Digifest 2022 programme

Heidi Fraser-Krauss, chief executive of Jisc, welcomes you to Digifest 2022.

Speaker: Jim Knight, director, Suklaa Ltd.

During the pandemic, educators of all types have had to change rapidly. How much will be embedded, and what must we ensure is permanent to deliver the change to teaching and learning that society now needs?

Lord Knight will kick off Digifest 2022 with his latest reflections on how we might shape a better future out of this time of crisis.

Find out more about Lord Jim Knight.

Speakers:

• Ann Thanaraj, assistant registrar digital transformation, Teesside University
• Paul Durston, digital learning manager, Teesside University

In this session, Ann and Paul will cover:

• Awareness of the digital learning design framework and toolkit and its affordances towards learning design, including how you could use this
• Using the framework and toolkit towards building authentic and creative assessments and digital solutions, designing learning interventions for future ready and digitally empowered learners, and embedding digital literacies in course design
• Sharing evaluation and impact of how other learning organisations within HE and FE globally have utilised the framework and toolkit

Speaker: Stacy Vipas, head of digital learning, Askham Bryan College.

In this presentation, Stacy would like to share with you Askham Bryan College's approach to ‘changing for good’. They have an exciting new build in which they will set out to improve the digital skills of their students, including a digital collaborative learning room, three editing and creation pods and a virtual reality space with latency tracking for a multi user experience.

In addition to the physical changes to the new space, the college have set some clear corporate measures to ensure that they continue to build online and digital into the curriculum. Through investment and a ‘teachers helping teachers’ philosophy, they plan to build a support community to help them achieve their vision for 2030 - for 33% of programme delivery to have a digital or online approach. Here, Stacy will share their first steps and future plans towards that. They have used an action research framework to launch their ‘one big digital thing’ - the first step to the 2030 vision.

This session will benefit managers who are embarking on similar moves and steps forward towards their future digital selves.

Speakers:

• Rhys Williams, sports lecturer, Coleg y Cymoedd
• Richie Dawson-Smith, head of Rezzil Education

A look at a partnership approach to reimagining the world of academy sports in further education at Coleg Y Cymoedd, through the adoption of elite virtual simulations, and 360 video capture, where VR provides the next steps in the evolution of situational learning through immersive experiences.

In this session, Rhys and Richie will look at the successful integration of VR in an FE sports academy setting through the development of non-concussive and low impact drills. This innovative way of learning and training improves technical skills, monitors progression and produces data which informs individual training plans and development.

Elite Premier League football clubs have been using Rezzil as an additional strand to the recovery process of injured players, making the recovery experience more enjoyable and risk free. Rezzil drills create pressurised situations where the learner uses problem solving and situational awareness to find a solution and complete the drill. The VR drills provide the opportunity for unlimited repetition.

Session takeaways:

• VR spaces and the health and safety concerns in a ‘dynamic’ FE setting
• Making VR meaningful and impactful in the learner experience
• Establishing positive partnerships outside of the education sector

Speakers:

• Chris Thomson, subject specialist: digital practice, Jisc.
• Zac Gribble, subject specialist - digital practice (platforms), Jisc
• Mark Andrews, pedagogical evangelist, Adobe Education
• Louise Hopkins, senior customer success manager, Adobe Systems

Through January and February 2022, a group of education leaders have been responding to a design challenge to find ways of using narrative and storytelling to bring data or complex ideas to life. In the data-rich world of education, we often miss opportunities to engage people through narrative and storytelling. We want to re-balance that equation.

In this session, we’ll be reflecting on the problems that these leaders have been trying to solve and what this experimental activity has taught us. The activity has been a collaboration with colleagues from Jisc and Adobe.

Speaker: Tom Farrelly, lecturer, Munster Technological University.

All too often, students from marginalised communities are targeted by governments and institutions as groups that need to be better represented in education. While the sentiments are laudable, the devil can be in the detail as to how this is achieved.

While the student group in this instance are Irish Traveller women, the lessons learnt from the recruitment, preparation and implementation phases are intended to act as indicators for future similar projects. One lesson that Tom has certainly learnt, is that no detail is too small to prepare for, when supporting people already at the margins of society.

A live stream session with Cindy Forde, author, and founder of Planetari.

This session invites us to harness our combined brainpower and expertise to develop a model of success for education and society in the 21st century.

• How can the education sector respond to the climate emergency?
• What does sector leadership look like in the face of existential global challenges?
• How does education need to evolve for a world with a future?

By asking profoundly uncomfortable questions, we can begin to draw new maps for a brighter world.

Speaker: Andre John, founder, Cohub.

Technology has never been more pervasive in education, yet the student experience has hardly evolved over the past 50 years.

Today, students are more segregated and lack a sense of belonging. The "human" feeling of being part of an inclusive community overshadowed by graded learning and new hybrid ways to distribute teaching content. As humans, we are social beings. Yet this aspect of learning has been sidelined. Students crave community to thrive. But their mental health and wellbeing remains underserved, as institutions lack a safe, digital social environment for students to connect.

Andre will discuss how voice-first social for students is ideal for meaningful conversations and connections to happen at scale - that also feels more human.

This session is sponsored by DigitalEd.

Speakers:

• Lachlan Swain, senior technical support analyst, DigitalEd
• Ralf Becker, professor of economics, University of Manchester

The COVID-19 pandemic forced lecturers to rethink how course content is delivered to students. In this session, Ralf Becker, professor of economics, Manchester University, enabled interactive content delivery for advanced mathematics through the Möbius platform. This enabled meaningful, student-centred interaction in live meetings.

Join this session and learn how:

• Interactive and engaging content with instantaneous feedback encouraged students to understand the complex concepts being taught
• Data in-platform and through a VLE provide insights for instructors
• To create a student-centric learning experience that leads to positive feedback

This session is sponsored by Quistor.

Speaker: Walter Theuns, sales director, Quistor

Quistor and Oracle enable your digital transformation by moving your IT workloads such as high-performance computing to the cloud.

Speakers: Tom Moule, product lead - the National Centre for AI in Tertiary Education, Jisc will be joined by guest moderators.

The overarching aim for this session is for each table to put forward a vision of how AI could be used, in a responsible and purposeful way, to address issues around staff workload.

Each table will discuss the following four areas:

• Defining the problem
• Scoping the problem
• Overcoming challenges and risks
• Putting forward a vision

The key takeaway will be a credible and focused vision of how AI can address a key problem faced by tertiary education institutions: workload. This vision will inform the National Centre for AI's work, and help inspire you to make progress on your organisation's journey towards utilising AI.

Prior to joining Jisc, Tom was executive lead at The Institute for Ethical AI in Education and began his career as a teacher.

A panel discussion for International Womens Day, with speakers including:

• Chair: Dr Maxine Room CBE, director, Medacrii Associates Ltd
• Jacqui Clarke, e-learning and digital learning and development professional
• Susanna Lawson, founder, OneFile Ltd
• Dr Emily McIntosh, director of learning, teaching and student experience, Middlesex University
• Anna Artemyeva, Google for Education head - UK and Ireland
• Heidi Fraser-Krauss, chief executive, Jisc

Join our panel discussion of inspirational female leaders as they discuss their journeys to success, the challenges they have faced and how we can all be allies and support an equal future for women in the sector.

Aligning our panel discussion with this year’s #BreakTheBias theme for International Women’s Day, we’ll talk on increasing representation within the sector and the roles of allies. Furthermore, how we can all inspire current and future leaders to work together towards creating a more equal world.

About our panel

• Jacqui Clarke
  Jacqui has worked in the education, library and information sectors for over 30 years, holds an MA in Information Management and has a wealth of international experience. She's passionate about e-learning and edtech, the digital divide and how these impact on teaching, learning and assessment.
• Susanna Lawson
  Susanna has been involved in vocational education and apprenticeships for over two decades, starting her career as a carer in nursing homes and completing her NVQ2. Seeing huge inefficiencies in the delivery of vocational training she co-founded OneFile, which has transformed the delivery of funded training and is the platform of choice for over 700 FE colleges, ITPs, universities and employers.
• Dr Emily McIntosh
  Emily’s role at Middlesex involves cross institutional leadership for learning and teaching, including student transition, technology enhanced learning, academic practice, equality, diversity and inclusion, academic advising, and student engagement. She is a principal fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA), a national teaching fellow, a member of the executive board and trustee of the Heads of Educational Development Group (HEDG) and is also academic board member of the NACADA Center for Research at Kansas State University, United States.
• Heidi Fraser-Krauss
  Heidi started her career as a researcher studying how communication in teams supports innovation. Since then, she's held a variety of leadership roles in HE at the University of Sheffield, University of York, and University of St Andrews. Heidi was a member of UCAS council for 8 years, chair of ucisa, and chair of the Russell Universities Group IT Directors (RUGIT).

Speakers:

• Sue Attewell, head of edtech, Jisc
• Nadia Bentuoa, product lead - edtech, Jisc

This session looks at building on our previous learning and insights and how we can apply this to a future vision. It will also explore how an ecosystem of agile edtech technologies can support the transformation of learning and teaching.

Sue is passionate about widening participation and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to learn. She believes technology can support this and manages Jisc’s edtech activity, working with startups to help Jisc members innovate and meet their long term vision. Nadia is product lead on Jisc’s edtech programme, set up to facilitate connections between HE and FE institutions and edtech companies to help solve some of the sector’s main challenges. She's worked in the field of education for years and has run her own edtech startup.

Speakers:

• Gordon Duffy-McGhie, director of teaching and learning and student development, Middlesbrough College
• Chris Hodgson, managing director, Discover eLearning Ltd

Preparing learners for industry placement is a high priority for the FE sector, particularly with the expansion of T-Level delivery. But how can we ensure learners develop the essential workplace skills and behaviours they need to make the most of the placement opportunities?

In this presentation, Gordon and Chris will share how Middlesbrough College, working in partnership with Discover eLearning and local employers, designed the ‘SkillSpace’ web app to enable learners to showcase their skills through social media channels.

By completing a series of phased surveys, and self-generated improvement plans, learners effectively highlight how their skills develop over time, and demonstrate to employers that they are ‘employment ready’. Designed as part of a College Collaboration Fund project, the presentation will practically explore how the college developed the ‘SkillSpace’ web app by directly engaging local employers and learners with curriculum design.

Session takeaways include:

• Practical demonstration of the app
• Links to the project case study
• Links to open-source files and code for setting up and customising the app

This session is sponsored by AWS Amazon.

Speakers:

• Julia Von Klonowski, director digital career colleges, AWS digital skills advisor, AWS
• Mak Sharma, professor in computer science education, centre lead, cloud computing, Birmingham City University, School of Computing and Digital Technology
• Jan Myatt, vice-principal, BMET, Matthew Boulton College
• Melanie Nethercott, EMEA regional lead, education to workforce, AWS
• Namrata Das, account manager (Education), AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) global digital skills study, has revealed that an estimated 11.6 million Britons, or 35% of the country’s workforce, require digital skills training to keep pace with technological advancements. Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics are changing the nature of jobs faster than before. As new roles emerge and skill requirements evolve rapidly, the workforce will need to undertake digital skills training more regularly.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is deeply invested in helping to address the digital skills challenge. This session includes an overview of Amazon’s Digital Skills training programmes and a panel discussion with educators who are driving skills initiatives to inspire the next generation of digitally skilled talent.

Speakers:

• Scott Hibberson, subject specialist: digital practice (online learning), Jisc
• Edward Pull, senior digital learning and content developer, Jisc

The transition to online teaching and learning and digital delivery has changed the student experience throughout the last two years and has shone a light on learner wellbeing. Undoubtedly, there have been successes in the shift to online teaching and learning, but there have also been stresses on staff to continue to deliver a great student experience whilst ensuring the wellbeing of all learners during a pandemic.

This interactive training session invites you to listen and share examples of effective practice in your organisation regarding how peers have addressed learner wellbeing issues, with regard to:

• What resources have you made available to learners?
• What wellbeing tools are made available to staff to support learners more effectively?

This isn't a webinar or presentation from Jisc, rather a facilitated conversation and an opportunity for you to discuss and learn how you can adopt effective practice from peers.

This session is sponsored by BibliU.

Speakers:

• David Sherwood, CEO and co-founder, BibiliU
• Phillip Brabban, university librarian, Coventry University

How can institutions embrace innovative technologies to become forerunners in the digital age? Can new tools enhance learning outcomes and decrease inequalities?

During this session, David and Philip will present a quantitative study conducted at Coventry University on the impact of a campus-wide digital textbooks programme launched in partnership with BibliU. They'll be sharing the research involving 30,000 students across all disciplines for the first time with a wider audience.

Speaker: Mike Findlater, lecturer, University of Dundee and University of Wuhan

Join our mock hybrid classroom at Digifest - either in person or virtually - as we showcase innovative teaching and learning technologies with our member colleges and universities.

Learning technologists, teachers and lecturers will host a series of short, 20-minute classes with students learning remotely via the hybrid classroom. All participants will also experience immersive VR lesson content with on-site demonstrations of VR hardware.

The classes will focus on different curriculum areas over the two days, with time for a Q&A. You'll also experience a live disaster recovery!

Visit the hybrid classroom at any time to further explore these technologies or find out how to share teaching and learning content through a virtual desktop.

Speakers:

• John Sumpter, subject specialist (digital practice – leadership), Jisc
• Debbie Baff, subject specialist (digital practice - digital leaders programme), Jisc
• Zac Gribble, subject specialist (digital practice - platforms), Jisc

Leading an effective digital organisation is a complex and challenging journey that requires a passion for technology and inspiring people from across an organisation.

How do you do that? How do you achieve your digital goals? How have others done it? These are just some of the questions we will ask and engage with others to highlight their journeys at Digifest 2022.

John is a specialist in digital leadership, supporting board and executive teams in complex organisations to harness the power of digital to achieve strategic objectives and accelerate performance. He also leads Jisc's digital leaders programme, enabling like-minded individuals and organisations to respond more effectively to technology-driven change.

Debbie is a specialist in digital practice, focusing on Jisc's digital leaders programme, and Zac is a specialist in digital practice, focusing on platforms.

Speaker: Steve Jones, Connected Curriculum lead, Siemens.

Siemens Connected Curriculum initiative partners with ten different universities across the UK providing them with insights into Siemens' view of multiple, leading-edge digitalisation technologies.

Dr Steve Jones has a background in automation and senior leadership in FE/HE he now leads this key university engagement programme in the UK.

Speakers:

• Andy McGregor, director of edtech, Jisc
• Karen Foster, head of resource innovation, Yeovil College

Yeovil College's leadership team have spent the last few months working with Jisc to define an ambitious future vision for their students and staff. This session will present the progress made so far towards the vision, describe the approach used to define it and give delegates the chance to try out one of the approaches used by completing their own future vision for 2035.

Speakers:

• Fiona Cullen, deputy head of learning academy and PBL mentor, South Eastern Regional College
• Natasha Lloyd, senior innovation advisor, South Eastern Regional College

This session invites staff to see how South Eastern Regional College (SERC) harnessed digital and curriculum innovation, to foster sustainable enterprise, having a positive social and environmental impact. The college won a prestigious Green Gown Award in recognition for the difference they have made in sustainability.

Speakers:

• Kate Lister, head of academic professional development, Arden University
• Tim Coughlan, senior lecturer in education technology, The Open University
• Kellie Mote, subject specialist: strategy (assistive technology), Jisc
• Laura Hutton, subject specialist: strategy (accessibility), Jisc

Mental wellbeing, of both students and staff, is a significant issue in further and higher education. Increasing numbers of students are experiencing mental health difficulties, and staff are increasingly under pressure. Technology-enhanced learning is uniquely positioned to make a change for good in the sector, support hard-to-reach students and make positive changes to practice. The Positive Digital Practices project is scaling up positive practices in technology-enhanced learning. In partnership with Jisc, and funded by Office for Students. Positive Digital Practices has three focus areas:

• Positive learner identities - with digital tools to support students’ emotional awareness, encourage help-seeking behaviour, recognise achievements and value learning opportunities
• Positive digital communities - supporting students’ sense of belonging and purpose, provide informal peer support and facilitate meaningful connections that do not rely on a campus environment
• Positive digital pedagogies - supporting learners to take part in and demonstrate technology-enhanced learning in a way that is inclusive and supports mental wellbeing

In this workshop, we will showcase for the first time new digital resources being developed in these three areas; will seek critical feedback from participants and will explore opportunities for practitioners to work together to pilot the digital tools and resources in further and higher education.

Session takeaways:

• Increased awareness of the role technology-enhanced learning can play in supporting mental wellbeing
• Knowledge of new tools and resources to support positive digital pedagogies, positive learner identities and positive digital communities
• Connections and collaboration opportunities to make a change for good in technology enhanced learning

Speaker: Dan Pearson, principle and CEO, USP College (Unified Seevic Palmer's College)

Explore USP College’s and XTEND Digital’s unique and inspiring extended reality campus. The campus boasts a range of innovative technologies including recording suites, discovery labs, virtual reality and more. Not only do learners develop their theoretical knowledge, they can put that into practice on campus using VR learning programmes. Their courses offer high-end learning experiences and career paths, and this demo showcases the technological capabilities of education. Take this opportunity to see how one college has integrated innovative solutions into everyday campus life.

This session is sponsored by Prodigy Learning.

Speakers:

• Robert Bradley, education account manager, Prodigy Learning
• Andrew Lenehan, regional account manager, Prodigy Learning
• Andrew Griggs, COO, Prodigy Learning

Learn about the transition to online learning, the importance of globally, industry-recognised micro-credentials and the next era for digital skills learning and assessment.

This session is sponsored by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Speaker: Paul Nicholls, head of UK school, colleges and edtech, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Educational institutions are responding to complex socio-political, economic, competitive, and technical challenges. Simultaneously, the industry is witnessing accelerating technology adoption rates as universities, colleges and schools shift to new ways learning, and innovate to meet students’ needs. This session discusses how the cloud is helping to transform education.

Speaker: Sarah Knight, head of learning and teaching transformation, Jisc.

This session will share the findings of a recent Jisc review into the current assessment and feedback landscape in higher education. It will highlight how universities can use a principle informed approach to redesigning assessment and feedback for students to offer more authentic, more accessible, appropriately automated, more continuous, and more secure assessments.

The workshop will enable participants to reflect on their own assessment practices against our newly updated Jisc principles for assessment and explore examples of how technology can support effective assessment and feedback.

Speaker: Rob Blagden, director of libraries, technology and information, University of Gloucestershire.

What is the role of education in 2022 and what is our responsibility to our local community as well as our students? In this session, Rob will share the story of why the University of Gloucestershire stepped out and purchased a large ex-Debenhams department store with ambition to create an innovative teaching hub in the heart of Gloucester.

The new campus is designed to build public service partnerships, with public libraries, health, education services to significantly impact opportunity and wellbeing in the city, whilst also improving the breadth and richness of student education.

Speaker: Susanna Lawson, founder, OneFile Ltd.

As Industry 4.0 progresses, how can technology be used to ensure that the knowledge, skills and behaviours are used to train/retrain for the workforce of the future. And how does ethics and diversity play a role in this?

Susanna has been involved in vocational education and apprenticeships for over two decades having started her career as a carer in nursing homes. Seeing huge inefficiencies in the delivery of vocational training she co-founded edtech solution OneFile, which has transformed the delivery of funded training and is the platform of choice for over 700 FE colleges, ITPs, universities and employers.

This session is sponsored by The Information Lab.

Speaker: Chris Love, account manager, The Information Lab

How do education providers adapt to a post-pandemic world? How have institutions shifted to a digital strategy? With data! Data is at the fingertips of our staff. Every industry and sector is swimming in data. The pandemic has challenged HE and FE organisations to adopt data strategies fast. But how does an institution become data-driven? Is it technology or people? The Information Lab has years of experience implementing technologies, enabling organisations and increasing data literacy. Their Data School is the next generation of analysts who can rapidly translate evolving requirements and empower your staff. Your teams have got the domain knowledge. Together you can increase your technical ability and find the missing piece to the education jigsaw.

This session is sponsored by Google.

Speakers:

• Anna Artemyeva, Google for Education head UK and Ireland, Google
• Michelle Unterbrink, customer engineering manager, Google

During the pandemic, on average, digital offerings have leapfrogged seven years of progress in a matter of months (McKinsey - Dec '20) - and we have all seen this in higher and further education. With this significant change, the need to ensure a safe and secure digital campus is paramount.

In this session, Anna and Michelle will talk about the importance of keeping data and users safe, about stakeholders' responsibilities for being compliant with the legislation and will share practical examples of how Google can help support you in solving these challenges.

Speaker: Rachel Bass, virtual reality developer, Lakes College

Join our mock hybrid classroom at Digifest - either in person or virtually - as we showcase innovative teaching and learning technologies with our member colleges and universities.

Learning technologists, teachers and lecturers will host a series of short, 20-minute classes with students learning remotely via the hybrid classroom. All participants will also experience immersive VR lesson content with on-site demonstrations of VR hardware.

The classes will focus on different curriculum areas over the two days, with time for a Q&A. You'll also experience a live disaster recovery!

Visit the hybrid classroom at any time to further explore these technologies or find out how to share teaching and learning content through a virtual desktop.

A panel discussion with:

• Chair: Steve Frampton, FE/HE climate commissioner and John O'Brien, president and CEO, EDUCAUSE
• Gerry McDonald, group principal and CEO, New City College London
• Paul Phillips, CEO and principle, Weston College
• Bryan Alexander, senior scholar, Georgetown University
• Laurie Patton, president, Middlebury College

A digital technology lens on where we are with the campus sustainability agenda, and the opportunities and barriers as we go forward to a net zero world. Expert views from both sides of the pond will examine why climate challenge “will make the pandemic look easy, easy, easy", according to Bill Gates.

How will we take the holistic and urgent collaborative action at scale and pace, that 74% our US/UK pupils and students know is essential, and is the most critical challenge facing all of us as global citizens?

A live stream with our closing keynote, Audrey Watters, writer, Hack Education

Despite the stories we hear that a certain technological tomorrow is inevitable, the future is not fixed. Change is possible, and that change rests upon our ability to have hope.

“Edtech’s Cassandra” talks about predicting the future, offering warnings about educational technology and at the same time cultivating a radical hope as an act of resistance.

Read more about Audrey.

Join us for our drinks reception in Hall 3.

Liam Earney, managing director HE and research, and executive director of digital resources at Jisc, welcomes you to day two of Digifest 2022.

Keynote speaker: Dr Sarah Jones, associate pro-vice-chancellor education (transformation), De Montfort University.

Drawing together experimental technologies and innovative pedagogies, we will present a journey through what learning could look like in 2030.

Lessons from the pandemic show the need for flexibility as students juggle multiple demands but there is also the need for connectiveness and belonging. Students have said that they want to feel like they belong and that they are part of a learning community. They have said that they miss interaction (Almendingen, 2021). They miss the personal connections. Consequently, learning in a post-pandemic world, needs to draw together technologies and pedagogies that promote flexibility whilst instilling that sense of belonging.

An NUS survey in September 2020 found 27% of students surveyed did not have adequate access to technology to learn online and this is a key consideration as we journey through towards the 2030 learning experience.

Read more about Sarah.

Speakers:

• Clare Killen, senior consultant, Jisc
• Kathryn Heywood, head of product and service delivery - business intelligence, Jisc

Drawing on the experiences of almost 76,000 learners/students, teaching staff and professional services staff, this session will explore the successes and challenges of learning, teaching and working online.

The COVID-19 pandemic and enforced move to remote engagement meant that all needed to embrace digital practices and galvanised colleges and universities to push forward with transformation projects that may otherwise have taken far longer. Understanding how students and staff use technology is essential.

Jisc has been running the digital experience insights surveys to gather staff and students’ expectations and experiences of technology since 2016, providing valid, representative and actionable data to inform digital transformation. Alongside Jisc’s work on learning and teaching reimagined and shaping the digital future, the survey findings highlight current digital practices and provide data to inform strategic planning. Knowing what works, what the barriers are and listening to the voices of these key stakeholders as they describe their experiences will help us to further advance digital practice.

Speakers:

• Scott Hayden, teacher and digital innovation specialist, Basingstoke College of Technology
• Holly Hunt, senior learning technologist, Basingstoke College of Technology

Digital Wellbeing @ BCoT is an initiative that puts student and staff digital mental health and wellbeing at the heart of everything they do. While they have always proactively promoted and implemented edtech to enhance their teaching and student learning, their delivery of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic showed them they have a responsibility to do more to ensure they help staff and students manage the other side of technology’s attraction.

Through providing quality online lessons during lockdown, a range of new and innovative resources and support activities for the 2021 academic year, culminating in a new five-year digital strategy, their staff and students are now more aware of their own digital activity and are able to manage the addiction and distraction of technology so they use technology rather than be used by it.

Speaker: James Clay, head of higher education and student experience, Jisc.

In this session, James will showcase Jisc's HE sector strategy, Powering HE, and why and how we developed the strategy. He will explore what Jisc is doing and planning to do in the HE teaching and learning space. He will bring the session together with the impact the strategy is having on university members across the UK.

Speakers:

• Amy Hollier, director of blended and online learning, Heart of Worcestershire College
• Kelly Edwards, executive director of quality, Harlow College
• Simon Lovegrove, vice principal - curriculum and quality, Brockenhurst College

Chaired by Paul McKean, director of further education (FE) and skills, Jisc.

We'll be launching Jisc's digital elevation tool: a benchmarking tool which will help colleges plot their current e-maturity and identify their next steps on their digital transformation journey.

The digital elevation tool is a codesigned self-assessment tool, which will help college leaders assess their e-maturity against a national framework and determine their next steps based on the college's priorities.

Speakers:

• Amrita Narang, quality enhancement and standards specialist, QAA
• Dr Kerr Castle, quality enhancement and standards specialist, QAA

As higher education institutions implement hybrid and blended delivery, high-quality student experience remains key. QAA's new 'Hallmarks of success' playbook series provides high-level guiding principles that underpin success in the delivery of hybrid and blended learning and teaching.

The playbooks can be used to inform course design and curriculum review within a hybrid environment, and to stimulate discussion about the features of success in this environment. These success statements can be contextualised to suit a higher education provider’s strategy, culture and approach to hybrid learning and teaching. This interactive session will consist of a short presentation on the playbooks and then an opportunity to explore how they can be used.

Speakers:

• Rod Cullen, senior lecturer in learning and teaching technologies, Manchester Metropolitan University
• Orlagh McCabe, senior lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan University

The TREC model (Cullen and McCabe, 2021) was developed to support academics in planning and designing active learning tasks for delivery in both online and in face-to-face teaching situations. In this interactive session, Rod and Orlaghreport the reflections of academic colleagues who have designed active learning using the TREC model in a range of contexts and discuss the use of this model as a sustainable vehicle for changing practices.

This session is sponsored by Coursera.

Speakers:

• Martin Lewarne, director of partnerships, Coursera
• Deborah Kellsey Millar, group executive director of digital learning technologies, TEC Partnership (Grimsby Institute)

Graduates are entering an unprecedented job market. There is a record high of 1.24m job vacancies in the UK, with many employers saying that applicants don’t have the skills and qualifications required.

Education should align with the new and emerging skills expected by industry. To ensure you are successfully preparing your learners for the current skills crisis, you need to evolve and align your curriculum and teaching methods.

This session will inspire you to unlock the potential of both staff and students, creating a diverse talent pool to meet the skills crisis head-on.

Speaker: Louise Rowland, CEO, Ufi VocTech Trust

Following the recent publication of the levelling up white paper, this session explores how technology has a key role to play in helping level up adult learning across the UK to give everyone the chance to get the skills they need for work. The session will highlight how the best technology, developed and deployed as part of the solution to upskilling the UK workforce, can provide the capacity to respond to the challenges of rapidly changing business models, an increasing need to adapt to the forces of the global economy, and greater demands for new and emerging skills.

Speaker: Gori Yahaya, founder and CEO, UpSkill Digital

As technology becomes more prevalent across the education landscape, we discuss the impact of the lack of diversity in the tech industry and practical tips on how to create learning environments that are safe, inclusive, and equitable.

Read more about Gori.

Speakers:

• Vikki Liogier, national head of edtech and digital skills, Education and Training Foundation
• Jesse Jackson, lecturer, Loughborough College
• Sophie Allen, trainer assessor, Loughborough College

Adapting the curriculum-pedagogy delivery balance to meet the needs of hybrid deliveries is not an easy task as it requires not only technology access and digital skills but, most importantly, pedagogy redefinition. Six projects were awarded funding by the Education and Training Foundation to undertake short edtech reflective explorations. Each one focused on different aspects of hybrid learning.

This session will present practitioners’ findings and give you the opportunity to engage in practical hybrid activity and a pedagogic debate. The Education and Training Foundation aims to develop communities of practice, through undertaking 'enhance edtech' modules and engaging in pedagogic dialogue on the 'awarded practice wall'.

Panel speakers:

• Chair: Sarah Knight, head of learning and teaching transformation, Jisc
• Vivian Hocking, digital champion, University of Plymouth
• Michaela Moclair, digital champion, University of Plymouth
• Indre Rizauskaite, student (level 3 extended diploma - gaming), Harlow College
• Jay Biddle, student (level 3 extended diploma - aviation operations), Stansted Airport College
• Jasmin Gadsden, creative media production and technology student, Basingstoke College of Technology
• Tazmin Cresswell, art student, Basingstoke College of Technology
• Ebani Dhawan, arts and sciences student, UCL
• Andrea Ko, integrated MSci cell biology student, UCL

In this panel session, we hear from further and higher education students sharing their experiences of learning online. The session will draw out the benefits that technology can offer in supporting the student experience as well as highlighting key areas for improvement to ensure a digitally inclusive learning experience for all.

Speakers:

• Lynsey Sampson, senior library assistant, University of Strathclyde
• Kirsten Watson, faculty librarian: business, University of Strathclyde

Come and hear about the University of Strathclyde’s ‘Library Lounge: Virtual study sessions’. Learn how they originated, when they take place, what happens at the sessions and who is involved.

Find out from attendees, through video testimonials, why these sessions are integral to their independent studying. Learn how these sessions redefine the studying space for students, enabling them to feel part of their university community from anywhere while allowing us to reach out to them, providing both a ‘place’ for our distance learner community and an alternative ‘space’ for those students who prefer to study with us in this way.

This session is sponsored by RealWear and Westbase.io.

Speaker: Derrick Sawyer, country manager, RealWear

This workshop will introduce you to assisted reality (aR) - it will cover what it is and how it compares to other extended reality technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality. And critically, it will cover aR’s significance to the modern learning experience. Exploring aR’s benefits, you will learn how RealWear’s wearable devices enable organisations to accelerate their learning processes while increasing learner engagement and retention.

Join us to discover how education and training can be meaningfully digitised, giving trainees and students access to the right information, materials and support they need to be "hands-on" while keeping their hands free.

Speaker: Dr Pauline Mackay, lecturer in Robert Burns Studies (Scottish literature), University of Glasgow

Join our mock hybrid classroom at Digifest - either in person or virtually - as we showcase innovative teaching and learning technologies with our member colleges and universities.

Learning technologists, teachers and lecturers will host a series of short, 20-minute classes with students learning remotely via the hybrid classroom. All participants will also experience immersive VR lesson content with on-site demonstrations of VR hardware.

The classes will focus on different curriculum areas over the two days, with time for a Q&A. You'll also experience a live disaster recovery!

Visit the hybrid classroom at any time to further explore these technologies or find out how to share teaching and learning content through a virtual desktop.

Speaker: Ed Fidoe, CEO, London Interdisciplinary School.

Ed leads the UK’s newest degree awarding institution, the London Interdisciplinary School, which opened in London’s Whitechapel in autumn 2021. He will describe the curriculum, which is designed around society's most important complex problems and tackle questions such as:

• If you study everything, are you just a Jack of all trades?
• How do you bring the different disciplinary knowledge together?
• Is an ID education for everyone?

Speaker: Paul Bailey, head of co-design, Jisc.

Since March 2020, we have seen a pivot to more online learning, remote working, then a necessity for remote assessments, challenges of student well-being and isolation. How do we ensure that the changes we are making are for the best?

Effective solutions start with understanding the problem. Solutions fail if we don’t fully understand user needs. The codesign team deploy user design methods to scope effective challenges and find sustainable solutions.

In this session, Paul will share some tools for you to work on a selection of challenge scenarios.

This session is sponsored by Studiosity.

Speakers:

• Lewis McKinnon, head of partner development, UK and Europe, Studiosity
• Dr Abigail Moriarty, pro-vice chancellor for learning and teaching, University of Sunderland

Students who ask for help are more confident, and submit better quality, more thoughtful work. Yet how can you extend study support round the clock, sustainably and at scale when academic and support staff are already stretched to the limit?

Lewis McKinnon, head of partner development at Studiosity will share a range of positive student and staff outcomes when students have access to additional anytime, expert, anonymous and friendly human support.

Dr Abigail Moriarty, pro-vice chancellor for learning and teaching at the University of Sunderland will share why at the start of this academic year, they partnered with Studosity to help ensure their students have a great experience and feel supported, both on and off campus 24/7.

This session is sponsored by Inspera.

Speaker: Harvey Tayman, key account manager UK, Inspera

Across the world, institutions have strategically implemented digital solutions to ensure assessment continuity, resulting in a range of innovative means to solve problems created by the pandemic. Many of these solutions have given us a greater understanding of the power that digital technologies can play as part of our teaching, learning and assessment strategies. But it is also true to say that some of these tools don’t offer an optimum experience to either learners or educators. This session will focus on how digital assessment platforms can help institutions offer reliable, authentic and efficient assessment experiences to learners and educators alike; future-proofing your assessment provision and embedding change for good.

Speakers:

• Penny Langford, executive head of digital learning, Milton Keynes College
• Louise Lancaster, support coach for digital learning, Milton Keynes College
• Charlotte White, learning technologist, Milton Keynes College
• Valerie Brown, digital learning and resources support coach, Milton Keynes College

This workshop session takes you through a process to review and rethink the ways that you can embed technology in your learners’ journey. You can take these activities back to your own institutions to support local digital transformation processes.

The session will be an opportunity to share ideas as well as hearing about how Milton Keynes College has used technology to enhance its own learners' and staff journey.

The session will promote active participation with delegates working in groups to identify what could be implemented at every stage of the learner journey. Ideas and participation will be captured using simple digital tools so a charged and working phone at least will be required.

Session takeaways:

• Ideas to digitise a learner journey
• Ideas for simple digital tools to use that can help
• A workshop activity that can be used in delegates own institutions

Speakers:

• Kellie Mote, subject specialist: strategy (assistive technology), Jisc
• Laura Hutton, subject specialist: strategy (accessibility), Jisc
• Fil McIntyre, manager and assistive technology tead, TechAbility
• Neil Harrod-Beck, assistive technology projects lead, TechAbility

Skilled and confident staff are essential to ensuring that students are empowered to get the most from accessible and assistive technology. Good needs assessment, training and implementation of technology enables students to be more productive and to fulfil their potential - liberating those with disabilities or additional support requirements to develop greater independence, and to successfully transition to further study or employment.

In this friendly, interactive session, you will:

• Gain a rapid overview of exciting developments in the accessible and assistive technology landscape
• Shape future training provision for the sector by reflecting on what is needed
• Discover a range of low cost and no cost, yet high quality CPD opportunities

Speakers include:

• Paulette Makepeace, head of digital capability, customer and sector enablement, Jisc
• James Hodgkin, head of analytics, Jisc
• Andrew McFadyen, further education and skills senior consultant, Jisc
• Jim Keane, senior analytics consultant - wellbeing, Jisc
• Rachel Glynn, senior analytic consultant, customer and sector enablement, Jisc
• Kathryn Heywood, head of business intelligence, Jisc
• Clare Killen, senior consultant, Jisc

We'll take you on a magical mystery tour through some of the new UX's and functionality features in the latest versions of the analytics services and products that support staff and students through both the learning journey and digital transformation. We'll introduce you to some of the insights that data can help you to find.

Speakers:

• Sue Attewell, head of edtech, Jisc
• Michael Webb, director of technology and analytics, Jisc

As interest in AI grows, Sue and Stuart will reflect on insights and lessons learnt from their activity to date. They will look at the potential of how AI can help improve both the student and staff experience. They’ll also explain how people can get involved and contribute.

Speakers:

• Amy Hollier, director of blended and online learning, Heart of Worcestershire College
• Holly Hunt, senior learning technologist, Basingstoke College of Technology
• Kelly Edwards, executive director of quality, Harlow College
• James Garnett, director of IT, United Learning
• Deb Millar, executive director learning technologies, TEC Partnership
• Chair: Paul McKean, director of further education and skills, Jisc

This session aims to reflect upon the lessons learnt during the past 18 months whilst working together as edtech demonstrator leads. It will provide ideas, advice and guidance on a cultural shift towards developing new approaches that will have impact and could be successfully implemented within your college.

Discussions will include Generation Z and their needs, the development of staff including the culture and mindset needed will allow you to plan how you can fully onboard your staff into new ways of thinking and delivering in preparation for the future of vocational education.

Speaker: Andrew Dewhurst, vice principal – chief information officer, Nelson and Colne College.

In this session, we will discover the challenges and outcomes achieved by Nelson and Colne College Group in delivering an innovative and diverse software 'Virtual Estate' for over 10,000 16-18, 19+, adult, HE and community learners.

Takeaways from this session include the leading the organisation and developing the 'Virtual Estate' plan, planning and managing the 'Virtual Estate', user experience and return on investment.

Speakers:

• Andy McGregor, director of edtech, Jisc
• Nicholas Schroder, senior community marketing manager, Wazoku

Wazoku and Jisc have teamed up to deliver a competition which aims to get students to solve real world problems posed by businesses.

This competition will enable students to develop skills that improve their employability, enhance their CVs and make valuable contacts as well as having the opportunity to get rewards for any successful solutions. During this session you will be able to learn more about the competition and the experiences of those involved.

Speaker: Timothy Skelton, lead practitioner: eLearning, New College Durham

Designed to allow delegates to question a user on the Barco weConnect system to discover its benefits to learners and teaching, learning and assessment.

Join our mock hybrid classroom at Digifest - either in person or virtually - as we showcase innovative teaching and learning technologies with our member colleges and universities.

Learning technologists, teachers and lecturers will host a series of short, 20-minute classes with students learning remotely via the hybrid classroom. All participants will also experience immersive VR lesson content with on-site demonstrations of VR hardware.

The classes will focus on different curriculum areas over the two days, with time for a Q&A. You'll also experience a live disaster recovery!

Visit the hybrid classroom at any time to further explore these technologies or find out how to share teaching and learning content through a virtual desktop.

A keynote panel discussion with:

• Dr Sarah Jones, associate PVC education (transformation), De Montfort University
• Ed Fidoe, chief executive, London Interdisciplinary School
• Gori Yahaya, CEO and founder, Upskill Digital
• John O'Brien, president and CEO, EDUCAUSE (international perspective)
• Chair: Heidi Fraser-Krauss, CEO, Jisc

This panel will conclude Digifest 2022 and is your opportunity to ask questions to our expert panellists on any of the topics that have been covered over the past two days.

Our panellists will reflect on key learnings from Digifest 2022 and what the future looks like as well as answering questions submitted by delegates in the live Q&A.