Learn Ultra User Groups: Engaging with Academic colleagues, session 1
In December 2022, around fifteen people convened for the first meeting of the Learn Ultra Academic User Group convened in Argyle House. While there has previously been a Learn Academic User Group, this was the first meeting of a new cohort specifically to address the rollout of Learn Ultra.
The core purpose of the User Group is to bridge communication gaps between learning technologists in central Information Services and the actual teaching and learning happening on the ground in classrooms and tutorials. Meeting directly with academic colleagues across Schools and Deaneries helps us better support faculty and students, whether by creating additional resources or training materials or supporting in other ways. About fifteen people were in attendance at the first session.
Once we agreed a Terms of Reference, we moved into the main activity of the session, which was to break into small groups and work through making a chart of the opportunities, considerations, and challenges of the move to Learn Ultra.
Possibilities and opportunities identified by the User Group included the increased pedagogical flexibility of Learn Ultra, as well as the improved accessibility, the two of which pair by nature. The interface is more updated and upgrades are more efficient. The transition, everyone agreed, allows us some much-needed evaluation of our courses, although creating time and space for that work is proving challenging across Schools and Deaneries.
Points of consideration included the rollout timelines for Schools and Deaneries on staggered semesters, the need to align VLE changes with the wider goals for institutional change, and the changes to very commonly used tools for marking or communicating with students. The changes to user roles were noted, as was the scale of learning and unlearning processes which varies significantly across the University.
Pinch points and challenges mainly centred on time and resource, as well as change fatigue. A few groups noted the risk of misunderstandings and miscommunication in such an at-scale change, for example discrepancies between central and local communications may create compounded confusion.
Overall the balance between teaching support and tech support while adjusting to a new VLE came into focus as a topic for future conversation. Participants agreed that the move to Learn Ultra puts us in an innovative learning and teaching space, and everyone hopes to optimise this opportunity.
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