Keynote at Staff and Educational Development Association Conference, Brighton, October 2016

1. 02/11/2016
1
‘Sweet’ strategies
for higher education
developers working
in the third space
Photo credit: Ellen Lessner
Professor Rhona Sharpe
Oxford Brookes University
SEDA Conference
2 Nov 2016
@rjsharpe
My interests
Learner experience
research
Supporting online
learners
Developing digital
leaders
About the Oxford Centre for Staff and
Learning Development (OCSLD)
“OCSLD
specialises
in
providing
bespoke
staff
and
educa8onal
development
interven8ons
which
meet
ins)tu)onal
strategic
and
opera8onal
needs.
About the Oxford Centre for Staff and
Learning Development (OCSLD)
Our
approach
to
working
with
you
is
dis8nc8ve
and
transforma8ve,
tailoring
and
delivering
work-­‐based
interven8ons
for
exis)ng
teams
to
meet
their
immediate
and
future
needs.
This
is
supported
by
strong
exper8se
in
evalua)on
to
monitor
outcomes.”
Academic Development Framework
12 x
50,000
69 89%
1/4
OCSLD Annual Review 2015/16
www.brookes.ac.uk/OCSLD/About-OCSLD/Annual-reviews/

2. 02/11/2016
2
Strategic
Work based
Efficient
Evidence based
Technology
enhanced
Our approach to higher education
development
Cartoon by Bob Pomfret
@Seda_UK_
www.brookes.ac.uk/OCSLD/Research/Participative-Process-Review/
5.1 FTE
Educational
Developers
Web Editor &
intern
4.2 FTE
Staff and
Organisational
Developers
3 FTE
Administration
Learning
Technologist
2 x 0.5 FTE
Researchers
Who are we?
I will argue that..
OCSLD exists in the third space between
academic and professional services.
Where we work as unbounded professionals . . .
. . . who have evolved a SWEET approach to
higher education development
… which we use to help Brookes thrive in these
changing times.
Recent changes in UK HE
§ Raising tuition fees
§ Removing number
controls
§ Introduction of TEF
§ Efficiency targets from
comprehensive
spending reviews
§ Apprenticeships
§ Creation of Office for
Students
§ Brexit
§ Changes in funding for
student teachers and
nurses
§ Research assessed by
impact
§ Lower entry barriers for
other HE providers
§ Application of
Competition and
Markets Authority rules
to HE

3. 02/11/2016
3
“We’re adaptable and flexible, and consider a fresh
approach in everything we do - because we know our
sustainability depends on a pioneering spirit.”
Confidence
Connectedness
Generosity of
spirit
Enterprising
creativity
http://www.paconsulting.com/our-thinking/higher-education-report-2015/
Why is the pace of innovation slow in HE?
§ Deeply entrenched culture of
conservatism
§ Resistance to change among
large parts of ageing academic
workforce
§ Constraints of inflexible
organisational structures,
systems and processes
§ Risk aversion of leadership
teams and governing bodies.
Can UK HEIs plan for growth?
https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/jan-16-deadline-application-rates-report.pdf

4. 02/11/2016
4
Present
product
New
product
Present
market
Market
penetration
New product
development
New
market
New market
development
Diversification
Ansoff’s growth vector matrix (Ansoff, 1957)
Growth in a competitive marketplace
Graduate
Attributes
Degree
apprenticeships
College
Partners
MOOCs
Present
product
New
product
Present
market
Graduate
Attributes
Degree
apprenticeships
New
market
College
partners
MOOCs
Growth in a competitive marketplace
Whitchurch, 2008
Whitchurch, 2008
Bounded
professionals
Unbounded
professionals
Professionals working in the third space
Categories of identity Characteristics
Bounded professionals Work within clear structural boundaries e.g.
function, job description
Cross-boundary
professionals
Actively use boundaries for strategic
advantage and institutional capacity building
Unbounded professionals Disregard boundaries to focus on broadly-
based projects and institutional development
Blended professionals Dedicated appointments spanning
professionals and academic domains
Whitchurch, C. (2008)
Make it easier to disrupt institutional
practices
The
stalled
progress
in
some
facul8es
was
an
uncertainty
of
which
budgets
development
of
MOOCs
should
be
coming
from
and
how
to
allocate
staff
8me
within
the
workload
planning
framework
(Roberts
et
al.,
2015).
Faculty-based Open Online Course(s)

5. 02/11/2016
5
OCSLD Open Online Courses
- Online mentors employed by
several universities (OBHE, 2013)
- Expert participants (Waite et al,
2013)
- Certificates and badges
- Light touch quality assurance
- Shared modules and credit
transfer
- Ability to negotiate staff roles,
responsibilities and workload
“A goal of all formal
education should be to
graduate students who live
lives of consequence”
- John Henry Brookes
Brookes Attributes
Embedding
graduate
attributes
into
the
curriculum
“There is more to life than
simply doing a job.The
graduates of our higher
education system will be
more than employees/
employers, they will also be
future leaders in our world
and our neighbours and so
affects our lives at all levels.
What do we want these
people to be like?”
(Haigh & Clifford, 2010)
Why graduate attributes?
“Every undergraduate programme will include the
development of the five graduate attributes”
• Graduate
Attributes
Roadshows
Awareness
raising
• Graduate
Attributes in
Action website
• Case studies
• Mapping tools
• Screencasts
Programme
mapping
• Programme
specification
• Mapping
document
• Narrative
Documentation
What do we know about how lecturers
design courses?
§ Pragmatically, in response to changing
circumstances e.g. increasing class
sizes (Sharpe & Oliver, 2007).
§ A social practice, governed by
precedent and habit (Blackmore &
Kandiko, 2012)
§ Within the constraints of practicalities
e.g. timetabling (Masterman, 2013)
§ Visually (Masterman, 2013)
§ Informed by general design principles
rather than learning theory (Sharpe &
Oliver, 2013)
Course Design Intensives
Dempster, Benfield & Francis (2012)
Working in
extended teams
Visualising the
learner journey
Challenging designs
through peer review

6. 02/11/2016
6
Documentary analysis of 90 programme
specification documents.
Sharing of examples of how graduate attributes
had been interpreted within the disciplines
The disciplinary differences between how
graduate attributes are expressed are in
explaining the ways and contexts in which
elements of the attributes are put to use.
Evaluation Part 1
Staff Engagement
Evaluation Part 1
Staff Engagement
Evaluation Part 2
Student Engagement
• How much has your coursework emphasised the
following mental activities?
• How often have you done each of the following?
• How much has your experience at this institution
contributed to your knowledge, skills and personal
development in these areas?
How often have you…?
How much has Brookes contributed to..?
Graduate Attributes as a measure of
learning gain
Learning gain in Active
Citizenship Strategic
Excellence project
ABC Learning Gains
project with OU and
Surrey
abclearninggains.com/
openbrookes.net/cci/
• Strategy for Enhancing the Student
Experience defined 5 Graduate Attributes2010/11
• Mapping exercise in programme teams
• Revised Programme Specification docs2011/12
• Analysis of all new documentation
• Teaching Practices Collection2012/13
• Development of engagement survey
• Training for Validation and Review
Panels and Academic Advisors
2013/14
• Benefits Realisation Review
• Revised Strategy for Student Experience2014/15
• Introduced Active Citizenship
• Learning gain funded projects2015/16
Six years .. so far…

7. 02/11/2016
7
‘Disregarding boundaries to focus on
institutional development’
§ Embedding attributes
within the curriculum to
encourage
contextualisation
§ Collaboration with QA
to integrate
documentation and
processes
• A careful, critical
approach to
evaluation which
produces useable
outputs
• Multiple initiatives
running over several
years
Where do we go from here?
Is our approach
working?
How can we expand it
Can we create third
spaces for others to
work in?
Student experience
is a strategic priority.
Student experience
developments are
highly managed.
Proliferation of
educational
leadership roles.
Evaluating experiences of project
managers
Confidential, anonymised, semi-
structured interviews (ethical
approval gained).
§ motivations
§ expectations
§ management
§ enablers and constraints
§ professional impact
§ recommendations
2 x
Program
Managers
2 x
Principle
Lecturers
1 x
profession
al services
2 x
Associate
Deans
Experiences of
project leaders
Deeply
committed
to their
projects (not
careers)
Freedom and
autonomy
helped them
deliver
Academic
identity was
less fixed,
more fluid
Enabling ‘light
touch’ program
support

8. 02/11/2016
8
Recommendations for working in the
third space:
§ Take advantage of the fluidity of roles and
structures to develop and implement innovative
models for staff and student learning.
§ Conduct and share investigations and
evaluations to inform decision making.
§ Use the lack of protocols to develop skills in new
ways of working.
§ Expand this approach. Create and evaluate new
roles and career pathways into and out of them.
The importance of evaluation
In this presentation I have drawn on the following internal
reports:
Moore, S. (2016) Oxford Brookes Engagement Survey,
October 2016.
Pavlakou, M. Sharpe, R. (2014) Leading institutional
change projects: a qualitative study and lessons for the
second Programme for Enhancing the Student Experience..
Roberts, G., Llewellyn, S., Sharpe, R. Benfield. G. (2015)
Project final report: Developing Open Online Courses for
Oxford Brookes.
Sharpe, R., Benfield, G., Corrywright, D. Green, L. (2013).
Evaluation of the Brookes Graduate Attributes: Year 1 Final
Report.
References
Ansoff, H. (1957) Strategies for diversification. Harvard Business Review, (Sept-Oct)
Beetham, H. Sharpe, R. (2013) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age. Second edition. Routledge. Chapters by Liz
Masterman and Martin Oliver
Blackmore, P. and Kandiko, C. (2012) Strategic Curriculum Change: Global trends in universities. London and New York:
Routledge.
Dempster, J., Benfield, G. Francis, R. (2012) An academic development model for fostering innovation and sharing in
curriculum design. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 49 (2), 135-147
Haigh, M. Clifford, V. (2010) Widening the Graduate Attribute debate: a higher education for global citizenship. Brookes
eJournal of Learning and Teaching. 2 (5)
OBHE (2013) Horizon Scanning: What will higher education look like in 2020?, Observatory of Borderless Higher Education.
Oliver, M. (2015) From openness to permeability: reframing open education in terms of positive liberty in the enactment of
academic practices. Learning, Media and Technology, 40 (3), 365-384.
PA Consulting (2015) Lagging behind: are UK universities falling behind in the global innovation race? PA Consulting group
Higher Education Survey 2015 http://www.paconsulting.com/our-thinking/higher-education-report-2015
Roberts, G., Llewellyn, S., Sharpe, R. Benfield. G. (2015) Project final report: Developing Open Online Courses for Oxford
Brookes, January 2015, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.
Waite, M., Mackness, J., Roberts, G. Lovegrove, E. (2013) Liminal Participants and Skilled Orienteers: Learner Participation
in a MOOC for New Lecturers, Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 9 (2), http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no2/waite_0613.htm
Whitchurch, C. (2008) Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: the emergence of Third Space professionals in UK higher
education, Higher Education Quarterly, 62 (4), 377-396.
Whitchurch, C. Gordon (2013) Staffing models and institutional flexibility, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education:
London.