Speaker: Allen Crawford-Thomas, subject specialist - strategy and business process, Jisc Digital has become an ubiquitous term and increasingly used to describe many of our daily work and life skills. In the digital world, news, entertainment and services are online and, smart devices are changing the way we chose to engage with them. To harness the potential of digital practice universities and colleges are now rethinking how exiting information and learning technology policy can be refocused as a digital strategy. The intent of digital strategy being to unify the collective effort of leaders, teachers, technicians and students. As a subject specialist in strategy and business process, I have reviewed a significant number of these new digital strategies. This short talk will share what common challenges and themes have emerged from my reviews. I will also consider how digital strategy is likely to develop in our organisations.

1. England (south)
Thursday 12 July

2. From ILT policy to digital strategy
Allen Crawford Thomas

3. Educators have always been innovators. Early electronic visual
learning aids like film projectors or television sets were adopted
by teachers to enhance lesson content and learning.
Educators as innovators

4. So what has changed?
Digital

5. Consider the digital timeline
Joseph Licklider1960
National Physical
Laboratory (UK)1970
The first dot com
domain registered1985
The world wide
web goes live1991
» Google
» Social media2000
» Smart devices
» Artificial intelligence2015

6. ICT / ILT policy
ILT policy
The starting point is a need
to find a use for technology
Delivery is often focused
through an individual
Direction can be dependent on interest,
ability and limitations of the person leading
Can make it easy for some
to avoid digital practice

7. » Learning platforms such as VLE’s have become familiar
» The use of digital smart devices has increased
» The concept of digital practice if not embraced is gaining acceptance
» There are many good examples of innovative digital practice
» Technology over promise made it easy for people to return to what they know
» Instances of technology ‘can’t’ or ‘we don’t’ do technology remain
» Digital practice often just substitutes or augments existing practice
» Effective digital practice is hard to capture and covert into replicable skills that can
be easily learned and adopted by other people
Outcomes

8. So what has changed?
The impact
of digital

9. Consider the digital timeline
Joseph Licklider1960
National Physical
Laboratory (UK)1970
The first dot com
domain registered1985
The world wide
web goes live1991
» Google
» Social media2000
» Smart devices
» Artificial intelligence2015
The technology isn’t new But the impact of technology is new

10. The SAMR model
?
?
Augmentation
Technology acts as a direct replacement and
provides functional improvement
Substitution
Technology acts a direct tool substitute with little
or no functional gain
?
Enhancement

11. Consider the impact of technology on other industries
Box sets, on demand and catch-up services
are making TV schedules almost meaningless.
The trend to online shopping is a contributing
factor to in the decrease of high street sales and,
in some cases, the demise of once familiar brands.
Global business is leveraging the potential
of technology to transform communication
with customers, the distribution of work to
employees and the use of data to precisely
focus product development.

12. So, do we need a
digital strategy?

13. The purpose of strategy
» Answer the why
questions
» Why do we desire a
particular endpoint?
» Why do we need
to adapt?
» Why we must think
and behave
differently?
Why
» What is to be
achieved?
» What are the
signposts for
success?
» How will we know
when have
succeeded?
Goal
» Developing the
necessary capabilities
» Are existing resources
fit for purpose?
» Can exiting resources
be re-purposed?
» Identify gaps the in
existing resources and
procure the right
resources to close
the gaps
How

14. Strategy should
Add value
Deliver an attractive offer to
people seeking our service
Help us to thrive in our
chosen field

15. Digital strategy
Digital strategy
The starting point is the business
needs of the organisation
Digital practice is aligned with
annual objectives and performance
Digital practice and continual improvement
is integrated across all disciplines
Digital practice and improvement
is owned and led by all

16. The SAMR model
Redefinition
Technology drives the creation of new task or
practice that was previously inconceivable
Modification
Technology promotes significant redesign of
existing tasks or practice
Augmentation
Technology acts as a direct replacement and
provides functional improvement
Substitution
Technology acts a direct tool substitute with little
or no functional gain
Transformation
Enhancement

17. » More FE and HE providers are adopting a strategic approach to adopting,
embedding and normalising the use of digital technology
» Digital maturity of the organisation is a factor – some adopt a digital focus
» Strategy driven and owned by many instead of one person
» Existing ILT policy / strategy either being or replaced with new digital policy/strategy
documentation
» It’s not what you write, it’s what you do that matters
» Investment made digital technology or services should be making a demonstrable
contribution to transformation in the way we do business and serve our students
Current situation

18. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND.
Allen Crawford Thomas
Subject specialist
(strategy and business process)
a.crawford-thomas@jisc.ac.uk
Thankyou
Tel 07468 727174