Supporting the Adoption of Technology Enhanced Learning by Academics at Universities

This paper makes a number of recommendations to academic leaders and practicing academics on promoting the uptake of technology-enabled learning (TEL) across their institutions and on their programmes. The approach throughout is to privilege the academic voice and to reflect the views of practicing academics and their students. The authors – the heads of an academic department and of a service department - describe their case study approach, primarily covering staff and students in two different universities. The results are analysed in the context of existing change and adoption models. The authors conclude that existing models are inappropriate and posit their own model for the adoption of TEL, described as ‘Policy-led, large-scale, incremental adoption.’ The impact of the study is assessed. The authors acknowledge that there is no single best practice for full adoption of TEL across a university. We contend that this analysis and these recommendations will equip academic leaders and curriculum designers to deliver the benefits of effective adoption of TEL across subject disciplines.