Common issues in introducing new technologies into the curriculum -  some lessons learned

Pragmatic approaches to innovation

Innovation does not have to be about using new technology - the curriculum delivery programme has focused on responding to real challenges articulated by stakeholders. Sometimes small changes in existing practice can have the most far reaching impacts and projects have demonstrated that these changes can be supported as effectively by existing technologies as well as some newer and more challenging ones. 

There has been some interesting work with technologies that are familiar to most institutions (such as VLEs) and with lightweight low-cost solutions (such as Flickr and Facebook).  A pragmatic approach to technologies has meant that projects have responded to staff and student feedback and adapted or even abandoned the use of those that failed to engage, proved too complex to support (particularly at a distance), or could be replaced by a simpler more usable technology. For example, after investigation of dedicated audio conferencing software tools, COWL ended up using a combination of Skype and the Mikogo plug-in. This was not a programme where technologies were implemented for their own sake but because the technologies had particular affordances that support curriculum and learner support goals.

Engaging stakeholders in the development process

 There is a challenge when presenting technologies in development to key stakeholders. eBiolabs developed a new online laboratory of integrated tools to help students prepare for practical classes and to help staff track student achievement. They experienced a fine balance between the need to have a finished product, agile testing and development without having a negative impact on stakeholders during the early stages of their project. CASCADE found challenges in addressing some stakeholder misunderstandings and had to work to get staff to understand the difference between online submission and online marking​​. Staff expressed concerns about the latter. Managing stakeholder expectations of functionality of technologies and their limitations proved to be significant for some projects (INTEGRATE, CASCADE).

The importance of talking to institutional IT support teams to ensure that any new technology will work within the institutional network. IT teams can provide invaluable information and advice about will/won't work. They can also provide insights into scalability issues for future developments. Although web 2.0 technologies can be implemented relatively quickly, there can be issues when trying to increase the scale of trial projects. (MAC). 

Making better use of existing technologies - Technologies that have been available within institutions but not used effectively or routinely. Some projects took advantage of these technologies and the existing support mechanisms (COWL, Making the New Diploma a success, CASCADE).

Blending institutional with web-based and user-owned technologies - some projects were concerned with reducing the number of institutional technologies and associated costs by focusing on web-based technologies and student owned technologies (MoRSE, Atelier-D).  There is an ongoing debate around student ownership and use of personal technologies for learning purposes which some projects addressed (MoRSE, Duckling).

Scalability - Pilot activities that provide experience with technologies can raise staff and student expectations and are not always scaleable. (INTEGRATE, MAC).

Supporting students in technology use - Students don't always know which technologies are best for a task and can actually get in the way of learning achievement. ISCC identified this as a problem for design students where creative conversations were sometimes stifled by the supporting technologies and found that students saw the value of being told which technologies to use for specific tasks.

Importance of training - All projects acknowledged the need for awareness raising and training activities for both staff and learners and support mechanisms needed to be in place, particularly for supporting remote students (Making the Diploma a success, INTEGRATE, Duckling).

One step at a time - There can be a danger in trying to introduce too many new technologies at once so keeping it simple was an emerging message from the programme.

Allow technologies to evolve - The speed at which technologies change are significant – illustrated by Duckling as new e-book reader models already address many of the issues raised during the project. There can be a danger in changing policies and practice to accommodate shortfalls of technologies which needs to be balanced against waiting for technologies to evolve. Flexible open-source technologies offer opportunities for institutions to make the changes that are relevant to their own contexts, and can also be fed back to the wider community (CASCADE).

Technology is not just about software

Projects were not only looking at technologies in terms of software. ISCC developed a hybrid of both physical and online resources/environments to support their development around engaging students in design conversations and recording and sharing the conversations through the VLE. Springboard TV refurbished their TV studio with a range of state of the art broadcasting equipment to allow students to experience a "real studio", then again integrate that within the wider delivery of courses in both face-to-face and online environments.  Again the range of physical and software-based technologies trialled and eventually used, were based on the real needs of users, both staff and students.

Supporting active learning

 Technology can support a more active style of learning based around learners producing/creating content (Springboard TV, ISCC, Atelier D, MoRSE), openly collaborating (Atelier D, ISCC, Generation 4, Springboard TV, KUBE) and engaging in authentic activities in immersive worlds (Generation 4, Atelier D, Duckling). 

Curriculum Design - Changing how institutions consider the use of technologies – several projects made this an integral part of curriculum design activities (CASCADE, ESCAPE, KUBE), Duckling).