Dr Debbie Bevitt as project lead with Dr Nick Morris from the School of Biomedical Sciences have been awarded a 2014/15 ULTSEC Innovation Fund (£2504) to investigate “Social media – there’s a time and a place”.

There are many examples of positive uses of social media to enhance education, but regular distraction by social media can also have a negative impact on learning.

The aim of our project is to investigate students’ self-awareness of their own social media use and the impact it has on their concentration.  We also aim to identify strategies which help students to self-regulate these distractions and to evaluate the value of self-control apps (e.g. https://selfcontrolapp.com) in this context.  We hope this pilot will form the basis of a more extensive cross-disciplinary study.

Dr Bryan Burford as project lead with Paul Paes, Gill Vance (all SME) and Felicity Hunter from Faculty Office have been awarded 2014/15 ULTSEC innovation funding to investigate “Widening participation: Developing a participatory workshop to encourage applications to medical school”.

Widening participation (WP) – encouraging recruitment from underrepresented social groups – is a nationwide priority in higher education, particularly for healthcare professions. Newcastle University has one of the lowest rates of WP applications nationally.  This project aims to increase the proportion of attendees at existing WP events who then apply to Newcastle Medical School.  Student interns recruited from the MBBS programme will develop and deliver a participatory workshop with school pupils. This will identify barriers to application, and allow pupils to generate their own solutions, feeding into short- and long-term revision of processes.  Evaluation will include attitudinal measures, and future application figures.

Dr Helen St Clair-Thompson as project lead with Patrick Rosenkranz, Effy Tzemou, Tascha Clapperton, Amy Fielden, Sue Thorpe, and Gavin Oxburgh, from the School of Psychology have been awarded a 2014/15 ULTSEC Innovation Fund (£1520) to investigate “How to facilitate reading for undergraduate psychology students”.

The project aims to design and implement a method for facilitating reading using a series of structured reading groups. These are likely to use a flipped classroom approach, requiring preparation before the sessions, with the sessions themselves involving activities such as debates and presentations. The project will also involve an initial literature review and an evaluation of the reading groups.

Dr Laura Delgaty (SME) as project lead with Dr Joanna Matthan , Dr Sally Mumford, Dr Clare Guilding and  Lynne Rawles (Graduate School) have been awarded a 2014/15 strategic ULTSEC Innovation Fund (£9500) to investigate “Digital Capabilities and Expectations of Prospective Students: Preparing Newcastle University for Learning and Teaching of the Future”.

It is hoped this project will influence Newcastle University’s Technology Enhanced learning strategy as it is developed for the next five years.  The project will elicit views of young people from schools across the region around their use of technology within learning.  In particular data concerning widening participation and gender differences will be collected to gain insight about the heterogeneity of the student population.  This research should help shape thinking relating to technology in both the teaching and learning of future students.

The Faculty recognise the need to invest in the development of key skills relating to education delivery and assessment for staff.  If you didn’t already know, you can apply for funding to attend and/or present at appropriate education meetings such as ADEE, AMEE, ASME etc in the following ways:

The School of Dental Sciences: submit an application form to the Board of Studies Strategy Group. Form can be requested from sandra.jago@ncl.ac.uk

The School of Medical Education: submit an application form to the School Executive Group. Form can be requested from gill.bravey@ncl.ac.uk

We are pleased to announce that the following projects have been awarded funding under the ERDP Development Grant call.

Project title: Focus group study of the influences of clinical teachers on GP Trainees choice of career.

PI: Dr Hugh Alberti

Award: £626

Project title: Development and delivery of an interprofessional education conference for medicine and pharmacy student with a focus on patient safety, sepsis and infection management.

PI: Dr Clare Guilding

Award:  £3468

The ERDP call for Development Grant applications is now open. This is the first time the Faculty has offered funding for projects that are specifically for Learning and Teaching Staff. It is envisaged that out of these smaller projects, larger, externally funded projects will have the potential to grow.

ERDP Development Grants are designed to offer financial support to staff who want to explore innovative approaches to learning and teaching that have the potential to inform curriculum development, provide an opportunity for personal development and will benefit staff and students both here and, through dissemination at conferences, nationally.

The Key Details:

• £30K funding is available in total.
• There will be three rounds of applications with the first deadline being 18th June 2015 and the second the 30th October 2015 and the third the 29th April 2016.

For further information please go to the ERDP website.