Digitally Enabled Teaching Blog Takeover: Myths and misconceptions: Digitally enabled teaching & staff

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 By Briana Chapple

A lot of myths and assumptions surround digitally-enhanced learning and teaching, many of which are unhelpful for both staff and students.

Some of the most common misconceptions that arise in UKHE settings might resonate with you and your experiences of teaching at University. You might have heard them around, and might even believe them yourself. There is obviously nuance surrounding these that should be explored, but as a starting point, here are three myths oriented to staff experiences that you may recognise…

Digitally enabled teaching involves all the latest technologies

It’s easy to get distracted, seduced or overwhelmed by cutting-edge technologies. We may feel like we need to have ‘mastered’ the latest technologies for our teaching, or imagine that using them will automatically transform our practice. However, using the latest technologies doesn’t necessarily make us more innovative, or effective. It’s entirely possible to transform practice using straight-forward digital tools. In fact, it’s often better to start with a platform that both you and students already have a degree of familiarity with, that you know works. The most important thing is that we are using digital tools and strategies deliberately, with intention, and that they support our learning aims.

I have to be an expert in digital tools to teach in a digitally enabled way

Not only is this impossible for many because of the pace of change, but this belief can leave staff feeling left behind, or ignore that they may lack confidence with technology to begin with. Whatever your skill level, the real key to effective digitally-enhanced teaching is to ask yourself - what do I want the learner to do? It is important to find a tool that is a good fit for your purpose.

Knowing what you are looking for from digital tools or strategies can help narrow your search if you are looking to explore new avenues.

A few general tips for approaching digital-enhanced teaching:

  • There’s no need to change everything at once - start with things you and students have a degree of familiarity with, be realistic and incremental in introducing changes.
  • Be open to a degree of experimentation. You can be transparent with students about this.
  • There is lots of support for staff at the University to help with digital learning tools - both using them and deciding which might be the best for what you want to achieve.

Finally, sometimes tech is not the answer! Be wary of changing the learning goals to fit around a tool.

Planning to teach in a digitally enabled way will add to my workload


You may well find this, at least initially. It is true that transitioning to digitally-enhanced teaching strategies and tools can be time-consuming to learn and set-up. Though ultimately it can streamline work, saving you time. If you do want to start introducing technologies more into your teaching, start by prioritising. Ask yourself - what's the most pressing challenge, or the biggest opportunity? What do you need? What’s the best tool to achieve this?

Have you come across any other common misconceptions around digitally-enhanced teaching and learning? We’d love to hear from you. Email elevate@sheffield.ac.uk to share.

There are lots of UoS guidance and resources to support you. Colleagues may also have good tips and tricks, and lots of built-in tools in existing platforms which are generally quick and easy-to-use, like Blackboard Ally for accessibility checking and tools, automated feedback and marking on Blackboard, and accessibility options in programs like PowerPoint, which are designed to support learning and teaching tasks.

Adapted from Exploring the digital pedagogy toolkit - Jisc 

Image credit: Dave Holloway. AI was used in the creation of these images.

In our next post, we’ll explore some of the myths associated with students and digitally-enabled teaching.

Briana Chapple is an Academic Development Advisor in Education Development Services at the University of Sheffield