Slides from webinars for our QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project, exploring the interation of quality assurance and innovation in higher education. Webinars: 10 & 12 October 2023

1. When Quality Assurance Meets
Innovation in Higher Education
A QAA-funded Enhancement Project

2. Dr Demelza Curnow
Quality Enhancement Manager
Quality Assurance Agency

3. Practicalities
• please feel free to ask questions or share information at any
time​​, you can ask a question anonymously by directing it to
‘QAA Zoom host’ rather than to ‘everyone’​
• we will try to answer them as we go through and at the end of
the webinar​​
• if someone asks a question that you are able to help with or
offer advice on, please feel free to respond positively​​

4. Context
• How do we evolve, change and
innovate?
• What do we have in common?
• What do we do differently?
Collaboration

5. • Meeting the challenges and opportunities of
engaging with generative artificial
intelligence
• Effective approaches to using qualitative and
quantitative data to inform decision-making,
including use of prospective indicators
• Flexible pathways and modular study
• Imaginative approaches for assessing
knowledge and skills
• Delivering awards in partnership from
perspective of those with DAP and those
without (especially UK)
• Effective models of student engagement
Closing date for expressions of interest:
5pm, Friday 10 November 2023

6. Professor Kay Bond
The Engineering & Design Institute (TEDI-London)

7. Dr Jon Renyard
Arts University Bournemouth

8. Introduction to the Project
● QAA Enhancement Project
● Focuses on how institutions develop and support dynamic QA processes to
enable innovative practice
● Project Partners include traditional and new providers
● Project idea sprang from discussions in and between new providers about
operation of QA processes in a non-traditional environment.

9. QA and Innovation: both important functions
● We need innovation to ensure the relevance of our learning and teaching
● Unchecked innovation could be a problem for standards in the HE sector
● Quality Assurance is therefore vital within our institutions (and at sector level)
● So, a key question is how can QA functions and academic innovators work
most effective and supportively together?

10. Two Main Aims of the Project
● Identify the key QA domains that are perceived to most impact innovation
○ The relationship between QA professionals and academic innovators
○ External regulatory environment
○ Operationalisation of formal QA review and approval processes
○ Process constraints
● Explore how they constrain and facilitate innovation in HE
○ Where and how do the processes work effectively? Where do they cause problems?
○ How can QA professionals and academics best work together? What are the challenges?

11. What is Innovation in L&T?
● Different definitions in the literature, ranging from incremental change through
to introduction of completely new approaches and ideas
● Drivers for innovation can be ‘top down’ (leadership mandated) or ‘bottom up’
(individual motivations), and internal or external
● The project considers innovation in its broadest sense – we are concerned with
what the QA enablers and barriers to innovation are for those actually trying to
implement it.

12. Project Methodology
● Open survey for HE staff to gather views on QA and innovative practice – open
until Thursday
● Literature Review
● Focus Groups – planned for November
● Case Studies of the interaction of QA and innovation.

13. Imagining the Ideal
Workshop Activity 1

14. Imagining the Ideal
● Join a group: Quality Professionals or Academic Innovators
● We’ll then put you in small groups of 4-5
● In your group:
○ If you are an academic, think about QA professionals you’d want to work with
○ If you’re a QA professional, think about innovative academics you’d want to work with
○ What qualities and approaches would make them the ideal colleague for you to work with on
an innovation?
● Capture your thoughts on a Padlet – open the right one from the chat now
● ‘Like’ ideas from other groups to show support
● 15 minutes.

15. Feedback
● What qualities and approaches would make them the ideal colleague for you to
work with on an innovation?

16. The Snakes and Ladders
Workshop Activity 2

17. Remember Snakes and Ladders?
Image:
flickr.com/Martellotower

18. The Snakes and Ladders
● Back in your groups
● Discuss:
○ What are the ‘snakes’ – i.e. the difficulties and barriers in QA/innovator processes?
○ What are the ‘ladders’ – i.e. the enablers in QA/innovator processes?
● Capture your thoughts on the new Padlets (open the link now)
● For each one, indicate impact 1-5 (1 is minor, 5 is major)
● Use the like function to add support for ideas from other groups
● 15 minutes.

19. Feedback
● What are the longest snakes and the longest ladders?

20. Conclusion and What’s Next
● Please complete our survey, if you haven’t done so already:
www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/qaa-nmite
● Submit a case study for our final report: amanda.pate@nmite.ac.uk
● Volunteer to take part in one of our focus groups: amanda.pate@nmite.ac.uk
● Read our literature review: www.garycwood.uk/2023/09/when-qa-meets-
innovation-in-higher-education.html

21. When Quality Assurance Meets
Innovation in Higher Education
A QAA-funded Enhancement Project