Why reimagine support?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nBefore 2022, Leeds\u2019 digital education support was highly localised. Each faculty had its own learning technologist function, operating with its own priorities, resources, and constraints. That model served some immediate needs, but it lacked strategic alignment, scalability, and shared identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The accelerating shifts brought on by COVID\u201119, combined with the launch of our Curriculum Redefined initiative, laid bare the limitations of a fragmented model. We needed a structure that could maintain responsiveness, trust, and discipline-specific nuance, while aligning across the institution to deliver pedagogic coherence, digital equity, and sustainable innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we did: alignment, capacity, and practice<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nOur transformation unfolded across three interlocking dimensions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Organisational realignment & recruitment<\/strong>
We brought all faculty-based learning technologists into a central Digital Education Enhancement (DEE)\u00a0function within our Digital Education Service (DES). New job families, career pathways, and recruitment built toward greater coherence and shared identity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Embedding new ways of working<\/strong>
We invested in CPD, communities of practice, specialist interest groups, and shared design methodologies (LXD, design thinking, empathy mapping, group facilitation). This helped the newly unified team develop a mutual language and culture of enhancement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Strategic integration & service design<\/strong>
We developed a Service Catalogue\u00a0that made explicit what is core, what is enhancement, and how DEE aligns to institutional priorities (e.g. assessment, accessibility, surfacing skills). We used institutional planning, governance structures, and data signals (e.g. School Action Plans, NSS, programme reviews) to prioritise work.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\nAs a result, DEE is no longer a support function, but a central agent in curriculum transformation, educational enhancement, and professional learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I\u2019ll explore at ALTC25<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn my session, I\u2019ll be unpacking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- The trade-offs of balancing local responsiveness and central coherence<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- How we built trust across faculties and made ‘third-space’ professionalism real<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Tactics for surfacing value: the catalogue, metrics, stakeholder narratives<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The evolving role of DEE in supporting Curriculum Redefined, shifting innovative redesign work into sustainable, day-to-day educational enhancement<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- What lessons others might adapt, avoid, or reimagine in their own contexts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll also invite discussion on how such models might shift further in response to AI, scaling, hybrid pedagogies, and institutional pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A teaser & a provocation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nHere\u2019s a sneak peek: by redefining where ‘the digital team’ sits and how it works, we enabled changes such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- Co\u2011designing modules and programmes from the ground up<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Embedding accessibility into assessments from the start<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Partnering with Schools on embedding the Leeds Curriculum<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Shifting our time from reactive support to proactive, strategic enhancement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
And here\u2019s the provocation: in many institutions, digital support continues to be the last<\/em> thing to get aligned, even though its impact flows across almost all teaching and learning reforms. What might happen if your digital team were embedded, trusted, and forefront of institutional strategy?<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you’re interested in how to reimagine enhancement in your own institution, I hope to see you at ALTC25. And if not, I look forward to connecting here or online afterward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our transformation unfolded across three interlocking dimensions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Organisational realignment & recruitment<\/strong>
We brought all faculty-based learning technologists into a central Digital Education Enhancement (DEE)\u00a0function within our Digital Education Service (DES). New job families, career pathways, and recruitment built toward greater coherence and shared identity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Embedding new ways of working<\/strong>
We invested in CPD, communities of practice, specialist interest groups, and shared design methodologies (LXD, design thinking, empathy mapping, group facilitation). This helped the newly unified team develop a mutual language and culture of enhancement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n- Strategic integration & service design<\/strong>
We developed a Service Catalogue\u00a0that made explicit what is core, what is enhancement, and how DEE aligns to institutional priorities (e.g. assessment, accessibility, surfacing skills). We used institutional planning, governance structures, and data signals (e.g. School Action Plans, NSS, programme reviews) to prioritise work.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\nAs a result, DEE is no longer a support function, but a central agent in curriculum transformation, educational enhancement, and professional learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I\u2019ll explore at ALTC25<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In my session, I\u2019ll be unpacking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- The trade-offs of balancing local responsiveness and central coherence<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- How we built trust across faculties and made ‘third-space’ professionalism real<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Tactics for surfacing value: the catalogue, metrics, stakeholder narratives<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The evolving role of DEE in supporting Curriculum Redefined, shifting innovative redesign work into sustainable, day-to-day educational enhancement<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- What lessons others might adapt, avoid, or reimagine in their own contexts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll also invite discussion on how such models might shift further in response to AI, scaling, hybrid pedagogies, and institutional pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A teaser & a provocation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s a sneak peek: by redefining where ‘the digital team’ sits and how it works, we enabled changes such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Co\u2011designing modules and programmes from the ground up<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Embedding accessibility into assessments from the start<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Partnering with Schools on embedding the Leeds Curriculum<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Shifting our time from reactive support to proactive, strategic enhancement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
And here\u2019s the provocation: in many institutions, digital support continues to be the last<\/em> thing to get aligned, even though its impact flows across almost all teaching and learning reforms. What might happen if your digital team were embedded, trusted, and forefront of institutional strategy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you’re interested in how to reimagine enhancement in your own institution, I hope to see you at ALTC25. And if not, I look forward to connecting here or online afterward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Embedding new ways of working<\/strong>
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