Academic autonomy

Market forces

Institutional support

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Traditionally, academics produced their own materials. The number of Edtech suppliers is increasing. JISC propose that future lecturers will act “primarily as mentors/wisdom givers, comfortable with bought-in teaching content.” Why do we uncritically assume this is the only end-point? Will a market-driven approach deliver the materials we need? If it doesn’t, then we must act within the academic community to deliver it, or do without. In such a case, institutional support is necessary to enable improved individual academic practice. We need new roles to support the creation, remixing, and delivery of digital content. We do not expect professors to machine the mechanical components for their labs, but they can if they want to. Why should we assume that digital content can only be used by academics that can create it? Let’s invest in changing/new roles that support all academics to create digital content, and keep the pedagogical expertise in-house. How do we manage changing demand levels when there are significant risks and downsides to outsourcing?