comparisons across audience sizes and content types. Just as traditional research metrics, such as journal impact factors or the h-index, quantify scholarly influence, a universal SMI for educators could measure digital teaching impact, providing universities with actionable data for promotion, funding, and strategic planning, while incentivising educators to innovate in digital pedagogy. From Praxis to Proof: Showcasing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning By publishing educational videos on social media, educators make their teaching visible while simultaneously generating measurable evidence of impact. SMA also support reflective practice, enabling educators to evaluate which teaching styles resonate with learners and how their content is consumed. Metrics derived from digital engagement provide a basis for a rigorous, evidence-based assessment of teaching effectiveness. The development of a SMI for educators aims to quantify, recognise, and reward teaching impact in a manner analogous to research metrics. By embracing digital platforms, educators can extend their influence beyond the classroom, reaching global audiences and demonstrating that teaching is both measurable and impactful. This transition from lecturer to global educator represents a shift in higher education, as digital and social media platforms allow educators to enhance their professional value while generating concrete evidence of their teaching contributions. Despite this potential, ranking agencies and institutional frameworks continue to prioritise research outputs (Li, 2021), which tend to prioritise research activities over teaching. However, as global educators reach audiences far beyond the classroom, their visibility and influence are increasingly undeniable. Universities should not wait for ranking bodies to adapt; they should proactively embrace social media as an integral component of teaching excellence. Over time, the scale and impact of global digital andragogy may compel ranking systems to recognise these contributions—less as a matter of innovation, and more as a necessity. References Baron, P. (2022). YouTube’s social media analytics as an evaluation of educational teaching videos. In 2022 IEEE IFEES World Engineering Education Forum-Global Engineering Deans Council (WEEFGEDC) (pp. 1–8). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ WEEF-GEDC54384.2022.9996202 Baron, P. (2023). Using YouTube’s social media analytics for engineering educators. In 2023 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) (pp. 1–10). IEEE. https://doi. org/10.1109/EDUCON54358.2023.10125146 Behari-Leak, K., & McKenna, S. (2017). Generic gold standard or contextualised public good? Teaching excellence awards in post-colonial South Africa. Teaching in Higher Education, 22(4), 408–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2017.1301910 Bornmann, L., & Daniel, H. D. (2007). What do we know about the h index? Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(9), 1381–1385. https://doi.org/10.1002/ asi.20609 Da Trindade, A., Robertson, S. L., & Torres, C. A. (2024). Introduction to special issue: Paulo Freire– global educator. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 22(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/147 67724.2023.2289167 Davidson, J., Liebald, B., Liu, J., Nandy, P., Van Vleet, T., Gargi, U., ... & Sampath, D. (2010, September). The YouTube video recommendation system. In Proceedings of the fourth ACM conference on Recommender systems (pp. 293–296). https://doi. org/10.1145/1864708.1864770 De Courcy, E. (2015). Defining and measuring teaching excellence in higher education in the 21st century. College Quarterly, 18(1). http:// collegequarterly.ca/2015-vol18-num01-winter/ decourcy.html Li, J. (2021). The Global Ranking Regime and the Redefined Mission of Higher Education in the Post-Covid Era: An Introduction. In: Welch, A., Li, J. (eds) Measuring Up in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-981-15-7921-9_1 Mastrokoukou, S., Kaliris, A., Donche, V., Chauliac, M., Karagiannopoulou, E., Christodoulides, P., & Longobardi, C. (2022, March). Rediscovering teaching in university: a scoping review of teacher effectiveness in higher education. In Frontiers in Education (Vol. 7, p. 861458). Frontiers Media SA. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.861458 Zou, T. X., Harfitt, G., Carless, D., & Chiu, C. S. (2022). Conceptions of excellent teaching: A phenomenographic study of winners of awards for teaching excellence. Higher Education Research & Development, 41(2), 577–592. 101 A Journey of Innovation
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