JISC

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The overall aim of this project was to gather up to date information on changing staff roles, relationships and associated skills brought about by the impact of the adoption of new technologies within UK FE and HE. The focus was not on information skills or skills for harnessing technology per se, but on the impact of new ways of working on staff that arise from adopting ICT and technology supported practices.

Executive Summary

Technology is increasingly being used to underpin business processes across teaching and learning, research, knowledge exchange and business support activities in both FE and HE. The introduction of technology has a significant impact on the working practices of staff, often requiring them to work in a radically different way. Change in any situation can be unsettling and problematic and, where not effectively managed, can lead to poor service or functionality and disenfranchised staff. These issues can have a direct impact on institutional effectiveness, reputation and the resulting student experience. The Work-with-IT project, based at the University of Strathclyde, sought to examine changes to working practices across FE and HE, the impact on staff roles and relationships and the new skills sets that are required to meet these changes.

The project explored these changes and their impact on staff through desk research, consultative workshops and a series of 10 case studies which explored innovative approaches to technologyenhanced working across a range of FE and HE institutions. The workshops were used to generate an overall picture of the types of changes that are occurring and the resultant impact on staff. The case studies, which were undertaken directly by the institutions and focused on personal experiences, produced a series of vignettes where individuals considered the impact of the change. This was complemented by an analysis of the impact of the technology-enhanced working practice on the institution and its staff development needs. The final strand was the development of Advice and Guidance material aimed at staff development professionals and change managers within institutions.

Five key trends in technology-enhanced working practices can be identified – Life without borders, The electronic office, Technology-enhanced delivery, Digital students and Changing loci of control and relationships. The evidence suggests that staff attitudes to technology-enhanced working practices are in general positive, with a prevailing view of technology as ‘enabling’ although dichotomous reactions to the same change were expressed by different individuals. Evolution of roles was also found with development of hybrid roles and local experts. Staff relationships are also undergoing significant change as individuals increasingly work in collaborative teams and participate in wider Communities of Practice. Significant changes to the skills required to work effectively in the new technology-enhanced environments can also be identified. These are broadly categorised into skills for coping with change, social and relationship skills, learning skills and IT-related skills.

The project concluded that, where the introduction of technology-enhanced working practices is well managed, it brings benefit to both institutions and the individual staff involved. Change is increasingly the norm and is introduced for a variety of business reasons. Increased adoption of Web 2.0 technologies is identified as potentially bringing significant change in the near future and may be individually as opposed to institutionally led. Effective change management is critical to success and a holistic approach to change needs to be adopted with cross-area input to the change strategy and policy development. Effective staff development is another key success factor. Development needs identified are not solely related to IT and information skills; the development of soft skills are equally if not more important. While ‘hard’ skills training such as how to use a particular application is well provided for, soft skills training needs to be developed. A method of base-lining existing skills sets is required and career development for evolving hybrid roles also needs to be addressed.

There are 4 main recommendations for future work relating to the project:

1. well-targeted dissemination of the results through JISC Services and appropriate professional bodies
2. a pilot support service, channelled through the JISC advisory services, that enables institutions to effectively implement and manage new ways of working
3. exploration of new methods of staff development for rapidly changing, technology-enhanced working environments
4. exploration of the impact and implementation of emerging technology-enhanced working practices such as web 2.0 based working practices

Report available electronically only