Organizing digital production in a classic higher education institutionthe case of the university of salamanca

157 Chapter Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution: The Case of the University of Salamanca Fernando Almaraz-Menéndez University of Salamanca, Spain Alexander Maz-Machado University of Córdoba, Spain ABSTRACT The aim of this chapter is to explain one model of organizational unit within universities committed to taking full advantage of the opportunities provided by digital technologies The correct management of resources for digital innovation and content production is important for Higher Education Institutions in three spheres of activity: digital learning, institutional communications and digital marketing Here, the implementation of the model in the case of the University of Salamanca is described The chapter also explores the particular features that the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) role should have in Higher Education Institutions and a description of the process of digital innovation carried out at the MediaLab of the university Lastly, some important research questions are raised around the phenomenon of the digital transformation of universities INTRODUCTION Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are facing pressure caused by several global trends linked to digitalization These are affecting their activities and could even have an impact on their essence Some authors believe we are facing a disruptive type of change that brings about core challenges for higher education institutions, which may even threaten their existence One of the drivers of change is technological innovation The rise of social networks, the spread of devices that enable users to be connected at all times and the full availability of video content on the Internet are creating a new global landscape for universities This chapter aims to propose a model for the organization of the production of digital DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0672-0.ch008 Copyright © 2017, IGI Global Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution content in Higher Education Institutions and will go on to explain its implementation at the University of Salamanca (USAL) in Spain The recent experience of Higher Education Institutions with MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) has very much brought to the fore the issue of their digital production capabilities One of the characteristics of the MOOC model is the intensive use of different types of videos (Seaton et.al, 2014) This is clearly a reflection of a major trend within digitization: the enrichment of digital materials and the prevalence of video as the most widely-used format Universities need to equip themselves with organizational units focused on digital content production Many universities have mastered the production of paper textbooks but in the present context, they ought to incorporate the capacity for producing teaching videos, ebooks, interactive instructional materials, digital marketing content, and so forth MOOCs can be analyzed within the open movement framework Open educational resources (OER) were defined at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on Open Courseware as “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions” In its manifold forms OER are causing a sort of democratization of knowledge The growth of the open movement has led to the MOOC giving millions of people access to courses offered by elite universities (Yuan, L and Powell, 2015) Educational content is made available to students on the web and this is bringing about a change of role with regard to the teaching function The teacher has ceased to be the only holder of knowledge and has subsequently become a guide and facilitator of the learning process The student profile has also changed; Millennials are distinguished by the fact they consider technology as being a natural part of their lives and are permanently connected It is a generation more focused on action and collaborative work than its predecessors (Howe & Strauss, 2003) What’s more, the development of new digital technologies is providing increasing opportunities for educational applications The generalization of mobile devices which one can use to access the Internet (tablets and smartphones) has led to the possibility of ubiquitous learning, understood as the learning approach in which ubiquitous computing is used to support students in the right way and in the right place at the right time, taking into account their real world personal and environmental contexts (Hwang& Wong 2014) The recent emergence of wearable devices, such as Google Glass, is opening up a new world of potential educational applications (Nooriafshar 2013) Google Glass is defined as a small computer that can be worn like glasses The wearer can access its interface and communicate with the Glass by voice command so it offers hands-free operation features and countless possibilities Potential applications range from the provision of supplementary information during lectures to the capturing of video clips for storage or sharing purposes as part of a subject Other emerging digital technologies, like 3D printing, have proven to have multiple possibilities in the most diverse educational environments 3D printing refers to the set of technologies that enable the construction of physical objects from three-dimensional digital content such as computer-aided design (CAD), computer assisted tomography (CAT) or X-ray crystallography (Johnson, et al., 2013) Higher education applications range from making models of fragile objects like fossils for its manipulation by Geology students, to the reproduction of three-dimensional anatomical models that help Medical students understand the right decisions in surgical operations All these technologies have costs that tend to fall over time, which is facilitating their rapid spread Within this context of educational transformation, innovation should be considered as being a continuum, not an isolated event It should be viewed as an essential part of educational activity As a consequence, universities should create permanent spaces and establish well-defined procedures to encourage experimentation with new digital technologies and, ultimately, their application to teaching 158  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution innovation Spaces where creativity can be born from the freedom to connect ideas in new ways, beyond merely the predefined university training schemes that are too structured and compartmentalized The aforementioned low cost of emerging digital technologies and the availability of open knowledge make it possible to create such spaces without too high an initial investment DIVERSE DIGITAL NEEDS, SIMILAR CAPABILITIES PROPOSAL OF AN INTEGRATED ORGANIZATIONAL MODEL Here, a model of organizational unit within universities is proposed It is an integrated model that brings together and enhances the resources needed to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by digital technologies The ability for digital innovation and content production is of paramount importance for universities in three spheres of activity: Digital Learning Processes: The development of digital technologies has triggered an unstoppable teaching-learning process transformation This is happening both in traditional face-to-face education - where learning virtual environments provide technological elements of educational innovation - as well as in e-learning where digital technologies have brought about the MOOC phenomenon and promise new transformations, for example, with the development of wearable learning devices In any case, in both environments, whether it is face-to-face or virtual, emerging digital technologies like 3D printing or virtual reality will have a big impact in the near future Digital Institutional Communications: The globalization of higher education is forcing universities to move into a context where it is becoming increasingly important to develop a strong brand in order to succeed The online presence of the university’s brand is another area of focus for the Digital Production Organization within universities Quality digital content is an essential part of a unified, multi-channel and multi-device communication strategy that guarantees the very best user experience when it comes to interacting with the different elements that make up the ecosystem of the institution digital communication (website, social networks, blogosphere) Digital Marketing: In monetary terms, it is said that higher education is a global market worth more than billion dollars Universities around the world compete for top students and professors so as to climb positions in the rankings and to increase their chances of getting more funding for research projects Digital technologies have transformed the way potential customers (i.e present, former and future students) discover, explore, buy and engage with universities courses and services Higher Education Institutions need to define a digital marketing strategy and to transform analog marketing activities into digital actions When addressing these challenges, their ability to develop digital promotional materials and platforms is somewhat critical The key point here is that the main characteristic of any digital content production project comes down to “interdisciplinarity” Whether it’s the production of teaching materials, the creation of a promotional video or the development of a platform for scientific dissemination, any project to with digital production involves multiple digital professionals These professional roles can be classified into five categories: digital learning experts, media producers, computer engineers, content creators and creative people All these professional profiles need each other in order to carry out their jobs efficiently Now let us examine these in turn 159  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution Digital Learning Experts: This is a group of profiles that are key in the production of digital educational content and in the delivery of courses for e-learning or b-learning Firstly, instructional designers that are responsible for collaborating with scholars to adapt educational content for the virtual environment and for helping them design educational experiences that transform the acquisition of knowledge into an attractive, efficient and effective process Experts in the configuration and parameterization of virtual platforms are also included in this group as well as facilitators who are responsible for controlling and energizing the learning community, especially when it comes to MOOC Media Producers: This group of professionals covers all specific profiles involved in the production of audiovisual content: audio technicians, cameramen, filmmakers, video editors and specialists in 3D animation, among others Additionally, it includes profiles related to the planning and coordination of audiovisual productions such as executive producers Computer Engineers: In this group of professional profiles, we include all the specific profiles related to the management of technological infrastructures and the development of telematics applications and platforms As such, programmers, analysts, system administrators, SEO specialists, web usability experts, fall within this group Content Creators: This group includes all those professional profiles related to the creation of texts for audiovisual production: journalists, anchors, writers, advertising copywriters and so forth It also refers to those responsible for creating, updating and managing content for digital platforms such as content architects, web managers, bloggers and community managers Creative Professionals: This includes the specific profiles related to the definition and design of the image of communication products and digital teaching materials: advertising creatives, photographers, graphic designers and web designers The contribution of these professional profiles is invaluable in all phases of the projects inasmuch as creativity is a scarce asset but much needed The efficient management of the resources of digital production of a Higher Education Institution requires, in our view, the bringing together of all these profiles mentioned in a single organizational unit in charge of digital innovation and production This unit would be solely focused on serving the three spheres of activity: digital learning, communications and marketing Having all these professional profiles together under one roof is highly necessary due to the characteristics of digital production projects and, moreover, fosters the Medici effect as described by Frans Johansson (2006) In short, Johansson argues that innovation and multiplied productivity comes from diverse roles, cultures, and disciplines when they all intersect The creation of such organizational units can be seen as part of a broader process of digital transformation that may be affecting Higher Education Institutions as well as many other types of organizations Global trends towards digitization are changing markets, products and internal processes across many sectors Universities, complex organizations with very peculiar structures, sometimes inherited from century-old traditions, could be facing a disruptive type of change that mean fundamental challenges for them, which may even threaten their existence (Mehaffy, 2012) Therefore, it makes sense to analyze how the concepts and theories of digital transformation, relevant for organizations in other sectors, are applicable to the field of Higher Education Interestingly enough, the need to adopt strategies to address the digital transformation process in all kinds of organizations has recently started appearing in literature For example, Westermann et al (2014) emphasize the idea of organizational transformation as driven by digital technologies In particular, one 160  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution of the components of organizational change that is receiving much attention is the new position of Chief Digital Officer (CDO), someone in charge of the organizational digital transformation What follows is an exploration of the specific characteristics that the CDO role should have in Higher Education Institutions, which in particular, includes leading the digital production units The creation of CDO positions in order to cope with digital transformation is a trend that is very much gaining momentum in the corporate sector According to a 2013 McKinsey survey, 30 percent of the companies surveyed had a CDO on their executive management team (Brown et al., 2013) THE CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER IN HIGHER EDUCACTION INSTITUTIONS Yet the CDO role still does not have a strong presence in academic literature We only found a preliminary definition in Dumeresque (2014) and the first approximation to its possible role in universities in Raths (2014) The Chief Digital Officer may be defined as the leader who is wholly responsible and ultimately accountable for pushing forward digital transformation (Kim, 2014) This encompasses three areas of responsibility: • • • Formulating Digital Business Strategy: The CDO has to determine digital approaches in line with the company´s business model Encouraging and Implementing Initiatives: The CDO has to identify areas of potential digital change and introduce new ideas into existing work methods Managing the Organizational Transformation: The CDO is in charge of leading the organization through the digital transformation process, working within the parameters of organizational governance and whilst being sensitive to the organizational culture In real companies, CDOs have had their responsibilities defined as a mix of the three aforementioned areas: some with emphasis on the strategic area, some more oriented towards operational management while others are more strongly geared towards the transformational aspect Higher Education is one sector where CDOs are making headway due to several reasons, one of them being the rise of MOOCs Examples of top universities that have appointed CDOs are Columbia University and Harvard (Berkman, 2013) and the University of Notre Dame (Raths, 2014) The CDOs of these universities describe their position as being different combinations of the three areas of responsibility examined above The mission of the Chief Digital Officer at Harvard is a combination of the strategic and transformational aspects Harvard´s CDO has to provide a “comprehensive digital strategy” as well as explore “ways that organizations transform through and for their digital constituencies” (Berkman, 2013) The position in other institutions, in turn, is more focused on the operational area, for example, on the digital production of on-line courses (especially MOOCs) or the digital delivery of education Regardless of the focus, whether strategic, operational or transformational, the CDO position in Higher Education should be related with the three spheres of activity mentioned above and he/she should have direct responsibility over the production of digital content (Almaraz & Maz, 2016) The ideal professional background of a CDO is a combination of the expertise and the management skills necessary to successfully perform the duties of this position, key to the digital transformation 161  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution process of Higher Education Institutions Duparc (2013) states that the CDO must first be an organizational leader, then a digital leader In other words, the CDO is not a guru, but rather someone with a hybrid profile, bridging both the organizational and technological world They should be capable of acting as the “champion” of the digital transformation process from the organizational point of view and at the same time, they should have enough technical knowledge to communicate and be respected by the digital specialists Among the desired managerial skills should be the ability to map out strategic courses of action that add value and give the organization a competitive edge, not to mention leadership skills and the ability to inspire others, since digital transformation will involve people with many different backgrounds from different areas of the organization Given that the CDO is asked to pilot the digital transformation, he/she should have the relevant skills with regard to change management and should be cultural sensitive to the varying levels of digital competency that typically exist in an organization (Lepofsky, 2014) Previous experience in developing innovative projects and the ability to be disruptive are equally desirable In turn, Grossman and Rich (2012) highlight the need for the CDO to be a seasoned executive with deep knowledge of the business In the Higher Education sector this issue is particularly important due to the organizational complexity of universities Previous experience in the management of an university provides, firstly, knowledge of the organizational structure that will be essential in ensuring the success of complex digital transformation projects with many interdependencies between multiple areas of the institution Secondly, management experience also ensures knowledge of the organizational levers that can deliver results for the successful implementation of projects, such as the ability to fight internally for the budgets needed Finally, it means the person will have knowledge of the Higher Education sector, mainly because of and through previous interaction with partners and competing universities As a digital leader, the CDO should be familiar with web technologies and social networks and should understand their applications when it comes to teaching, communication and marketing The CDO needs to demonstrate a good knowledge of the emerging digital technologies: cloud computing, big data, mobile technologies, the Internet of things, and so on, and their possible applications across the institution Given the importance of the teaching function for universities it is therefore very important for the CDO to have deep knowledge of and experience in digital learning and educational innovation based on digital technologies As for how the CDO position fits within the organization, the CDO’s hierarchical position is a reflection of the strategic importance that is given to this position: • Should the university want a true digital transformation, the CDO role must be placed very close to the Rector, at the level of Vice Chancellor in order to exert a truly effective influence over the entire organization Should the university seek a CDO mainly with operational responsibilities its hierarchical position should be at a lower level (McDonald, 2013), for example, in charge of the unit of digital content production • This second option applies to the case of the University of Salamanca which will now be described 162  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution THE CASE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA Founded in 1218, the University of Salamanca was the first ever university in Spain and is one of the oldest in Europe alongside Bologna, Oxford and Paris It is a medium-sized public university with about 30,000 students and nine campuses in four cities Academically, it is a generalist university which offers Bachelor degrees (68), official Master’s degrees (65), special Master’s degrees (71) and doctoral programs (38) in all branches of knowledge It has a total of 27 teaching centers (colleges and technical schools) and a further 23 university centers, devoted to different cultural studies Research activity is carried out across 63 university departments and 13 research institutes From an organizational standpoint, the University of Salamanca is structured as follows: it is made up of a total of 4,363 members of staff, of which 2,257 are teaching and research staff (TRS) and 1,106 are administration and services staff (ASS) TRS is organized into departments which in turn are attached to educational centers, while AAS is organized into organizational units called services Services are grouped under the control of the Vice-Chancellors Running since 2009, the International Campus of Excellence program is an initiative of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of the Government of Spain Its main objective is to modernize Spanish universities Over the years, it has consistently called on Spanish universities to make a greater effort in terms of submitting projects to improve the quality of their campus through actions of aggregation, specialization, differentiation and internationalization The selected universities receive the quality seal of International Campus of Excellence and are giving funding so that they can go ahead with their projects The University of Salamanca submitted in 2010 a global project based on two pillars: The Spanish language and Biosciences The first part, to strengthen its dominant position in the field of education and research on the Spanish language; the University of Salamanca is internationally recognized as “la universidad del español” (the university of the Spanish language) The second pillar was chosen to promote a specific area, health research, which in recent decades the University of Salamanca has excelled in The intention was to consolidate the investments previously made in the establishment of several research institutes in this field: the Interuniversity Institute of Neurosciences, the Institute of Biology and Functional Genomics and the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Cancer The project Campus of International Excellence submitted by the University of Salamanca contained the program (Universidad 2.0) and several subprograms (USAL 2.0, Digital Content, USAL TV and Medialab USAL) which focused on the different aspects of the digital transformation of the university The actions undertaken in order to try and upskill the university in the field of digital technologies led to the creation of a brand new organizational unit: the Service of Digital Production and Innovation (SDPI) These days, the Service of Digital Production and Innovation has three main units: media, digital learning and creativity/experimentation As for the position of the SDPI within the organization chart of the university, it reports to the Vice-Chancellor of Coordination and Communication, who is also in charge of the Service of Marketing and the Service of Institutional Communications The SDPI was established in 2010 with two general goals Firstly, to re-organize and re-orient the various units involved with digital content creation, which had been, up to that point, scattered throughout the organization Secondly, to create an organizational structure to support the projects and new initiatives related to the International Campus of Excellence The specific objectives were: 163  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution To provide the University of Salamanca with sufficient capacity for the production of quality digital content, especially audiovisual content To strengthen the capacity of the university to produce and deliver virtual teaching To support the building of the brand “University of Salamanca” by creating quality digital content for communication and promotional purposes To establish procedures to encourage continuous experimentation with new digital technologies The SPDI’s three units are as follows: • Media Unit: USAL TV This is the university’s corporate TV It is a Web based TV, that was developed as a result of the International Campus of Excellence program It broadcasts university news as well as video news reports It also has its own programmes: talk shows, debates, scientific outreach programs, among others Finally, it also retransmits relevant academic events such as the ceremony of Honoris Causa doctorates and the annual Opening ceremony USAL TV is also the university’s audiovisual production company It is in charge of coming up with audiovisual educational materials and promotional videos As such, it contributes substantially to the communication actions of the brand “University of Salamanca” (http:// tv.usal.es) Radio USAL This is a college radio station with a large variety of programs open to the participation of the whole university It is an informational and cultural station that also offers student internships Radio USAL already existed before the creation of the SDPI, however its inclusion within the SDPI has led to the improvement of its facilities and, above all, it has helped reinforce its presence on the Internet as a digital radio station It has also led to the optimization of the maintenance tasks Thanks to its integration, some technical profiles (such as sound and computer engineers) not directly linked to radio broadcasting can also give technical support to Radio USAL (http://radio.usal.es) Audiovisual Equipment This sub-unit provides maintenance for some of USAL’s audiovisual equipment, including the Dynamic Marketing System This is a network of TV screens scattered throughout the teaching centers showing USAL TV programmes and promotional material about academic activities in and around the university In fact, this was another project within the programof the International Campus of Excellence • Digital Learning Unit: This unit oversees the application of digital technologies for teaching and learning processes Its activities can be divided intothree main areas: Digital Learning Platforms The main platform is the University’s virtual campus - Studium (http:// studium.usal.es) This sub-unit is responsible for its maintenance and development and is also in charge of the call center that helps users (students and academics alike) and helps train up teachers It also looks after other 2.0 platforms like the blog platform, Diarium (http://diarium.usal.es), the open repository, Gredos (http://gredos.usal.es), and the portal of open scientific journals (http://revistas.usal.es) Production of Digital Teaching Materials Activities related to the production of educational content, including MOOCs, fall under this remit here Tasks include instructional design, teaching materials production, publishing on virtual platforms and facilitating the delivery of the courses MOOC produc- 164  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution tion at the University of Salamanca has resulted in several courses being made available on multiple platforms and more than thirty thousand enrolled students SCOPEO, the e-learning observatory SCOPEO monitors and keeps an eye on innovation and trends in the digital learning field In addition, it publishes a periodic newsletter on developments in the sector as well as special features on relevant topics (MOOCs, m-learning) It was integrated into the SDPI framework in 2010 (http://scopeo.usal.es) • Creativity and Experimentation Unit: Graphic Cabinet The Graphic Cabinet takes care of everything related to the graphic design of all materials produced by the SDPI This includes digital educational materials and promotional materials It is also in charge of the production of printed materials by means of its own digital printing resources or through subcontracting in the printing industry One of its main tasks is to ensure consistency in the overall image of the University of Salamanca, especially concerning its image on the Internet: institutional web page, web platforms, social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr) Therefore, it plays a crucial role when it comes to brand building MEDIALAB USAL The MediaLab of the University of Salamanca (MediaLab USAL) was conceived as a new interdisciplinary and collaborative learning space A meeting point for Art, Technology, Science and Society to experiment with emerging technologies and their possible artistic, social and educational applications It is, therefore, a permanent place at the university dedicated to the exploration of technological innovations MediaLab USAL activities can be divided into four groups: identification and dissemination of trends, promotion and encouragement of creativity, experimentation with emerging technologies and social innovation All activities are open to the whole of the university community and the general public as well MEDIALAB USAL experiments with new digital technologies, like augmented reality or 3D-printing, that may well end up becoming innovation projects or services for the university We will explain their activity in more detail a little later on (http://medialab.usal.es) The difficulties of implementing this model come as much from the need for an initial drive with regard to the implementation of new elements as from the institutional effort needed to integrate scattered resources Only this can enable universities to overcome challenges in the areas of reorganization of processes and units, structural modifications as well as cultural barriers The philosophy of the SDPI is the continued collaboration between the different sub-units The work is organized by means of combining participation in projects with individual responsibility in certain daily tasks The SDPI is intended to work internally as a single unit To better convey this idea, let’s now examine a typical project involving all SIPD professional profiles: the production of an on-line open course The following is based on a real case of an open education program involving seven free courses on renewable energies This specific example refers to the Capacity Building Program on Renewable Energy for Latin America and the Caribbean, an initiative of the Observatory for Renewable Energy which is part of UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) The program was developed as a joint venture between CIEMAT, Polytechnic University of Madrid, University of Salamanca and CEDDET Foundation More than 80,000 students have enrolled to date (http://www.renenergyobservatory.org/en/capacity-building-programme.html) The development of an on-line program like this one requires the participation of all the digital professional profiles listed above, not to mention the work of professors who bring the knowledge to the program 165  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution Step one is setting up the project, that is to say, defining the target students, general goals, which members of the Faculty should be involved, the digital production work team, financial resources, calendar and so on In this case, the main objective was to openly spread free technical knowledge on renewable energies across a wide geographical area with three main spoken languages, which meant the courses should be in Spanish, Portuguese and English As the professors spoke Spanish as their primary language there was the important task of translating the content At this stage the most prevalent roles are the project managers and professors but it is important that at the initial meetings there is a representation of all the roles involved The combining of multiple roles and points of view multiplies creativity and productivity It’s also a way to anticipate potential hurdles and setbacks Step two is instructional design and academic development of the courses Professors and instructional designers have to sit down together and tailor the teaching content to the online medium, target students and learning model It means specifying the course and module structure, learning flow, assessment methods and, finally, putting together a detailed list of the number and type of materials to be produced It can never be stressed enough that the main actors are the professors and that they must be encouraged to bring the effort required to the table For digital professionals producing online courses is part of their work, not just some extra task However, in most cases, for professors it is an extra duty on top of their usual jobs consisting of research and teaching As a consequence, if no suitable commitment and reward schemes are established, the project will not work or will suffer long delays Step three is the digital production itself Creative professionals define the graphic image of the program to be applied to teaching materials (documents and videos), the virtual platform and all the communication actions on the Internet and social networks Audiovisual producers are responsible for the production of educational videos More often than not, professors need some guidance as to feel comfortable in front of the camera so any help from video journalists and anchors is very much appreciated Producing videos is very costly and consumes a lot of staff hours In our experience, the best way to keep costs down and control the time invested is to combine two different types of videos On the one hand, videos with teachers and their presentations as the main focus These videos can be standardized and are relatively easy to produce in a studio On the other hand, there can be more complex videos with advanced elements such as motion graphics The correct combination of both types of videos will give the courses the desired quality while keeping budgets under control Step four is publication and promotion Teaching materials have to be uploaded to the virtual learning environment In this case a Moodle based platform was chosen Computer engineers installed and configured the platform and they implemented the graphic image that had been designed They also had to make some advanced programming changes in order to adapt the Moodle to the needs of these courses Moodle specialists configured teaching materials, educational activities, forums, evaluation tests, calendars and so forth Furthermore, to help make potential students aware of the Capacity Building Program a promotional video was produced It wasn’t academic material per se but rather an advert which is a totally different style A digital journalist was commissioned to write the script for this TV commercial and, following the same style, she also wrote the text for the program’s website and the promotional messages that were to be posted on social networks to advertise the Capacity Building Program Finally, the last step is the delivery of the courses When it comes to massive courses of this kind, professors have to adapt their own teaching role It’s simply not possible to give personal support to thousands of students in the same way as when teaching forty students in one class In the MOOC context a supportive learning community establishes itself and students help others by answering questions in the forums Two teaching roles are needed: curators and facilitators (Marauri, 2014) Curators are 166  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution experts in the course subject Usually, but not necessarily a must, they are part of the team of professors that created the course Facilitators in turn, are digital learning specialists Their main task is to control and monitor the forums They answer questions on technical issues but pass on academic questions to curators when the queries don’t have a clear solution In general, in order to become online professors, academics have to make a little effort to tailor their style of communication to the Internet medium and to feel comfortable with the technological platform The ability to undertake complex digital projects like the UNIDO Capacity Building Program is only made possible by the coming together of different professionals, something that occurs in the SDPI It includes representatives of all the listed professional profiles, often in a multifunctional mode, that is, one person may play different (although related) roles if necessary for different projects The management and coordination of the SDPI lies with the director; an associate professor who is temporarily assigned that responsibility This tactic, whereby a member of the faculty coordinates a group of services staff, is not unusual at the University of Salamanca It can be said that the SDPI director would be the equivalent of the CDO at the University of Salamanca At present, he only has operational responsibilities and a limited strategic influence through his reporting to the Vice-Chancellor of Coordination and Communication A greater impact would be desirable in order to place digital transformation at the forefront of the strategic concerns of the university One of the striking characteristics of today’s digital technology is that it is rapidly evolving New technologies and potential applications to the field of higher education are constantly emerging The part of the SIPD focused on experimenting with emerging digital technologies and exploring their applications is MediaLab USAL Let us dedicate the very last part of this chapter to explaining the processes they follow there The open board Arduino, the movement capture device Kinect, the virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift and the App Inventor software are just some examples of digital technologies that have been explored The following section will examine the last one, App Inventor, to help illustrate the innovation process at MediaLab USAL (Almaraz et al 2016) THE PROCESS OF DIGITAL INNOVATION One of the main goals of MediaLab USAL, as a research centre, is to stay up-to-date with scientific and artistic avant-garde proposals that can open the door to new creation languages and applications Experimenting with digital technologies is carried out following a four-phase process Access: Monitoring the emergence and development of new digital technologies is one of the key activities of MediaLab USAL There are many digital technologies with a potential application in education: 3D printing, augmented reality, motion capture technologies, video games, to name just a few In this case, the technology chosen was App Inventor App Inventor is a technology, originally developed by Google and currently hosted and managed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that can be used for creating mobile applications without the need for advanced programming skills App Inventor allows you to create Android Apps through a web browser Any Android user can build their own applications for mobile phones, quickly and simply It uses a drag and drop editor to generate graphical interfaces and a set of blocks to manage application behavior The projects generated by this 167  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution tool are automatically stored in App Inventor’s servers, allowing the user to monitor and control their work in progress at all times App Inventor’s website is http://www.appinventor.mit.edu/ The App Inventor web environment has three major parts: • • • Designer: The designer is the place where the application components are selected The components are the basic elements used for creating applications on the Android phone There are components of different types including: Label (displays text on the screen), Button (shows a button on the screen that will initiate an action when pressed), Canvas (drawing canvas for storing still images or animations), Accelerometer sensor (motion sensor), and many more Blocks Editor: The blocks editor is where the program logic is created Here, we program the behavior of our application, what the components have to and when The block editor runs in a separate window from the designer and is implemented as a Java Web Start application that runs on our computer Android Emulator: Finally, App Inventor has an emulator software that mimics the performance of an actual Android mobile It allows us to test the application we are developing without having an Android device Generally speaking, in this first phase, access to technology usually involves purchasing equipment and software and a preliminary exploration of its features and capabilities Experimentation The experimentation phase serves as an exercise in open, interdisciplinary and collaborative learning Open because it consists of unstructured workshops (labyrinths) where MediaLab specialists and stakeholders from any discipline can be involved The objective is that the participants explore for themselves the technology in question All kinds of possibilities and applications are explored and examined Artistic projects or social issues may come out of it as well as teaching applications It is interdisciplinary because anyone interested in the technology can come along The benefit of having different perspectives is that this often leads to greater and richer results It is also a collaborative exercise since the workshops are based on small projects to be developed in teams Here, MediaLab specialists play more the role of facilitators rather than owners and transmitters of knowledge The result of this phase is the proposal of innovative artistic, scientific, social or educational projects Transfer In the case of App Inventor, we found clear opportunities of how it could be transferred to teaching innovation One of them was the proposal to teachers and students of the MSc in Mathematics Education with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) to include App Inventor as a substantial part of the final dissertation for the Master’s A short course was scheduled to transfer the knowledge acquired As a result, three students, tutored by a Mathematics Education professor, chose to focus their final dissertation on designing teaching units for secondary students that included the use of mobile applications created with App Inventor The idea was to create a series of applications for Android, aimed at secondary school students, and bring the apps to the classroom using a methodology of teaching and learning supported by m-learning 168  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution technology That’s to say, by the use of small mobile devices such as phones or tablets with wireless connectivity and that the students themselves owned As part of comprehensive teaching units, the applications developed with App Inventor, were designed to help visualize mathematical concepts previously discussed in class, through exercises consisting of multiple choice questions and activities with questions requiring direct answers Application One of the three proposals the MSc students came up with could be implemented in a supportive learning environment where high school students used the mobile application and worked with it in pairs in the classroom Thus, the introduction of this m-learning methodology enabled high school students to use these resources anytime, anywhere Most of them said afterwards that they felt quite comfortable with the new experience This case exemplifies the complete cycle of technological innovation carried out in the MediaLab of the University of Salamanca with App Inventor This cycle has kept its momentum at MediaLab USAL with other technologies like 3D-Printers, Arduino, augmented reality or capture motion devices This way, MediaLab USAL continually supports educational innovation projects Members of the faculty can ask for help with the use of any digital technology for teaching purposes (e.g., virtual reality) or they can obtain technical and methodological support for the development of innovative teaching materials Additionally, MediaLab USAL also reaches out to professors willing to participate in specific projects led by MediaLab, many of them linked with the open knowledge movement One specific goal is to foster creativity Creativity workshops for teachers are part of the programme for training university teaching staff and are run periodically At the same time, creativity workshops for students are continuously offered and are linked to undergraduate subjects or postgraduate degrees Professors can ask for the inclusion of the workshop within a certain subject They decide the workshop objectives and aspects of creativity to work on Next, the MediaLab USAL team designs the workshop and tailors it accordingly The main problem is to get members of the faculty involved in activities that many of them can see as providing no return The formula that MediaLab USAL has come up with to help with this aspect is to link the activities to things that “count” for professors As an example, education innovation projects are relevant to the periodic assessment of teaching staff so they are more willing to take part in this kind of project Creative workshops are integrated into the subjects themselves so it is relatively easy and straightforward to introduce creativity in the syllabus without too much hassle or stress The key point is to avoid professors thinking of MediaLab’s activities as “gourmet” (interesting and worthwhile but you cannot really afford it because you have other really important things to get on with and do) Universities need to develop new learning spaces of this kind, if they strive towards meeting the new requirements demanded by social trends and the constant development of digital technologies FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS In terms of looking ahead to the future, we can outline three potential research areas around the issues discussed in this chapter They are briefly described below Firstly, there is a group of exploratory research focused on discovering the current organizational response universities are giving when faced with the challenges of digitization What kind of organiza- 169  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution tional units are responsible for digital content production? Are they organized following a similar model to the one described in this chapter? What other models are out there? Secondly and taking a more comprehensive view, it can be argued that the development of digital technologies is triggering a profound process of digital transformation in Higher Education Institutions It is not something unique to them but rather it is affecting all types of organizations Westermann et al (2014) define the digital transformation of an organization as the use of digital technologies to dramatically improve their performance and range This transformation process affects the products and services offered by organizations, the relationships with their customers, their internal operations and their technological infrastructure As such, the research question that one can ask immediately is: how can the study of digital transformation of Higher Education Institutions be characterized? Can a theoretical framework to investigate digital transformation in organizations as specific as universities be defined? Duparc (2013) states that true digital transformation is only achieved when the entire organization embraces the importance of digital culture and endorses it at all levels It is not a question of merely technology but also of people and organizational structures adopting a new management model Following on from this argument, a key question is therefore who should lead the process of digital transformation, which leads us to our third possible research question: are universities truly incorporating the figure of Chief Digital Officer in their organizational charts? If so, what duties have they been assigned? In general, it is questionable whether universities are really all that concerned about the phenomenon of digital transformation For many business sectors, digitization is a real cause for concern and in fact, some include the successful adaptation to the new digital environment among their strategic priorities In recent years we have seen how entire sectors of the economy, such as the press, publishing, advertising, telephony or the music industry, have had their ecosystems altered by the emergence of digital technologies and how companies have had to reinvent themselves Could universities be affected in a similar way? If so, then it would make complete sense to pose the question: is digital transformation among the priorities of Higher Education Institutions? In other words, is it included in their strategic plans? 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Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution THE CASE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SALAMANCA Founded in 1218, the University of Salamanca was the first ever university in. .. 39–44) Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca 170  Organizing Digital Production in a Classic Higher Education Institution Dumeresque, D (2014) The chief digital officer: Bringing a dynamic approach... programmes and promotional material about academic activities in and around the university In fact, this was another project within the programof the International Campus of Excellence • Digital Learning