Why the University of Lincoln adopted Talis Elevate
The University of Lincoln, following a year of trialling Talis Elevate, have now purchased a site license for three years. We caught up with members of the team at the University of Lincoln involved with the pilot to get their thoughts on the purchase.
We asked Jasper Shotts, Dean of Lincoln Academy of Learning and Teaching to share a bit about his experience of using Talis Elevate during the pilot phase, and plans for the future with Talis Elevate.
What did you observe as the real opportunities when you trialled Talis Elevate initially that led to the decision to purchase?
Talis Elevate has shown itself to be an intuitive tool, helping to increase levels of teacher-learner interaction, supported by powerful analytics with several facilities that other digital tools do not currently provide; some of these I have highlighted in a short film for Talis (see below) – This product gives us opportunities to experiment in new areas of digital education practice and support provided by Talis staff to apply technology to subject specialisms has been great throughout.
As Dean of Lincoln Academy of Learning & Teaching, what excites you about wider adoption of Talis Elevate at Lincoln?
What excites me are the possibilities to further improve teaching according to the student experience, by engaging teaching staff who want to develop a more transparent pedagogy through more interactive designs for teaching learning and assessment. What I have learned from using Talis Elevate in my own teaching practice is that flipped learning methodologies can impact more meaningfully in practice when learning objects and supporting analytics are used in selective and progressive ways. In my experience as an academic developer once staff have begun to identify teacher challenges faced and intended outcomes of using technology in teaching they find it very rewarding and affirming when their digital efforts result in significant changes and improvements to student attendance, engagement, sustained levels of active learning and attainment levels.
What approach do you plan to take to increase the usage of Talis Elevate across the university?
The next step is to identify suitable champions to take forward this work in different discipline settings. As there are now so many different digital tools and options this is a complex area, but we will continue to work with sector leaders such as Jisc to develop collaborative practice and pedagogically informed the use of technology. At the University of Lincoln close partnership working between academic and library staff is a key to our successful pilot and we are now planning our next steps together. I will continue to promote Talis Elevate as an adaptive tool that can be repurposed according to various needs of learner groups, teachers and discipline contexts. These aspects will be integral elements of how we take forward this work and expect to achieve impact beyond that achieved through our many other digital innovation projects and established digital education practice.
We also spoke to Ian Snowley, Dean of Student Learning Development and University Librarian at the University of Lincoln to find out more about how Talis Elevate fits into the university’s strategy.
Why did the University of Lincoln decide to purchase Talis Elevate?
We already have a very well developed engagement across the university with Talis Aspire, and I could see that Talis Elevate would allow the university to offer a deeper way for academics to engage with Learning Resources, beyond the standard use of reading lists, whilst benefits from all the support and knowledge that Talis offer.
From your perspective as Dean of Student Learning Development & University Librarian, what are the opportunities that Talis Elevate offers for the University of Lincoln?
Because the university recognises the library’s role in supporting students’ learning beyond just providing access to resources, I see Talis Elevate as a way to deepen the library’s engagement with teaching and learning, by offering academics a way to design learning around the resources we provide.
Although this isn’t a library tool directly, how do you feel Talis Elevate will benefit the work the library is doing within the learning and teaching space?
Because of the library’s wider role, I see Talis Elevate as a way to extend what we do with Talis Aspire reading lists, and I think it’s important to be able to offer both as ways for academics to engage with library resources and offer their students effective ways to develop their own learning. We’re also planning to develop our use of the analytics that Talis provide, and being able to explore how Talis Aspire and Talis Elevate work for different groups of students, different disciplines and different contexts will give us a much more comprehensive view of how we develop learning in the university.
Matt East, Learning Technologies Lead at Talis said “Working with academics at the University of Lincoln this past year has been hugely valuable to the development of Talis Elevate, and seeing the diversity of use across various academic disciplines has been hugely positive for us to see. Not only has Elevate demonstrated its potential for being used across disciplines, but also as having huge potential for making a really positive impact to the students experience in the digital domain. Working this year with colleagues at the University of Lincoln has been fantastic, and I’m very excited to continue the work we’ve done across multiple courses at Lincoln with Ian, Jasper, and the wider university.”
Want to find out how Talis Elevate could become a part of the Teaching & Learning strategy at your university? Get in touch with us at elevate@talis.com, or visit talis.com/elevate for more information.
