stuff to do. Katie [Piatt] and the team getting the CATE Award for their Playful Learning Conference shows that within EE, we have the capacity to enjoy what we do. It’s easy to forget that sometimes. I hope we get space to do that this year, whether it’s personal professional development or our Learning Technologists exploring video games, AI, or playful learning. Finding the fun in what we do is important. It’s okay to have fun and play with things.

That’s what a learning technologist does best, I think.

This conversation was recorded on 1 October 2024. AI was used to edit the raw transcript into a more “readable” article but was checked by our team for language and meaning before publishing.