Institutional guidelines and policy frameworks

There are many examples of university guidelines and policies that shape the way that education is designed in HE. In the area of education technologies, for example, most universities have minimum standards that set a baseline for how their platforms, apps and tools should be used.

In the case of the institutional LMS/VLE, at the most basic level, academic staff/faculty are often required to provide access to course documentation such as module handbooks and/or use the LMS/VLE for the submission and marking of assessments. Lecture recording is another area where universities have policies that regulate staff use of education technologies. While in some cases, recording is compulsory (unless there is a very good reason not to), in other cases, universities adopt an opt-in approach.

It’s also worth mentioning that such regulation is sometimes the catalyst for conflict between academic staff and their university employers. Thus, mandates such as the ones outlined above are often considered by staff to threaten academic freedom and have few if any benefits for students. This is an issue we will return to in our debate at the end of this week.