Tag: Textbooks

Pedagogical Resources

“How are Students and Lecturers Using Pedagogical Resources Today?”

Gold Leaf

At the end of 2017, SAGE Publishing commissioned a report from Gold Leaf to explore pedagogical trends and practices at UK universities.  The research was carried out during the whole of the calendar year 2018 and the final report was completed in February 2019.  SAGE will shortly make this report available free via a link on its website, with the generous aim of helping and supporting the UK HE and academic publishing communities.   To celebrate Academic Book Week we will share highlights from the report here on our blog.

The report is a timely study of the UK HE undergraduate environment that assesses the impact of both changing teaching practices and government legislation on pedagogy and pedagogical resources. One of the key objectives has been to understand how publishers can better engage with the academic community to promote optimum learning outcomes, by developing resources that best support academic and student needs.

The methodology employed both primary and secondary research. The primary research took several forms. Three Surveymonkey surveys were circulated to UK academics, students and academic librarians respectively.  Five UK universities were asked to participate in in-depth studies: two post-1992 universities; two Russell Group universities; and one 1960s university. There was especial focus on the following five disciplines: Business and Management; Education; Nursing; Psychology; and Sociology. Academics and librarians representing these subjects at the five in-depth universities were asked to participate in semi-structured telephone interviews. Some further interviews with academics at other Russell Group universities also took place. Students in their second or above years of undergraduate study, where possible representative of each of the five disciplines, were asked to take part in focus group discussions. Six focus group meetings were held altogether.

Extensive secondary (desk-based) research was also carried out. Contemporary professional bodies and websites were consulted. A wide range of publications, including many learned journal articles on pedagogical change, was also consulted.

Those who participated in the in-depth interviews were asked about their attitudes to and relationships with publishers and aggregators.  Academics held quite dusty views about publishers – though it is worth pointing out that some academics wear two hats: that of the lecturer indignant about book prices on behalf of his / her students and that of the author interested in royalties.  However, in general they seem to like publishers less than librarians do; are genuinely concerned by textbook prices; and want more diversity in the formats publishers offer (though not necessarily to pay for this).

Librarians dislike certain pricing models and want more transparency on pricing overall; they want more material to be available via Open Access; more digital material – even though they concede that many students prefer print; fewer usage restrictions; and a more generous approach to access, especially for students at affiliates and alumni.  As a body, they prefer aggregators to publishers.

Students value currency above format; they want textbooks to be shorter and more up-to-date; and some do prefer print.  However, the majority of UK students use both print and electronic, for different purposes respectively.

For more key findings of the study, please come back to our blog tomorrow, when we will talk about changes in teaching practices and resources used for teaching.

Digital Publishing, TEF

While we’re on the subject…

Gold Leaf

Last week, the Office for Students released some reports and initial findings on the subject-level TEF. What are the conclusions and what does it mean for publishers?

In parallel with the third round of the current TEF, the Office for Students conducted a pilot phase for a subject-level TEF, working with 50 different universities, colleges and other HE providers. (A list of participating institutions has been published by the OfS, but the ratings awarded remain confidential). This first pilot will be followed by a second round of pilots in 2019 to refine the process. The plan is to abolish the current TEF after its forth instalment in summer 2019 and initiate the subject-level TEF in 2020 (application phase) with the first round of results being published in spring 2021.

In the pilot, two different models were being tried, and the conclusion has been made that – despite neither of the models being fully fit for purpose – a “bottom-up” approach was being favoured, though the final model is likely to be a bit of a mix of “bottom-up” and “top-down”. This means that all subjects are being assessed as part of a ‘subject group’ submission but with separate metrics for each subject, and each subject receives a TEF rating of Bronze, Silver or Gold. The subject ratings then feed into the provider-level assessment, which is still being carried out separately.
The diagram below might be helpful in illustrating this:

STEFdiagram

(Source: Office for Students)

One major factor in the lessons learned from the pilot is the need to involve students in the process – after all, the TEF is supposed to be all about students’ experience and their learning outcomes! It has been confirmed that in future rounds the students’ voice will play a more prominent role. This is where it becomes interesting for publishers of learning content, because one of the main concerns the students expressed in the feedback session was that the quality and availability of Learning Resources should be measured and carry a greater weight in the TEF scoring.
As a result a new metric for learning resources will be included in future instalments of the TEF.

Unfortunately, the Publishers’ Association doesn’t seem to have been able to get involved in this (we are aware that attempts by the PA had been made and rejected), but thankfully the students seem to be the advocates for their libraries and ultimately the publishing community – they have realised what an important part the provision of learning resources plays in measuring teaching quality.

(All reports and publications can be found of the OfS website: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/teaching-excellence-and-student-outcomes-framework-findings-from-the-first-subject-pilot-2017-18/)

Conferences, TEF

How are Students and Lecturers Using Educational Resources Today?

Gold Leaf

[Press Release]
SAGE Publishing and Gold Leaf partner on major study to provide insight into the UK higher education pedagogical environment

Higher Education in the UK is undergoing huge change. Much of this is directly affecting how students, faculty and librarians interact with pedagogical resources. But what impact are these developments having on learning? How is this influencing the type of resources being used in the present-day classroom? More widely, what impact will factors such as the TEF and Brexit have on the acquisition and deployment of pedagogical resources and educational technology?

In the first part of a major study, How are Students and Lectures Using Educational Resources Today, commissioned by SAGE Publishing and conducted by Gold Leaf, researchers Linda Bennett and Annika Bennett unpack these questions. The report offers analysis to help understand trends and practices driving the positive impact of pedagogy on student success in the UK HE environment.

To date, at three of the participating universities (the University of Greenwich, the University of Huddersfield and the University of Surrey), a total of 31 in-depth interviews have been conducted with librarians and academics. 4 student focus groups have also taken place from across several disciplines.  These have been complemented by three UK-wide online surveys circulated to academics, librarians and students, which attracted responses from across 113 UK Higher Education institutions. This interim report focuses on qualitative results from non‐Russell Group universities. The final report will include qualitative results from Russell Group universities.

The report addresses questions concerning student expectations; pedagogical tools and their representation in resources lists; changed methods of university funding; and the role of publishers and academics.  Interim findings across the wider UK surveys so far include:

  • 81.6% of academics and 62% of librarians believe that the approach to pedagogy at their institutions have changed.
  • The use of the flipped classroom, and an increased focus on technology-enhanced learning were the most‐mentioned catalysts for change, together with concern over existing teaching standards.
  • Textbooks (both print and electronic) and journals continue to be the most listed resources mentioned by academics, librarians and students.
  • Asked about their institution’s policy on who should pay for learning resources, 49% of the librarians, 42% of academics and 39% of the students said that students could and should be able to obtain all the resources they needed from the Library. Only 4% of librarians and 9% of academics said that their institution paid for essential texts for each student.

Kiren Shoman, Editorial Director, SAGE, said:

“SAGE is keen to take responsibility for learning how changes in education are impacting the communities we serve. Since our founding we have been driven by the recognition that education is vital to a healthy society, and we continue to work with our academic community to support their engagement with education and to best address their wider needs. We have been delighted to work with Gold Leaf as an independent research consultancy to explore the current landscape and best understand how we can support and address the challenges and changes in higher education resourcing and teaching today.”

Linda Bennett, Founder of Gold Leaf, commented:

“Gold Leaf feels very honoured to have been chosen to carry out the research for this important study.  Working on it has been a privilege and the results are fascinating.  I’d like to say how grateful we are to everyone who has supported it, especially Kiren and her colleagues at SAGE and the many academics, librarians and students from Greenwich, Huddersfield and Surrey who have participated.  We have started work on the second report now and look forward to sharing it with the HE community in a few months’ time.”

You can find out more about the report and follow the study as it progresses by sending an email to info@goldleaf.co.uk.

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Part One of the report is being presented at the ABT Conference sponsored by the Booksellers Association on 10th and 11th May.

Part Two of the study will be completed in the autumn of this year.

For further information on either parts of the study please contact info@goldleaf.co.uk.

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About SAGE Publishing

Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE is a leading international provider of innovative, high-quality content publishing more than 1,000 journals and over 800 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. Our growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company’s continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. www.sagepublishing.com

About Gold Leaf

Gold Leaf was set up in 2001 to provide business development support and market research to the academic publishing and academic librarian communities as well as academia itself.  It has published several important studies about pedagogies, electronic resource provision and the changing role of libraries as well as many bespoke reports for individual clients. Gold Leaf facilitates a number of librarian advisory boards worldwide.  More information about Gold Leaf may be found at http://www.goldleaf.co.uk/index.html

 

Conferences, TEF

Academic Book Trade Conference 2017 (part 2)

Gold Leaf

(part 2)             ABG-Conference-NEW-logo

On Thursday evening, the conference Awards dinner took place, during which this year’s ABT awards were presented jointly by Stephen Lotinga and Tim Godfray, who took the occasion to prove his talent as a singer-songwriter and presented a musical welcome.

Tim Godfray guitar
As they did last year, OUP won the “Best Academic Publisher” award, and Julie Fisher from Palgrave Macmillan won the trophy as “Rep of the year”. Blackwell’s won the Academic Chain Bookseller award, and also the Bookshop of the Year, which went to Blackwell Sheffield. Glyn Littlewood of Blackwell Sheffield also won the Individual Bookseller Award, sharing it with Hilary Piert of O’Mahony’s. Roger Horton, CEO of Taylor & Francis was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award, which is only given very occasionally for exceptional service to the industry. Many congratulations to all the winners!

The second day of the conference was opened by Simon Walker, Head of Educational Development at the University of Greenwich. He talked about student engagement and the involvement of students in the creation of content. He said that essentially student engagement happens when there is a move away from talking to students as consumers to working with them as partners. Simon also involved the audience in an online audience engagement exercise. Mark Toole, Head of Libraries and Learning Resources of Nottingham Trent University, spoke about his university’s approach to student engagement, which is much more data-driven. He laid out how data analytics can increase student engagement at an early stage and therefore increase retention rates.  The two presentations represented opposites on the teaching / learning continuum and therefore provided excellent foils for each other.

Simon Walker

Heather Sherman, Head of Technical Library Development at Dawson Books, gave a quick overview of Resources Provision and the TEF before the concluding, and arguably most entertaining, part of the conference: the “ABT Strictly” competition: a publisher, a bookseller and a librarian presented their future plans on resource delivery to 3 student judges. The first 10-minute presentation was given by Andrew Robinson, Director of Higher Education at Cengage. Next up was Will Williams, Head of Academic Sales at Blackwell’s, followed by Martin Gill, Head of Academic Services at University of Huddersfield.

After a short Q&A session, during which the students could question the presenters, the students finally rated the presenter on a scale from 1 to 10 in a “strictly”-fashion. The winner was Martin Gill; the students were asked to justify their scores, and their views were very illuminating. It was fantastic listening to such an engaged student panel – tank you to Nguyen Hoang (University of Reading), Harriet Lowe (University of Greenwich) and Kiu Sum (University of Westminster).

student panel

After two interesting days of conversations, presentations and discussions about a topic that will stay important for Academic Publishing in future the delegates headed home (in pouring rain this time). We are looking forward to next year’s conference and the continuation of our work on the TEF in the meantime!

(c) photos: Sharon Benton
Conferences, TEF

Academic Book Trade Conference 2017 (part 1)

Gold Leaf

“Leadership and Influence in a TEF-led world”                             ABG-Conference-NEW-logo

On a sunny May 18th, more than 100 delegates came together at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon for the two-day annual Academic Book Trade Conference (formerly: APS Group Conference). This year, the conference programme focused on the Teaching Excellence Framework [TEF] and student engagement.  The conference Programme Director was my colleague Linda Bennett, of Gold Leaf, who has been organising the speaker programme since 2002 and with me is co-author of the report Resource Provision in Higher Education: Implications of the TEF and related initiatives, which was sponsored by the Booksellers Association.  A copy of the report was given to each of the conference delegates.

Outgoing chairman of the ABG Group, Scott Hamilton, gave an overview of last year’s industry figures and a review of the past year from the perspective of the ABG. The first address took the form of a conversation at which conference Chairman Richard Fisher, former MD of academic publishing at CUP, engaged a dialogue with Sir David Bell, Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading.

Sir David Bell

Sir David made a number of incisive points, including that the TEF was needed because universities have been slow to respond to criticism of their approach to teaching; that although some academics may not like the TEF, it is not a life-changer in the same way that the REF has been; and that although league tables, of which the TEF will now become an important one, are important drivers for university success, they are not the only drivers.

Stephen Lotinga, CEO of the Publisher’s Association, spoke about Publishing and Politics. He noted that there was a gap in the public’s understanding of the Book Trade industry’s role and its future and that both the PA and the BA need to lobby to make the industry’s importance more visible.

Richard Stagg, Publishing Director of Pearson, told the delegates that he saw the TEF as an opportunity for the publishing industry, as long as student’s needs and expectations were kept in mind and being met. He said very clearly that the current changes in approach are not about a transition from print to digital, but about the pedagogy behind teaching and learning and about interaction. He concluded by saying that it is the academic book trade’s responsibility to show the learning gains obtained from the content it creates, and to build new relationships.

The final keynote speaker was Peter Lake, Group Business Development Director at John Smith’s, who stressed the importance of the service element in making digital products work. He illustrated this by sharing some case studies in which service has been key to the successful use of published products. He also emphasised that the BA and the PA should lobby together, particularly on the inclusion of learning response into the next revisions of the TEF metrics.

keynotes day 1

At the end of the formal programme on the first day, we presented our TEF report. It was gratifying to see how much interest it has generated; our presentation was very well received.

In the breakout sessions following our presentation, the delegates discussed the impact of the TEF on the industry and how booksellers and publishers could work together on this, and compiled possible questions to include in the NSS about learning resources. One question that was suggested by several groups (in this or similar wording) was “To what extend do the provided learning resources support your learning outcomes?”
The groups came back with a big variety of suggestions on how cooperation could make the TEF work, including the sharing of data, the joint funding of further research into the area, collaboration on standards, and – mentioned by several groups – joint lobbying. Everyone agreed that transparency, communication and cooperation had to be key to make it work for both sides.

break-out 2

(part 2 to follow)

(c) photos: Sharon Benton
TEF

The TEF report

Gold Leaf

9780993329692-cov-cropped

Our report on the TEF [Teaching Excellence Framework]: 140 pages full of information about the TEF and on how the TEF will/can/may impact Academic Publishing and Bookselling.

The Methodology that we used to research the TEF report was unusual: normally, studies like this consist of a great deal of quantitative information, often collected via Surveymonkey or other types of questionnaire, supplemented by qualitative information gained from telephone interviews and focus groups.  We turned this approach on its head, for two reasons: first of all, every university has yet to put its TEF strategy into practice, so only a limited amount of quantitative information could be gathered (the report does contain some); secondly, we wanted to collect opinions and points of view, as well as facts, from across all the main stakeholder groups: university administrators, academics, librarians, students, publishers and booksellers.  Our study is therefore based on the results of 40 structured telephone interviews (37 with key stakeholders, three with TEF ‘experts’) and a student focus group, supplemented by Surveymonkey surveys conducted with academics, librarians, students and booksellers (we didn’t need to ask academic publishers to complete a Surveymonkey survey, as so many of them volunteered for the interviews).  Where possible, the questions used were the same or similar across all the groups.  We believe that this methodology paid off: it allowed  us to construct a rich picture of what is happening across all these constituent groups and at many (at least 25) different universities.

The results will be presented on Thursday at the Academic Book Trade Conference 2017 “Leadership and Influence in a TEF-led world” in Stratford-upon-Avon.