Leading with digital in an age of supercomplexity

Across education all aspects of practice, including teaching, research, public engagement and administration, are taking place increasingly against a digital backdrop. As digital becomes widely recognized as both key element of enabling institutional change, and creating challenges for all institutional activities, Jisc have developed a digital leaders course to engage delegates with their own digital practices, and help them in applying tools and methods to both support their own development and leverage digital in their organization. This short paper reports on the initial courses and some of the delegate reactions, drivers to participate in the course and it also outlines the structure of the course and the underpinning approaches taken. Barnett’s definition of supercomplexity, a time of uncertainty, unpredictability, challenge and change frames the nature of the education landscape faced by institutions well. However, through the digital leaders course, Jisc seeks to both frame the challenges created by digital, and also show digital as providing the capacity and capabilities to respond to supercomplexity.