{"id":1961,"date":"2023-12-20T12:16:52","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T12:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/digitalbuzzuoe\/?p=1961"},"modified":"2023-12-20T12:32:39","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T12:32:39","slug":"key-takeaways-from-the-university-of-exeter-and-jisc-demonstrating-digital-transformation-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/digitalbuzzuoe\/key-takeaways-from-the-university-of-exeter-and-jisc-demonstrating-digital-transformation-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways from the University of Exeter and Jisc Demonstrating Digital Transformation Event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last month the University of Exeter hosted the first event of\u00a0Jisc\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Demonstrating Digital Transformation 2023\/24 event series, focused around how we are turning the University’s digital vision into reality. We recently shared a blog post written by Rebecca Jeavons about her experience of participating in her first ever panel discussion at this event – take a look here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we begin our second year of delivering our 2030 digital strategy<\/a>, 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 held multiple round table discussions throughout the day, covering a range of topics including Design Thinking, agile working, our data-led culture, and digital skills. Read this blog post to learn about each round table discussion and their key takeaways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Theme 1:<\/strong> Design Thinking – The benefits of getting comfortable being uncomfortable in the problem space<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“During this round table, we discussed using Design Thinking to break down silos and avoid groupthink, and how it helps senior leaders see that transformation is not just about technology, it\u2019s about people and processes. One key finding from this discussion was the importance of broadening your search in the process of Design Thinking through recruiting wider stakeholders and less engaged students and colleagues. Another takeaway was the value in mapping processes with multiple teams to ensure understanding of challenges and potential solutions.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Joe Holland, Design Chapter Lead for Digital at the University of Exeter<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Theme 2: The educator perspective on digital transformation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Raphael Dennett and I hosted two very active round table discussions focused on the role of Educators in the digital transformation of universities. There were a large number of participants from a wide variety of roles, which was very encouraging. There was general agreement on the need for culture change to support and reward the agile, multi-disciplinary teamwork needed to “make stuff happen”. This means putting people first, not technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other common themes concerned the importance of directly involving students by responding to their ideas and concerns, and updating assessment priorities to better prepare them for living, learning and working in a digital world. The pandemic was mentioned as evidence that change really could happen at speed, but while some examples of lasting benefits were shared, in some places pressure for “back to normal” had reversed many of the gains made.” <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

– Lisa Harris, Director of Digital Learning at the University of Exeter <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Theme 3: Agile ways of working vs Waterfall – what agile ways of working can do for a traditional waterfall organisatio<\/strong>n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“To begin the discussion, we shared how we introduced the Digital team to Agile and Scrum methodologies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n