Bryon Love, City College Plymouth

Maximising the TeacherMatic Experience at City College Plymouth

Hello everyone, I’m Byron Love, the Digital Teaching, Learning, and Innovation Lead at City College Plymouth. Today, I want to share our journey with TeacherMatic and how it’s transformed our educational practices. If you’re considering adopting TeacherMatic, I hope this provides valuable insights, practical tips, and a clear idea of its potential in your institution.

Setting the Scene: City College Plymouth

City College Plymouth is a Google reference college located in the southwest of England, serving around 12,000 students. Given our size, effectively integrating technology into our educational practices is crucial. I oversee our Digital Learning Quarter (DLQ) team, central to the college’s digital strategy. Our role is to support staff and students in leveraging and resourcing technology to enhance teaching and learning experiences.

Acknowledging Our Achievements

We are proud recipients of the TeacherMatic Gold Organisation Award, reflecting our effective integration of AI-driven technology. Additionally, we recently received the JISC-sponsored Beacon Award for Effective Use of Digital Technology in Further Education, recognising our innovative approaches like no-code app development and AI-assisted professional development.

Why TeacherMatic?

Our institution is committed to a digital-first approach, continuously exploring safe and effective ways to integrate technology. As we began exploring AI, we established clear criteria for selecting the right platform:

• Ease of use: Minimal technical knowledge required, accessible to staff and students regardless of their experience.
• Efficiency: Significant reduction in workload, enabling more personalised teaching.
• Data compliance: Reliability and strict adherence to GDPR and educational standards.
• UK-based: Tailored specifically to our educational context.

TeacherMatic perfectly aligned with these criteria, making it the logical choice for our AI journey.

Implementing TeacherMatic

After identifying TeacherMatic, I organised a meeting with their team, initially presenting it as a simple one-to-one discussion. However, I surprised them by including our entire executive leadership and curriculum leads in the call. The demonstration impressed our leadership so much they immediately funded 125 licenses across all curriculum areas, allowing large-scale implementation from day one.

Supporting Our Staff

To ensure smooth adoption, we introduced weekly support sessions and workshops focused on best practices. We actively encouraged staff to share their successful use cases, especially highlighting the Feedback Generator and Smart Targets Generator. Previously, our target-setting was identified as inadequate, but TeacherMatic significantly improved quality, enabling staff to spend more valuable one-to-one time with students rather than on administrative tasks.

Gathering Staff Feedback

Regular termly surveys helped us measure TeacherMatic’s impact and refine our support offerings. Approximately 180 staff members now use TeacherMatic, and their feedback guides ongoing support and professional development.

For instance, Jasmin Arey, a psychology lecturer, shared her experience:

“TeacherMatic has streamlined many of my administrative tasks. It can generate slides and provide templates, making it easier to start lessons. Importantly, it significantly improved the quality of one-to-one tutorials by automating the creation of smart targets. This means I can focus more on supporting my students directly, enhancing engagement and learning.”

Impact on Student Engagement

Jasmin’s testimonial emphasises two core educational benefits of technology: simplifying administrative tasks and enabling personalised student interactions. TeacherMatic’s efficiency allows educators more time to engage meaningfully with students, fostering stronger educational outcomes.

Measuring Success

Our survey data highlights significant improvements:

• Staff confidence in discussing and using AI increased from 58.8% to 81.2% after one term.
• Engagement with AI tools rose from 43.8% to 59.3% in the same period.
• 100% of surveyed staff reported time savings:
  • 82% saved between 1-4 hours weekly.
  • 10% saved between 5-9 hours weekly.
  • 8% saved over 10 hours weekly.

New staff especially found TeacherMatic invaluable for quickly preparing teaching resources, significantly reducing initial stress and workload.

Best Practices for Implementing TeacherMatic

From our experience, we strongly recommend the following best practices:

• Find Your Champions: Empower enthusiastic staff members, like Jasmin Arey, to confidently support peers and share successful strategies.
• Promote Success Stories: Regularly highlight impactful outcomes through internal communications, amplifying benefits.
• Be Authentic: Clearly communicate limitations to ensure realistic expectations and sustained engagement.
• Establish Regular Support: Provide consistent, accessible training and collaborative spaces for ongoing professional development.
• Remember the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule): Utilise TeacherMatic to manage approximately 80% of repetitive administrative tasks, freeing educators to focus on the crucial 20% that directly impacts student achievement and personal development.

Final Thoughts

TeacherMatic has been genuinely transformative for us at City College Plymouth, enhancing our educational practices, increasing student engagement, and fostering a culture of innovation. If you’re considering TeacherMatic, I strongly encourage you to take the plunge – you won’t regret it!

Ready to explore TeacherMatic at your institution? Get in touch to discover how TeacherMatic can transform your teaching and learning experience.