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a problem confronted solely in the department or the faculty. Indeed, the blurring between work and private life has been an increasingly dis- cussed consequence of digitally mediated work and, therefore, a key topic of discussion for the wider higher Education sector.
To mitigate against this challenge, the role of the leadership has been crucial. Leading such a sudden transformation requires finding a not always easy balance between maintaining a coherent and consistent effort in the depart- ment, while simultaneously guaranteeing each lecturer the space to adjust to it and manage personally difficult situations. To this extent, our head of department, Dr Edward Flint, adopted a more flexible approach, based on clear and firm guidelines on codes of conduct relating to the new eLearning environment, while also paying attention to the individual needs of each lecturer and their specific circumstances. His adoption of a ‘digital open-door policy’ has been crucial to this approach. While it requires an extra commit- ment on the part of the management, it is crucial to foster both the necessary flexibility and colle- giality that has been placed at the heart of devel- oping and sustaining an eLearning strategy.
Teaching: Moving from F2F to eLearning-Pedagogical reflections.
From the outset of developing the department’s eLearning strategy, it was immediately apparent that one cannot simply transfer a F2F session online and expect the same learning goals to be achieved without adapting the delivery method. It is important to specify that a change in tech- nology is not a neutral issue, as it changes the very way in which teaching is approached and received by students. The simple use of a Pow- erPoint, for example, changes the way in which the lecturer delivers content, as it establishes a pre-existing order to the topic under discus- sion and allows for less flexibility in relation to specific views that students might express. In other words, while it sustains the discussion and supports the lecturer in delivering key points, even such a basic tool shapes the direction of the debate prior to the start of the seminar. This simple example illustrates the need for some key pedagogical reflections when building an eLearning strategy.
Here, DIA took several steps to diversify the methodological approach to online teaching to ensure that learning goals are met, that a
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