Dr Neil Ralph, Head of Technology Enhanced Learning, extends thanks to our colleagues and collaborators this year.
We are coming to the end of what has been another busy year and I want to start by thanking you for working with TEL and supporting us throughout 2022. Demand for our services is higher than ever which reflects an increased understanding of the need for, and benefits of, educational technology. What we do in TEL has an impact on education and training in health and care and is key to meeting to meet the challenges of growing, training and upskilling the workforce at scale which then frees them up to deliver high quality patient care where it is most needed.
We go into 2023 facing change as we transition into the new NHS England along with colleagues across the other ALBs. As we navigate this change, we will continue to deliver our services for learners and educators, to work closely with our stakeholders in education, health and care, and to maximise the opportunities for closer working across the system which will benefit the workforce, individual organisations and newly formed ICBs, and the communities we serve.
TEL has celebrated some significant achievements in 2022:
We now have 2.4 million users on the elfh hub and continue to expand the resources on the Learning Hub.We have continued to grow the number of users on our platforms and to work with partners to develop new content which is supporting and benefitting the healthcare community such as the Pathology Portal and the Oliver McGowan mandatory training. TEL also now includes the MindEd team which is a huge mental health resource, hosted on elfh, for health and care and the families, supporters and friends of people who are affected by mental illness.
The Virtual and Hybrid Learning Faculty celebrated its first birthday in October. Having been developed as a pandemic response it has evolved into a successful and autonomous programme of work. 189 CPD masterclass sessions were delivered to educators this year and it has established a community of practice that now has 1500 members across the country sharing evidence, support and information peer to peer within the educator community.
Supporting TEL has worked with our stakeholders and health and care organisations to understand and overcome the barriers to adoption of educational technology with the TEL readiness and maturity assessment (TRaM). 90 (42% of Trusts) have been completed and the team continues to bring people on board.
The Simulation and Immersive Technologies team has been out on the road this year talking to stakeholders, partners and regional leads to support the rollout and adoption of immersive learning projects with the help of Supporting TEL colleagues. The XR Hubs project is piloting technology across the country providing equitable access to learning technologies (both hardware and software) and providing opportunities for the cross-sharing of innovation, learning experiences, development of learning assets and best practice. We are currently supporting over 30 NHS Trusts/organisations, with 35 projects and have provided over 125 immersive devices to organisations on a long-term loan.
These are just some of our massive achievements this year and there are many more. Once again we would like to thank our partners and supporters for working with us in 2022 and look forward to continuing those relationships into next year and beyond so we are able to keep maximising the opportunities for people to learn through technology by providing access to platforms, content, XR and support at scale which are efficient, cost effective and sustainable.
Thank you again and have a fantastic holiday season.