Enhancing the Learning Experience Manchester | Mar 2014 #HECon14 Professor Mark Stubbs Head of Learning & Research Technologies

The importance of getting it right Student Retention Success & Satisfaction Student Intake (Aspirations, Attitude & Abilities) Learning, Teaching, Assessment & Personal Development Processes, Facilities & Resources Reputation Marketing & Recruitment Processes All Year Numbers Resource allocation League table rankings A A A A Recruit to target B B B B Improve satisfaction, retention & success C C C C Inform decision-makers 2010 NSS Where to intervene?

Understanding how best to make a difference Careful diagnosis of (diverse) learning experiences Recurrent messages –NSS analysis: course organisation determines Q22 –Mobile surveys: deadlines, timetables… (m-admin) –Focus groups: consistent, easy to find info Great (and not-so great) expectations –“engaging, well-organised courses” –“inspirational tutors who know me” ‘Hygiene factors’ Stimulating pedagogies

Coordinating our response B B Improve satisfaction, retention & success Great Online Experience (Seamless, personalised) Great Learning Spaces Great Teaching Simplify Unwieldy Curriculum EQAL

A coordinated strike for step-change improvement EQAL New Curriculum designing new units, … New Admin Systems & Processes personal timetabling, … New Virtual Learning Environment Moodle & myMMU web/mobile, Talis Aspire… New QA & QE Processes facilitating curriculum transformation In the current climate Diminishing unit of resource Everything depends on everything else We are large and risk averse but Programme Board chaired by DVC Student Experience

MISSION: 2010 Q1 : Plan Programme & Projects 2010 Q2: Approve UG curriculum rules 2010 Q3: Develop smart curriculum capture forms 2010 Q4: Enter 900 new L3 + L4 units 2011 Q1: Approve new units 2011 Q2: Set up SRS, TT & VLE 2011 Q3 : L4 curriculum & systems go live 2011 Q4: Enter new L5 units… 2012 Q3: L5 goes live 2013 Q3 : Entire new UG curriculum live

A big ask… While you’re doing all you can on student success, retention & satisfaction this year, can you design New Curriculum, Teaching Schedules, Assessment Schedules & build it in the new VLE ? We’ll ask for the bare minimum and ask only once… You build the course content. We’ll ensure course admin info appears automatically A big ask … made as small as possible

Wrapping the institution around the learner This work is licensed under a Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence megamashup mws … and faculty-based ELSOs to give staff the confidence to use the tech

9 Wrapping the institution around the learner Student ID Timetable This work is licensed under a Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence Sync to personal device

Wrapping the institution around the learner Student ID (+ Unit code) Deadlines / extensions / feedback return dates / provisional marks Personalised submission sheet This work is licensed under a Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence

Wrapping the institution around the learner Unit code Resource list Relevant resource This work is licensed under a Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence

Wrapping the institution around the learner Unit code Past exam papers Past exam paper This work is licensed under a Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence 11,000+ past exams uploaded

Core+ VLE Learning technologies not isolated : interaction with personal & admin systems + print/wifi... determines quality of overall experience Recognised: watch & learn how staff use tech Recommended: staff set up & we train to integrate Arranged: we set up institutional accounts & train staff to use Core: we set up & train staff and expect a consistent front door

MyMMU App

Colours/icons same as Moodle MyMMU Users see their list of Moodle courses Clicking one brings up summarised Moodle info … with single- sign-on to Moodle and.... more detail on reading + assessment

ELSOs = CSF Locally based, centrally coordinated In 2013, the team delivered… –183 formal staff development events –28 curriculum design workshops –250 hours of drop-in provision –600 hours+ of one-to-one e-pedagogy advice And… –published 8 academic papers –presented 22 papers / workshops and 2 posters at national / international conferences Action-research approach

Engaging our students Providing business intelligence Automating our processes Are we in a better place now? 10,000+ students post 40,000+ comments in our biannual student surveys Submission tracking, Personal timetables, … Quartile improvements in course org & learning resources in 2012 NSS EQAL wins inaugural Guardian Student Experience Award! 30,000 regular users, 52m+ hits on Moodle, 26,000+ App registrations!

Continuous monitoring & improvement MDLSRSTT Data Warehouse Analysis Cubes CMI dashboards for all module & programme leaders for Sep 2014 C C

Lessons learned 1.Understand important dynamics 2.Be clear what needs to be done 3.Set high-level goals 4.Understand where change is required 5.Be bold and plan holistically 6.Ensure you’ve got the right team to drive 7.Make ‘big asks’ as small as possible 8.Make it stick with reinforcing change Curriculum Design Assessment & Feedbackhttp://tinyurl.com/jiscmmutraffic Find out more!