#ALTC Blog

By Alice Chapman, Officer for the ALT Digital Accessibility SIG and ALTC25 Conference Committee member

Ahead of ALTC 2025, I’ve been thinking about what it truly means to design learning technology with empathy and inclusion at its heart. The conference will soon bring these conversations into focus, but the work starts now by putting accessibility first.

In today’s digital-first world, learning technology opens doors to education, opportunity, and connection. But even in this modern world, the doors are still closed for too many learners. Accessibility is too often treated as a checkbox when in reality, it should be seen as the foundation of inclusive and effective learning design.

As we look to the past, present, and future of digital education at the upcoming ALT Annual Conference (ALTC), accessibility must take centre stage. Not just because of legislation or compliance standards, but because learning should be for everyone.

Why accessibility matters

According to the World Health Organization, “An estimated 1.3 billion people – about 16% of the global population – currently experience significant disability.” In the language of further and higher education, that’s a substantial number of learners whose needs must be considered. More specifically in the realms of learning technology, digital platforms are now central to how we study, teach, and collaborate. If these tools aren’t accessible, entire communities of learners are left behind.

The most exciting innovations in learning technology are those that prioritise accessibility and inclusivity from the start. Think interactive captioning and transcription, immersive simulations that adapt to learners’ needs, and design frameworks that embed platforms to support diverse experiences. These tools help to close the gap, but only if accessibility is embedded from the beginning and not enacted as an afterthought.

Challenges we still face

Despite progress, challenges remain. Platforms don’t always work seamlessly with screen readers. Colour contrast, navigation, and interface design often exclude rather than empower. Text alternatives can be inaccurate or not even present. But when we dig into these, we can see that these issues aren’t just technical issues, they’re human. And the good news is, they’re solvable.

By embedding accessibility into the design stage, we can address these challenges early and create learning experiences that truly support everyone.

Let’s move from compliance to compassion

Accessibility is often framed in terms of compliance. “We must meet WCAG 2.2 standards by ticking boxes and satisfying legal requirements.” And while these are important, and can be supportive to implement change, the real transformation comes from compassion. 

It’s about designing with empathy by talking to the learner who can’t hear the audio, the learner who struggles with a cluttered screen, the learner who relies on a keyboard instead of a mouse. When institutions shift from compliance-driven to compassion-driven design, learning becomes more equitable, engaging, and empowering.

Join the conversation at the ALT conference

One of this year’s key themes at ALTC is Digital by Design: People, Empathy and Experience. It’s a chance to explore the future of learning technology together and to challenge ourselves to put accessibility and empathy at the heart of everything we create.

Whether you’re a learning technologist, educator, policymaker, or simply passionate about digital inclusion, this conference is an opportunity to connect, share ideas, and shape the future of learning.

Date: 23 and 24 October 
Location: Glasgow Marriott
Register here: ALT Annual Conference 2025 Registration | Association for Learning Technology

Accessibility happens when we design with, not for, our learners.

Whether you’re attending ALTC 2025 or championing accessibility in your own institution, take one action this month: talk to a learner about how they experience your learning platforms. Then bring that insight back to your team, and to Glasgow! 

ALT’s Annual Conference is one of the UK’s largest conferences for learning technology and digital education professionals. The conference provides a valuable and practical forum for practitioners, researchers, managers and policy-makers from education and industry to solve problems, explore, reflect, influence and learn.

ALTC25 will take place in Glasgow on 23 and 24 October 2025.  Register Here .

Hello and welcome to a new academic year!

To kick things off, the Digital Assessment SIG is inviting proposals for speakers at our first webinar of the year. The theme will be “Training Staff to Use Digital Assessment Tools”, which aligns with one of our key areas of focus: Digital assessment technologies.
To find out more about the webinar please visit Training staff to use Assessment Tools webinar or if you’d like to present, please fill an expression of interest Google form by the 17th of October 2025.

We’re planning to run webinars quarterly throughout the year, this year’s themes are:

• Training Staff to use Digital Assessment Tools
• Digital Exams and PaperScript Scanning
• Marking and Feedback of Digital Assessments
• Digital Assessments and Student Voices

We’re also excited to share that we are recruiting a new officer to join our Special Interest Group. If you’re interested, we’d love to hear from you.
Submit your expression of interest by the by 3/11/2025 by emailing: ALT-DIGITALASSESSMENTSIG-request@jiscmail.ac.uk 

The working group on AI in Summative Assessments would like to share that they have received over 300 responses from across the sector to their first survey and hope to publish the results very soon. They have now started the second stage of their survey and would like you to share what you think about having your marking work done by AI. Please tell them via this survey (URL: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/northumbria/ai-summative-assessment) – and share with your colleagues and students!! 

Finally, some of us will be attending the ALTC Group Fest in Glasgow — see programme details at Beyond ALTC 25 Programme. Pay special attention to the workshop and presentations by our Co-Chairs Alison Gibson and Gemma Westwood, as well as saying hello to Helen Greetham our third Co-Chair, who will be completing session chairing duties as a member of the conference committee. Do come and say hello at the Digital Assessment SIG stall to ask about workshops, talks or anything to do with digital assessment, we’d be delighted to meet you. If you are unable to attend in person the SIG also has a spot on the ALTc Radio, details to be confirmed on the conference website, please listen in from wherever you are in the world if you are able.

By Jon Chandler (UCL) and Jamie Wood (University of Lincoln)

Much of the debate about generative AI in higher education has focused on the “death of the essay” and whether machines will make independent research and deep reading redundant. These concerns are particularly strong in the Humanities and Social Sciences, where essay writing has long been a central part of the learning process. But the real issue is not that AI has destroyed traditional forms of learning; it’s that we already lacked robust ways to teach students how to read and write effectively in digital spaces. 

Shortly before ChatGPT entered public consciousness in late 2022, we completed a QAA-funded project, Active Online Reading (AOR), that explored how students read online for their studies and how universities supported them to do so. We wanted to find out what students did when reading online and what pedagogies worked. We discovered that student practice varied greatly, that many struggled with reading online and that approaches to teaching students to read digitally in online spaces were not particularly well developed. 

Generative AI only intensifies these challenges. It increasingly mediates students’ encounters with texts by outsourcing processes of summarisation, annotation, and note-taking which are crucial stages of the “reading into writing” process. If students rely on AI to “read” for them, how can we assess genuine comprehension or critical engagement? As we argued in AOR, strategies such as collaborative annotation and structured scaffolding of digital reading can help develop students’ skills as online readers. These approaches foreground transparency, reflection, and peer interaction, which are the very qualities we need to develop among our students if they are to engage critically with AI.

Our AOR research also identified several worrying disjunctions. 

1. Academics recognised that online reading is vital for learning within their discipline, but few of them devoted much time to helping students learn how to do it effectively.
2. Support was available, but it tended to sit within study skills or library teams, often disconnected from core degree programmes.
3. Students reported that the move to university was accompanied by often unexpected difficulty in reading, but this was rarely acknowledged or addressed in transition modules.

We recommended closer collaboration between academics and skills development and library teams, more attention to transition, in particular a greater understanding of how students are taught to read before they arrive at university, and more sustained thinking about the specific skills that are necessary for reading online. This more integrated approach should, we believe, be adopted when we think about AI. Rather than focusing solely on preventing misuse, we should ask: Why do students turn to AI? How do they use it? What works and what doesn’t? And what specific skills do the need to use is more critically? 

Our research that we will be presenting at ALT-C 2025 suggests that students tend to over-rate their own skills as AI users while judging their peers as ineffective and uncritical. This suggests a potential mismatch between perception and practice, which can only be addressed by careful and transparent teaching.The core skills that degrees in the Humanities and Social Sciences have long cultivated – analytical thinking, deep reading, independent research, critical reflection, and problem-solving – remain crucial to informed engagement with (or disengagement from) AI. Neglecting these basics potentially undermines students’ ability to engage productively with a whole host of digital tools, of which generative AI is just the most prominent and recent example. The frameworks for cultivating reading practices that we identified in AOR are both human-centred and digitally literate, and can potentially help students navigate a world where reading is increasingly mediated by machines, but still fundamentally a social and intellectual act.

ALT’s Annual Conference is one of the UK’s largest conferences for learning technology and digital education professionals. The conference provides a valuable and practical forum for practitioners, researchers, managers and policy-makers from education and industry to solve problems, explore, reflect, influence and learn.

ALTC25 will take place in Glasgow on 23 and 24 October 2025.  Register closes 20 October 2025.

The 2nd annual UK Women in Tech Week is taking place on 13-17 October. This nationwide initiative celebrates the impact of women across the tech industry. Focused on career growth, networking, and innovation, this event continues to champion equality and empower women in the tech industry.

This #WomenInTechWeek, we’re celebrating three pioneering women whose contributions laid the foundation for modern computing and digital education. As AI reshapes the future of learning, members of the ALT community stand poised to become the next generation of trailblazers.

Here’s to the trailblazers!

Ada Lovelace (1815–1852)

Often regarded as one of the world’s first computer programmers, Ada Lovelace worked with Charles Babbage on his Analytical Engine and wrote the first algorithm intended for machine processing. Her visionary thinking imagined computers as tools for creativity, not just calculation.

“The more I study, the more insatiable do I feel my genius for it to be.” – Ada Lovelace

Grace Hopper (1906–1992)

A pioneering computer scientist and U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, Hopper developed the first compiler and played a key role in the creation of COBOL, one of the earliest high-level programming languages. She was a tireless advocate for making computing accessible and intuitive.

“The most dangerous phrase in the language is, ‘We’ve always done it this way’.” – Grace Hopper

Mary Allen Wilkes (b. 1937)

A software engineer and computer scientist, Wilkes is best known for her work on the LINC computer, considered one of the first personal computers. She was also the first person to use a PC in a home setting, challenging norms and expanding the possibilities of computing.

“I never thought of myself as a pioneer. I just did the work that was in front of me.” – Mary Allen Wilkes

Inspired by the remarkable legacies spotlighted during Women in Tech Week, we’re reminded of the trailblazers who continue to redefine what’s possible in digital education. Their journeys inspire us to imagine our own role in shaping a future where ethical AI, inclusive design, and creative pedagogy thrive.

In a world of rapid change and digital complexity, the ALT Annual Conference 2025 offers a space to take purposeful action. Join us in Glasgow next week to explore how strong digital foundations can unlock bold, inclusive, and imaginative possibilities for learning.

The highlight of the week? The announcement of the 2025 ALT Award winners on 23 October. Be there to celebrate the innovators who are lighting the way.

Let’s honour the past, shape the future, and celebrate together.

By Dominic Pates

2025 marks the fifth anniversary of ALTc Radio as a unique fringe event that runs alongside the main annual conference.

The radio component was born in the first 2020 Covid lockdown, when ALT ran a version of the annual conference online and I donated a radio platform for after-hours entertainment (full origin story here). ALTc Radio continued as an online only broadcast add-on to the main event for a few more conferences. At Warwick in 2023, we experimented with adding a radio layer to the entire conference. This year in Glasgow will be the third consecutive year of running a full hybrid parallel programme from one of the conference venues. 

Basing the station at the conference venue fuses the music and chat with the buzz of the in-person event but also ensures that those nowhere near can still get a feeling of participation in ALTc from a distance. Starting with four new learning technologist DJs in 2020 over two hours for the 2020 Summer Summit, by 2024 ALTc Radio welcomed 20 new voices onto the air, racked up 43 hours of unique programming and gained over 1,500 unique listens. Over 40 members of the learning technology community have now made individual, collective and in some cases repeated contributions to ALTc via this novel medium.

At its core, ALTc Radio is a vehicle for sharing and reflecting on professional practice within and beyond the learning technology community, somewhat different from regular outlets like presentations, journal articles, workshops and social media posts. Since 2024, a 60-minute radio show has been included as part of the calls for proposals when ALT seeks contributions for the conference.

It is also a means of bringing a musical layer to this community and to provide a sense of what learning technology sounds like. Unsurprisingly, the learning technology community sounds highly eclectic! The hybrid format for the station at the in-person conferences mean that there is a physical booth at the conference and that the sessions are a mix of live in-person, live online and pre-recorded, with the whole programme being simulcast throughout the conference venue and live for free over the web.

Some of those that made their debuts with us on ALTc Radio have gone on to become regular presenters on The Thursday Night Show (TTNS), the show’s weekly parent platform. You can hear many of them, along with a host of familiar and new voices this year as ALTc Radio sends out our first signals from Scotland. 

Below are a few testimonials from those that were part of the programme in 2024:

I found using the music as a prompt for talking about people’s practice worked very well – not only did it give them a different lens to reflect on it through…but it also got them talking because they were enthused by their music.

It was a great way to share the research that we have been doing as a group, joining this up to careful music choices allowed to showcase our range of emotions in completing the research alongside the research itself, humanising the work that we have been doing.

I couldn’t make it to ALTc in person this year but being part of the radio programme allowed me to still feel part of the conference. I loved being able to tune into the other shows and hear the discussions there as well as being able to join the social media chats.

What’s happened with ALTc Radio since Manchester 2024? Plenty, it turns out. 

Aside from a month of rewinds of shows from that event to kick off 2025 with, we also branched out with another live event in February to bring a radio broadcast from a local chapter of the global Critical Studies in Educational Technology (CSET) series. CSET 2025 was a collection of over 50 events happening around the world based around the common theme of ‘problematising education and digital technology’, co-ordinated by Monash University’s Prof Neil Selwyn. ALTc Radio broadcast a show from University of the Arts London, live streaming the main event speakers and providing sets of related music in between.

We were delighted to be recipient of a Jisc Community Champion Award at Digifest in March, in the Community Pioneers category. And in May, ALTc Radio was the subject of an #LTHEchat, the weekly ‘speed CPD’ social media chat event that now runs on Bluesky (prompt blog post here). Following are summaries of the kinds of responses that people gave to some of the chat questions.

The event started by asking what music helps people to get in the zone for professional contexts such as teaching, training, presenting, or writing. Many opt for instrumental music when writing to avoid lyrical distraction, with popular choices including ambient or classical music, film soundtracks, and lo-fi beats. Jazz got several mentions, while others swore by liquid drum and bass or techno for maintaining concentration. Interestingly, some favoured high-energy options like northern soul or feel-good classics from the 60s and 70s, whilst marking work called for everything from Beethoven piano sonatas to hard trance. 

Another question asked for examples of music being used to effectively support or enhance teaching and learning. People shared stories of ‘walk-on’ tracks marking the start of lectures, playlists co-created with students, and songs used to teach language, rhythm, or mood. Subject-specific choices to enhance atmosphere were given, such as the Gladiator theme for Roman history lectures. Language teachers employed song lyrics to teach grammar and vocabulary, and make concepts stick memorably. Music was used to create atmosphere, aid focus, or simply make sessions more human. However, multiple voices also cautioned about accessibility and neurodivergent considerations, noting that background music can be overwhelming or distracting for some learners.

How did people feel about music being a component of CPD activities? Responses were cautiously positive and emphasised the importance of thoughtful implementation. When done well and placed strategically, people thought that music can enhance conferences and workshops – as entrance music, during breaks, or as part of icebreaker activities. Several appreciated music filling silence as participants join online events. There was noticeable concern about inclusivity too, such as background music during sessions creating barriers for those with hearing loss or auditory processing disorders.

We also asked what respondents thought radio could bring as a medium for CPD and the sharing of professional practice. People felt that radio offers a unique blend of immediacy, intimacy, and community. Unlike podcasts, there was a sense that live radio can foster a sense of shared experience and belonging. The audio-only format easily allows for simultaneous listening and note-taking. For others, it was seen as an accessible, low-barrier medium, ideal for multitasking and reflection.

So, come and find the radio booth and say hello if you’re in Glasgow or just join us in the chatroom if you’re online only. And if you can’t wait to get stuck in, here’s a playlist that was hurriedly put together during the #LTHEchat that reflects some of the broad range of what learning technology sounds like:

#LTHEchat playlist (music and radio)

ALT’s Annual Conference is one of the UK’s largest conferences for learning technology and digital education professionals. The conference provides a valuable and practical forum for practitioners, researchers, managers and policy-makers from education and industry to solve problems, explore, reflect, influence and learn.

ALTC25 will take place in Glasgow on 23 and 24 October 2025.  Register closes 20 October 2025.

By Keith Smyth, Chair of ALT’s Board of Trustees

When the ALT Annual Conference was last held in Scotland, at the University of Edinburgh in September 2019, we were unknowingly a few short months away from the world suddenly becoming a more precarious place. For education, the challenges brought forth by the global pandemic included the emergency move to fully online learning and teaching, the strive for equity of support for students who were now studying at home, and the continued diversification of digitally enabled practices during and beyond the lockdown period.

ALT, our membership community, and the wider communities we represent were at the forefront of responding to and shaping effective, evidence-based approaches to digital education within and following the pandemic. This we achieved and continue to achieve collectively and creatively, through critical consideration and reflection on current and emergent factors and developments. This includes the advent and subsequent championing and corresponding concern with Generative Artificial Intelligence, and within which context ALT has sought to facilitate a critically-focused scrutiny of what GAI does and does not offer education, including though this year’s OER25 Conference in June – on the topic of ‘Speaking Truth to Power: Open Education and AI in the Age of Populism’ – and September’s online follow-up event Open Education, AI, and Populism – Revisited.

Given the developments of the past few years, how fitting and fantastic it is, then, that this year’s ALT Annual Conference 2025 is returning to Scotland under the theme of ‘Stronger Foundations, Broader Horizons’, and with key sub-themes including:

• Back to Basics: Reclaiming the Core
• Digital by Design: People, Empathy, and Experience
• Learning in Motion: Connecting Pathways, People, and Places 
• Critical Imagination: Questioning and Creating in Digital Spaces
• and the wildcard sub-theme, which for this year is ‘Innovation from the Margins’

In a continued time of uncertainty, the conference promises to explore the above themes with a focus on how robust digital foundations can empower more expansive, inclusive, and imaginative possibilities, to shape a more connected and equitable digital future. 

Helmed by three excellent co-chairs in Laura Milne, Emily Nordmann and Joe Wilson, and with invited keynote sessions by Charles Knight, Gabi Witthaus and our Student Panel – who will be tackling the topic of ‘Beyond the Myth of the Digital Native’ – it is clear that the conference programme will be delivering, and then some, on the above promise.

In returning to Scotland for the first time since 2019, the ALT Annual Conference is also coming to Glasgow for the very first time, and many will say (including this born and bred Edinburgher) that this is very long overdue. 

Glasgow is a vital, socially and culturally rich, politically active city that is not only recognised as a seat of higher and further education, but has also been at the forefront of progressing access to informal, lifelong and life-wide learning including in community and workers’ rights contexts. Glasgow has also long been a locus of activity and commitment in relation to the work of ALT, and the home city to many of ALT’s most active members, leaders and trustees past and present. This includes Joe Wilson, convenor of the ALT Scotland group and one of two Glasgow-based co-chairs for this year’s conference alongside Emily Nordmann, with Joe and Emily co-chairing alongside Laura Milne from the University of Chester. 

In his recent blog post about ALTC 2025, Joe observed how this year’s conference, in addition to coming to Glasgow for the first occasion, sees another first for the ALT annual conference. This is in scheduling the annual conference for a time that is friendlier for colleagues who work in our colleges in the Further Education sector. This marks one of a number of current directions in which ALT as a membership association and charity is moving to further diversify our activities, and be as inclusive as possible with respect to our membership and the wider learning technology and digital education practice community.

In welcoming learning technologists and those working in wider relevant roles from across and beyond the UK to the ALT Annual Conference 2025, we hope to also be welcoming yourself to what we know will be a brilliant two days in one of the world’s finest cities. A full Scottish and Glasgow welcome awaits, including music and dancing at the Ceilidh that will feature at the conference Awards dinner. Dancing is optional of course, but either way we’ll be doing all we can to ensure that everyone will go home with a wee spring in their step!

ALT’s Annual Conference is one of the UK’s largest conferences for learning technology and digital education professionals. The conference provides a valuable and practical forum for practitioners, researchers, managers and policy-makers from education and industry to solve problems, explore, reflect, influence and learn.

ALTC25 will take place in Glasgow on 23 and 24 October 2025.  Register closes 20 October 2025.

We’re delighted to mark the first anniversary of Susan Martin as CEO of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT). With a fresh perspective and a streamlined staff team, Susan is leading the charge for change, redefining how ALT supports its members and stakeholders. Over the past 12 months, she has been working on overhauling the ALT strategy, bringing fresh insight into ALT’s future direction.

Through close collaboration with the Board of Trustees and a strong focus on community engagement, Susan is positioning ALT to embrace member-led change that responds to both grassroots priorities and the evolving landscape. In this blog profile, Susan reflects on her first year at the helm, her vision for the future, and what continues to inspire her leadership. 

How has your first year as CEO of ALT shaped your perspective on the sector?

The past 12 months have confirmed for me quite how dynamic, exciting and fast-moving (sometimes a little too fast) this sector can be. I’ve been involved in learning technology and digital education in one way or another since 2002, yet being in the ALT CEO role has given me a broader and richer perspective. I’m particularly excited about the diversity of careers that are opening up for people, and the increasing opportunity to move between organisations based in different sectors or have ‘squiggly’ careers.  There are still lots of us that are ‘accidental’ professionals in this space, but there is also an ever-growing body of colleagues who are able to plan out an interesting, enjoyable, productive career working with learning technologies.

What’s your vision for ALT in the years ahead?

We are seeing digital education professionals have an increasingly complex set of balls to juggle: rapidly engage with new or evolving technologies; deploy advanced digital infrastructure and tools to improve learner outcomes; advise senior leadership on the impact (both positive and negative) of learning technologies and the wider tech landscape; become senior leaders of their organisations, and collaborate with a raft of commercial stakeholders in the education and training sectors.  ALT has a mission to support people in all of those roles, and the ongoing work on our new 2025-2030 Strategy (due to be launched towards the end of the year) is focused on ensuring that ALT is well-positioned to continue to be the go-to community for new and existing members. Being a community is our biggest strength and, along with the Board of Trustees, I’m looking at ways to enhance how we work together, communicate with each other and collaborate with those outside of ALT.

How do you see ALT’s role evolving in the wider education and technology landscape?

I think that the greater breadth of adoption of learning tech and increased engagement in digital education means that ALT’s role is becoming more important to a wider group of people, and we’ve seen ALT’s membership broaden to reflect that change.  Our members come from many different types of organisations, and ALT must further develop to support not only its existing members and their organisations, but also ensure that it is an association that can effectively support people who join us from beyond our majority sector of higher education.  We actively embrace members from further education, charities, schools, commercial education and training providers, and those based in the learning and development departments of a whole range of organisations (…and more besides). In fact, anyone who engages professionally with learning technology and digital education. The diversity and richness of membership raises exciting opportunities for collaborative projects, learning from each other and opening up unexpected career paths. 

How do you ensure that member and stakeholder voices are reflected in decision-making?

This is absolutely critical to ensuring that ALT is supporting members now and into the future.  I’m currently working on our new 2025-2030 Strategy with the Board, and engaging members and other stakeholders comes up in all of our conversations.  There are already loads of channels available to us, such as the Assembly,  informal discussions with our networks, social media, sector events and JiscMail groups.  However, I do think it is one of those aspirations where you continually feel that you could do better and always want to dedicate more time to understanding what members and other stakeholders need from the organisation.  I’m always open to ideas and feedback.  Even if we can’t act on member input immediately, we are actively revisiting suggestions as the new strategy develops.

What have been some highlights of your first year?

There are a few that stand out: attending ALTC24 about a week after joining ALT – it was certainly a way of meeting a lot of our members very quickly and left me hoping that a good chunk of my job would involve choosing my favourite music for the Thursday Night Show; introducing ‘The Coffee Break’ sessions, both online and in-person, as an innovation space for members to share their challenges and successes when seeking engagement in new initiatives, and a very recent one is launching the website redevelopment project, something that I hope will start to address many of the issues that members and non-members have with searching out information on our website.  

If you were on a deserted island, what’s the one thing you’d take?

This is such a difficult question.  Lots of very practical things come to mind.  However, the biggest challenge that I’d face is a lack of company. So, although this might be cheating (as the ‘thing’ is living), I’d take my dog, Fenna. She’d be able to practice her hunting and fishing skills, as well as feed me – although she is very likely to eat everything she catches herself.  She always makes me laugh, so that will help make the experience much more enjoyable.

Susan’s first year at ALT has laid important groundwork for what’s to come, and we look forward to seeing how her vision continues to shape the organisation’s future. Her leadership is helping to mould an inclusive and forward-looking future for ALT and the wider learning technology community. If you’ve been inspired by Susan’s journey and want to get more involved with ALT, explore our membership opportunities or reach out to us at enquiries@alt.ac.uk.

Future profiles will feature colleagues involved with Special Interest and Members Groups, CMALT holders, ALT Members, Trustees, assessors, apprentices and ALT staff. If you are a current member of ALT and would be interested in featuring in an upcoming post or want to recommend someone members would be interested in hearing from, please contact us at blog@alt.ac.uk.

On 17 July 2025, colleagues from across the sector gathered at Chancellors Hall, Senate House, for the ALT M25 Learning Technology Group (LTG) Summer Meeting — our first in-person only event in quite some time. With the theme “Making Digital Life Better for International Students”, the afternoon focused on how learning technologies can create more inclusive, responsive, and culturally aware experiences for students arriving from across the globe.

Here’s a look back at the day’s highlights:

International Students: Digital Access and Experiences in Social & Historical Sciences
(Dr Fiona Harvey, UCL)
Fiona opened the event with a thoughtful exploration of digital access through the lens of UCL’s Social & Historical Sciences faculty. She reminded us that access isn’t just about infrastructure — it’s also about confidence, familiarity with academic and cultural norms, and students’ emotional comfort in digital spaces. She invited attendees to work through real student cases to challenge common assumptions, prompting us to reflect on the more subtle, often overlooked barriers that international students face.

Applying Learning Technology Innovations for Global Online Programmes at Scale
(Dionysis Dimakopoulos, UCL)
Dionysis took us into the design decisions behind UCL’s global online programmes, such as the MSc in Public Health. His session showed how backend systems, visual consistency, and pedagogical clarity come together to support diverse international cohorts. He emphasised that scaling isn’t about “one size fits all” — it’s about designing from the start with flexibility and inclusion in mind.

See Dionysis’ blogpost which includes an expanded version of his talk.

FACILE: Faculty AI Conversation, Investigation and Learning Exchange
(Dr Tim Neumann, UCL, with student co-presenter Nick Wong and Fengyun Tang)
Tim, Nick and Fengyun introduced FACILE, an innovative initiative that brings staff and students together to explore the role of generative AI in learning. Their presentation and panel discussion invited participants to reflect on the appropriate use of AI, transparency, and co-creation in using AI for learning and teaching. You can read more about the student perspective in Fengyun’s LinkedIn post. This was a lively and open session that captured the spirit of co-creation.

Onboarding: Preparing Students for Success
(Samuel Catterall-Young, RCA)
Samuel’s session took the form of an interactive group discussion, where participants explored key challenges international students face during their transition into UK higher education. Rather than presenting a fixed model, he encouraged attendees to collaboratively identify pain points — from VLE access to social disconnection — and suggest strategies to help mitigate them. The session surfaced practical ideas, such as more personalised communications, low-stakes onboarding modules, and early peer support. It was a powerful reminder that co-creating solutions with staff and students can lead to more engaging and meaningful onboarding experiences.

Throughout the day, we heard directly from international students, who generously shared reflections on their digital learning experiences. Their honest insights reminded us why it’s so important to build with — not just for — students.

We closed the event with a heartfelt moment, presenting a thank-you gift to Dr Julie Voce, who stepped down from the steering committee of the Association for Learning Technology M25 Learning Technology Group after 17 years. Julie’s leadership has been a driving force in creating the collaborative, open space we all value. Her contribution has left a lasting legacy, and she will be greatly missed.

Thank you to everyone who joined us. We look forward to continuing the conversation at the Autumn Meeting!

By Laura Milne, ALTC25 Co-chair

(especially for conference newcomers) 

When first I heard about ALT, I was amazed – a whole community of people like me, who geek out about the kinds of things I geek out about, and who get excited about the best way to deliver meaningful learning experiences enhanced by technology? These were my people! I had been working as a learning designer for several years in South Africa before relocating to the UK for work, and suddenly my LinkedIn page and twitter feed were filling up with colleagues from other institutions and other sectors sharing their passions, their projects and often their intractable challenges for group input. 

I felt, however, that I was somewhat on the outside of this magical space – unable to quite tap into the community spirit that I could see. That is, until I started being a contributor myself, and building my own network by participating in webinars and attending conferences like ALTc. 

Conferences bring people together 

Conferences are a really powerful way to meet lots of people and dispel some of the awkwardness you  might feel about connecting with others. I like meeting new people, but at times get stuck on the small-talk aspect of it. Conferences help this – you’re co-located (so less awkward than setting up a call with a stranger), you’ve got topics in common – “what did you think about Professor Naidoo’s keynote? I am just buzzing with ideas on how to integrate escape rooms into our induction process!” – and if you’re speaking or presenting your work, you will find some really excellent interlocuters and possible future collaborative partners! 

I admit that I had to overcome my worry that somehow I might be intruding or bothering other delegates, so if this is you, please don’t worry. People will generally be welcoming, and are usually glad that someone else was brave and broke the ice! Remember, people come to conferences intentionally to meet others and network. Though if someone is clearly sitting in a corner with headphones on, it might be best to give them some space; we all need down-time, and some have shorter social batteries than others. 

Sector networks: action groups, spaces to share problems 

Now, what about the rest of the year, when we aren’t all co-located at Warwick or Manchester or Glasgow? Well, some of my best collaborative and supportive relationships have developed out of the sector networks I am involved in, including ALT North West England Members’ Group, the Generative AI Network, Heads of eLearning Forum, and others. These spaces are intentionally created, usually around a special interest or shared feature (location, role or challenge). In some cases, they run webinars for teams to learn from. I can heartily recommend volunteering to present a project at these webinars – such a good way to get external feedback. 

Here are some sector networks and special interest groups that you might be interested in joining: Anti-racism and Learning Technology SIG, Digital Accessibility SIG, ELESIG or Digital Assessment SIG (full list of other SIGs available here); Generative AI Network; Ucisa’s Digital Education Group. It might also be valuable to join some jiscmail listservs, which will give you an insight into some particularly active communities of practice. 

The power of collaboration to bring about meaningful change 

Aside from feeling the warm-fuzzy of community all around you, there are some significant potential benefits to developing your network across the sector. The power of these groups is you will meet people who may be future collaborative partners on exciting projects. These might include funded opportunities (e.g. the QAA Collaborative Development Fund), research, or sector-wide evaluation efforts that help us benchmark our activities, improve our services, and strive for better student experiences with learning technology.  

In some cases, these collaborative relationships can be almost therapeutic – all of us experience the similar start of term stress, or assessment week chaos, or the challenge of a tool behaving in an unexpected way. The vent sessions can be just as important as webinars to keep one another encouraged and moving in the right direction. Perspective is easier to find when you aren’t staring into a chaotic inbox. 

For a digital education leader, sector benchmarking that arises from this kind of collaborative sharing can provide leverage and negotiating power for internal change. While it won’t magically grow budgets, it provides context to senior leadership for impact and efficiency of your own team. It can also help you identify excellent practices in your home context, that you might be taking for granted. I love hearing about colleagues’ innovations where they may not realise how groundbreaking their work actually is – it’s a chance to encourage them to shout about their success, and to set an example for the rest of us. 

Without meaning to be cheesy about it, the ALT community and the broader sector network I am part of has been one of the best aspects of my career so far. I look forward to joining you all at ALTc in a few weeks’ time to share success, hold each other through the challenging times, and celebrate the power of sector networks to make meaningful change. 

ALT’s Annual Conference is one of the UK’s largest conferences for learning technology and digital education professionals. The conference provides a valuable and practical forum for practitioners, researchers, managers and policy-makers from education and industry to solve problems, explore, reflect, influence and learn.

ALTC25 will take place in Glasgow on 23 and 24 October 2025.  Register closes 20 October 2025.

Phil Vincent, Co-Chair of the ALT Independent Consultancy & Career Pathways SIG

Q: What do you do?
I’m Head of Digital Education Enhancement & Design in the Digital Education Service at the University of Leeds. I lead cross-institutional work to support the development and delivery of inclusive, accessible, and engaging blended and online learning for our students and researchers. My role sits at the intersection of learning design, strategic leadership, staff development, and digital education enhancement.

Q: Which sectors or audiences do you support?
Primarily, I work within UK higher education, supporting staff and students across all faculties. Increasingly, my work also connects with researchers, professional learners, and wider community-based learners, particularly through our involvement in lifelong learning and short course development.

Q: How do you usually refer to yourself – e.g. Learning Technologist, Learning Designer, Instructional Designer, etc.?
That’s a great question, and one that comes up often! I tend to describe myself as a digital education leader, but I’ve worked closely with (and been) learning technologists, learning designers, academic developers, and everything in between. The diversity of roles and titles in our field can be both a strength and a source of confusion, something that came up strongly in the recent Padlet discussion during our SIG Unconference. It’s one of the reasons I’m so invested in clearer pathways and shared language around career progression in this space.

Q: You’re not a consultant, so what’s your connection to the consultancy world?
That’s right, I’m not an independent consultant myself. However, I collaborate with consultants and freelancers on digital projects and transformation initiatives. I also support in-house colleagues to explore consultancy-style approaches to their work, particularly as part of our growing focus on portfolio careers and professional agency. I see enormous value in recognising the diverse ways people contribute to the sector, whether through permanent roles, freelance projects, or hybrid pathways.

Q: What attracted you to this SIG?
Career progression in digital education has always been a core interest of mine. At Leeds, I’ve led the transformation of our Digital Education Enhancement team into a more strategically aligned, values-led team. As part of that, I’m now developing a Digital Education Attributes Framework to support staff CPD, career mapping, and clearer role identity across the Digital Education Service. This SIG is a brilliant opportunity to connect with others thinking about the same challenges, whether from inside institutions or as independent professionals. I’m excited to be part of a space that can help shape and advocate for the future of digital education careers.Q: Anything else you’d like to share?
I’m particularly interested in the tensions (and possibilities) between institutional structures and independent practice, and in how we can foster more transparent, equitable career pathways for everyone in our field. I’d love to hear from others, consultants or otherwise, who are working on similar frameworks or grappling with the same questions.

By Beth Wolstenholme

Leadership at any level in education can be both rewarding and challenging. For a Programme Manager (PM) overseeing Personal Development, Behaviour and Attitudes (PDBA), juggling the workload of supporting student wellbeing, GCSE resits, teaching PSHE, safeguarding and managing a team can be demanding. So, how do PDBA PMs stay motivated and carry on during times of demotivation? 

Why This Matters 

Motivation impacts an individual, but the motivation of leaders can trickle down and impact their team. Research suggests that when leaders feel positive and motivated, they model effective behaviours, reduce stress within teams and can even help lower staff absence (Perryman & Calvert, 2020; Greiger & Pivovarova, 2018). I wanted to find out: 

1. What drives PDBA PMs to enter and stay in the profession? 
2. How does their leadership style shift depending on motivation levels? 
3. What strategies do they use to manage themselves and their teams during the highs and lows of the workplace? 
4. ​How does their state of mind affect staff morale and performance?​

The Approach 

Using a case study approach, allowed the exploration of rich insights rather than reducing them to statistics. PDBA PMs shared their real experiences in interviews and revealed their motivations, coping strategies and glimpses into their individual leadership styles. 

The Findings 

1. What drives PDBA PMs to enter and stay in the profession? Interestingly, despite having advanced to positions of leadership, the PMs all still held “making a difference”, improving the learner experience and supporting young people as their motives to work in education. One summarised, “That is your fundamental driving force behind all of this: It involves ensuring that the students receive the greatest education possible while under your care.” This suggests that even in managerial positions, their motivation is still to support the improvement of young people’s lives and use their positions to influence others to do the same. 
2. How does their leadership style shift depending on motivation levels? The leadership behaviour of the PMs seemed to follow a similar pattern; when motivated they were positive and creative, even “buzzing”. However, demotivation significantly dropped the energy they brought to the role. When experiencing demotivation, the PMs attended work but with the attitude of “let’s just get through the day” and saw them “not putting as much effort in”. 
3. What strategies do they use to manage themselves and their teams during the highs and lows of the workplace? When motivated, the PMs enjoyed getting to know their teams on a personal level, ensuring staff felt valued, were offered opportunities to be creative and autonomous, and supported in their roles. Demotivation saw them taking themselves away from their responsibilities, with the aim to reflect and re-focus. This took the form of an afternoon working from home, asking team members to “do your job to the best of your abilities,” and “working out what I need to do for the day … and just prioritise”. 
4. How does their state of mind affect staff morale and performance? All the PMs knew that their motivation levels had an impact on their team. They discussed how when they were motivated and energised, this feeling “passed on”. However, when demotivated, their teams would take on the workload of the PM in an effort to support them. While admirable, this then put extra pressure on the team. In both motivational states, it was acknowledged that leaders significantly shift the atmosphere in positive or negative ways. 

Image generated by ChatGPT What This Means 

This study highlighted the powerful role of trust, positivity and valuing staff in shaping workplace relationships and on a bigger scale, culture. For leaders in FE, this is an important reminder that motivation is contagious. Leadership strategies must adapt with morale and motivation levels, and professional relationships built on trust and respect can improve periods of demotivation. Overall, motivation matters for more than just the individual; it has a direct impact on the culture and atmosphere of the team. Leaders should be encouraged to be adaptive, self-aware and build positive relationships in order to better support both learners and staff. 

Call to action:

Connect with Beth Wolstenholme via LinkedIn

References 

Geiger, T., & Pivovarova, M. (2018). The effects of working conditions on teacher retention. Teachers and Teaching theory and practice, 24(6), 604-625. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2018.1457524

Perryman, J., & Calvert, G. (2020). What Motivates People To Teach, And Why Do They Leave? Accountability, Performativity And Teacher Retention. British Journal of Educational Studies, 68(1), 3-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2019.1589417 

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.

AI is transforming education, but how do education technologists, students, educators feel about using it to mark assessments? Is this a revolution, or a step too far?

We’re conducting a short (under 5 mins!), totally anonymous survey to gauge attitudes. Whether you’re an education technologist, student, or educator, your opinion matters!

Why take part?

• Shape the conversation on AI in education
• Contribute to important research involving 13 UK universities
• Receive a report summarising the results of this research 

Take the survey here: https://lnkd.in/eYCJcx4c

Please share this post with your network. The more voices we hear, the better the insights!

Written by Helen Greetham

In a world that seems to be speeding up by the second, with notifications pinging, deadlines looming and AI tools promising instant answers, I’ve been thinking lately about ways of taking things more slowly when it comes to digital learning and infrastructures. 

Turns out I’m not the only one. A few years ago, a group of 15 authors, artists and teachers came up with a “Manifesto for Slow Learning,” A path to a meaningful and mindful future of learning.

The manifesto outlines ten learner rights, including things like being able to learn at your own pace, being able to take breaks, being allowed to make mistakes and leave things unfinished, and being free to ask questions and be curious. When I read the report, I was nodding along with all of these… except for one, which as a learning technologist made me want to yell, “Hold on, wait a minute!”.

The right to unplug “Learn unplugged, far away from digital distractions. Create space in the offline zone for deep, reflective immersion. Shut your computer down, activate your brain, eliminate any digital amplifications. It’s time to concentrate and focus.”

Is digital technology inherently the opposite of concentration and focus? Is it something which must be switched off for the brain to properly be switched on?

I think there is an element here of common learning design issues being obfuscated by the spectre of technology. A student who isn’t sure how to deeply reflect on their learning and transfer it into knowledge which they can use in the future will run into the same problems, whether they are staring at a book or a computer screen.

There are situations where a digital solution may promote deeper concentration and focus than its analogue equivalent: infinite whiteboard applications where you can ideate without worrying about reaching the edge of the page, or lecture recordings which let you pause, listen again and reflect on what you’ve heard rather than scramble to make notes in the moment. 

As learning technologists, however, I think it is important to admit that our digital environments can become very noisy. We’re beset by popups, notifications, crowded interfaces, and digital ecosystems which require both students and staff to have to figure out how to use multiple platforms before they can get to the business of deep learning.

I was pleased to see that this year’s ALT 25 themes present lots of opportunities to think about and address these issues. The ‘Back to Basics: Reclaiming the Core’ strand invites us to reimagine digital infrastructure not as flashy or disruptive, but as quietly reliable and robust, like the old notebook that fades into the background allowing the learner’s thoughts to take centre stage. 

Meanwhile, ‘Critical Imagination: Questioning and Creating in Digital Spaces’ offers a compelling counterbalance. It asks us to think disruptively, not for the sake of novelty, but to reimagine what learning could be if we allowed ourselves to slow down and think differently. What if innovation was about sustainability, care, and creativity?

‘Digital by Design: People, Empathy, and Experience’ resonates strongly with the ethos of slow learning. It challenges us to design with intention, placing human experience and learner wellbeing at the heart of our digital environments. This is where slow learning thrives: in spaces that are inclusive, empathetic, and responsive to the diverse rhythms of learning.

It’s easy at conferences to get overwhelmed with things that are new, exciting, loud and fast-paced, so this is my invitation for you to take the slow road instead this year. Let’s use this conference not just to accelerate, but to decelerate, and find ways to give our learners the space they deserve. 

ALT’s Annual Conference is one of the UK’s largest conferences for learning technology and digital education professionals. The conference provides a valuable and practical forum for practitioners, researchers, managers and policy-makers from education and industry to solve problems, explore, reflect, influence and learn.

ALTC25 will take place in Glasgow on 23 and 24 October 2025.  Register closes 20 October 2025.

Written by Julian Hopkins, University of Glasgow

With the rapid rise of generative AI and growing student cohorts, universities are under pressure to rethink traditional assessment practices. How can we ensure that assessments remain meaningful, equitable, and aligned with the skills graduates truly need? This blog post explores the increasing value of peer assessment as a scalable, authentic approach to enhancing student engagement and supporting the development of graduate attributes across disciplines.

Rationale for change

Responding to these challenges requires us to reconsider not just how we assess, but why. Simon’s important reminder that, “Learning results… only from what the student does and thinks” (in Ambrose et al., 2010: 1; emphasis added) should be at the centre of the shift towards active, student-centred learning, where the focus moves from assessment as a final product, towards “assessment for/as learning” (Stančić, 2021: 852, original emphasis). This also aligns with the increased focus on authentic assessment: tasks that mirror professional practice and develop transferrable skills. These authentic assessments help learners develop graduate attributes such as time management, collaboration, and communication. In other words, redesigning assessment means that students can use and understand assessment as a means to self-improvement, rather than a tick box exercise to obtain a certificate.

Why peer assessment matters

One approach that aligns strongly with these aims and offers both pedagogical and practical benefits is peer assessment.

Peer assessment involves students giving structured feedback on each other’s work using defined criteria, often with the aim of enhancing learning, reflection, and collaboration. The literature offers strong evidence that peer assessment enhances meaningful assessment and supports the development of graduate attributes (e.g. Serrano-Aguilera et al., 2021: 2).

Through peer assessment, students improve their subject knowledge by reviewing their peers’ responses to the same tasks, preparing and giving feedback, and reflecting on the feedback they receive (Reddy et al., 2021). Students also communicate more effectively with their peers, helping to build a community of practice (Reddy et al., 2021: 825, 833).

To better understand the varied practices that fall under peer assessment, it is useful to distinguish between its different forms and purposes. Helden et al.’s typology (2023: 22953) groups three types of peer-based assessment activity under the umbrella term of peer assessment:

Peer reviewStudents review other students’ work and provide formative feedbackPeer gradingStudents provide grades on other students’ work (in a summative or formative context)Peer evaluationStudents evaluate each other’s contributions to common group work

Challenges to effective peer assessment

There are potential cognitive, affective and behavioural challenges to effective teamwork and peer assessment (Sridharan et al., 2023).

• Cognitively, students need guidance, practice and carefully planned preparation so that they can provide and benefit from peer feedback.
• Affectively, students need a safe space to express and receive feedback without fear of judgement, and need to trust that the process will be fair.
• The behavioural impediments relate to students seeking to maximise their grades, exercising preference for friends, and/or engaging in strategies to maximise grades at the expense of giving reliable feedback.

Formative vs summative approaches

Formative exercises carry less risk and therefore less potential student dissatisfaction based on having to ‘do the lecturer’s work’, distrust in other students’ capacity for accurate and unbiased evaluations, and strategies aimed at maximising grades regardless of quality (Amendola and Miceli, 2018; Helden et al., 2023; Stančić, 2021).

Summative exercises have the potential to reduce instructor workload, and there is evidence that, given sufficient training, students can grade work in a reliable and accurate manner (e.g. Serrano-Aguilera et al., 2021: 18).

Strategies for success

Nonetheless, student concerns about the fairness and accuracy of peer feedback are important, and can be managed by following some good practices:

• using at least three peer reviewers to identify outliers (Amendola and Miceli, 2018)
• providing clear rubrics and training on how to give constructive feedback (Wanner and Palmer, 2018)
• starting with formative exercises to build trust and familiarity (Reddy et al., 2021)
• communicating the purpose and process of peer assessment clearly and consistently.

Embedding peer assessment in the curriculum

The key to successful peer assessment depends on careful planning and integration across the curriculum. Peer assessment quality improves with practice, so it should be introduced as soon as possible, gradually scaling-up expectations as students progress.

A typical model for a social sciences or humanities programme could develop as follows:

Where group projects are included, there would be formative peer evaluations for the first two years, and a summative evaluation in the final year that adjusts the final grade of the individual students in the project group.

This approach helps students gradually build confidence and competence in peer assessment, moving from qualitative to quantitative feedback and from formative to summative contexts.

Choosing a platform

To support this structured approach, selecting the right peer assessment platform is crucial for ensuring consistency, scalability, and a positive student experience.

A variety of platforms now support efficient feedback workflows, anonymity, and instructor oversight; key features for successful peer assessment. The table below outlines some of those currently available including their compatibility with Moodle.

Choosing a peer assessment platform: Overview of tools

View table here.

Conclusions and next steps

Peer assessment not only complements educators’ feedback, but also supports authentic assessment, criteria-based evaluation, development of graduate attributes, and preparation for the workplace. With effective tools readily available, the main challenge is thoughtful, curriculum-wide implementation to ensure relevance and impact for today’s students.

As higher education continues to evolve, strategically embedding peer assessment can play a vital role in shaping more engaged, reflective, and capable graduates.

References

Ambrose SA, Bridges MW, DiPietro M, et al. (2010) How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. Newark, UNITED STATES: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

Amendola D and Miceli C (2018) Online Peer Assessment to Improve Students’ Learning Outcomes and Soft Skills. Italian Journal of Educational Technology 26(3). 3: 71–84.

Helden GV, Van Der Werf V, Saunders-Smits GN, et al. (2023) The Use of Digital Peer Assessment in Higher Education—An Umbrella Review of Literature. IEEE Access 11: 22948–22960.

Reddy K, Harland T, Wass R, et al. (2021) Student peer review as a process of knowledge creation through dialogue. Higher Education Research & Development 40(4). Routledge: 825–837.

Serrano-Aguilera JJ, Tocino A, Fortes S, et al. (2021) Using Peer Review for Student Performance Enhancement: Experiences in a Multidisciplinary Higher Education Setting. Education Sciences 11(2). 2. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute: 71.

Sridharan B, McKay J and Boud D (2023) The Four Pillars of Peer Assessment for Collaborative Teamwork in Higher Education. In: Noroozi O and De Wever B (eds) The Power of Peer Learning: Fostering Students’ Learning Processes and Outcomes. Social Interaction in Learning and Development. Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29411-2_1

Stančić M (2021) Peer assessment as a learning and self-assessment tool: a look inside the black box. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 46(6). Routledge: 852–864.Wanner T and Palmer E (2018) Formative self-and peer assessment for improved student learning: the crucial factors of design, teacher participation and feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 43(7). Routledge: 1032–104

Academic year 2024/2025

Our last blog shared the experiences of our Co-Chairs over the last year of the Digital Assessment SIG. In this blog our team of officers share their experiences of being involved in the digital assessment special interest group and their hopes for the coming year.

Sally Hanford – University of Nottingham

I joined the Digital Assessment SIG because I’ve been involved in a review of Curriculum Management and e-Assessment at my institution (a collaborative effort across many departments) and I felt that the SIG would help me develop a wider understanding of how other universities are approaching Digital Assessment, discover good practice and learn about lessons others have learnt. Having worked in Higher Education for over 20 years, I also hoped to be able to contribute to the wider discussions.

I’ve really enjoyed the webinars. It’s been amazing to hear about what is going on at other institutions. The events have opened up some great conversations and opportunities to network.

I’ve learned so much about summative assessment and AI by being involved in a subgroup of the SIG on this subject. 

I’m hoping we can go further in exploring this subject in the next academic year and I’m looking forward to finding out more about what is going on sector wide.

Sulanie Peramunagama – Digital Assessment Advisor, Brunel University of London 

I joined the Digital Assessment SIG because I’m passionate about digital assessment and have been immersed in it since I began working in UK higher education nearly a decade ago. I am eager to learn from others across the sector, explore emerging technologies, and contribute to the evolving conversation around assessment practices.

Being part of the SIG has been both fulfilling and inspiring. Collaborating with our dedicated group as well as the sessions and demonstrations on innovations in tech on digital assessment has encouraged me to reflect on and improve my own practice. 

One of the highlights for me this year was Professor Samantha Pugh’s webinar session on competency-based programmatic assessment. Her approach: “Using digital platforms to give students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning” illustrated how well technology can be harnessed to enhance assessment design. For me, this captures the true purpose of digital assessment: not just to digitise existing practices, but to use technology thoughtfully to make assessment more meaningful, inclusive, and effective.

I have also enjoyed being a part of a SIG subgroup researching the use of AI in summative assessment. At the time of writing (18.06.2025), we continue to navigate the impact of AI on assessment. From what we have found out so far, staff and student perspectives on AI in assessment are mixed. We share the hope that students will not only learn how to leverage AI to enhance their learning and performance, but also develop the critical awareness to understand its limitations and avoid being misled by it. To support this, assessments themselves need to be thoughtfully redesigned to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate these emerging skills in authentic and meaningful ways.

Overall, I believe our SIG will contribute generously to the sector to rethink and reshape digital assessment practices successfully. I’m excited to see how our work evolves in the coming year and I am happy to be part of this forward-thinking community.

Miki Sun – Learning Technology Service Manager, University of Edinburgh

I am glad to be selected as an officer and really grateful for this opportunity! I am a Learning Technology Service Manager who looks after a number of digital assessment tools and supports the vast user community. As a Learning Technologist, my passion is to use various technologies to enhance students’ experience and help them achieve learning goals; but as a service manager, my task is to ensure smooth running of the centrally supported digital tools and to mitigate impact of issues for assessment, which means I am limited by the tools and functions we could offer. I often struggle when software vendors could not develop or provide solutions and functions my users need, and often wonder how colleagues in other universities deal with similar challenges. Joining the Special Interest Group in Digital Assessment as an officer, my hope is to meet like-minded people, to learn from their best practices, to share the challenges we face so that we could influence future development of digital assessment pedagogy,  technology and policy together. I have certainly not been disappointed in the first year! 

Indeed, the co-chairs Alison, Gemma and Helen, and the other officers helped me feel welcome and supported as soon as we first met. I am impressed how plans and decisions were made collectively and quickly through the group’s Padlet boards and Team meetings, and our ideas were fast implemented, invitations sent, webinars organised, blog articles published, all like clockwork! Not only the JISC mailing list subscriptions increased daily, the first webinar in GenAI and Digital Assessment on 21st January 2025 was a great hit and there were 91 attendees on the day! When I shared the recordings with my colleagues, I received a lot of positive feedback, which helped grow my confidence. I then shared the future events’ more widely on my Linkedin post and in my internal service teams, Learning Technology community and user groups. I am so encouraged to see my previous and present colleagues joining the following webinars and have given excellent talks! I learnt so much from their experience and their groundbreaking work in creative and innovative digital assessment practice. 

David Callaghan – Senior Educational Technologist – Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Chair of AI for Summative Assessment sub-group

In Mid-March 2025 I emailed the ALT list to call for participants for a group to look at using AI for summative assessment.  This controversial email resulted in the formation of an initial group of 10 individuals from HEIs in the UK and North America.  I was also approached by Gemma from the ALT Digital Assessment group who suggested we join as a sub-group – which we accepted.

Our initial ideas were to create a survey to gather staff and student attitudes to AI for summative assessment – which is now running and will remain open indefinitely (for longitudinal analysis).  LInk to survey (& the author, Tadhg, says ‘…share, share, share!):

• https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/northumbria/ai-summative-assessment

Other ideas include ‘Taking AI to moderation’ and marking a handful of previously assessed student work  work you have IPR over (like your own) using AI.

Next steps for us are to review our survey looking for themes and write up for the ALT blog and then Journal.  Ideally I would like the data from the survey and our other work to be used to lobby government and the OfS etc. to use AI effectively in assessment practices.  We are also looking to take the two ideas below forward.

My favorite part of what the sub-group has done this year is allow a group of interested stakeholders to have supportive and frank discussions on this controversial topic.

I have learned, via these discussions and our initial survey, that our thoughts about what others think of the use of AI for summative assessment are fairly accurate – with some interesting thoughts from the survey, including comments like ‘Well, AI is going to be a little less biased’.

Hopes for next year is to publish in ALTJ or similar, lobby gatekeepers, and create some guidance for colleagues looking to use AI for assessing student work.  The two projects, one on using AI in standardisation activities and another on using AI in a pseudo standardisation meeting may contribute to this aim.

Nurun Nahar – Assistant Teaching Professor – University of Greater Manchester

I joined the ALT Digital Assessment SIG in September 2024 as an Assistant Teaching Professor with a research background in technology-enhanced learning. In my role I advocate for research-informed pedagogies within my institution and advise my department on harnessing digital tools for both formative and summative assessments. When I came across ALT’s call for expression of interest in joining this SIG dedicated to digital assessment practice, I recognised an opportunity to join as an officer and shape a community-driven agenda that aligns with my commitment to evidence-based innovation in student learning experiences and I must admit it has been a fulfilling experience so far!

From our first meetings, I felt grateful for the open, candid conversations around challenges we all face in digitally assessing learning—whether workload pressures, questions of validity, or sustaining student engagement. Hearing from SIG colleagues representing diverse professional backgrounds across various institutions, has been an enlightening experience to explore issues that no single voice can resolve alone, such as balancing academic integrity with inclusive design. I felt proud to be working alongside colleagues who saw strength in drawing on our collective experiences, to charter a clear vision for this SIG whilst also recognising the value of inviting the wider sector to join the conversation to shape our agenda and impact.

On 21 January 2025 I was pleased to co-present in our first webinar alongside Alison Gibson, University of Birmingham (SIG Co-Chair) and Lisa Bradley, Queen’s University Belfast (SIG Officer).  My session was titled “Generative AI and the Future of Digital Assessments: Shifting Focus, Leading Change.” It was attended live by 91 participants and has since been viewed over 230 times on YouTube. It offered me a chance to learn just as much as to share how generative AI might shift us from product-centred summative tasks toward process-rich formative cycles, how multimodal AI tools could support with self-regulated learning in students and how we as a sector can ensure responsible use of AI for learning, teaching and assessment through multistakeholder collaborations that foster critical dialogue exchanges  and sharing of good practice across the sector. The lively discussion that followed on authenticity of learning and assessment and trust in AI tools, reminded me how much we still need to achieve in this space and what we could consider exploring collaboratively through the ALT Digital Assessment SIG.

Looking back, being part of this SIG has enabled me to further appreciate how structured dialogue can unearth practical, context-driven strategies from influencing procurement of digital tools to ensuring accessibility in digital assessments and how local innovations can inform broader guidelines. It has also offered me an opportunity to be part of the AI for Summative Assessment sub-group led by David Callghan and work closely with colleagues from various Higher Education institutions to understand staff and student perspectives on using AI for summative assessment. Above all, I am pleased that my engagement with this SIG and insights shared by various guest speakers in our subsequent webinars, has reaffirmed my belief that assessment design lies at the heart of meaningful digital practice, not the technology itself. Looking to the future, I am excited for what lies ahead for this SIG. I anticipate more challenges will unfold for the higher education sector as we continue to witness rapid progress in multimodal AI technologies combined with wider concerns facing this sector.  However, I am hopeful that the forward-thinking spirit of this SIG, will help us address emerging issues collaboratively, ensuring our digital assessment practices remain resilient, equitable, and pedagogically sound.

ALTC25 Guest Post Joe Wilson

After years of campaigning to bring ALTC, or a related ALT event, to Glasgow, it’s finally happening in 2025. I nearly managed to host #OER21 at City of Glasgow College, but COVID had other plans. I’ve also long advocated for a more college-friendly time of year for the conference. This year, both goals have been realised. 

It’s genuinely exciting to see the programme coming to Glasgow at last. I’m hoping we’ll reach colleges and universities across the UK, with a strong Scottish contingent and a brilliant turnout overall. We’ve got plenty of fun things planned, and I’m thrilled to be co-chairing with Emily Nordham and Laura Milne. The programme is engaging, but I also hope you’ll take time to enjoy some of Glasgow’s other delights. (I’ll share a separate post soon with recommendations of things to experience and sample.) I’m biased, of course, but if you can, stay on after the conference and spend a weekend here. Glasgow is a UNESCO Learning City, and it’s well worth exploring. 

A Personal Journey with ALTC 

I think my first #altc was in 2000, and by 2001, thanks to a twist of fate, I found myself on the organising committee for the conference at Edinburgh University.  Since then, I’ve tried to attend either the full conference or at least one policy forum or special interest group event each year. ALTC is a brilliant space for professional development and networking, and ALT’s work through CMALT and other initiatives has never been more relevant.  

In the early 2000s, we were talking about online assessment systems and the rise of virtual learning environments. By the mid-2000s, it was all about BYOD and MOOCs. The sessions and discussions at ALTC are always cutting-edge, sometimes positively contentious, and always practical. I know this year’s themes reflect that spirit. 

Top Tips for ALTC 2025 

• Step out of your comfort zone. Attend a few sessions on unfamiliar topics, you’ll be surprised what you learn. 

• Network like mad. Someone in the room has already solved your next challenge. ALT is a broad clan of technical problem solvers and academic thinkers  

• Pack smart. It’s Glasgow in October: bring your dancing shoes and some warm waterproof gear! 

I’ll be posting soon with ideas for places to visit and things to experience while you’re here. Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a seasoned ALTC attendee, I hope you’ll find time to enjoy everything Glasgow has to offer. 

See you in October! 

ALT’s Annual Conference is one of the UK’s largest conferences for learning technology and digital education professionals. The conference provides a valuable and practical forum for practitioners, researchers, managers and policy-makers from education and industry to solve problems, explore, reflect, influence and learn.

ALTC25 will take place in Glasgow on 23 and 24 October 2025.  Early bird bookings end Friday, 15 August. Register for ALTC25 now.