About Us
What is the BLE?
The Bloomsbury Learning Exchange (BLE) is a digital education service, which exists to share effective practice between its partners and enable collaboration on technology enhanced learning projects. We are an unincorporated association working as a partnership of six co-located HE institutions in Bloomsbury, central London: Birkbeck, LSHTM, RVC, SOAS, UCL and the University of London.
The Bloomsbury Learning Exchange (BLE) is a digital education service, which exists to share effective practice between its partners and enable collaboration on technology enhanced learning projects. We are an unincorporated association working as a partnership of six co-located HE institutions in Bloomsbury, central London: Birkbeck, LSHTM, RVC, SOAS, UCL and the University of London.
The BLE:
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The BLE’s work is conducted through a fixed term, project-based approach, steered by an Advisory Board and defined by an enhancement theme. Recent themes include Enhancing Assessment and Feedback and Digital Capabilities.
Working together as a consortium enables the BLE partner institutions to share expertise and support that they might be unable to offer individually and allows them to benefit from cost efficiencies.
The BLE was established in 2004 and has grown steadily. As learning technology has changed, the BLE has adapted and changed with it. (More about the BLE's history.)
Working together as a consortium enables the BLE partner institutions to share expertise and support that they might be unable to offer individually and allows them to benefit from cost efficiencies.
The BLE was established in 2004 and has grown steadily. As learning technology has changed, the BLE has adapted and changed with it. (More about the BLE's history.)
- Read our chapter! "Collaborative survival: the Bloomsbury Learning Exchange’s response to the pandemic" in Digital Learning in Higher Education: COVID-19 and Beyond (Smith and Traxler, 2022).
Mission Statement
The Bloomsbury Learning Exchange
BLE Manifesto
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We have found the BLE invaluable to maintain positive supplier relations; keep in touch with sector best practice; and to combine efforts with other institutions for platform enhancements. The BLE allows its constituent partners to deliver an excellent service, well above what could be achieved working in isolation.
Dave Cobb, Director of Enterprise Applications, SOAS
Awards
The BLE and its Director have been recipients of a number of exciting and prestigious awards:
- The BLE's Digital Skills Aware courses won the 2021 Roger Mills Award for Innovation in Learning and Teaching
- The BLE Director was re awarded the Blackboard Catalyst Award for Community Engagement in 2019, ten years after she first received it in 2009
- The BLE’s ‘Get in MOOC’ team were joint winners of the 2018 Roger Mills Award for Innovation in Learning and Teaching
- The same team had been shortlisted for the 2017 ALT Learning Technology Team of the Year
- The BLE TEL Support Team were highly recommended by ALT in 2010
BLE is such a vital and impressive initiative that I can’t imagine having worked at the University of London for so long without its support. The opportunity to meet, engage with, and share experiences with other learning technologists and staff across Bloomsbury is so essential. The events that BLE has put on to showcase new tools, methodologies, and issues have been fantastic! The coaching has been superb and eye-opening. It would be much harder and much less rewarding to have done my job without that greater network of colleagues. The silo of the institution would have ruled, and the results would have been poorer for it.
Matt Phillpott, School of Advanced Studies