Factors associated with edvisor perceptions of their work being understood and valued are not what they seem

Abstract

People sit at the heart of digital transformation in Higher Education. Often, they are ‘Third Space’ support staff, including Learning Designers, Education Technologists and Academic Developers, broadly defined here as ‘edvisors’ – educator-advisors. Edvisors share their expertise of pedagogy and technology to support, guide and lead change in teaching practices but they can be hampered by numerous factors that diminish their ability to contribute meaningfully. While the work that some types of edvisors – largely academic developers and learning designers – do is well represented in research, there has been little consideration of these underlying challenges. This paper reports on a survey of 58 edvisors in 24 Higher Education institutions in Australia relating to their perceptions of how their work is understood and valued by their direct managers, edvisors in other roles in their institution, academics and other managers in the institution. The data were analysed to look for variations by role type, job title, academic/professional classification, gender, and qualifications. Results show that edvisors feel their work is more valued than understood overall but relationships between different edvisor role types can be more fractious than those they have with academics. Improving understanding and valuing of edvisors is vital to their contribution to transformation.

Factors impacting the ability of ‘EdAdvisors’ to support and enhance technology-enhanced learning and teaching in Australian Higher Education

“…A reliability test was conducted on the data in the first survey looking for Cronbach's Alpha of reliability which returned a value of .781 (Simpson et al, 2021). According to Goforth (2015), "many methodologists recommend a minimum α coefficient between 0.65 and 0.8", indicating that this data is reliable.…”

Diverse people, diverse pathways

“…Despite this, LDs also face challenges and obstacles while working in the sector. The role is often ill-defined (Mitchell, et al, 2017;Simpson et al, 2021) and difficult to recruit for and retain (Slade et al, 2019). LDs, due to misunderstandings of the role and overlapping aspects of their role with other roles, are in contested space (Mitchell et al, 2017;Simpson et al, 2021) and may suffer from limitations in career progression and morale as a result.…”

“…The role is often ill-defined (Mitchell, et al, 2017;Simpson et al, 2021) and difficult to recruit for and retain (Slade et al, 2019). LDs, due to misunderstandings of the role and overlapping aspects of their role with other roles, are in contested space (Mitchell et al, 2017;Simpson et al, 2021) and may suffer from limitations in career progression and morale as a result. This raises questions regarding HE's ability to retain these knowledge workers, and what strategies may support professional development, professional visibility and progression pathways for LDs over the long term.…”