Digital Education at the University of Leeds

Teaching people digital skills can be severely underrated, given how important they are to day-to-day life. At the University of Leeds, the Digital Education Service is tackling this by providing innovative online learning. We spoke to Helen Billington, Digital Education Service Manager, to find out more.

Helen wants “to make university education equitable and open to all”, which is an admirable – if ambitious – mission statement. However, it’s something she’s able to work on in her position as manager of the University of Leeds’ Digital Education Service, a team of people working to provide students with online learning.

“Our main aim is to help academic staff at the uni to develop online resources; either things that can be used on campus within the university’s virtual learning environment – Minerva – or courses that can be put on the external learning platforms of some of our partners, like FutureLearn,” said Helen. 

 This is no small challenge, of course. Taking traditional university education and bringing it online is a big task. “It feels like it’s only a small part of the iceberg, because obviously the university itself has a vast amount of knowledge,” Helen said. 

However, the service has recently focused on recruitment activity as well. The availability of the internet means that young people have more and more options when it comes to their education and career paths. Helen told us about the resources that the Digital Education Service has to introduce young people to a new subject, and talked about the plans the service has for apprentices. While in the past, apprentices would have to go on day release to a university in order to learn and gain skills, Helen and the service are changing this by giving young people more options through online learning. “They can be an apprentice at a university that isn’t necessarily a local one, so they’re not doing day release but they’re doing perhaps a weekend supported by online learning,” she said. "This way, they don’t need to be tied to their local area and are free to learn on their own time". 

The importance of online learning 

 This is a crucial part of the Digital Education Service’s work, and Helen believes that online learning is a vital skill for everybody to develop. “I think our main aim is to enable all of the students who come to the University of Leeds to gain the skills to be online learners,” she said, “because if you’re an effective online learner you can access university courses from all over the world on any subject.” “Online learning means often you can learn the bite-sized bit of information you need, at the point at which you need it. So it’s a lifelong skill to be able to access quality online education to answer the particular question you have at the moment, or the development need you have, or the challenge that you have.” This is something Helen wants to implement across the university wherever possible. She added: “We would measure success if every student at the University of Leeds did some online learning as part of their degree programme.” 

Leeds Digital Festival 

 Helen and the Digital Education Service will be taking part in Leeds Digital Festival this year, running an event showcasing just some of the technology that the service uses in its own online courses. “We’ve selected a course that has a really big focus on the City, because it’s on transport planning,” said Helen. “One of the features in that is some drone work and interactive animations about traffic planning at the Weetwood roundabout.” Participants in the event – which Helen recommends for anyone who is interested in seeing how technology is used in learning, as well as those who might want to get involved in developing or working in online education – will see how interactive animations and drone footage can be used to produce a road system for the future. 

 So why get involved with the Leeds Digital Festival at all? Helen was clear: “Because we think that digital skills are the skills everybody needs for the future; not just young people starting out on their education or moving into the working world, but as we get older, those of us who didn’t have a digital education in our working life but are moving into retirement will increasingly need to access the things we need through the internet.” The Digital Education Service is committed to helping all generations develop their online learning skills, and the Leeds Digital Festival is a great place to showcase this.

Joined Mumsnet Bloggers

I have had a Mumsnet account since 2008 and generally just lurked in threads about teenagers, eduction and large families, occasionally posting. I've just applied, and been accepted as a Mumsnet blogger, no pressure there then. I've been browsing the Mumsnet bloggers network help pages to get some hints and tips about blogging. I've added a badge and now I need to join the review panel and find out how to get the widget.

New blog focus

I've changed my blog title and layout today as part of my blog refresh. Time moves on and my old profile is no longer upto date.

An occasional blog sharing my experiences as a mother of 4 teenagers, school governor and university administrator. Usually written at the kitchen table where I lurk all evening in the hope that one of my teenagers will talk to me when they come to raid the fridge.

 The children are no longer teenagers and spend very little time at home. I'm entering a new phase of my life as an empty nester.

A consolidated blog

 I have spent today importing my blog posts in the University in-house blogging tool, elgg, into Blogger to join my non-work blog  (formerly Yorkshire kitchen tales and Aga kitchen tales) so I could import all of my blog rambling into a single site. The elgg blog site isn't supported any more and I didn't want to lose my old posts. There aren't very many of them but they stretch back to April 2007.

The original idea was to have a work blog on elgg and a non-work blog. The work blog is now in Wordpress. Going the extra mile hbillington.wordpress.com

New school admissions code and twins

I was surprised to read in the Guardian that the draft, new school admissions code includes the guidance that:

"Schools must give priority to children whose parents are in the armed forces, as well as children in care, and ensure twins and triplets are in the same class."
Don't rely on school place lotteries, local authorities are told The Guardian, 27 May 2011

 I've always felt that twins do better if they are in different classes at school but I know that this can depend on twins individual needs. According to a  Twins and Multiple Births Association (TAMBA) report 20% of multiple birth children starting school are allocated to classes (either together or apart) without any consultation with parents. Amazingly around 1% of multiple birth children starting school are offered places in different schools. This equates to almost 200 children per year (The Educational Needs and Experiences of Multiple Birth Children TAMBA 2009)

The new admissions code will allow twins and triplets to be admitted to an infant class

"even if it takes the class over the 30-child limit" DfE Press notice 27th May 2011

so there should be no reason for twins or triplets to be split between different schools. The chief executive of TAMBA,  Keith Reed, says

"We are delighted that the new Government has taken on board our suggestion to add twins and multiple-birth children to the list of infant class size exceptions." ,

Both of my sets of twins started primary school, and secondary school in different classes. Next year my sixteen year old twins are going one step further and have chosen to go to different sixth form colleges. The logistics of them travelling in different directions every day will be a challenge but they have each chosen the course and college that is best for them.

Goodbye Aga

Having named this blog 'Aga Kitchen Tales', previously posted a blog about my Aga and even registered my Aga on the 'This is my Aga' website, I'm now saying goodbye to the Aga. Like many others, I've decided I can't afford to keep my oil-guzzling Aga going. I could swap to an electric Aga but I've decided to go for an electric range with 5 hotplates, a grill and a warming plate.

Saying goodbye to an Aga is not something you can do instantly. I've switched it off this evening so we can remove the fitted worktops from around it tomorrow. On Tuesday the plumber is coming to disconnect the hot water supply and oil pipes, and then on Wednesday I've got two men coming from Avec Cookers to dismantle it and take all the pieces away. They will be able to use bits of my Aga as spares for their re-conditioned Agas.

I'm also going to have to rename this blog. I've been trying to think of a title all evening.

My staff profile from our office newsletter

Tell us a little about your background.
I was born in Lancaster but spent most of my childhood in Nottingham where my parents and sister still live. My father was a Maths teacher and we used to spend the long summer holidays touring through Europe with our caravan packed with tins of corned beef and Smash, lots of travel on a small budget. I think this gave me the travelling bug that took me to New Zealand via Texas and Costa Rica at the beginning of my academic career. I did my first degree in Botany at Cambridge and then my PhD in plant genetics in Liverpool. My first post-doc was based at the University of Texas in Austin but I did all of my field work in a National Park in the Pacific tropical rainforests of Costa Rica. I met my husband Chris when I was a student at Cambridge and we got married before I started my post-doc in Texas. After two years we moved on to New Zealand where I had another 2 year post-doc, this time in the School of Forestry at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. Chris followed me back to the UK in 1989 when I got a third post-doc in Edinburgh. We then moved to Bracknell in Berkshire when Chris and I both got post-docs at the Silwood Park campus of Imperial College. We had our first set of twins, two girls, Rose and Alice, while we were in Bracknell.


What jobs have you done to date?
I don’t really think of being a post-doc as a job because it’s linked to a specific research project and it’s a short-term contract. My first real job was a lectureship at the University of Coventry. Chris had a lectureship at the University of Birmingham and we could have settled in the West Midlands but Chris was attracted by the first round of 5 year University Research Fellowships advertised by the University of Leeds in 1995. I remember Chris bringing the advertisement into Birmingham Maternity Hospital to show me on the morning of my caesarean section to deliver my second set of twins, this time a boy and a girl, Jack and Lucy. I wanted more children and Chris wanted more time to do his own research and the two things fitted quite nicely with giving up our lectureships and returning to the post-doc lifestyle in Leeds. Chris had a 5 year URF in Biology at Leeds and I got a part-time post-doc in Geography, plus a part-time contract with the Open University as a tutor. I continued to work part-time at Leeds until last September, moving from Geography to Biological Sciences in 2003 via Yorkshire Universities. My first job in Biological
Sciences was Marketing and Widening Participation Officer. I moved to Quality Assurance Officer in 2005 and then Manager of the Teaching Support team in 2007 when the Undergraduate School was set up.


Expand a little on your role?
At the moment I’m covering some of the role of the Undergraduate School Manager while Jenny Hamlin is on maternity leave. I thrive on new challenges and am enjoying working with the staff in the Undergraduate School Office and meeting more students and academic staff. I’m not sure how the role will develop when the new Director of the Undergraduate School and Institute Directors of Studies are appointed and Jenny returns from maternity leave, but I know there will be plenty to do.


Have you had any challenging tasks to undertake to date?
My biggest challenge in Biological Sciences is the one I was faced with when I first arrived in 2003. I had to develop a suite of co-ordinated recruitment brochures for the 4 Schools (plus 1 Division). I organised a full tendering exercise with 5 designers, consultations with staff, students, prospective students and their parents and managed to meet the print deadline required to get the brochures printed for the University Open Day in just under 7 months. I’m delighted that three of the five cover shots that were part of that initial branding exercise are still in use and the faculty logo and colour scheme are still part of the faculty interpretation of the University visual identity. More recent challenges have included setting up an on-line room booking system and then changing from a faculty system to the University on-line system. This year my main challenge has been moving the printing of teaching materials from an external supplier to the University Print and Copy Bureau. I think it is important to support the jobs of colleagues across the university where we can. By committing to move our printing business to Print and Copy Bureau we have enabled them to upgrade their printers and offer a more competitively priced service.

What were your thoughts when you were told you were having a second pair or twins and how did you cope with 4 little ones?
I went for my first scan on my own. I remember the midwife thinking I should have known it was twins again because my bump was so big. I thought it was because I was pre-stretched. Chris didn’t come to the scan because Rose had chicken pox. He picked me up from outside the hospital and drove straight off so I didn’t tell him it was twins (again) until he stopped at some traffic lights. He thought I was joking. We were very busy, and tired, when the children were all young but we have always worked as a team, and put the family first. It has definitely improved my time management and organisation skills. The best part about it is that when you have 4 children and a full-time job, no-one expects you to have a tidy house.


What do you do in your leisure time?
We have a 6 acre smallholding in North Yorkshire and have three horses and some chickens. In December we got a new puppy who I am supposed to be training but most of my non-work time is taken up with looking after my family. Jack and Lucy are half way through their GCSEs at Selby High School while Rose and Alice have just finished their A Levels at York College. I’m also vice-chair of governors at Selby High School.


What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done in your life?
I had a few notable encounters with animals while I was working in Costa Rica; coming face to face with a jaguar, disturbing a herd of wild pigs in the rain forest and almost stepping on a wasps nest but the scariest moment was one evening when a bat that was roosting in the toilet block fell onto my head while I was on the loo and couldn’t fly away because it got caught in my hair. It still sends shivers down my back just thinking about it.


Do you have any ambitions?
I’d like to continue with the travelling which has had to be put on hold over the last 18 years. I’ve booked to go to Cuba next Easter but I have lots of destinations on my wish list. If I had to choose I’d put Chile, Easter Island, Brazil and Peru top of my list. There was a possibility of going on an AUA (Association of University Administrators) study tour to Brazil for 4 weeks this November but the timing wasn’t good with the faculty restructure.

Is there anything you have done that you are particularly proud of?
I’m very proud of my children and enjoy watching them gain confidence and independence as they get older.
What’s your most frequently asked question?
In the VLE, how do I…………….?
******** Thanks Helen for giving us an insight into your life – a very busy one! This is such a lovely photo of you and your family that I just had to include it