Oxford Brookes University is a University Alliance institution with 17,000 students studying across four Faculties: Health and Life Sciences; Humanities and Social Sciences; Oxford Brookes Business School and Technical Design and Engineering.
As a University Alliance institution Brookes’ focus is on vocational and professional higher education. The Strategy 2035 sets out an ambition to offer an outstanding education, anchored in the local community and offering service to the region and society.
The Oxford Centre for Academic Enhancement and Development (OCAED) was established in 2022 to support the Education and Enterprise pillar of the Brookes Strategy 2035.
Brookes’ uses a model for curricula enhancement established in 2021/2. IDEAS (Inclusive learning, Digital inclusivity, Employability learning, Assessment of, as and for learning and Sustainable mindset) (Dalrymple et al, 2022).
OCAED are working on an ambitious 3 year strategy to support the Education and Enterprise pillar. This strategy includes 4 ambitions and associated objectives, listed below.
1. Increase engagement with SoTL & Academic Development
Objectives
- Inspire colleagues to engage with SoTL and Academic Development
- Support colleagues to develop SoTL projects, assets and publications
- Increase the number, profile and esteem of Fellowship HEA
2. Revitalise Academic Advising: enhance practice, increase engagement
Objective
- Further the Academic Advising Strategy, which aims to enhance practice, increase engagement and mitigate risk.
3. Develop understanding of, engagement with and adoption of the IDEAS model
Objectives
- Develop academic development resources and activities in support of the IDEAS model.
- Evaluate the model in collaboration with under-represented students
- Bring academic and professional service staff together with paid student curricula-consultants to work on curricula design.
4.Enable and sustain educational leadership
Objectives
- Offer a Brookes specific, SoTL-based and -led academic development, support and resources aligned to D3 of the PSF
- Raise the esteem of education focused academic success
What did we set out to do?
We set out to develop a competence-based education model for academic development with a desire to ‘develop the developers’ (Baum and Kahn, 2003) and enable a newly formed team, in a relatively new centre, to realise the Centre’s ambitions and objectives.
The Centre (OCAED) was established in 2022 with a vision to inspire transformational academic practice and a mission to offer inclusive, collaborative and compassionate academic enhancement and development. It sits within the People Directorate. In the Centre’s first year we have more than doubled engagement with Academic Development and Fellowship awards and led several high impact strategic change initiatives.
We are helping to build Brookes’ academic capability so the learning community might confidently respond to strategic priorities, offer an outstanding higher education (HE) and consolidate Brookes’ position as a seat of pedagogic expertise. This encompasses Rowlands model for academic development as teaching, service and research (Rowland, 2006).
The Centre is made up of three teams: five Academic Development Lecturers (four fte) led by a Head of Academic Practice; two Educational Researchers (one fte), a Lecturer in Digitally Enabled Teaching and Learning (.6 fte), a Media and Digital Development Officer (0.4 fte) led by the Head of Digital Inclusive Curricula Enhancement and three Administrators and a Digital Media and Communications Officer, led by an Administration Manager. The staff have a range of backgrounds, some experienced and others new to academic development.
To ‘develop the developers’ (Baum and Khan, 2003) we established a fortnightly ‘Talking Academic Practice’ seminar series in the Spring of 2022. The details of which are below. Under the auspices of this project we aimed to produce a competence-based model for academic development to help us choreograph more meaningful and effective TAP DANCE (develop and nurture centre evolution) activities and help us realise our ambitious strategic plans and take care of team well-being as interest in academic development increases (enrolment on our core programmes have trebled for the coming year).
Talking Academic Practice Aims and Objectives
Aim: Ensure the Oxford Brookes Centre for Academic Enhancement and Development can inspire transformational academic practice
Objective: Develop and nurture the Centre team
Rationale: Developing the developers (Pilkington, 2010) is crucial to the success of the Centre: to lead by example we must both continually invest time and energy in our practice and grow our knowledge, understanding and ability in academic practice.
TAP offers protected time to invest our energies in our professional practice and build our professional identities as agents of positive change.
TAP supports us in building our scholarly profiles and abilities and in better understanding our institutional home.
TAP helps us further build a sense of belonging and professional purpose in our new Centre.
How did we implement competence-based education?
The University of Hull offered a hybrid workshop to the Oxford Centre for Academic Enhancement and Development to introduce the CBE Framework and identify the knowledge, experience and self-awareness that contribute to competence in academic development. Members of all three teams attended. (Spring 2023)
The Centre Director compiled findings into a model for competence-based academic development (see figure 1).
The Director then mapped existing developmental activities to the facets of competence-based model for academic development. At the first TAP of the 2023/24 academic year the three teams contributed their own ideas.
We then mapped the Staff and Educational Development Association values to the model and corresponding activities.
This led to a richer understanding of what we could do to support the team in developing their professional competence as academic developers and realising our strategic ambitions.
The model for competence-based academic developer is below, and details of the model, developmental activities and SEDA values are given in Table 1.
Figure 1: The Competence-Based Academic Developer
The competence-based academic developer draws on their experience of service to the local, institutional, national and global HE community; their knowledge of HE, their institution and HE community and self-awareness of the transformational power of academic development.
Experience of HE & academic development: Service to the local-institutional, national and global HE community
- SoTL – active and interest
- Teaching, learning and assessment
- Reflective practice
- Diverse teams and different disciplines
- Success, failure and complexity
Knowledge for academic developing: Develop understanding of and know where to find information on:
- HE (global and national standards, drivers, trends)
- Academic Development (SoTL practice and literature; networks)
- Institution (Education strategy, institutional curricula models, policy and practice, support mechanisms and infrastructure; digital suite)
- HE/Institutional community (students, academic and professional service departments, committees and individuals)
Self-Awareness of the power of academic development: Cognisance of the academic developers impact on and responsibility to the HE community
- Recognition of personal bias and positionality
- Radical openness to new ideas
- Humility, humour and compassion
- Unconditional positive regard and generosity
- Values driven
What have we achieved and what has the impact locally been?
At the time of writing we are in the first semester of using the model, so it is early to establish impact. The model can be found below.
In the first instance, the model informed:
- Workload planning, ensuring opportunity for professional stretch extends across the entire team (Experience: Sotl – active and interest; Teaching, learning and assessment; Diverse teams and different disciplines; Success, failure and complexity)
- The HE and Lifelong Learning Research Strategy. One of the aims of which is to support the HEALL research cluster contribution to REF UoA 23 (2028) objectives. In particular the model shaped two of the HEALL Strategy objectives
- 1. Nurture HEALL research capability collaboratively and
- 2. Build HEALL research capacity inclusively.
(Experience: Sotl active and interest)
- The development of ‘staff personas’ to be used in the application of design thinking to our portfolio of Academic development
(Knowledge: local HE community)
It was then used to broker commitment and understanding of a number of strategic directives (for example the HEALL Strategy), which are outlined below in Table 1: Supporting the competence-based academic developer: activities and values
The model instigated an important conversation about what it means to be an academic developer amongst the whole team (administrators, educational developers and researchers) and, in its construction, allowed us to take a person-centered and self-defined approach to building competence in academic development, specifically how we provide opportunity to the team so they might offer service to the HE community; develop understanding of and know where to find information necessary to the practice of academic development; and establish individual, and remain cognisant of, the academic developers impact on and responsibility to the HE community (see Table 1).
Key opportunities and challenges in designing for competence-based education
Opportunities: Academic development is under theorised (Cunningham, 2022) and sustained and systematic attention to developing the developers wanting (Baum, 2023). Academic development is both systematic and scholarly (Stefani, 2003) and has been argued to position academic developers in a liminal space as they navigate the complexity of supporting academic values whilst serving institutional directives (Rowland, 2007), often in an institutional context where academic staff are under duress, where moral might be low (Morrish, 2019) and appetite and energy to embrace academic development small. Academic developers are third space professionals breaching Faculty and professional service, working in a scholarly way to further strategic objectives (Nutt and Macintosh, 2022). The academic developer must be sure of their brief, the scholarly basis and institutional rationale for the Education strategy they work to and confident in supporting disciplinary experts. They must be able to counter the accusation of managerialism that comes from driving change in service to strategy (Roxa and Martenson, 2018; Lawrence et al, in review). Taking a scholarly and values driven approach to academic development is crucial to reconciling much of this complexity (Lawrence, et al, in review) and making a confident case to the Faculty that strategic change is for the greater good, whilst being sensitive to the dynamics described. A competence-based model for academic development helps extend the ‘epistemic boundaries’ (Evans, 2023) of academic development and will, we hope, enable our academic developers to practice with integrity and ensure our offer is inclusive, collaborative and compassionate and progresses our institutional mission and personal ambitions.
Challenges: The team of academic developers and educational researchers found the CBE model challenging at first, its simplicity seemed to throw a team used to dealing with highly complicated theories and praxis.
Overcoming challenges: Seeing the model in its completed state, as it was presented to the team in October 2023, was encouraging. The team reported greater understanding of the model and welcomed the opportunity to self-determine the activities that will help them develop their competence as academic developers and be more effective in their role. They appreciated the investment in time and energy to support them in their work.
Plans for further development
We will use the model to shape our TAP portfolio over the coming academic year and develop a resource for our academic developers to enable them to build and sustain their competence in academic development.
Table 1 gives more detail.
Table 1: Supporting competence-based academic development: activities and values
| No | Experience of HE & Academic Development: Service to the local-institutional, national and global HE community | Opportunity to offer service to the HE community | SEDA Values |
| 1. | Sotl – active and interest |
Introduce the HEALL Cluster Strategy (draft) and Seminar Series Workload time to read and practice SoTL Attend International HE Reading Group |
Develop understanding of how people learn (SV1)
Practising in ways that are scholarly, professional and ethical (SV2)
|
| 2 | Teaching, learning and assessment | Teach on EXPLORE; PSF; in Faculty | Practising in ways that are scholarly, professional and ethical (SV2) |
| 3 | Reflective practice |
Facilitate regular ‘Talking Academic Practice’ sessions Apply for Fellowship/s other recognition |
Continually reflecting on practice to develop ourselves, others and processes (SV 5) |
| 4 | Diverse teams and different disciplines | Work on and lead SoTL and student partnership projects | Valuing diversity and promoting inclusivity (SV 4)? |
| 5 | Success, failure and complexity | Work on and lead SoTL projects; ‘Whats on Top’ in centre business |
Practising in ways that are scholarly, professional and ethical (SV 2) Continually reflecting on practice to develop ourselves, others and processes (SV 5) |
| No | Knowledge for Academic Development: Develop understanding of and know where to find information on | Make the knowledge necessary for academic development available and accessible | SEDA Values |
| 1 | HE (global and national standards, drivers, trends) | Opportunity to attend national and international events/networks | Develop understanding of how people learn (SV 1) |
| 2 | Academic Development (SoTL practice and literature; networks) |
Facilitate regular ‘Talking Academic Practice’ sessions External networking opportunities (invite other groups to TAP) |
Practising in ways that are scholarly, professional and ethical (SV 2) |
| 3 | Institution (Education strategy, institutional curricula models, policy and practice, support mechanisms and infrastructure; digital suite) |
Ad hoc TAP invitations to institutional experts Regular briefings / updates on committees and working groups |
Practising in ways that are scholarly, professional and ethical (SV 2) |
| 4 | HE/Institutional community (students, academic and professional service departments, committees and individuals) |
Informal, responsive, communication stream (OCAED for logistics; Ed Dev for academic development content knowledge); OCAED Coalition & Staff Personas |
Working with and developing learning communities (SV 3) |
| no | Awareness of the power of academic development: cognisance of the academic developers impact on and responsibility to the HE community | Ensure awareness of the impact and power of academic development practice |
SEDA Values
|
| 1 | Recognition of the academic developers personal bias and positionality | Frank exploration of practice and challenges | Continually reflecting on practice to develop ourselves, others and processes (SV5) |
| 2 | Radical openness to new ideas | Regular informal gathering (eg. coffee face to face or remote) punctuating the week |
Developing understanding of how people learn (SV1) Continually reflecting on practice to develop ourselves, others and processes (SV5) |
| 3 | Humility, humour and compassion | Regular informal gathering (eg. coffee face to face or remote) punctuating the week | Working with and developing learning communities (SV 3) |
| 4 | Unconditional positive regard and generosity | Apply for Fellowship/s other recognition |
Working with and developing learning communities (SV 3) Valuing diversity and promoting inclusivity (SV 4) |
| 5 | Values driven | Frank exploration of practice and challenges | Continually reflecting on practice to develop ourselves, others and processes (SV5) |
References
Baum, D. and Khan, D. (2003) A guide to academic and educational development. UK: Routledge
Cunningham, T. (2022). Parallels between philosophy and academic development: Under-labourers, critics, or leaders? International Journal for Academic Development, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2022.2137513
Dalrymple, R. Potter, J, Pritchard, J, Kitchener, M and Beer, N (2022) IDEAS: developing a travelling companion for inclusive curriculum development. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice https://jpaap.ac.uk/JPAAP/article/view/535
Evans, L. (2023) What is academic development? Contributing a frontier-extending conceptual analysis to the field’s epistemic development, Oxford Review of Education, DOI: 10.1080/03054985.2023.2236932
Morrish, L. (2019.) Pressure Vessels: The epidemic of poor mental health among higher education staff. Hepi Occasional Paper 20, 23rd May, 2019. https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2019/05/23/pressure-vessels-the-epidemic-of-poor-mental-health-among-higher-education-staff/
Nutt, D. and Mackintosh, E. (2022) Studies in the Third Space: The Impact of the Integrated Practitioner in Higher Education. UK: Routledge.
Roweland, S. (2007) Academic Development: A site of creative doubt and contestation, International Journal for Academic Development, Vol 12, no 1, pg 4 – 14. doi.org/10.1080/13601440701217238
Roxa, T. and Martenson, K. (2017) Agency and structure in academic development practices: are we liberating academic teachers or are we part of a machinery suppressing them. InternatIonal Journal for AcademIc Development, 2017 vol. 22, no. 2, p 95–105. doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2016.1218883
Stefani, L. (2003). What is staff and educational development in Baum, D. and Khan, D. (2003) A guide to academic and educational development. UK: Routledge
Contact information
Dr Jenny Lawrence, j.lawrence@brookes.ac.uk
