Today was the start of a HEA Change Academy programme with the University of Lincoln. It is the first time the Change Academy has worked alongside an OER programme to embed policy and practice at institutional level, in this case the Embedding OER practice initiative which has six teams from across the university looking at the philosophy and practice of open education and the use and reuse of OER. The Change Academy is about supporting institutional change by working with staff and students to create those conditions most conducive to change. Right from the beginning, engagement with OER is being seen as part a much wider picture i.e. of the use of technology for learning. This includes VLEs, Web 2.0 style tools and social media – as well as familiarity with the open education movement in general and open educational resources in particular. Even higher and wider to this is the individual need for confidence and competence working within digital environments and understanding what makes effective digital learning experiences. All of this involves change in practice and the adoption of digital literacies; those skills and understandings which are essential to teaching, learning and professional practice in a digital age. The Change Academy will help ensure individual project outcomes can be sustainable and identify ways for embedding them at departmental and Faculty level while overall project guidance to OER practice within teaching and learning aims to bring in all other academic and professional support staff from across the university. A write up from the day will be posted here soon. In the meantime, here are some photographs.
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