Professor Alex Neill, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education), tells e-Voice why technology-enhanced learning (TEL) was chosen as a focus for the year and why staff involvement and ideas are crucial to its success.

Q. Technology-enhanced learning has been chosen as a focus for enhancement activity this year. What does that mean?

A. Like any good university, we are constantly trying to enhance what we do. By identifying a particular enhancement theme, we create a space for people to really focus on enhancement in one area for a set time. If we can build genuine engagement with the theme, then we can also create momentum behind it across the University.

Q. Who picks the enhancement theme?

A. The University’s Academic Quality and Standards Committee (AQSC) looks at the insights and suggestions emerging from the Faculty programme reports and selects the theme.

This time we saw all kinds of things coming through from the Faculties around the use of technology in the way they deliver education or lead educational development. After seeing that input, technology-enhanced learning (TEL) was a natural choice.

It is a very broad area – it could include lecture capture, massive open online courses (MOOCs), online distance learning, the way people are using Blackboard and much more.

Q. How can people get involved?

A. There are colleagues across the university doing things with technology in truly innovative and creative ways that others could learn from and students could benefit from. I would love to see those ideas feeding upward as a result of this theme.

To bring as many people as possible into a conversation about good practice and innovative ways of using technology, the Institute of Learning, Innovation and Development (ILIaD) are setting up a series of University-level events. Anyone with an interest is welcome to attend – the first event is a TEL conference on Highfield Campus in April.

ILIaD is integral to the success of this theme and joining their Community of Practice (CoP), a growing network of colleagues who are passionate about innovation in education and TEL, would also be a great way to start getting involved.

Q. What would make TEL a successful enhancement theme this year?

A. At the end of the year I’d like to be able to say we’ve seen real engagement with this theme  – if 1000 colleagues with a direct interest in the design, development or delivery of education have participated in some form of activity linked to the TEL theme, I’d feel we’d really achieved something.

Success would also be about what people did as a result of attending those events – what spin-off activity they organised or took part in, for example, and how many independently organised events and workshops took place over the course of the year.

The TEL conference in April is a great opportunity to be there at the start and influence how the conversation develops this year.

To register for the TEL conference:https://sotontel.eventbrite.co.uk and follow the hashtag #SotonTEL for updates.

Got an idea? Want to host an event? Or want to join ILIaD’s Community of Practice? Please talk to your Associate Dean for Education and Student Experience or email enhancement@soton.ac.uk