The use and value of TEL toolkits: Designing for learning in a time of complexity.

Abstract

Our ongoing research shows that Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) toolkits are becoming a key part of the TEL offerings in Universities; outlining the uses and purposes of different tools to enhance our student learning experiences. Extensive use is now made across the sector of the JISC digital-experience insights tool, now gaining international momentum, and a key ‘go to’ benchmarking national survey offering a snapshot of the digital experience of our students across the sector. The work of UCISA continues to offer analysis of issue of interest to the sector, and at policy level, the Office for Students (OfS) continues to promote measurement metrics through the HESA and LEO databases, and of course the National Student Survey (NSS). Thus with all these metrics, we can reassure ourselves, in the words of Peter Druker, the management guru that ‘what get measured matters’. However…. Drucker never actually said this. He drew upon a paper by Ridgway (1956) paper in 1956, entitled “ Dysfunctional consequences of performance measurements ‘ and this is the quote: “What gets measured gets managed — even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organisation to do so”.