1. Moving from ‘e’ to ‘d’ – what does a
Digital University really look like?
Bill Johnston
Sheila MacNeill
University of Dundee, eLearning Symposium, 31 May
2013

2. Overview
• A presentation of in 2 parts
• Part 1 – What is the digital university?
• Part 2 - Possible directions for “digital”
Dundee
(in the light of Dundee teaching and learning
strategy and e-learning strategy documents)

3. The rise of digital
Image: www.centerdigitaled.com

4. “The new competition, the real threat. . . is the emergence
of entirely new models of university which are seeking to
exploit the radically changed circumstances that are the
result of globalisation and the digital revolution.”
An Avalancheis coming, Higher Education and the RevolutionAhead IPPR
, March 2013
(http://www.ippr.org/publication/55/10432/an-avalanche-is-coming-higher-
education-and-the-revolution-ahead)

5. “There is no doubt that digital technologies have had a
profound impact upon the management of learning.
Institutions can now recruit, register, monitor, and
report on students with a new economy, efficiency, and
(sometimes) creativity yet, evidence of digital
technologies producing real transformation in learning
and teaching remains elusive”
Decoding Learning, the proof, promise and potential of digital education
Nesta, November 2012
(http://www.nesta.org.uk/library/documentsDecodingLearningReport_v12.pdf)

6. What is a digital university?

7. Where is a digital university?
Image: newsroom.cisco.com

8. Digital = global?
• Global citizens are “digital”?
• What does this mean at a local level?
• What is a digital citizen?
• What kind of profile(s) should staff/students
have?
• What would 20 credits for digital citizenship
look like?

9. Aspirations for Dundee
• “If our aspiration is to be a small, research
intensive institution which uses that research
strength to inform its learning, recognised as a
significant contributor to society globally, then
we need to look at how resources can be best
deployed to support that.”
(University of Dundee, Teaching & Learning
Strategy, 2012)

10. Directions for Digital Dundee:
Glocalization?
• Notions of “Global community” and “multi
cultural world”
• How are these represented in the curriculum
and experienced by lecturers and students?
• Glocalizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloc
alization)

11. A Digital University: key themes
Digital
Participation
Information
Literacy
Curriculum
& Course
Design
Learning
Environment

12. Our model for the digital university
Digital Participation Information Literacy
*Glocalization
*Widening access
*Civic role and responsibilities
*Community engagement
*Networks (human and digital)
*Technological affordances
*High level concepts and perceptions
influencing practice
*Staff & student engagement and
development
*Effective development and use of
infrastructure
Curriculum and Course Design Learning Environment
*Constructive alignment
*Curriculum representations, course
management, pedagogical innovation
*Recruitment and marketing
*Reporting, data, analytics
*Physical and digital
*Pedagogical and social
*Research and enquiry
*Staff and Resources

13. Digital Participation
Digital Participation University of Dundee Learning &
Teaching Strategy
•Glocalization
•Widening Access
•Community Engagement
•Networks (human & digital)
•Technological affordances
Aim 1:Our graduates and postgraduates
make an impact in their chosen fields,
with the skills and knowledge to shape
and lead society in the professions,
research, and the wider world.
•(http://bit.ly/wMgL0W)

14. Curriculum & Course Design
Curriculum& Course Design University of Dundee Learning &
Teaching Strategy
•Constructive alignment
•Curriculum representations, course
management, pedagogical innovation
•Recruitment and marketing
•Reporting, data, analytics
Aim 2 Our curricula are designed for
breadth and depth allowing for
experimentation, change and diversity:
breadth to recognise the need for our
graduates to experience inter- and cross-
disciplinary learning; and depth, because
our graduates need to develop critical
enquiry and deep thinking skills, enabling
them to have open minds to challenge
problems.
•(http://bit.ly/ypTdqx)

15. Information Literacy
Information Literacy University of Dundee Learning &
Teaching Strategy
•High level concepts and perceptions and
influencing practice
•Staff and student engagement
•Effective development and use of
infrastructure
Aim 2: Our curricula are designed for
breadth and depth allowing for
experimentation, change
and diversity: breadth to recognise the
need for our graduates to experience
inter- and cross-disciplinary learning; and
depth, because our graduates need to
develop critical enquiry and deep
thinking skills, enabling them to have
open minds to challenge problems.
(http://bit.ly/zaZX7H)

16. Information Literacy
• "Information literacy is the adoption of
appropriate information behaviour to
identify, through whatever channel or
medium, information well fitted to
information needs, leading to wise and ethical
use of information in society.”
(Johnston, B. & Webber, S. (2003) Information literacy in higher education: a review
and case study. Studies in higher education)

17. Learning environment
Learning Environment University of Dundee Learning &
Teaching Strategy
•Physical and digital
•Pedagogical and social
•Research and Enquiry
•Staff and Resources
Aim 5: We will create a sustainable
learning environment which exploits all
the appropriate approaches and
technologies, maximises income and
ensures that all our students, in Dundee
and elsewhere, are supported for success
•(http://bit.ly/JJIDhJ)

18. Learning Environment:
Key features
• prepare students for lifelong, self-regulated, cooperative and work-
based learning;
• foster high quality student learning;
• change teaching methods in response to students’ increasing
metacognitive and self-regulatory skills,
• increases the complexity of the problems dealt with gradually and
systematically.
Vermunt, J.D, Student Learning and University Teaching (2007), British Journal of
Educational Psychology

19. Process orientated teaching:
key features
• lecturer skills -
diagnostician, challenger, monitor, evaluator
and educational developer.
• self-regulation for students e.g. collaborative
working spaces, complex projects and
personal reflective spaces.
• Institutional support to encourage this type of
student in a self regulating researcher culture.

20. The Dundee “Learning Journey”:
what and how?
• Where and how would students get credit
that related to your “big” aspirations for
‘global community ”and “multi-cultural
world”?

21. And finally
• Take our model
• Work with it and build it
• Extend our conversation

22. Contact Details
• Bill Johnston b.johnston@strath.ac.uk
• Sheila MacNeill s.macneill@strath.ac.uk
@sheilmcn
Blog posts: http://bit.ly/wUzP2p