[Assocation for Learning Technology] [1]

[ALT appoints new Chief Executive: Susan Martin] [2]

ALT APPOINTS NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE: SUSAN MARTIN

We are delighted to update members that the Association has appointed Susan
Martin as our new Chief Executive. 

The recruitment panel, chaired by ALT’s Chair Helen O'Sullivan, undertook
a thorough and comprehensive selection process with the support of
recruitment specialists Harris Hill that involved the staff team and
Trustees. [...]

We are delighted to update members that the Association has appointed Susan Martin as our new Chief Executive. 

The recruitment panel, chaired by ALT’s Chair Helen O'Sullivan, undertook a thorough and comprehensive selection process with the support of recruitment specialists Harris Hill that involved the staff team and Trustees.

 

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[altc24] [3]

ALTC24 FINAL PROGRAMME ANNOUNCEMENT

 

We’re thrilled to announce the final programme for our flagship
conference, ALTC24 [4] is now available to view online [5]. You can look
forward to over 100 sessions and three keynotes fostering discussion around
key issues.

* Explore session abstracts [6]
* Humane Education: Empathy in Policies, Places, and Platforms - Chris
Friend [7]
* Imagining the Future of Education and Technology - Student Panel [8]
* Inviting Improvement through Lived Experience - Panel Discussion [9] [...]

By Neil Dixon, Uwe Richter (Anglia Ruskin University), Rob Howe (University of Northampton)

This is a report of our recent ALT East England (ALT EE) event on 4 July 2024. The blog starts with a brief summary of digital badges, and reports on the three presentations: Peter Harrison (Cranfield University), Bernadette Martin (The Open University) and Cory Saarinen (Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), University of Cambridge).

Attendees in the session were asked how many were considering or have used badges, and most had either tried badges or were considering investigating them. The polling results showed that there is an increasing recognition of the importance of reward and recognition within institutions. Therefore, this event was a timely way to share case studies and examples of how universities in the region are using digital badges and certifications.

Introduction: What are digital badges? (Uwe Richter, Associate Professor: Digital Pedagogic Innovation)

Digital badges are verifiable digital tokens and certificates that represent a skill or competency learned, an accomplishment achieved, or a program completed. Compared to traditional paper certificates, they offer greater accessibility and shareability.

In the education context, digital badges can be used to supplement traditional transcripts and certificates. They certify and showcase a student’s activities and accomplishments in curricular,  co-curricular or extra-curricular activities. These badges are highly motivating for students and a way to maintain a record of achievements and evidence for applying for jobs on graduation. However, badges may also be used to motivate progression within a module or course (gamification) using badging tools embedded in a virtual learning environment and these may not always  be shared externally.

Uwe also differentiated between digital certification and micro-credentialing, the latter being credit-bearing and, therefore, subject to quality assurance similar to academic modules and courses.

Using digital badges and credentials to enhance UX in learning and teaching (Peter Harrison, Head of Academic Practice and Education Excellence)

Cranfield University introduced badges originally  as a good way to encourage students to undertake activities that supported employability. From this the portfolio has expanded to more than sixty badges. Examples of badges included showcasing industry skills, personal growth and development, and self-evaluation and success. The most popular platform to share these badges is LinkedIn. 

Some of the learnings from implementing badges included the importance of metadata, which makes the badges easier to verify, and allows for portability. Another important factor is the design of the badges, using different templates and colours for core badges and short courses. Students can progress to different levels of badge within each area, so it is key that each badge theme remains consistent. To retain the integrity of the badge rewards, it is advisable to have awarded badges approved centrally.  

One takeaway from the project was to have a clear and transparent system from the outset, rather than making changes later on. By having such a system, the benefit is that badges can be changed and updated, so they can be used for different purposes as required.

Badged digital and information literacy course – the journey so far (Bernadette Martin, Learning & Teaching Librarian)

The Open University (OU) has a long history with badges and is increasingly offering digital badges within undergraduate modules to improve student engagement, motivation, well-being, and retention. Bernadette highlighted research from their curriculum design student panel indicating that 75% of students would be motivated by the prospect of earning a digital badge and 73% would be inclined to finish an activity if a digital badge were on offer. 

To capitalise on the potential usefulness of badges, the OU library is working towards offering badges for digital and information literacy skills, which is expected to launch in September 2024. The primary motivation for creating the badged course is to provide a “shop front” for the OU’s skills activities, increase engagement with these activities, and provide equity of access to all students. The badge courses will be aligned with the OU’s Digital and Information Literacy (DIL) framework and will cover all the DIL skills expected of students at each level. The benefits of the awarded badges are that they will give students opportunities to share evidence of their skills externally, such as to enhance their employability (like through LinkedIn, or their CVs).

Digital certificates and badging: our story so far (Cory Saarinen, Assistant Director – Technology Enhanced Learning )

A digital certificate and badge pilot project for non award-bearing courses at the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) aims to prepare for a flexible, modular future in higher education, where students may customise their learning paths. Previously, students received paper certificates of participation, which had limited utility and were time-consuming to produce. The digital certificates and badges aim to enhance student achievement recognition, improve shareability, increase utility, and ensure security.

Again, the most popular mode of sharing was either LinkedIn or email. Cory also talked about many of the benefits and values of digital badges such as automating processes, the ease of sharing, and the role in marketing. He also noted issues such as the security of the badges, for example, the risk of certificate alteration.

Concluding remarks

In summary, the main themes that came out of the discussion were that students value badges and find them useful. From a university perspective, they are useful for tracking learning and helping to motivate students to engage. However, there are still concerns raised regarding the value of badges to employers or how employers regard badges. With the amount of badge sharing on LinkedIn, it is clear that most badge holders value them. The impact on employability and the value to employers still needs further investigation. 

We thank Uwe, Peter, Bernadette, and Cory for such a fascinating session, and everyone who attended and contributed to the lively chat discussion. 

We’re thrilled to announce the final programme* for our flagship conference, ALTC24 is now available to view online

By Alice Chapman, ALTC24 Conference Committee Member

Picture this.

You arrive at a conference event that your manager has suggested you attend to meet your CPD objectives. Your train was delayed, and you didn’t have a seat for the duration of the journey. Despite your efforts to arrive early, you ended up rushing from the train station to find the venue, where you’re greeted by a busy person who thrusts a lanyard in your hand, telling you that the keynote is about to start, proceeding to give you lots of directions to the room.You try to spot somewhere to get some water, but you’re ushered up the corridor and reminded that there will be no seats left. You walk in the door which is located at the front of the room, and you scan the seats for a spare place to sit but everyone appears to be there with people they already know, and any other spare seats are occupied by bags. You notice a gap up the stairs, and it feels like your every move is being watched as you arrive next to someone who is frantically typing on their laptop, trying to get that extra email done before the event begins. And when the keynote speaker walks on to the stage, you find you are shaking, so much so that you can’t concentrate anyway and take none of the keynote session in.

Does that sound familiar?

We are all often reminded that conferences are good for professional development, providing networking opportunities, helping you in building your confidence, and a good chance to see different places. And whilst this may be true, and some people are natural at enjoying the experience of it all, for others it can be stressful and even cause high levels of anxiety.

Remember that you’re not on your own in feeling this way! Research shows us that in the UK, a little over 1 in 10 people will be living with an anxiety disorder at any one time which is over 8 million people (Mental Health UK).

What can we do if we experience anxiety around attending conferences?

Decide on the sessions you don’t want to miss in the programme ahead of arrival, including additional breaks if you know they would be beneficial for you.

Give yourself extra time for travel to and from the venue. Where possible, try and travel at quieter times.

Remember, it’s okay if you miss something! You don’t have to go to everything and sometimes, things are out of your control. It’s more important to take a moment for your wellbeing than try to fit everything in.

Make use of the quiet spaces. Step away if you’re feeling overwhelmed.

What can we do as delegates to help make people feel that they belong?

Be mindful of others while you’re at the conference. If you see someone that is on their own, say hello and give them a smile. Don’t be offended if they don’t want to chat, but your welcoming gestures may have helped them to feel more at ease.

Invite others to join you at lunch. This can be one of the most daunting times of the day so try and spot people who are on their own.

Only use the designated quiet space as somewhere to take a break from the conference, not as a workspace as some people really appreciate having a separate space to step away.

So, what is the main takeaway?

Be kind to yourself and be kind to others. Let’s make ALTC24 our most welcoming conference yet!

This year, #ALTC24 is heading back to Manchester on 3-5 September 2024 and we are looking forward to once again convening the Learning Technology community at this unmissable event.
Learn more and register here – altc.alt.ac.uk/2024.

By ​​Candela S. Baixauli

About Wooclap

Launched in 2015 by Jonathan Alzetta and Sébastien Lebbe, engineers from the École
Polytechnique de Bruxelles, Wooclap emerged from a passion for education and technology.
Recognising the growing challenge teachers faced in maintaining student attention, they
developed a neuroscience-based tool designed to enhance engagement and focus. In celebration of higher education institutions that have revolutionised pedagogical methods using Wooclap, the Interactive Learning Olympics were hosted, a global competition honouring the most interactive universities and schools.

A Global competition

This global competition recognised the most interactive education institutions in the world, those where students regularly respond to questions posed by their teachers. The participating institutions competed in nine categories, highlighting the various ways to use interactive technologies to engage students during and after classes.

The University of Edinburgh stood out in the international competition and won the gold medal in the Versatile Champions category, rewarding teachers for their use of various interactive questions such as Find on Image, Fill-in-the-Blanks, and many others.

As Alan Hamilton, Learning Technology Advisor at the University of Edinburgh, puts it: “[Wooclap] has certainly given us a lot more question types to use. The previous tool we used didn’t have as many. We try to encourage people to use more than just multiple-choice questions.”

Increased collaboration within educational teams

Other education professionals shared their vision of pedagogical innovation where collaboration among various stakeholders in education was particularly highlighted. This includes collaboration between teachers, between learning technologists and teachers, and involving students in the creation of learning resources.

Alan Hamilton, University of Edinburgh, “We created a SharePoint page where we build and maintain information and guidance on using Wooclap with all the different question types. This includes a ‘try it yourself’ participant-paced resource, where we explain each question type and provide examples. Each presenter can experience a question as a participant and use it as a resource to familiarise themselves with more unusual questions before their event or before teaching a class.“

Read more information on the competition and the winning universities.

Turn your students into active learners, try Wooclap for free and explore their educational
options.

>> Thanks for reading this AmplifyFE post! AmplifyFE is a strategic partnership between ALT and the Ufi VocTech Trust. AmplifyFE connects over 3000 professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community to share, collaborate and learn. We connect innovators, industry and educators, therefore, AmplifyFE posts may include contributions with a commercial focus. AmplifyFE’s posts are included on the #altc blog to support networking, collaboration and sharing. For more information, please check AmplifyFE’s dedicated submission guidelines.

The #altc blog submission guidelines detail who can post and the type of posts accepted to this blog.

Liesl Rowe, working at Leeds Beckett University, is the newest member of the Alt CoOL SIG. Read on to find out more about Liesl.

Where are you based?

I’ve been based in Leeds since 2021 and have worked at Leeds Beckett University for just over a year as their Senior Digital Library Advisor (Copyright). I’m responsible for answering any copyright queries; delivering training on copyright; and managing our digitisation service.

Online Channels 

My email is l.rowe@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

I can be found at:

LinkedIn: Liesl Rowe | LinkedIn

X: @libraryxmachina

BlueSky: littlebutfierce.bsky.social

What do you like?

I’m passionate about making copyright understandable and relevant to a wider audience. Students and staff at my institution often mention anxiety around ensuring they’re complying with guidelines or are unsure how it’s relevant to them. Working at a university with a thriving arts department, I think it’s crucial that they understand how to protect their own work as well as know how to respect others’ copyright. As such, I love finding cases of copyright coming to the attention of the general public and using that as a route to talk about key concepts, everything from the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons through to Mickey Mouse entering the public domain for the first time.

A bit about you

I started working in libraries in 2017, starting out in an inner-city London school as their Assistant Librarian before moving into acquisitions in HE. I got my start in copyright through working closely with academics to ensure that they had all the items they required for module development and processing digitisations.

A lot of my work is trying to pre-empt colleagues’ copyright issues so we have resources in place for them to utilise. This has included a leaflet on how academics can best protect their work and two “Copyright in Three Minutes” animated videos, one aimed at staff and one aimed at students. I’ve also taken a keen interest in AI developments: I’ve been working closely with a colleague to review different ways we can make use of AI as a library team, whilst also setting out some guidance for users so they follow best practice from a copyright point of view.

Hobbies/interest 

As a history graduate, it’s probably not a huge surprise that some of my hobbies have a historical angle: I’m an enthusiastic fencer and have entered a few competitions wielding the foil. Many of my weekends are spent visiting museums or stately homes. I’m also very fond of cooking. During the pandemic, I was very passionate about replicating many of my favourite restaurant dishes as a way of handling lockdown and this has grown into a passion for trying out new recipes. One of my greatest delights is to recreate dishes from history or whatever media I happen to be watching.

Theatre is one of my greatest passions in life. Despite having left the capital behind now, I do make a point of going to London a few times a year to indulge in seeing as many shows as possible, everything from Shakespeare through to the latest musicals.

By Andrew Larner, Manchester Metropolitan University

Summary

The definition of e-learning teams has evolved since the early 2000s (Joyce and Lisewski, 2003). In my roles as an E-Learning Technologist, Technology Enhanced Learning Advisor (TELA), and Digital Education Specialist, I’ve witnessed these changes firsthand. Until the COVID-19 Pandemic the factors affecting the role had generally been internal to Higher Education. 

COVID-19 lockdowns had a profound impact on Higher Education (for example, Watermeyer et al., 2021). Lockdowns required a rapid switch to emergency online teaching (Hodges, 2020) for universities across the world. Many teaching staff were suddenly overwhelmed by new technologies and teaching methods in an almost overnight switch.  

This had a direct effect on the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) team at Manchester Metropolitan University. When the lockdowns began TELAs were required to provide more technical support where previously support had been teaching focused. However, such was the demand for support to demonstrate the use of Microsoft Teams for online delivery we struggled to show pedagogy. Staff just needed to be able to use the tools available. 

Previously, I had been a face-to-face faculty contact, very visible and easily contactable on the phone or in the office. The requirement to ensure the team could cope with demand and provide redundancy if anyone was off sick meant I was now behind an IT style ticket system, working remotely and more centrally in the team to manage demand from across the university. 

I studied how the pandemic affected perceptions of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in the Faculty of Science and Engineering (S&E) at Manchester Metropolitan University.  I asked staff in S&E what their perceptions of the TEL Team were following the pandemic. I surveyed and interviewed staff in the summer of 2023. 

The findings suggested that colleagues considered technical and administrative activities were the focus of our role with Technical Selection and Learning Design scoring dismally. Using my research findings, I created a set of recommendations to change perceptions of the TEL Team’s role. These were written with specific reference to Manchester Metropolitan University’s context. 

Recommendations

Proactive Integration:

• Integrate into University processes. Reason: Stay informed about faculty activities, increase recognition, and have a high-level influence that can lead to more impactful outcomes.

Clearer Communication:

• Use clearer terminology and educational context in communications. Reason: Helps define the team as supporters of teaching rather than just technology.
• Focus on educational importance rather than technical details. Reason: Shifts the focus from technology to its educational benefits.
• Propose a single ‘must read’ email from all teaching support services for timely academic events. Reason: Reduces email overload and ensures important information is highlighted.

Holistic Programme Development:

• Support staff in early curriculum and programme planning to spot competency gaps in staff. Reason: Allows for timely support and skill development when staff need it.
• Embed and refresh Digital Education strategies regularly when programmes are reviewed. Reason: Ensures strategies remain relevant and effective as programmes evolve.

Training Offerings:

• Split into central sessions and tailored faculty-level training. Reason: Addresses different training needs and preferences between faculties.
• Shorten central sessions to 15-20 minutes, schedule at lunch times and push staff towards tailored one-to-one sessions. Reason: Increases attendance by making sessions more accessible and does not overload staff with extra detail.
• Integrate micro sessions into faculty meetings and collaborations. Reason: Makes training more relevant and convenient for staff.
• Reach out to education leads for departmental training bookings. Reason: Ensures training is tailored to departmental needs and increases engagement.

Rebranding One-to-One Sessions:

• Rebrand to ‘tutorials’ for a more academic feel. Reason: Makes sessions sound more educational and less technical.
• Provide tailored guidance on tool implementation within teaching. Reason: Helps staff apply digital tools effectively in their teaching.
• Say no to inappropriate queries and redirect staff to the correct support team. Reason: Develops staff understanding of the University support structure and team responsibilities. 

Online Resources:

• Defragment and simplify information on intranet and video portal. Reason: Makes resources easier to find and use. Takes smaller technical queries away from TEL. 
• Integrate videos into intranet pages, use less jargon and acronyms. Reason: Improves accessibility, understanding and demonstrates good practice.
• Limit technical demonstrations to those not provided by suppliers. Reason: Reduces the burden of creating and updating technical content.

These steps should help in redefining the role and perception of the Technology Enhanced Learning team, making them more integrated, recognised, and effective in supporting educational goals. Please share your own experiences, thoughts, feelings or suggestions on this subject in the comments! I’ll also be presenting on this topic at the ALT Conference in September. If you would like to discuss this subject further, I welcome you to join the session! You can also reach me via email at a.larner@mmu.ac.uk for any questions or further discussion.

References 

Hodges, C. et al. (2020) ‘The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning’, p. 12.

Joyce, P. and Lisewski, B. (2003) ‘On reification: a reinterpretation of designed and emergent practice – a reply’, Research in Learning Technology, 11(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v11i2.11278.

Watermeyer, R. et al. (2021) ‘COVID-19 and digital disruption in UK universities: afflictions and affordances of emergency online migration’, Higher Education, 81(3), pp. 623–641. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00561-y.

Did you enjoy reading this? To become a member of our community, see Membership details here https://www.alt.ac.uk/membership

 

by Katie Stripe, Imperial College London.

This post is the second of a series based on the Animated Inclusive Personae (AIP) project (Stripe and Meadows, 2024) which, at is heart, is about creating digital personae that genuinely represent the diversity of our students. This post is less of an update on the project and more an exploration of some of the issues that have arisen, primarily around language, and a request to the community for reference material, thoughts, and ideas for collaboration.

In part one of this series (Stripe, 2024), we discussed the difficulties with finding appropriate images that was the driver for the project. In response to this we are commissioning artwork from humans, which is going really well, but there is another issue of scalability and the language we use to talk about what we want from images, particularly when it comes to racial identity.

As part of the project we run a workshop on developing inclusive curricula using digital personas (Stripe and Dallison, 2024) that explores how to create an inclusive persona in which we share the stock images that are we used for the initial project.

There is a broad range of visual diversity represented but one of the most frequent comments is that they are all ‘beautiful’. They all look like models. In some ways that is inevitable, because they probably are. How else does an image get into a photo library? This is why we started the project and hired artists to create illustrations which we are in control of. However, this has raised a different set of questions, one that revolves around the language used to instruct an artist to create an illustration that represents a certain demographic.

This has wider implications than just commissioning artwork. As we discussed in the last post one of the issues with searching image banks is the way assets are tagged. The language that is used and the elements that are described in the metadata is important for searching out appropriate images but this is by no means the only place the descriptive language is used. We have not yet explored Generative AI for creating images, partly because supporting artists by commission them to create assets for is a good thing to do if you have the resources, but there is also the consideration of what exactly you would ask it to generate.

What language would you use?

Finally, however the images are generated, there needs to be alt text for the assets. Which again poses the question what elements do you describe and what language do you use?

Shutter Stock has requirements for the metadata (Shutterstock, Inc., 2024) on submitted images that ask for a minimum of seven and maximum of fifty keywords and the definition of an image against a set of categories. The categories are a finite list but there is no real guidance on what should be in the keywords. Nappy.co (SHADE and Boogie Brands, 2024) is an image library for ‘beautiful photos of Black and Brown people’ which in some instances references the colour of the person’s skin in the metadata but not all. With such a diverse range of skin tones, representing broad and diverse communities, is it enough to simply say ‘Black’ when defining an image? If not, what do you say?

When tagging images, adding alt text, or using AI, the advice is almost always to be as specific as possible. When discussing race and ethnicity we are being steered away from using the term BAME (Cabinet Office, 2021), and rightly so, as the term covers so many identities that is unhelpful. However, when tagging, and hence searching, we are forced to write statements like ‘East Asian’ because, unless it was tagged with knowledge of the person in the image we do not know for sure if that image is of a Chinese person, or Japanese, or American. So, if you want to represent a Chinese American what options do you have?

Discussing with our artists (all students) what was needed in order to support them in generating images for racial identities different from their own resulted in an image trawl of different identities for research. A valid approach, and essentially what a Generative AI tool would do, but in doing that you could be forgiven for concluding that all Korean people look like K Pop stars. Consider who has their images on the internet, or in image libraries, and what metadata will be associated with them. As already discussed, image libraries provide a certain type of image, and anyone with their biographical details on the internet is likely to be famous in some way and therefore are unlikely to represent a range of ‘normal’ people from that demographic. This again brings us to the question, if you want to represent a Chinese American what options do you have?

One could ask, and legitimately so, why this is important. The ethos of this project is to represent the broad range of diversity in our student cohort, and for us that means creating images, which while they are not photorealistic, still need to be appropriate when it comes to racial diversity. We are also developing backgrounds, and stories for these characters so it is important to get an image that matches the story.

Furthermore, once these assets are produced, they need to be tagged appropriately and given relevant and descriptive alt text. The argument for describing diverse traits in alt text is clear and underpins the whole reason for the project and the need to ask these questions. ‘When we don’t describe the race of someone in an image, we push the narrative that what our society deems as the default (usually a white person), is the default.’ (Adegbite, 2022)

However, with such a sensitive subject I do not feel that we, as a society, or a group of educators and designers, have enough language to describe, safely and confidently, what we need to in order to change the way we tag images, commission artwork (from humans or AI) or provide details for assistive technology.

And we need that.

References

• Adegbite, T. (2022) The case for describing race in alternative text attributes, Medium. Available at: https://ux.shopify.com/the-case-for-describing-race-in-alternative-text-attributes-a093380634f2 (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• Cabinet Office (2021) Writing about ethnicity, www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk. Available at: https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/style-guide/writing-about-ethnicity/#bame-and-bme (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• SHADE and Boogie Brands (2024) Nappy, Nappy. Available at: https://nappy.co (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• Shutterstock, Inc. (2024) Content Publishing Standards: Contextual Metadata, support.submit.shutterstock.com. Available at: https://support.submit.shutterstock.com/s/article/Content-Publishing-Standards-Contextual-Metadata (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• Stripe, K. (2024) Generating inclusive images to represent students – Animated Inclusive Personae (Part 1), #ALTC Blog. Available at: https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/2024/01/generating-inclusive-images-to-represent-students-animated-inclusive-personae-part-1 (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• Stripe, K. and Dallison, K. (2024) Developing inclusive curricula using digital personas, Imperial College London. Available at: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/staff/educational-development/workshops/focus-on/developing-inclusive-curricula-using-digital-personas (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• Stripe, K. and Meadows, C. (2024) Animated Inclusive Personae, Imperial College London. Available at: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/about/education/get-involved/funding-opportunities-for-learning-and-teaching-innovation/funded-projects-funding-opportunities-for-learning-and-teaching-innovation/personae (Accessed: 25 July 2024).

Dear Members,

I hope you are all well and have some time off planned over the summer to rest and recuperate. At ALT, we are entering our busy period as preparations ramp up for our Annual Conference and AGM. I have lots to share with you in this update.

Could you be our next Trustees?

Our Trustees are a vital part of ALT. Our Trustees set ALT’s direction, are responsible for ALT’s strategy and the overall performance of the association. We have two vacancies for appointed Trustees and are seeking enthusiastic individuals to join our Board. Find out more about how to apply. Applications close on Monday 29 July at 12:00 BST (noon).

Annual Conference 2024

We are really looking forward to our Annual Conference in September. We had a fantastic response, as ever, to the Call for Papers and Scott, Diane and the Conference Committee worked hard to complete the peer review of every submission. The ALTC24 draft programme is out now and we’ve announced our keynotes.

Opening the conference on Tuesday, Chris Friend will explore empowering people through technology in ‘Humane Education: Empathy in Policies, Places, and Platforms’. On Wednesday, our student panel will be ‘Imagining the Future of Education and Technology’ and sharing their thoughts on what the future could hold. Our final keynote on Thursday, will explore how our panel fosters inclusive environments and spaces by ‘Inviting Improvement through Lived Experience’.

This year sees the return of the popular ALTC Radio show hosted and organised by DJ extraordinaire Dom Pates and we introduced a new theme focused on emerging research. Our Gala Dinner will include our Awards ceremony and evening entertainment.

As I mentioned in my last report, we are trying a new venue this year. The venue is well connected by rail and air with accommodation in the vicinity or short train ride to Manchester city centre. I look forward to hearing your feedback on it. We know the timing of our Annual Conference is a challenge with children starting school or the start of term at work for many, so, we are trying out this kind of venue as we have more flexibility on the timing of the conference in future.

We know how difficult the current economic climate is and the challenge of securing funding and time to attend conferences like ours. To help our Members, we have written a blog on ‘Writing a business case to attend ALTC24‘ with tips and suggestions for writing a strong case to attend. Thank you to our Trustee Puiyin Wong for sharing the case she wrote as an example.

Annual General Meeting 2024

Our Annual General Meeting will take place at our Annual Conference on Wednesday 4 September. If you are unable to attend the conference, you can register to join the AGM online. Resolutions must be received by 16:00 on Friday 26 July.

ALT Awards

We had a fantastic response to our call for nominations this year. We introduced a new award with our partners at Ufi VocTech Trust that aims to highlight the work of educators who develop student skills in vocational subjects (education that prepares people for a skilled craft as an artisan, trade as a tradesperson, or work as a technician). Our judges had a very difficult job selecting our winners and we look forward to awarding them at our Gala Dinner in September.

This year, we reintroduced the Community Choice Award to enable our Members to have a say in who they feel deserves recognition for their work. I encourage you all to read the entries and vote for the person or team you feel is most deserving of recognition. Voting is open until Thursday 22 August 2024 (at noon). You only get one vote, make it count!

CMALT Online Course

The CMALT Online course, tentatively titled “Your guide to Certified Membership of ALT (CMALT)” is progressing at pace. Our friends at Catalyst IT Europe have provided the cloud-based Moodle platform that will host the course. My thanks to Richard Oelmann, Joey Murison and Sam Taylor for helping us make it happen.

We have been very lucky to have the support of the team at King’s Digital to design and create the content. Having the collective learning design skills and experience of the team has been invaluable. My thanks to Michael Kay, Hazel Deacon, Elisa Vallarani and Evelyn Huang (and everyone involved that I have forgotten) for the hard work they have put in to this project.

In June, CMALT holders and assessors were invited to record videos for the course on their experiences and tips. My thanks to Anna Armstrong, Ellie Dommett, Geraldine Foley, Kiran Gawali, Tom Gurney, Antony Makrinos, David Reid Matthews, Dom Pates, Sheila Smith, Julie Voce and Puiyin Wong for giving up their time to create content to help their peers. We are very lucky at ALT to have such generous Members!

Image from a post on X by Puiyin Wong/@Puiyin. “It was fun filming [for] the upcoming…#CMALT course for @A_L_T today with Dom Pates/@dompates & Anna Armstrong/@frenchdisko. We aced it! Julie Voce/@julievoce you better watch out, ours are better than yours!”

We plan to demonstrate the course at the Annual Conference in September. King’s Digital will also share the process and approaches they go through to design and create the course. I hope you’ll join us on Thursday 5 September at 13:30 for our session.

Launching new Special Interest Groups

This year, we reopened applications for new Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and received a brilliant response. We are introducing four new SIGs who will launch at the Annual Conference. We will be inviting Members to get involved as Officers of these new SIGs very shortly so watch this space!

CEO Recruitment

Our Board of Trustees have been very busy over the last few weeks interviewing candidates for our next CEO. Thanks to our recruitment consultant Jenny Hill, from Harris Hill, we had a very strong field. We will update Members on the outcome as soon as we can.

Call to get involved

We will shortly be inviting Members to get involved in ALT, as we do every year, via our ‘call to get involved’. Participation is a core value at ALT and our Members are integral to everything we do. By getting involved in our activities, you can shape what we do. I hope to see lots of new Members get involved in what we do!

We are looking for expressions of interest for officer roles for our new Special Interest Groups (SIGs), launching in September 2024. The four new SIGs focus on: Digital Accessibilty, Digital Assessment, Independent Consultancy & Career Pathways, and Digital Sustainability. We will launch these new SIGs as part of the Annual Conference 2024.

Expressions of interest for Officer roles

Nominations are invited for the following Officers:

Digital Accessibility SIG

Subheading: 

Applications for our two Trustee vacancies close on Monday 29 July 2024 at 12:00 PM BST (noon).

The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) is the leading professional body for Learning Technology in the UK. We represent individual and organisational Members from all sectors including Further and Higher Education and industry. We provide recognition and accreditation for those with a professional interest in Learning Technology. 

 

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COULD YOU BE OUR NEXT TRUSTEE?

 

We are seeking two new Trustees to join ALT's Board. Our Trustees set ALT's
direction, are responsible for ALT's strategy and the overall performance
of the Association.

YOU HAVE UNTIL 12:00 PM BST (NOON) ON MONDAY 29 JULY TO SUBMIT YOUR
APPLICATION. [...]

Accessibility is so important and can't be ignored, yet so often we see inaccessible documents and presentations being used. Integrating accessibility tools not only benefits those students and staff who really need it, but make the experience of navigating and using documents take up less cognitive load for everyone! In this session Stephen Taylor will introduce you to some quick accessibility fixers you can start applying, why you should apply them, and how they will benefit everyone. 

 

Interested in getting further into using AI tools for online courses but not sure where to start? In this session, Leonard Houx, Director of Learning Design at Cambridge Education Group, will show ideas for using free AI tools to conceive, strategise, and deliver and analyse your online courses.

 

Speaker: Leonard Houx is the Director of Learning Design at Cambridge Education Group. He is a fellow of the Centre for Online and Distance Education, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Association and a former Director of the Learning Network. He has written about online learning for the Financial Times, Times Higher Ed, and Guardian.