Dr Glen Jankowski is a new Lecturer in Psychology at UWE Bristol and has been teaching in UK and Irish higher education since 2015. As a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Authority, he researches how universities can promote student inclusion, wellbeing, and graduate skills.
Academic staff have to make decisions about digital tools all the time. Sometimes these are practical: e.g., ‘Which tool do I know how to use?’ Sometimes these are more pedagogic: e.g., ‘Which tool will meaningfully help students engage, collaborate, reflect or receive feedback?’ The UWE teaching and learning tools matrix supports this decision making processes. This article gives an academic perspective on using the tool.
Start with a teaching challenge
If only for my own sanity, I need to feel students engage with what we’re teaching. Disengagement is a universal challenge, made worse with students’ many competing demands (e.g., cost of living crisis, caring responsibilities, addictive social media reels). To me digital tools appeared to be an easy win for engagement.
Before joining UWE, I’d used tools like Kahoot and PollEverywhere for quizzes and interactive activities. My observations and module evaluations show they increased participation, gauged understanding and helped shy students contribute. They also give much needed attention breaks to the limited (but still important) didactic style of lectures.
When I arrived at UWE, I looked for other tools to use and came across the UWE teaching and learning tools matrix. The matrix encouraged me to consider the learning goals I wanted to achieve with the tools. To promote reflective learning? Engagement? Collaboration? It reminded me to plan my teaching more deliberatively.
The matrix’s engagement and collaboration sections were also useful. They helped me identify tools I’d heard of but hadn’t explored fully, such as Mentimeter. They gave me a clearer picture of how UWE’s different tools fit together. As someone new to the institution, the accessible overview was valuable.
Developing rather than starting from scratch
I also appreciated the menu format of the matrix and the reminder that not all tools were necessary nor would work together. The matrix also gave me confidence that there was a wider ecosystem of support (including examples) behind the tools. Most academics are dealing with heavy workloads and competing priorities, so this felt realistic and supportive to me.
Resources
- Using the UWE teaching and learning tools matrix – How to use the matrix and how it can support teaching, module design, and curriculum review
- Introducing the UWE teaching and learning tools matrix – A new framework to support pedagogically informed use of digital tools at UWE
- Rethinking ‘pedagogy first’ – how tools and pedagogy are co-constitutive – Teaching is rarely pedagogy first or technology first – it’s an ongoing negotiation between the two, shaping what learning can become