Digital transformation pilot: outcomes, successes, opportunities going forward by Sarah Knight

2024-09-12 13:27:00 UTC

I think it would have strengthened the evaluation even further if the cost of the pilots had been considered along with the return on investment

2024-09-12 13:29:48 UTC

Absolutely, as a consultancy service we would like to be involved from the beginning of the process to create a proactive consultancy offer to follow on post pilots

2024-09-12 16:05:09 UTC

That the majority of pilots ended up focusing on Organisational Culture.

2024-09-12 16:05:54 UTC

We're looking to pick up the point about the Digital Leaders Programme as we refresh it through this year.

I think it would also be interesting to think about how we can collaborate on the community angles.

2024-09-12 16:06:58 UTC

I've spoken to the Consultancy team about some potential consultancy offers that I think naturally arise out of the framework to recognise that lots of pilots were doing this in addition to business as usual.

2024-09-13 11:23:20 UTC

Ensure consultancy is signposted within the toolkit and guidance, as well as case studies.

2024-09-13 11:24:46 UTC

When the 12 month follow up calls are scheduled, invite a member of the consultancy team to attend to make the most of connections.

Community of practice for DTX

2024-09-13 11:26:04 UTC

Ensure consultancy is represented at these events so we can hear what is happening in the sector in order to create more proactive consultancy offers for members

Global perspectives on the toolkit

2024-09-13 11:30:05 UTC

Noting that global adoption of the toolkit could present global opportunities to grow consultancy outside of the UK.

Building relationships

sarah_knight7 — 2024-09-19 09:28:37 UTC

Whilst we appreciate the need to identify consultancy opportunities with the pilots, there is a balance to firstly establishing the relationships and getting trust. As we include the RMs in all the calls they would be the ones to pick up and feed back to the consultancy any opportunities to take forward. We hope the start up meeting for BB pilots will be an opportunity for the DT consultancy to gain an oversight of the pilots and where opportunities may lie.

Cost/benefit of running research pilots

2024-09-19 15:00:25 UTC

I don't think it's possible to assess cost of running the research pilot against return as yet. First, most pilots have only just finished data collection and need to implement their action plans. Jisc need to catch up with them in 6mo or 12mo to see whether this work has continued and in what form, and where benefits are perceived.

Second, the cost of not supporting the sector in these ways should be included in the equation. Evaluation feedback was clear: some senior leaders were unsure what Jisc can offer them outside of infrastructure advice. If done well this evaluation shows that working *with and for* the sector raises Jisc's profile, improves credibility, and offers insight into what the current issues are. It also offers the opportunity for Jisc employees from different areas of the business to work together, improving organisational (digital) culture :)

Organisational culture focus

2024-09-25 15:07:26 UTC

It's interesting that when you look at all organisational change programmes (Lean, Six Sigma etc) the largest problem often ends up being people and culture related! I was interested to find this was the case for the pilot, usually in the context of new infrastructure being implemented, or a new way of teaching / learning with digital etc. The case studies often mention the 'people and culture' impact.

Research pilots leading to consultancy

2024-09-25 15:10:30 UTC

I think there's a need to better clarify the role of a research pilot and how that should lead to refining resources that can then be offered as a component within the consultancy service. I hope this will be part of the webinar discussion.

LSBU - Call to Action.

2024-09-26 09:22:06 UTC

Met them yesterday and their Director: Teaching Quality & Enhancement said that the high amount of work that was involved and the time commitment needed in terms of length, was the reason that they didn't participate.

Sector insights

lis_parcell1 — 2024-09-26 09:29:17 UTC

The internal problems being reported in HE e.g. re lack of data skills, need for protected time for projects are things that we would rarely have heard in HE in past years, now HE are reporting challenges that we would normally associate with FE. Are the HE/FE sectors starting to show more similarities in relation to digital transformation than previously recognised?

Recommendations

lis_parcell1 — 2024-09-26 09:31:33 UTC

There's useful intelligence here that we can use within the advice team when working with all our members imho.

lis_parcell1 — 2024-09-26 09:41:00 UTC

I hear the request for Jisc to give "opinion" not just operational advice. My reflection is that thought leadership (as distinct from just 'opinion') relies on sound research (this pilot is an example of this). We can't always carry out research on this scale, but can we learn from this pilot when devising smaller-scale research activities (e.g. within our communities of practice)? Such research can then inform thought leadership (so it is not just 'opinion'.)