already access from our institution in the comfort of their own homes. Steps were taken over a period of time as our department debated the best ways to help the learners move forward.
A solid digital foundation in EPNE Our original directorate was already at the cutting edge of innovation in the academic year 2022-2023. Our Immersive Classroom was created where students can be enveloped by learning resources in a 3D experience as pedagogy can be adapted to deliver imagery around its circular walls and even on the floor.
Our librarian, who had managed our Virtual Learning Environment, took charge of this showpiece and now delivers surround system lessons from the Anglo Saxon world to the insides of a human artery. Alongside him two digital experts, our Learning Technol- ogists, have taken a prominent role in training staff, and among them the Learning Centre team, in video creation and online presentational software such as Sway, and have formed and reformed our SharePoint.
Adjustments in the pandemic also left us with the legacy of using our Accessit library management system, in liaison with our IT Services, to lend hundreds of laptops and Chromebooks to students, on a scale hitherto not seen, to help them learn remotely.
More than old wine in new bottles The restructure of our department in the summer of 2023 has been bold and sweeping – innovative and ambitious in line with our college group’s val- ues. Instead of projecting forward the same line of thought – more informa- tion skills training for students, more efficient librarianship and an enhanced learning environment – the Future Ready Hubs are envisaged to do all of this and much more.
Our new head of service is the group’s Head of Careers and Future Skills, working alongside the directors of student services and learning support. Our space will now be shared with careers advisors, learning mentors, IT services staff, student participation and safeguarding officers, who specialise in
April-May 2024
learners’ pastoral care and the Student Voice, together with staff who can provide students with financial support. In the past we had always talked about the need to be ‘student-centred’ or the ‘one-stop- shop’. Now a wrap-around service, which caters for all of the students’ needs, from the academic to the administrative, all to make their lives easier and studies more efficient, is in one space central to the campus.
As from the first academic term, across
most of our campuses we now have more extensive open study spaces where students can collaborate using technology – their own personal devices or those resident within the hub - alongside college staff who can provide any assistance with technical support, advice or to facilitate learning.
A leap of traditional thinking at its heart
A long time ago, in the professional liter- ature, certainly as far back as 2005 when
Philippa Levy and Sue Robert’s book Developing the New Learning Environ- ment: The Changing Role of the Aca- demic Librarian was written, thinkers in librarianship talked about the need for information professionals to work alongside other professional teams to deliver support in academic libraries. Despite the fear in the back of our minds that our previous service was becoming more peripheral across our colleges than the hives of learning they once were, as the curriculum delivery became more focused, we now have a new unique selling point which brings more of the expertise of college staff to the immediacy of the student. Information services staff, nevertheless, are still prominent in the foreground. Some of our books have been relocated to classrooms to be used as teaching resources and our collections have been concentrated to be more relevant as the digital moves up front and centre with our online provision continuing to expand.
Our Curriculum Liaison Officers have a remit for information skills delivery, and we hope to deliver further and wider across curriculum teams with new training in areas such as copyright, academic integrity and critical thinking. This is where the seismic technological developments that are already begin- ning to unfold will have great impact and new challenges will undoubtedly present themselves. We believe that we are well placed to support our students in their immediate future. IP
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