In this episode, Sarah Knight, Head of learning and teaching transformation in higher education at Jisc is joined by Mike Phillips, the executive dean at the School of Health Science and Wellbeing at Staffordshire University where he discusses how the use of immersive learning and simulation learning is transforming the student experience in health care.

Mike outlines the role that the School of Health Science and Wellbeing has in the immersive journey and shares the challenges of delivering health care education in the sector over the past 20 years. Mike then goes on to explore how technology has enabled the university to address some of the challenges they face including the pandemic accelerating plans and the use of simulation placements for students across health, social care and wellbeing disciplines.

Mike shares how he has brought staff along on the journey to ‘simmersive’ and the innovative approaches that they’ve used to create an authentic workplace setting for students. Mike highlights the 3 P’s which are essential to embedding technology within the student experience: The people, the place and the pedagogy.

Mike talks about students and staff embracing the approach to simulation based learning post-pandemic and the welcoming of technological change at Staffordshire adopting a hybrid role across the academic and technical digital spaces.

Mike then goes on to share the five stage approach and the framework for the integration of skills and simulation when delivering an incremental exposure towards real world practice for the universities learners.

Finally, we focus on creating a simulation environment to develop an authentic assessment experience and enhance student learning and feedback.

In this episode, we are joined by Raheel Nawaz from Staffordshire University, where we learn about the exciting and innovative work Raheel is leading on in the digital transformation space.

Raheel Nawaz is a professor of artificial intelligence and a professor of digital education working at Staffordshire University as pro vice-chancellor for digital transformation.

Raheel explores his vision for digital transformation at Staffordshire University including the new digital at core strategy and the four main pillars that underpin this vision.

Raheel talks about the essential building blocks needed within a university to enable digital transformation to happen in the form of three main components : strategy, culture and governance of the strategy including the process Raheel and his team took when creating their digital transformation strategy.

He then goes on to explain the three projects the university are most excited about in the world of digital transformation. The first of the three being simplifying the student experience with the launch of the first ai assistant in any university with the aim of bringing course, community and career together in a single integrated student interface. Secondly, the self-coined ‘simmersive’, a support mantra of simulation and immersive and how Staffordshire is integrating this concept into the DNA of buildings and the student experience. And finally, a project around building minimum expectations around staff and student digital capabilities.

Raheel talks about what senior leaders can do to encourage a culture of digital transformation including what we can do for the culture of our university experience.

And finally we look to the future of the sector and where we see the university experience evolving since the pandemic and the rapid increase of ai. And finally posing the question to senior leaders ‘how do we make the most of technology?’

Show notes

Check out the events happening within our digital transformation series:
-    Join us at University of Northampton for rethinking learning and curriculum design on 6 July. Book now.
-    Taking place 18 July, join us at University of Greenwich for developing and implementing a digital strategy. Join our waiting list. 

Check out our framework guide for digital transformation in higher education, and explore a comprehensive perspective on how the digital environment can support positive work, research and learning experiences, and promote a sense of belonging and wellbeing.

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Get in touch with us at podcast@jisc.ac.uk if you’d like to come on the show or know someone who might suit the series.