Are academics ready for smart learning?

Ownership of smartphones and tablets among the student population is growing. Students are using their devices to support their learning. Employers and employees are increasingly bringing their own smart devices into private and public organisations to support their business. This is leading to employees driving the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) agenda in organisations. It is not clear the extent to which academics are embracing smart technology to manage their workload or to enhance the student experience of learning. This paper presents a qualitative study of how engineering academics are using their own BYOD or institutionally provided smart devices. A 6Cs (connect, communicate, collaborate, curate, create and coordinate) framework has been used to analyse the results. The findings indicate that academics are primarily using devices to create materials, second to coordinate their work and third to communicate with students about their learning. However, there are a number of inhibiting and enabling factors that need to be addressed by academic institutions to develop the effective adoption of smart technologies for academic practice. Infrastructure, including developing widespread access to WiFi, and the prioritisation of opportunities to support staff to learn how to apply the technology to enhance student learning and experience are key areas of necessary development.