Knowledge development
Knowledge development is a core practice area of digital transformation supporting staff and students to learn, work and thrive in a digital environment.
One of the core knowledge practice areas in the framework for digital transformation in higher education.
Supporting knowledge development within the organisation to ensure all stakeholders can learn, work and thrive in a digital environment. Rethinking and enhancing digital learning, teaching and assessment.
Knowledge development is broken down into four areas of activity:
Curriculum development
Reviewing, planning and developing a course of study. Usually a formal departmental and institutional process, mapped to graduate outcomes, benchmarks and professional standards, producing specific documentation (e.g. course handbook, schedule, VLE materials).
Activities/principles/values
These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:
Assessment and feedback | Curriculum design | Curriculum frameworks | Digital capability | Digital strategy | International activities | Learning design | Learning models | Learning resources | Learning teaching and assessment strategy | Validation
Examples of potential activities
- Work to transform and develop courses across the organisation according to changing strategic visions, employer needs, and/or frameworks such as active blended learning, personalised learning, hybrid learning, and transdisciplinary learning
- Reconsider and redesign traditional assessment and feedback to realise the affordances of digital approaches, ensuring staff and students have the required digital capabilities
- Explore economic models for offering blended learning at scale
- Identify and implement new international programmes of study
- Consider new global markets for popular courses in light of increased digital learning capacity and staff capability
- Explore how digital and physical spaces are being/could be used to provide enhanced opportunities for student flexibility and engagement
How Jisc can support your organisation
Services
Groups
Reports
- Assessment and feedback - higher education landscape review: survey outcomes
- Beyond blended
- Approaches to learning and curriculum design across UK higher education
- Blended learning: a synthesis of change A study based on contributions from universities in Wales, in light of Covid-19 (pdf)
- Learning and teaching reimagined: a new dawn for higher education?
- Technology-enabled teaching and learning at scale
- The future of assessment five principles, five targets for 2025
- UK higher education (HE) digital experience insights
- Digital experience insights Wales: post-16 providers
Guides
Reviewing, planning and developing a course of study. Usually a formal departmental and institutional process, mapped to graduate outcomes, benchmarks and professional standards, producing specific documentation (e.g. course handbook, schedule, VLE materials).
Activities/principles/values
These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:
Assessment and feedback | Curriculum design | Curriculum frameworks | Digital capability | Digital strategy | International activities | Learning design | Learning models | Learning resources | Learning teaching and assessment strategy | Validation
Examples of potential activities
- Work to transform and develop courses across the organisation according to changing strategic visions, employer needs, and/or frameworks such as active blended learning, personalised learning, hybrid learning, and transdisciplinary learning
- Reconsider and redesign traditional assessment and feedback to realise the affordances of digital approaches, ensuring staff and students have the required digital capabilities
- Explore economic models for offering blended learning at scale
- Identify and implement new international programmes of study
- Consider new global markets for popular courses in light of increased digital learning capacity and staff capability
- Explore how digital and physical spaces are being/could be used to provide enhanced opportunities for student flexibility and engagement
How Jisc can support your organisation
Services
Groups
Reports
- Assessment and feedback - higher education landscape review: survey outcomes
- Beyond blended
- Approaches to learning and curriculum design across UK higher education
- Blended learning: a synthesis of change A study based on contributions from universities in Wales, in light of Covid-19 (pdf)
- Learning and teaching reimagined: a new dawn for higher education?
- Technology-enabled teaching and learning at scale
- The future of assessment five principles, five targets for 2025
- UK higher education (HE) digital experience insights
- Digital experience insights Wales: post-16 providers
Guides
Digital learning
Learning that takes place through digital devices, media and environments, or with digital applications. Digital learning may take place live and in -person, live online, or through asynchronous resources and environments. Includes digital learning and development of staff, as well as formal or informal learning of students.
Activities/principles/values
These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:
Accessibility and inclusion | Digital capability | Digital poverty | Effective digital learners | E-portfolios | Flexible learning | Flexible workplace | Learning spaces | Library and learning resources | Personalised learning | Self regulation | Staff development | Staff recruitment and retention | Student choice | Student learning | Student progression | Student support | Study spaces
Examples of potential activities
- Use a balance of in -person and digital methods to provide timely and appropriate feedback throughout a course to allow students to self-regulate their learning
- Encourage and support learners to self-assess, identify and articulate their digital and study preferences and needs through a mixture of in person and digital diagnostic methods
- Offer learners regular opportunities to assess their digital learning capabilities and identify what support they need to build on these
- Provide learners with appropriate digital tools and encouragement/support to reflect on their learning (eg e-portfolios, personal blogs)
- Provide opportunities for curriculum teams to assess and reflect on their levels of digital capability and identify areas for professional development opportunities for student flexibility and engagement
How Jisc can support your organisation
Services
- Building digital capability discovery tool
- Building digital capability discovery tool staff guide
- Building digital capability discovery tool student guide
- CPD accredited events
- Learning analytics
- Training
Reports
Guides
Learning that takes place through digital devices, media and environments, or with digital applications. Digital learning may take place live and in -person, live online, or through asynchronous resources and environments. Includes digital learning and development of staff, as well as formal or informal learning of students.
Activities/principles/values
These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:
Accessibility and inclusion | Digital capability | Digital poverty | Effective digital learners | E-portfolios | Flexible learning | Flexible workplace | Learning spaces | Library and learning resources | Personalised learning | Self regulation | Staff development | Staff recruitment and retention | Student choice | Student learning | Student progression | Student support | Study spaces
Examples of potential activities
- Use a balance of in -person and digital methods to provide timely and appropriate feedback throughout a course to allow students to self-regulate their learning
- Encourage and support learners to self-assess, identify and articulate their digital and study preferences and needs through a mixture of in person and digital diagnostic methods
- Offer learners regular opportunities to assess their digital learning capabilities and identify what support they need to build on these
- Provide learners with appropriate digital tools and encouragement/support to reflect on their learning (eg e-portfolios, personal blogs)
- Provide opportunities for curriculum teams to assess and reflect on their levels of digital capability and identify areas for professional development opportunities for student flexibility and engagement
How Jisc can support your organisation
Services
- Building digital capability discovery tool
- Building digital capability discovery tool staff guide
- Building digital capability discovery tool student guide
- CPD accredited events
- Learning analytics
- Training
Reports
Guides
Digital teaching
Teaching through digital devices, media and environments, or with digital applications. Digital teaching may take place live and in person, live online or by supporting students with a variety of asynchronous resources and environments. Also supporting students with their digital learning skills.
Activities/principles/values
These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:
Assessment and feedback | Digital capability | Data analytics | Learning environments | Learning infrastructure | Learning technologists | Learning resources | Library and learning resources | Open educational practice (OEP) | Open educational resources (OERs) | Staff development | Student support
Examples of potential activities
- Establish a set of metrics and analytics that can be used to measure the success of digital learning beyond simplistic data such as attendance and retention
- Invest in self-access resources to support the development of digital capabilities among staff
- Explore or research the use of AI to provide a personalised learning experience that identifies and responds to the needs and preferences of learners
- Provide opportunities for teaching staff to share digital practices and expertise formally and informally
- Ensure there is recognition and reward for teaching staff who develop their digital capabilities (e.g. appraisal, grading, time allocation, career opportunities, specialist roles, link to teaching excellence)
- Redesign the management and delivery of assessment and feedback mechanisms
- Leverage technologies to scale delivery of high-quality services to students located anywhere in the world
- Adapt quality improvement processes to support the adoption of digital approaches to learning, teaching and assessment
- Identify alternative means to support knowledge practice for people who are unable to access in person spaces or equipment (eg games, simulations)
- Work with other HEIs as consortia to advocate with publishers for increased availability and affordability of e-books
How Jisc can support your organisation
Services
Groups
Reports
- A pathway towards responsible, ethical AI (pdf)
- Artificial intelligence (AI) in tertiary education: A primer on what AI can do, what the future holds, and what to consider in order to implement it ethically (pdf)
- Virtual learning environment review report
Guides
Teaching through digital devices, media and environments, or with digital applications. Digital teaching may take place live and in person, live online or by supporting students with a variety of asynchronous resources and environments. Also supporting students with their digital learning skills.
Activities/principles/values
These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:
Assessment and feedback | Digital capability | Data analytics | Learning environments | Learning infrastructure | Learning technologists | Learning resources | Library and learning resources | Open educational practice (OEP) | Open educational resources (OERs) | Staff development | Student support
Examples of potential activities
- Establish a set of metrics and analytics that can be used to measure the success of digital learning beyond simplistic data such as attendance and retention
- Invest in self-access resources to support the development of digital capabilities among staff
- Explore or research the use of AI to provide a personalised learning experience that identifies and responds to the needs and preferences of learners
- Provide opportunities for teaching staff to share digital practices and expertise formally and informally
- Ensure there is recognition and reward for teaching staff who develop their digital capabilities (e.g. appraisal, grading, time allocation, career opportunities, specialist roles, link to teaching excellence)
- Redesign the management and delivery of assessment and feedback mechanisms
- Leverage technologies to scale delivery of high-quality services to students located anywhere in the world
- Adapt quality improvement processes to support the adoption of digital approaches to learning, teaching and assessment
- Identify alternative means to support knowledge practice for people who are unable to access in person spaces or equipment (eg games, simulations)
- Work with other HEIs as consortia to advocate with publishers for increased availability and affordability of e-books
How Jisc can support your organisation
Services
Groups
Reports
- A pathway towards responsible, ethical AI (pdf)
- Artificial intelligence (AI) in tertiary education: A primer on what AI can do, what the future holds, and what to consider in order to implement it ethically (pdf)
- Virtual learning environment review report
Guides
Learner experience
The subjective experience of learning overall, including the taught curriculum and non-curricular activities such as private study, learning skills support, library resources, careers support and informal collaborative learning. Also includes aspects of emotional and personal wellbeing.
Activities / principles / values
These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:
Accessibility and inclusion | Building digital communities | Digital fluency | Digital participation | Digital wellbeing | International activities | Sense of belonging | Student experience | Student support
Examples of potential activities
- Embrace the notion of presence (for staff and students), which can be demonstrated synchronously or asynchronously, as an alternative to contact hours
- Include students’ digital wellbeing in wider student wellbeing initiatives and services
- Take an active interest in the digital experience of learners through research, surveys and/or consultations
- Use technology to provide personalised, adaptive learning and assessment
- Provide effective careers support, employment brokering and employment-based skills development, through a balance of technological and in person approaches
- Survey students about their access to technology, connectivity and learning spaces before they start their course to find out what additional support they might need
- Ensure that international and transnational education (TNE) students have the support they need to experience a sense of belonging and to learn effectively
- Consider students’ global mobility and the impact this might have on access to services, learning and support
How Jisc can support your organisation
Services
Reports
The subjective experience of learning overall, including the taught curriculum and non-curricular activities such as private study, learning skills support, library resources, careers support and informal collaborative learning. Also includes aspects of emotional and personal wellbeing.
Activities / principles / values
These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:
Accessibility and inclusion | Building digital communities | Digital fluency | Digital participation | Digital wellbeing | International activities | Sense of belonging | Student experience | Student support
Examples of potential activities
- Embrace the notion of presence (for staff and students), which can be demonstrated synchronously or asynchronously, as an alternative to contact hours
- Include students’ digital wellbeing in wider student wellbeing initiatives and services
- Take an active interest in the digital experience of learners through research, surveys and/or consultations
- Use technology to provide personalised, adaptive learning and assessment
- Provide effective careers support, employment brokering and employment-based skills development, through a balance of technological and in person approaches
- Survey students about their access to technology, connectivity and learning spaces before they start their course to find out what additional support they might need
- Ensure that international and transnational education (TNE) students have the support they need to experience a sense of belonging and to learn effectively
- Consider students’ global mobility and the impact this might have on access to services, learning and support
How Jisc can support your organisation
Services
Reports
Taking this area forward in your own organisation
Assess your digital maturity for knowledge development
Download the maturity model for knowledge development (pdf)
Download the maturity model for knowledge development (docx)
Develop a roadmap and action plans
Download the maturity model action plan for knowledge development (docx)
Contact your relationship manager
All Jisc member organisations have a dedicated relationship manager. Yours can help you access our full range of products, services and support.
Inspiration – member stories and case studies
- Queens University Belfast: Jisc digital transformation toolkit focuses on future AI practice – co-creation of a new AI strategy (pdf)
- University of Chester: connecting digital infrastructure change with learning and teaching improvement opportunities (pdf)
- University of Manchester: institution-wide flexible learning programme - implementation of a new central learning environment (pdf)
- University of St Andrews: an inclusive and people-centred approach to evolving the online learning offer (pdf)
- A Teesside University and Jisc collaboration is at the heart of a digital learning toolkit
- Adaptability, data and digital poverty: digital assessment at Brunel University
- Cardiff University’s multi-disciplinary approach to teaching in clinical disciplines with immersive technology
- Creating library vibes for students studying remotely
- Delivering a digital education
- How UCL is redesigning assessment for the AI age
- “Learning analytics is about hearts and minds, as well as technology”
- Simmersive Staffordshire: bringing together people, place and pedagogy for practising clinical skills
Guides
- Our guide Beyond blended: rethinking curriculum and learning design is closely aligned to this section of the framework.
Next section: Knowledge management and use
View the knowledge management and use element of the framework focusing on how effective management and use of digital information and data impacts on business intelligence and decision making.
This toolkit is made available under Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-SA).