Events and Awards, National Teaching Fellowship Scheme, News

National Teaching Fellows

13 August, 2019 Graeme Leave a comment

The Advance HE National Teaching Fellowship scheme is a prestigious, national competition where nominees submit a reflective account of their approach as an educator, hoping to be one of the 55 NTF’s created annually. The University is delighted to announce that all three of the institution’s nominees have been awarded National Teaching Fellowship.

Dr Lindsey Ferrie, School of Biomedical Sciences

Dr Lee Fawcett, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics

Dr Helen Webster, Writing Development Centre

Find out more from the winners on the Newcastle University website.

Events and Awards, Turnitin

Reducing Contract Cheating – International Opportunities For Action Webinar

12 August, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

Turnitin have organised an interactive webinar on contract cheating, presented by Dr. Thomas Lancaster and Dr. Irene Glendinning.

The webinar will discuss contract cheating, including recent developments in the contract cheating industry and consider why we need to take action to address contract cheating.

The webinar will launch the fourth International Day of Action against Contract Cheating, which takes place on October 16, 2019, and provide opportunities for you to make suggestions and ask questions about the event.

The first webinar will be on Wednesday 14th August at 11:00 British Summer Time. Register here.

The second webinar will be on Monday 16th September 14:00. Register here.

Anyone interested is most welcome to join.

EDUBites, Events and Awards

Who are Newcastle Educators?

25 July, 2019 Claire Leave a comment

Newcastle Educators is a peer-led community of educators, who value the opportunity to get together and discuss common interests and who are committed to continued professional development and peer review.

Newcastle Educators bring together this community through a series of events called EduBites.

These lunch-time sessions cover a wide range of topics related to learning and teaching, and are a chance to hear from colleagues, make connections with other educators and share ideas, all over a spot of lunch.

We also run an informal and supportive peer observation scheme – get in touch to find out more.

Who is Newcastle Educators for?

Newcastle Educators community is for all academics and professional service staff with an interest in learning and teaching at the university. From those just embarking on their careers to those with a wealth of experience to share.

How do I get involved?

Newcastle Educators Teams Page

Join the Newcastle Educators Teams Page to:

Access materials from Edubites sessions
Find out about conferences and meetings
Get information on pedagogic opportunities
Have conversations with colleagues

All are welcome to join us.

Mailing list

To join the mailing list complete this quick form: Join our mailing list.

Notifications about upcoming events and opportunities will be sent to the mailing list.

Have you got something you want to share?

Have you got an idea for a session, or something you’d like to share?

Or do you know of interesting work from colleagues that you think the wider network would benefit from hearing about?

Events, News

Changes to the Learning and Teaching Development Programme from September 2019

22 July, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

Following on from a University wide consultation undertaken at the start of the academic year, LTDS have further developed the Learning and Teaching Development programme for 2019/20.

From September 2019 the Learning and Teaching Development programme will move to a combination of both face to face and online support.

This new holistic offer will include pathways through the programme which can support:

Staff new to Newcastle University:
o Looking for how they can get started with Newcastle University supported teaching, learning and assessment tools, techniques and pedagogies with a set of Learning and Teaching Essentials online, face to face workshops and webinars.
o Needing to evidence their work for professional recognition by Advance HE against the UK Professional Standards Framework through the Newcastle Education Practice Scheme for probationary requirements.
Professional services and academic staff wishing to take advantage of support in evidencing their work for professional recognition by Advance HE against the UK Professional Standards Framework through the Newcastle Education Practice Scheme (NEPS).
Existing staff in using technologies and exploring pedagogies to enhance learning, teaching and assessment through new Quick Guides online, and scheduled workshops and webinars in September and January.
Programme teams in developing new or revising existing programmes or programme portfolios with bespoke sessions.
School based bespoke sessions which build on Learning and Teaching Essentials and Quick Guides.

What’s different?

A new set of Learning and Teaching Essentials and TEL Quick Guides will be available online, for reminders and self paced familiarisation with tools, techniques and policy related to learning and teaching at Newcastle University. There will be fewer scheduled workshops and webinars, which, from September 2019 will be focussed in September and January.

Scheduled workshops continue to be listed at http://elements.ncl.ac.uk and all LTDS run workshops described there can also be offered as school based bespoke sessions.
This change in activity will enable to team in LTDS to develop new workshops based on the new VLE (currently Blackboard) staff requirements to support the roll out of the product from the successful vendor (to be announced soon).

The workshop programme on the elements site will include workshops required for NEPS but which will be available to everyone.

Accessibility

The new accessibility regulations – what does this mean for the University?

22 July, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

What are the new requirements?

In September 2019, the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 comes into effect in the UK. These regulations attempt to ensure that all students have equal and fair access to learning opportunities without any barriers as a result of a disability. This covers websites, services and content.

The University recognises that compliance with the Regulations will not happen immediately. A staged programme of work will embed training on compliance for new learning and teaching websites/service and content within the existing Learning and Teaching Development Programme which will be available both as open workshops and bespoke school/service based sessions. The trajectory for compliance is detailed below.

What is the University doing for the start of 2019/20?

Each website/system requires an accessibility statement, providing information about the accessibility of individual websites/systems. The Learning and Teaching Development Service will co-ordinate the creation of accessibility statements across all central University learning and teaching systems. This includes Blackboard, MLE, ePortfolio and others. All centrally supported teaching and learning systems will have an accessibility statement by September 2019.

What do academic units/services need to do for the start of 2019/20?

No specific actions are required for the start of the next academic year. Individuals should consider how they can make any new learning and teaching content accessible, and to start to change practice when creating content in readiness for 2020/21.

What will happen in 2019/20 to make us more compliant for 2020/21?

The new Learning and Teaching Development Programme has Accessibility in Practice workshops that support academic and professional services staff in how to create accessible and inclusive learning and teaching resources. There are some simple tools built in to familiar desktop tools, such as Microsoft Office, that will help to create and check the accessibility of resources.
There are some small simple changes staff can make that will help all students on their programme, not only students with a disability. LTDS will prepare a range of online how to guides that will support staff in the creation of accessible documents.
As part of the rollout of the new VLE, LTDS will run a large number of training sessions. The creation of accessible content will be embedded within these sessions.
The Newcastle Education Practice Scheme (NEPS) is the replacement for the CASAP programme. Accessibility and inclusion will be a core element, and the creation of accessible resources will be part of the programme.
We will renew the University site license for Sensus Access which enables staff and students to easily convert documents into an accessible format. Many file formats are supported, including the main Microsoft Office document types. Use of this tool will be built into the workshops detailed above.
For further information please email ltds@ncl.ac.uk

Guest Blog, News, Student engagement

Game-Enhanced Learning

10 July, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

By Cameron Hubbard, PGT student, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences

Students don’t like being lectured. You can see it within the first 20 minutes of a lecture: eyes go dark, phones come out, their attention fades away. Lecturers are constantly trying to increase student engagement but trying to do this via traditional “talk and chalk” methods is flawed. In addition, some content just doesn’t lend itself well to a lecture-based format – especially things like lab and field skills. Thus, novel methods of presenting content are required that capture students’ attention whilst also having an educational benefit. An emerging pedagogical technique is teaching through games, which has been the focus of my internship in the Game-Enhanced Learning (GEL) project.

Continue reading Game-Enhanced Learning →

Events, The Art of the Possible

The Art of the Possible

10 July, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

Thank you to everyone who took part in the launch of the Education Strategy Series ‘The Art of the Possible’ on 1-5 July 2019. It was excellent to see so many staff from across the campus engaging with this first week of activities under the theme Technology Enhanced Learning.

Throughout the week we explored The Art of Accessible and Inclusive Digital Content through interactive practical workshops, lightning talks showcasing some excellent approaches to creating accessible and flexible resources, and video case studies. We also welcomed Alistair McNaught, Subject Specialist in Accessibility and Inclusion on Thursday 4 July. Alistair delivered a mixture of practical, strategic and collaborative sessions to raise awareness and confidence in digital accessibility, and the new public sector web accessibility legislation.

Feedback from all of the events was really positive. Some of the most valuable aspects were: Continue reading The Art of the Possible →

Star Case Studies, The Art of the Possible

The Art of the Possible: Case Study

3 July, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

Dr Chloe Duckworth from the School of History, Classics and Archaeology has used engaging, bespoke online resources and a range of practical group activities to create a relaxed learning environment for her students.

Find out more from Chloe in the video below as she describes how she considers accessibility issues and ensures an inclusive approach to teaching.

If you are interested in reading more about Chloe’s case study or other case studies of effective practice take a look at the case studies website.

Events, The Art of the Possible

Introducing ‘The Art of the Possible’

1 July, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

Professor Suzanne Cholerton, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Education, introduces this brand new series of Education Strategy focussed events, showcasing ‘The Art of the Possible’.

This first week focusses on Technology Enhanced Learning given our commitment in the Education Strategy to an educational experience supported and enhanced by technology.

Find out more from Professor Cholerton in the video below.

All events and activities will be delivered in a light, fun and adventurous way and we are looking forward to engaging with colleagues from across the University. Take a look at the programme and find out how to register.

If you are interested in future ‘The Art of the Possible’ events and other learning and teaching news, events and case studies sign up to the learning and teaching newsletter.

#nclpossible

Blackboard

Blackboard Rollover 2019/20

28 June, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

It’s getting closer to Blackboard module rollover which will be taking place week commencing the 22nd July 2019. All 2019/20 modules will be available from Monday 29th July 2019.

We have a Blackboard rollover document that lets you know what happens with the different areas of Blackboard during rollover including; module content, ReCap recordings, Turnitin assignments and more. This hasn’t changed from previous years, unless you have adopted a new template, but might be a useful reminder.

Finally to ensure you meet the Blackboard Baseline all schools or subject areas should have a consistent layout and easily navigable structure. Further information about how you can ensure you meet the baseline can be found in the Blackboard Baseline document. We have also produced a checklist that you can work through to check if your module meets recommendations.

Please get in touch with LTDS@ncl.ac.uk if you have any questions