The document discusses the concepts of "employability", "teaching intensity", and how universities can best develop the skills employers seek in graduates. While contact hours and classroom interactions are important, the document argues digital tools and online collaborative spaces may better facilitate the independent, critical thinking skills employers prioritize when digital technologies allow for more considered dialogue and recorded discussions. Universities need to recognize digital technologies as key to developing these transferable skills and improving teaching assessed by metrics like the Teaching Excellence Framework.

1. ‘Employability’ and ‘Teaching
Intensity’:
Ideas in opposition?
Andrew Whitworth, Director of
Teaching & Learning Strategy,
Manchester Institute of Education
@DrewWhitworth1

2. Jo Johnson’s speech, 2015:
Said the TEF would “create incentives for
universities to devote as much attention to
the quality of teaching as fee-paying
students and prospective employers have
a right to expect.”
“While independent learning is vital, universities must get used to providing clearer info

3. (Johnson again): “My aims for the TEF are:
1) to ensure all students receive an excellent teaching experience that encourages ori
What DO employers want then?

4. Regular responses to surveys down the years…
Adaptable…
Good communicators…
Digital and information
literate…
Creative…
Critical thinkers…
Teamworkers…
Is there any link then between the forms of
‘contact’ students have with teachers… and
the development of these transferable skills?
Independent…
Organised…

5. Data from 2018 Student Academic Experience Survey

8. Recognising the complementarity of lectures v smaller, more interactive
tutorials, and other situations like lab work, field trips, placements…
Attempts to measure ‘teaching intensity’, for comparison across
programmes and institutions…
e.g. G. Huxley, J. Mayo, M. Peacey. M. Richardson (2018): “Class Size at
University”, Fiscal Studies 39/2, 241-264

9. What is a ‘contact hour’, though….?

10. When we start to consider the roles played by
digital tools and spaces, assessing the nature
and worth of ‘contact’ becomes a lot more
complex…

11. Research has shown that it is in
online, collaborative fora that
students most effectively developed
information practices
Geoff Walton, Mark Hepworth, (2011),"A longitudinal study of changes in learners' cog

12. Mayes (1996), Goodyear (2001):
Primary courseware…
(Delivering information,
e.g. online lecture notes,
reading lists)
Secondary courseware…
(Encouraging reflection,
e.g. online tests, quizzes)
Tertiary courseware…
(Producing materials, engaging
in dialogue… An inherent
social dimension.)

13. (Producing materials, engaging
in dialogue… An inherent
social dimension.)
Walton & Hepworth (op cit) and
my own research with Lee Webster
(Webster & Whitworth 2017 &
forthcoming publications) suggest…
Tertiary courseware creates a cognitive space which brings
benefits when compared to in-class dialogues and
discussions.

14. 1. Students can give more considered replies than in the
immediacy of face-to-face discussion
2. The discussions are recorded: therefore they can be reviewed,
scrutinised, annotated (cf. student demands for ‘lecture capture’)
3. Modelling of information and digital practices, in a range of media

15. HEPI report, February 2017.
Page 9, recommendation 5…
“Digital technology should be
recognised as a key tool for
higher education institutions
responding to the TEF.
Providers should be expected
to include information on how
they are improving teaching
through the use of digital
technology in their
submissions to the TEF. The
Department for Education
(DfE) and the TEF panel must
ensure the TEF does not act
as a barrier against
institutions innovating with
technology-enhanced
approaches. “

16. This is not an argument for ‘more tech’…
… but it does compel the observation that environments
that score highly on ‘teaching intensity’ metrics cannot
alone develop the transferable skills employers demand.

17. Can we get this message across….?
That’s a question of public image
and dissemination…
…in the face of ideological
obstacles, and persistent visions
of what teaching ‘should be’.

18. THANKS FOR LISTENING….
drew.whitworth@manchester.ac.uk
Twitter: @DrewWhitworth1