Last month the University of Exeter hosted the first event of Jisc’s Demonstrating Digital Transformation 2023/24 event series, focused around how the University of Exeter are turning our digital vision into reality. We have recently completed our first year of delivering our 2030 digital strategy which focuses on becoming the most accessible and connected University destination for any user, so this event was the perfect opportunity for us to share our experiences to date and have meaningful, honest conversations with our industry peers to enable us to share and learn from one another. We covered a range of topics including design thinking, agile working, our data-led culture, and digital skills.
Our Digital Performance Analyst, Rebecca Jeavons, attended the event and joined the Q&A panel to share her thoughts on digital transformation at UoE for her first ever panel discussion! Read this blog to hear about Rebecca’s experience at the event.
Rebecca’s thoughts
I am the Performance Analyst in the Digital team, which involves tracking the performance of our products, creating reports to share these findings, and working alongside the Product Owners and Dev team to improve these products and services based on data. If you want to find out more about my digital career, there’s a blog post all about it here! This was my first Jisc event and first ever panel discussion – so my nerves were pretty high, but I was able to get to know the attendees and engage in lots of interesting discussions which enabled me to feel more comfortable for the panel later in the day.
During the day I attended two round table discussions – ‘Data-led culture’ and ‘The educator perspective on Digital Transformation’ – both of these had a wide variety of attendees which enabled really interesting conversations and sparked new ideas to consider moving forward. I am already part of the Data Community at UoE, so this round table allowed me to gain new perspectives on what a ‘data community’ can offer and why it is essential in a digital transformation.
It was then time for the panel! As a recent UoE graduate, I was providing the student perspective on why digital transformation is important and how it plays a major role to improve the student experience. Part of my degree was undertaken during the Covid pandemic, so I experienced reactive digital transformation firsthand. This experience as a student really highlighted how crucial the need for effective digital transformation is in HE, and how much work is still needed until we reach a point within this sector where we are no longer catching up, but leading the way forward.
My three key takeaways from this event were:
- There are so many people across the HE and FE (further education) sectors that are facing the same challenges when trying to implement a digital strategy. Holding events like this is a great way to share these challenges, find solutions that work, and discuss learnings from the approaches that we have tried but didn’t work.
- There needs to be a better definition between ‘Digital’ and ‘IT’, as there are some people who are afraid to embrace the digital transformation as they are not “tech savvy” and fear they won’t be able to keep up. But digital transformation involves more than just an increase in technology use – it is about the people, the mindset, and using the tools we have to increase the experience and enhance HE for all.
- The academic and student perspective on digital transformation plays a crucial part in progressing the digital strategy, that is why we ensure that everything we do is user-led. In order to achieve our digital vision, we need to include all users- including academics and students- in the conversation as it is their experience that we are shaping.
Even though I was very nervous to speak on my first panel, I was grateful to be given this opportunity to share my experiences with this HE senior leadership audience. One of my concerns was around not knowing how to answer the questions I was being asked; but once I was sitting on the panel, I wasn’t anxious at all and felt confident in my ability to provide clear answers – I even found myself reaching for the microphone at to answer a question first! Overall, the event was a fantastic day full of networking, learning, and proving to myself that I am capable of doing new and scary things… I’m ready for my next panel!
– Written by Rebecca Jeavons, Performance Analyst for Digital
We will be sharing more about our approach to digital transformation at the Times Higher Education Digital Universities UK 2024 conference, hosted by the University of Exeter. Find out how you can come along here!