Position Details

Academic Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £45,585 to £54,395 with potential progression once in post to £61,198

Grade: 8 

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 21st May 2024 

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

The UK Higher Education sector is changing in response to the shifts in the capacity, availability and opportunity offered by an ever-advancing range of digital technologies. The expectations of students and staff are changing continually, Technology-Integrated Learning is now an integral part of the overall student taught experience of their education.

To meet its ambitions to be a place of transformative education, the University supports staff in all aspects of their teaching through departments based within our Libraries and Learning Resources division, in Academic Services. The Head of Digital Education post sits within the Digital Education Team, represented by a ‘Head of Digital Education’ for each of our 5 colleges in our Edgbaston campus. 

Role Summary

The primary role of the Head of Digital Education is to lead a team to facilitate the engagement and support of institutional digital education tools used in teaching, learning and assessment across the University. The postholder will utilise their passion for learning and teaching to lead the multidisciplinary digital education team, exemplifying the professional services values of ambitious, innovative, open, collaborative, and responsible.

They will provide effective, evidence-based support for the College, and wider University digital education priorities, working closely with academic and professional services colleagues to identify new growth opportunities and diversification of the College portfolio, encouraging a “future-facing” outlook. 

The postholder will promote the art of the possible in digital education through the development of external networks that identify emerging best practice. The role will also act as Business Partner for Digital Education to promote understanding and collaboration across the University. 

Reporting to the Assistant Director Digital Education in Libraries and Learning Resources, the postholder will be a member of the Digital Education leadership team along with other College based Heads of Digital Education and the wider team. The role will also be part of the wider management group within Libraries and Learning Resources and will contribute to collaborative working across the Division.  

Main Duties

• Work in partnership with academic colleagues to support and develop the portfolio of education courses, and development of new digital skills, identifying opportunities for collaboration with other departments across the University. 
• Stakeholder collaboration with IT colleagues to ensure productisation delivery and a seamless user experience of varying uses of software within the University’s Digital Education ecosystem. 
• Provide guidance and advice on Digital Education initiatives by integrating digital thinking into the education portfolio. 
• Develop and monitor plans for evidence-based digital practice in the pedagogical and practical aspects of using technology to enhance teaching, learning and assessment. 
• Ensure staff can make informed choices about the best use of digital tools to enhance student learning – on and off campus. 
• Facilitate, design, develop, and disseminate style guides, quality standards and templates for consistent production of taught courses in line with the University’s Education Excellence handbook. 
• Evaluate usage data to inform future development and delivery. 
• Provide visible leadership for the College Digital Education team and workstream leadership across initiatives in the wider Digital Education team, allocating resources appropriately, setting SMART targets, supporting staff development, monitoring performance, and ensuring quality control. 
• Ensure Digital Education is a highly respected evidence-based professional development unit for our academic staff and staff who support learning. 
• Raise the profile of the University and its digital education agenda and expertise nationally and internationally and nurture a network of external contacts within the sector and beyond to identify emerging trends helping to inform the University regarding digital education developments across the sector. 
• Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour. 
• Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working. 
• Undertake such other duties as may be required from time to time to further the work of Digital Education, Libraries and Learning Resources, Academic Services, or the University. 

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

General:

• Educated to Degree level (or equivalent qualifications) plus significant relevant practical experience – where no equivalent qualification is held substantial practical relevant experience and expertise in a series of progressively more demanding roles will be required. 
• Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly for a variety of audiences, and to produce and analyse source material, information, and data.
• Authoritative knowledge of pedagogic and academic issues and processes as applied to technology enhanced learning. 
• In-depth understanding of Digital Education in the context of higher education and professional development. 
• Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area. 
• Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied. 
• Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.

Digital Education:

• Detailed knowledge of how Virtual Learning Environments (such as Canvas) and other associated systems can be used to support teaching and learning, including an awareness of the interoperability of platforms within a digital ecosystem. 
• Experience of product ownership, engagement of product roadmaps and implementing KPI metrics to measure the value and impact of software products within the University’s Digital Education ecosystem. 
• Experience of relationship management of external product suppliers to leverage the use of appropriate technology to support the University’s education provision. 
• An understanding of productisation and the development requirements of on evolving and expanding integrated Digital Education ecosystem that addresses the needs of our future student experience. 
• An understanding of backlog process implementation, experience of middleware integration software developments and associated enhancement developments. 
• Excellent understanding of, and confidence with, complex IT systems and multimedia content creation. A comprehensive understanding of the Microsoft suite of tools and the ability to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages. 

People Management: 

• Experience of prioritising and allocating available resources to achieve well-defined targets. 
• Strong influencing and communication skills, including presentation skills, and an open approach to collaboration within and across multidisciplinary teams. 
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to lead and motivate a team of staff as well as to work a part of a wider team.
• Experience of championing Equality and Diversity, fostering an inclusive working culture, and promoting equality and diversity in own area. 

 Project Management: 

• Demonstrable experience of managing projects simultaneously and delivering to deadline and within budget. 
• Excellent problem-solving skills and be willing to bring creativity, innovation, and a flexible approach. 
• Ability to work with minimum supervision on multiple projects and/or work streams in an environment with tight deadlines. 
• Firm but diplomatic attitude to ensure appropriate and realistic stakeholder expectations. 
• Ability to identify whether decisions will have an adverse impact on a particular group and to take appropriate action.  

Role context

Roles at this level provide authoritative professional advice across a range of activities and/or will lead and manage  diverse team(s) and resources. You will use your professional skills to resolve problems where the solution is not immediately apparent.  Significant evaluation and independent thought is therefore required to resolve ambiguity. You will have wide discretion to decide on direction whilst ensuring activities are broadly consistent with operational policies. You will be able to influence policy through advising on the impact of policy change and implementation in your area of work.  You will need to assess the impact of your activities across your area, with related areas and to ensure they fit with the broader objectives of the University. 

Core competencies/transferable skills

Working at this level you will be able to develop and successfully use the following core competencies/transferable skills in each of the areas shown below. You will be expected to take ownership for getting things done, including calling on or joining others to assist. You will be expected to be flexible as required in supporting your department and wider University. 

Informal enquiries to Mark Hancock email: m.e.hancock@bham.ac.uk 

View our staff values and behaviours here 

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.