Navigating digital transformation together: insights from Connect More May 2026
Connect More May 2026 highlights how educators are turning digital transformation into practical action across AI, inclusion and sustainability.
Connect More provides the HE and FE community with two days of vital opportunities and insights – working together as a sector to share best practice and actionable solutions to the biggest digital challenges we face as educators.
At the May 2026 event, that shared focus increasingly shifted from exploration to practical action.
Connect More is now a twice-yearly event, taking place each May and December. This year, we got to see how becoming biannual has changed the event. Delegates and community members greeted each other as friends and collaborators, eager to hear news and updates on ongoing projects and digital transformation initiatives.
The shorter gap between events has also meant that sessions and workshops could build in even more practical tips and actionable insights, as members work together to share and consolidate their prior learning. These were further supported by four exclusive, Jisc-led on-demand training sessions, covering everything from student experience to tackling digital poverty.
Retaining the same three core themes allowed the community to measure its progress from the previous year and understand how some of the most important conversations in the sector are evolving and shifting.
From confidence to capability in AI
Our first theme focused on educators empowering themselves amid disruption. This year’s sessions highlighted how far that journey has progressed. Educators are increasingly confident in adopting AI and are now seeking more practical, hands-on guidance to support its use in the classroom.
That shift builds on the foundations laid last year, where Teesside University’s Ann Thanaraj led a standout session posing thought-provoking questions. Participants were given the space to explore fundamental concerns about AI’s role in education, many of which still feel as relevant as ever.
Educators are increasingly confident in adopting AI.
Danny Mirza’s high-energy session, ‘The AI update you need: where we are now with genAI in higher education (and what to do next)’, provided a great example of what attendees were looking for.
Danny didn’t shy away from the tougher questions around AI – instead he dealt with them head-on, sharing the latest resources for safer, more ethical AI use. These included AI risk assessment materials, and an AI model training privacy guide, with step-by-step instructions on how to protect your data across all of the major AI platforms.
Then it was on to the very latest tips, techniques and practical strategies. Danny shared 11 new ways for educators and HE/FE professionals to use AI, from instant infographics and PowerPoint slide generation, to working in ‘side-by-side' view so that you can simultaneously edit the model’s outputs while conversing with the chatbot.
Danny’s jam-packed session received the Zoom equivalent of a standing ovation, with one member commenting:
“Danny’s delivery is brilliant! I feel like I’m watching in ‘x2’ – perfect for the TikTok generation.”
This shift reflects a broader move across the sector towards embedding, rather than simply exploring, digital transformation.
Leading with honesty and inclusivity
Our next theme, enhancing educational experiences for all, also saw a shift in focus from last year.
This was best typified by the college-led insight: how Jisc community champions at South Staffordshire College bring the AoC digital insight hub to life session.
While the session served to showcase the growing partnership between us and the Association of Colleges (AoC) (along with Ufi VocTech Trust), it also demonstrated the value of opening up digital strategy design to include perspectives from students – even in the early, ‘messy’ stages.
Boosting digital confidence, strengthening practice.
Our community champions Alison Fawdrey (digital learning technologist) and Steve Wileman (head of digital learning) from South Staffordshire College, gave an insightful first-hand account of how they brought an AoC digital insight day to life, involving their students.
Digital insight days are part of a pilot programme that’s intended to close the digital divide in FE – boosting digital confidence, strengthening practice, and ensuring every teacher and every learner can benefit from technology.
As Steve and Alison explained, they were determined the event should stay focused on meeting the needs of staff and students across the participating colleges.
All the sessions were practitioner-led, rather than vendor-led. Throughout the day, staff and student digital champions provided feedback through a series of short video interviews that were included as ‘live guest spots’ during the digital day workshops.
This inclusive event design, according to Steve, led to more honest discussion of the challenges and realities of digital transformation in FE. Many attendees (both staff and students) shared their private pain points and barriers, including a commonly held fear of ‘doing the wrong thing’.
For many Connect More attendees, one of the key messages of the conference came from South Staffordshire’s gentle challenge to their own digital insight day participants:
“If you prioritise one meaningful, achievable action from everything you’ve learned here, what will you do on Monday?”
Training for more sustainable education
The final core theme running through Connect More May 2026 was ethical and inclusive digital education practice.
With sessions that covered how to co-design climate curricula and using learning analytics to pre-empt the needs of diverse cohorts, the values and principles that power our community were never far from the surface. Together, these discussions highlighted how sustainability is becoming embedded in everyday digital practice.
One session that strongly emphasised putting those values into meaningful action was led by Catherine Evans, our subject specialist for digital practice.
This taster session allowed delegates to sample content and activities from our teaching for tomorrow: developing sustainable digital practices training module.
Sustainability is becoming embedded in everyday digital practice.
Drawing on our research into teaching and learning-focused sustainability practice, the interactive workshop also enabled participants to share their own methods and approaches. This quickly led to a wealth of low-carbon strategies that participants could implement with minimal effort, including decluttering to reduce unnecessary digital storage, and designing more reusable resources.
Participants also talked about the need to contextualise digital sustainability for students by focusing on the processing-intensive nature of video-first social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.
Taking a leaf from South Staffordshire College’s book, Catherine asked participants to identify one meaningful action they could take on Monday to improve digital sustainability.
Feedback was positive, with attendees welcoming Catherine’s empowering guidance. However, one attendee offered an important balancing counterpoint, reminding that effective sustainability practice also requires us to:
“Remember to support organisations advocating for political and systemic change as well as your own personal actions.”
Support your sector
It’s hard to overestimate the value that attending Connect More can bring to your professional practice. As a member from Greenhead College remarked:
“It’s good to see the impact. They’re really useful sessions, and it’s interesting to see real-world examples of colleges using and implementing things, rather than it being theory or vendor-led.”
If you attended the event, you can go back and watch any of the sessions again, using your existing login details, until June.
Find out more
- Want to speak at the next Connect More (1-2 December 2026)? We'd love to hear from you. Complete our form to submit your programme session ideas for Connect More