By design and delivery: embedding flexible learning at the University of Manchester

“At the heart of it all is a change of mindset,” says Professor Dan George. It sounds so simple, but the University of Manchester’s emphatic commitment to a new mindset has put the university at the very forefront of lifelong, flexible learning.

Dan, Manchester's associate vice president for blended and flexible learning, says:

"It's not about saying, ‘We don't do X or we don't do Y’. It's about having a framework that supports and encourages us to do things in the best way and doesn’t assume that the way we've delivered lectures for the past several hundred years is the way we will teach forever."

The supportive framework she mentions is the flexible learning programme, a £23 million investment by the university. It followed its decision in 2021 to commit to a default model of blended learning for all on-campus students. The flexible learning programme is hinged on a strategy that provides a plan of action to enable and embed that flexible future over five years. At Manchester, flexible learning doesn’t happen by chance – it must be flexible by design and flexible by delivery. At its core is the desire for education at Manchester to be three things: accessible, inclusive and international.

Dan explains:

"As a result, the university put in place the processes, infrastructure, policies and incentives to allow it to be more agile and adapt with the minimum of friction, as the world constantly changes around it."

Success snapshot

In a relatively short time – just two years – Manchester’s flexible learning programme has made significant achievements, from reorganising its digital learning support services to building relationships with schools and civic partners. In a snapshot, through the programme Manchester has:

Designed and launched the digital learning service to act as a wrapper around existing digital learning teams and structures across the university, bringing a virtual organisation to the e-learning teams
Procured and started implementing the move to a new central learning environment
Launched Jisc’s discovery tool and digital experience insights surveys to all students, teaching staff and professional services colleagues, to understand existing staff skills and the skills students arrive with – and those they expect to leave with
Co-created a digital equity charter with the Students’ Union and with Senate endorsement
Launched a pilot of the Microsoft Fundamentals certifications for students
Launched an assessment toolkit to support staff in thinking differently about how they assess
Supported pilots across the university, including some student-led pilots, to try out different ways to teach and learn
Developed three major Pathfinder programmes to support lifelong learning in collaboration with each faculty
Created new pathways, such as a successful bootcamp, short courses and industrial professional learning
Opened a physical home, in a refurbished building on campus, for flexible learning – an area for staff and students to play with the tech and try things out

Whole university approach

To enable such success, the flexible learning programme had to be built on strong foundations. The university is one of 25 institutions working with Jisc to pilot digital transformation resources, including using its framework for digital transformation, maturity model and beyond blended web guide.

The team at Manchester focused its pilot on the new central learning environment. It ensured all the groups involved in the process – from advisory and future student computing groups to IT, pedagogy and change groups – were aware of the maturity model and Jisc resources by linking to them in their terms of reference. Using the framework supported the whole university approach Manchester has taken, made possible through collaborating with colleagues from across the institution. The framework and maturity model helped the project leads to identify any gaps in the membership of the groups.

Professor Jane Mooney, academic team lead for digital skills and literacy with the Flexible Learning Programme, says:

"To have that shared language, and the whole organisation represented within the digital transformation framework, is incredibly helpful. The cross-institutional working that's reflected in the framework and the maturity model is absolutely critical to all our work streams. In terms of strategic aims and objectives, it's clear to see the relevance of the knowledge development section of the framework, within curriculum design, delivery, and the teaching, learning and student experience. The buy-in that we've seen has been due to colleagues being able to see the relevance."

Other framework elements where collaborative activities with wider teams are also taking place include organisational digital culture, where digital capability also has a significant presence, knowledge exchange and partnership (through the programme’s lifelong learning work) and the digital-physical infrastructure section (through the technology workstream and the innovation space on campus).

Workshopping flexible approaches

A key moment in the pilot was a workshop run in collaboration with Jisc, when senior stakeholders from across the university, along with members from the different groups who were involved in the implementation of the new central learning environment, gathered in person to work through the Jisc framework in more detail.

Professor Caroline Bowsher, academic lead for the digital learning environment, says:

"It was a really exciting and very useful day. We gave participants a couple of focus points first to look at, so people could think about how they might adopt flexible approaches to work and study to accommodate the different needs and preferences of stakeholders. They also thought about where we are in terms of our maturity model status – and where we want to be. And then we also asked them to think about strategic approaches to digital learning, teaching assessment, and where we are, where we want to be and what we need to do to get there. The information we collated during that session was really powerful. We’re taking that back to the groups and discussing the next steps. But importantly, in future meetings, at regular intervals, we'll revisit the maturity model and think about the focus of that in terms of where we are, what we're trying to do in the implementation process."

Engaging senior leadership

Manchester stands out for the way in which it is successfully working across all areas of the university and achieving representation from the academic community, professional services colleagues, across a range of roles and levels, as well as students and also building external partnerships.

The work is also supported at the highest levels within the university. The programme has an enthusiastic advocate in April McMahon, the vice president for teaching, learning and students, and many of the senior leadership team including the chief information officer.

Dan says:

"Senior leadership investment is really critical because there are loads of challenges when we do this. It's very new for us and if it was easy, then everyone would have done it years ago, right? So there are lots of challenges – it's a completely new way of approaching our education at Manchester from the policy and process and the culture change needed. It's important that we work together to overcome any hurdles, and that has got to include senior level as well."

Looking forward

While the flexible learning programme’s pilot was a six-month programme of work, the team intends to continue disseminating the digital transformation maturity model across the university, beyond the CLE work stream.

Caroline says:

"This is the starting point – we've shown how it can work, but more importantly, we've got buy-in from across the university about how this can underpin future directions and thinking, strategically."

Jane adds:

"We'll be mapping our progress and next steps around digital capability with colleagues from across the university, as part of our ongoing work to embed. I'm continuing to have those wider conversations with colleagues to share how the framework and model can be used to identify next steps and capture progress."

The University of Manchester is keen to have those conversations beyond the university, too.