Piloting learning technology within tertiary education

Piloting new learning technologies is often inconsistent and time consuming. Many institutions and colleges lack a clear, repeatable process for scoping, running and evaluating pilots. This leads to duplicated effort, unclear success measures and difficulty demonstrating value to leadership.

There is also increasing pressure to adopt technology quickly without a transparent process. Institutions need a trusted approach that supports good governance, transparency and student voice.

What we hope to achieve

We aim to develop a practical, evidence-based piloting resource that helps institutions:

• Plan and run pilots using a consistent, ethical and inclusive process
• Gather meaningful evidence about impact on staff workload and student learning
• Reduce risk by addressing privacy, accessibility and procurement considerations early
• Make informed decisions about scaling, adapting or stopping a technology
• Align learning technologies with strategic aims and objectives

Our approach

We are working with a consultation group of colleagues from the sector to co-design guidance that reflects sector needs and practice. This will ensure outputs are relevant, usable and grounded in real contexts.

• Phase one (to September 2026): develop draft guidance through three consultation group sessions
• Phase two (October 2026 – February 2027): working group institutions apply and test the guidance, providing feedback to refine content and develop case studies
• Phase three: publish the final toolkit (early 2027), supported by case studies and practical guidance