A screenshot of Professor Tim Quine delivering his keynote speech at the Online Education Dialogue Series 

Professor Tim Quine Delivers Keynote On Transforming Digital Education

The opening remarks, delivered by Professor Yang Bin of Tsinghua University, highlighted the need to continue developing and enhancing digital education resources in the post COVID-19 era. To this end, Professor Yang suggests building an online education platform to encourage international, interdisciplinary information dissemination and facilitate open discussions around the shared challenges higher education platforms face with respect to providing accessible and inclusive education for all students.

In order to continue transforming and enhancing digital education, Yang begins by calling for the integration of existing education platforms with novel technological advances. He advocates for the advancement of education equity based on openness and information. Such advancement requires a focus on developing education resources in order to, “increase accessibility of learning at Universities, enable more people to achieve lifelong learning, and advance education equity”  

Professor Yang closed by stating that transforming digital education must involve utilizing digital resources and tools to promote educate reform. Such reform should be informed by cross-university and cross-border collaboration, whereby higher education institutions can learn from each other and jointly contribute to MOOCs, and international research.Most importantly, universities and other higher education institutions ought to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes to learning which occurred as a response to the lockdowns. Universities, Yang argues, should continue to integrate online and in-person teaching and view digital learning as a complimentary tool.

Professor Tim Quine’s keynote speech provided an insightful overview into the University of Exeter’s approach to online learning, and to the institution’s commitment to achieving equality of outcome for all students.

Professor Quine drew attention to the University of Exeter’s 2030 strategy and its ongoing commitment to use the power of education and research to contribute to a more sustainable, healthier and socially-just future. By focusing upon the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular increasing equal access to education, the University of Exeter plans to develop the sustainable business model and working relationships needed to realize systemic change in Higher Education. 

Some of the steps taken to tackle such inequalities include the establishment of an Education Incubator which allows for students and staff members to work collaboratively and deliver innovative approaches to teaching and learning. The new Centre for Social Mobility further aims to tackle systemic inequalities in access to education and degree outcomes. It does so by undertaking research into the key issues facing student mobility and success.

COVID-19 has accelerated the development of digital technologies and the rate at which the University of Exeter has implemented them in aiding the delivery of online education throughout the pandemic. The University’s response to COVID is built upon three modes of education delivery which were in place pre-pandemic:
(i) MOOCs developed via FutureLearn, which assisted in broadening access to the University’s research, (ii) fully online programs and (iii) blended degree apprenticeships designed with employers to meet the latest skills, knowledge and behaviors that industry requires.

An expert group was established, drawing on experience of these three modes of pre-pandemic delivery, to provide institutional design principles for online learning. Colleges and faculties used these to successfully design and implement digital technologies that could meet discipline-specific teaching and learning requirements. The pandemic and digital developments which came alongside it, saw the introduction of new student and graduate roles in the form of Digital Learning Developers and Digital Learning Assistants. These roles not only allowed students to earn additional income during the pandemic, but also provided real time feedback on the quality of the University of Exeter’s digital resources. The end result of which saw over 3,000 modules successfully transition from in-person to online delivery, with students achieving higher degree outcomes than reported pre-pandemic. The implementation of such digital modules also resulted in greater equality of student outcome with respect to gender, ethnicity and social class.  

Professor Quine discussed how the development of digital technologies, such as VR and augmented reality provide an immersive learning experience, with hands on practical learning that would otherwise not be able to be conducted. For example, the geography department has created the InVenta tool allowing them to create worlds for students to explore from the comfort of their classrooms.

The final and perhaps most exciting digital education transformation takes the form of the University of Exeter’s participation in the Future17 program. Future17, developed in partnership with QS, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Stellenbosch and University of San Paulo aims to “lead the creation of a transformative educational partnership between the world’s leading universities and global organisations, to empower and enable the next generation of students to answer the questions that will shape today, tomorrow and the future for us all”. Student projects, undertaken in multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, multi-cultural teams, are informed by the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, which provide a framework for tackling systemic inequality, global poverty and the ongoing climate emergency amongst others. The work to tackle such issues is conducted entirely online, thus reducing the carbon footprint of such research and allowing individuals from typically underrepresented backgrounds to participate whom may not have had the financial means to do so in person.

Professor Quine finished by characterising the future of digital learning and HE as an “immersive learning environment” characterised by, “adaptive learning responsiveness and the continuous feedback made possible by AI” that, at its core is a collaborative effort with employers, students and other institutions, to increase the accessibility of higher education for all students and close the attainment gap.

The full dialogue can be viewed here: Online Education Dialogue 2022:Visions for Digital Higher Education Development - Online Education Dialogue 2022-0420 - XuetangX and details of the University of Exeter’s latest efforts to transform education here: Transforming Education | Transforming Education | University of Exeter

Date: 9 August 2022