Background and implementation

Background

Aarhus University (AU) drew up a policy for Educational IT in 2011. The strategy for Educational IT should be viewed in connection with that policy as well as AU’s general strategy for 2013-20. The strategy for Educational IT is designed to support the educational strategies of the faculty’s departments.

The faculty management team is responsible for the strategy, and the Centre for Teaching Development and Digital Media (TDM) is the project manager responsible for putting it into practice in cooperation with:

• The students, who will be using digital media as an element in their knowledge acquisition and communication with other students, teachers and any other parties involved
• The teachers, who will be developing new forms of teaching and using digital media to promote student learning processes – thereby achieving the faculty’s objectives in this area
• Directors of studies and boards of studies, who are responsible for supporting and facilitating the development of new forms of teaching
• AU-IT and Arts IT, who play a central role in implementing the digital tools which must be made available to teachers and students
• The steering committee for EDU-IT at AU level, who will be passing the most important decisions on to the Education Committee with a view to adopting joint AU measures relating to the use of digital media in degree programmes and teaching
• AUL (Aarhus University Library), who will be offering students competences in terms of searching for information as well as contributing to the development and storage of digital learning materials and (not least) their accessibility
• DIGHUMLAB, who work with digital infrastructures designed to support research and education, and who develop and refine tools for accessing them
• The educational centres at the three other AU faculties, with a view to cooperating and supporting each other’s efforts 

The technological background is that three different learning management systems (LMSs) are currently being used at the Faculty of Arts: First Class and AULA at many locations at Aarhus Campus, and an old version of Blackboard at Emdrup Campus and Trøjborg. This means that both the students and staff have some knowledge and experience of using LMSs in teaching.

However, the way in which this technology is used varies a good deal at the faculty. Some people use their LMS to support administrative aspects of the teaching such as distributing materials, corresponding with students by email, and/or submitting small-scale assignments during the course of the teaching. Others are currently experimenting with various forms of teaching and communication (including wikies, blogs, GoogleDoc, GoogleDrive, screencasts and chat forums) with a view to expanding and strengthening the teaching activities that take place outside the traditional/physical learning space.

The students also use digital media to a varying degree – from email correspondence with other students to Facebook groups for classes/year groups and more intensive use of GoogleDocs, project management tools, tools used for cooperation etc.

Implementing the strategy

The strategy will be achieved by carrying out specific projects which the faculty will launch during the strategy period. Initially a plan of action will be drawn up for the introduction and implementation of Blackboard throughout AU – with the focus on how digital media can support student learning processes.

The strategy can only be achieved if resources are invested in developing the competences of all teachers and students. This will be included in the plans of action which are drawn up, carried out and evaluated on an ongoing basis. The first plan of action will cover the period 2014-2015.