With all these challenges ahead, the Teesside team decided to collaborate with Blackboard Academy in February 2021, initially to train a group of six facilitators, using an intensive version of Blackboard Academy’s Digital Teaching and Learning Series to inform the design of their own CPD programme. Thanks to this intensive dedication, the team ran the first session with faculty in early May. This group of facilitators, in turn, emerged as Blackboard Certified Practitioners and Accredited Facilitators to deliver the course.
As the team had to strike a balance between content and pace, they really needed to focus on what they thought was essential, the basics of what teachers truly really need with a VLE: how to navigate within the environment, how to add any type of content or activities, how to assess, to communicate with students, and foster collaboration. The Digital Learning Specialists designed and delivered four one-hour synchronous sessions that proved to be a very effective method of addressing these key areas. In addition to these synchronous sessions, related supplementary activities were designed for colleagues to undertake in a “sandbox” course to really cement their learning through hands-on experience.
Communication and coordination also played an important role in managing change. According to Durston, having senior management across the academic schools on board was pivotal to the success of the project; playing a lead role in each of Teesside’s five schools, clearly communicating to their colleagues the five key principles that underpinned the CPD, and how they fit with both school and institutional strategic direction were crucial steps in this change process. This collaboration with school senior management further strengthened the relationship between the Digital Transformation team and the schools – yet another benefit surrounding the initiative.
“Digital confidence” is a concept used by the team to gauge progress, and it is worth mentioning as it is the basis for how they work. Some institutions can be reluctant to change and sometimes, within the educator community, introducing a new method, tool, or technology can generate fear and resistance. It is only when people develop confidence that change is perceived in a positive manner, as the outcome made the process worthwhile. Digital confidence, in this case, is achieved when the platform is used to improve, when people can understand the value and spot opportunities in what they’ve learned, rather than just having a basic level of familiarity with concepts. This sets the foundation for a journey in terms of academic practice from fear to literacy to confidence.
Teesside’s Digital Transformation team was able to achieve a remarkable 96% satisfaction rate among the 700 trained staff across 26 cohorts during three months and 204 hours of live facilitation. Another pleasing metric, particularly given the team’s focus on enhancing staff digital fluency, was that 91% of participants said they now felt more confident in their use of Learn Ultra. An additional 25 academic staff completed their CPD programme and went on to obtain their Blackboard Certified Practitioner recognition. As a testament to the quality of the CPD delivered at Teesside, an audit was performed looking for compliance of key criteria defined by the team across their five schools; three schools achieved 100% compliance, and the remaining two over 80%.
…the role Blackboard Academy played in making our CPD as high quality as it was…it wouldn’t have been as successful without the input from Blackboard Academy and without the upskilling of our facilitators.
Paul Durston, Digital Learning Manager, Teesside University
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