Staff can apply for up to £10,000 through the University Education Development Fund to support collaborative projects which deliver a real benefit to students’ education at Newcastle University.

We got in touch with colleagues who have successfully applied to the fund to find out about their projects and experiences.

Dr Lana Liu, Newcastle University Business School worked with Dr. Mei Lin from the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences in a collaborative project: Enhancing critical moments in postgraduate taught programmes in Accounting and Finance and in Applied Linguistics and TESOL.

“[There was an] easy application process with workshops, which were worth attending, as they were very informative. These workshops also helped to reduce the mist about the funding process.

The feedback from the Panel was really useful and thought-provoking too.

We now believe that we are in a much better position for our research investigation in this project.”

Dr Lana Liu, Newcastle University Business School

Karolien Jordens, Institute of Cellular Medicine worked with colleagues across HaSS, SAgE and FMS to explore: Postgraduate Study in Newcastle: the inter-cultural experience (PG-Nice)

“The application process was quite straightforward. The funding helped us to get started with the practical side of our Student Experience research project. It gave us the opportunity to work with people from across the University and offer students the opportunity to get job experience while at the same time they’re part of a research project.”

Karolien Jordens, Institute of Cellular Medicine

There have been a wide variety of strategic projects funded from across both academic units and central services in the university.

Staff from branch campuses are also encouraged to apply.

You can read more about the full range of projects on the LTDS website.

Interested in applying?

If you have an idea or want to find out a bit more about the fund you can view full information, including details of the application process on the LTDS website. The deadline for applications is Wednesday 15 May 2019.

We also recommend that you sign up to either a workshop or a webinar to find out more about the fund and hear from past successful applicants:

University Education Development Fund Workshop, 25 March 2019, 12:00pm-1:00pm, BSTC 3.31, Bedson Building (Barbara Strang Teaching Centre)

University Education Development Fund (Webinar), 20 March 2019, 4:30pm-4:50pm

If you have any questions about the process or want to get some feedback about an idea please email:

educationdevfund@newcastle.ac.uk

Blackboard, Events, Learning & Teaching Conference, News, Other

Have your say on the University’s future VLE

5 February, 2019 Lisa Leave a comment

Do you want to help inform the University’s decision on the future VLE?

The University is well underway with the review of its Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and following the in-depth consultation that has taken place with staff and students over the past 18 months, the project team have worked hard to ensure the University’s requirements have been captured in the official tender which will be published later in February.

Once we receive suppliers’ responses to our tender, members of the project team will analyse these and will initially determine which suppliers meet our mandatory (pass/fail) requirements. The project team will then score suppliers based on their responses to our highly desirable/desirable requirements.

We need your input….

The quality of the user experience is a very important element to our tender and will have significant weighting in our scoring process. We would really like both staff and students to get involved with this. During April to June, we will have access to test accounts for the systems that have met our mandatory requirements and volunteers will be asked to undertake a series of tasks, assessing each for ease of use, anticipated support required and system confidence.

It is essential that colleagues involved in this process review all systems that meet our mandatory requirements but it is not anticipated that this will take more than half a day. You will have the option of an organised workshop or completing the tasks in your own time and further details will be provided in the coming weeks.

We need representation from both academic and professional service staff with varying degrees of VLE experience from absolute beginners to expert users.

If you are interested in being involved, please complete this expression of interest form.

On behalf of the project team, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your engagement throughout the consultation period which has been crucial in getting us to the point of publishing our tender documentation. I look forward to working with you during the next exciting phase.

Events, Events and Awards, External Events, News

3 Rivers Regional Learning and Teaching Conference 2019

5 February, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

‘Embedding Student and Staff Well-Being in the Curriculum’

Calman Learning Centre, Durham University

10 September 2019

The call for papers and registration for the 2019 3 Rivers Regional learning and teaching conference is now open.

Building upon the success of previous partnership events held by the region’s Universities (Teesside, Durham, Newcastle, Sunderland and Northumbria), our theme for 2019 is ‘Embedding Student and Staff Well-Being in the Curriculum’.

Contributions are welcomed on this and any other learning and teaching initiatives in higher-education in the format of either a 15 minute talk or a Show a Tell, where you can demonstrate a new learning and teaching initiative over coffee to the delegates. The event will be hosted by Durham’s Centre for Academic Development in the Calman Learning Centre.

Further details on the conference, including the keynote, registration and submitting a presentation proposal are available via the conference website here https://3riversnortheast.wordpress.com/

Note the call for papers closes on 15^th March 2019 at 1pm, and registration will close on 19^th April 2019. If you have any further queries or questions, please contact acad.dev@durham.ac.uk

Vice-Chancellor's Award

Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards 2019

4 February, 2019 Graeme Leave a comment

We are pleased to announce that the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards 2019 will open for submissions from the 18 February 2019. The closing date is the 17 April 2019.

The Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence awards aim to raise the status of teaching and learning at Newcastle University by rewarding those individuals and teams who make a marked impact on enhancing our student educational experience.

The Award is open to all members of staff, at Newcastle, NUIS, NUMed and NUL, whose work enhances the student educational experience. In addition, applications are welcome from staff of associated employers with direct and substantive involvement in the delivery of the student experience at Newcastle, for example, staff of INTO Newcastle University. Groups of colleagues who work closely together are invited to apply for the team award.

The awards fall into the following 2 categories:

Category 1: Individual award

Up to 4 awards for individual members of staff (academic or professional services staff) whose contribution to education at Newcastle is exceptional.

Category 2: Team award

Up to 1 award for teams of staff (either academic or professional services staff, or teams consisting of both) whose contribution to education at Newcastle is exceptional.

For further information on the award, including the application process, please view the 2019 guidance notes, or visit the VC’s Education Excellence Award section of the LTDS website.

You can find out more about last year’s winners in this blog post.

If you have any questions about the awards or need any further information please contact ltds@ncl.ac.uk

Blackboard, ePortfolio, Events, OLAF, OMBEA, Turnitin

Technology Enhanced Learning Drop-in Semester 2

29 January, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

Academic and professional services colleagues: Have you got a question about a particular learning technology? Do you want to find out if technology can enhance an existing teaching and learning activity? Do you have a great idea and want to know if technology can help you deliver it?

There is no need to book, just turn up and our learning enhancement and technology advisers will be on hand to help you. No question is too small!

Come along on:
Tuesday 5 March
12:00-14:00
USB Atrium

If you can’t make this one, don’t worry, there will be more over the next few months at locations across campus. Further details will be published here.

If your questions relates to School (or Faculty) specific software we may not be able to help, but we hope we can signpost you to the correct support.

Any questions? Get in touch ltds@ncl.ac.uk

News

Make it accessible (SensusAccess)

25 January, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

Do you want to convert documents into formats that work best for you?

Throughout Semester 2, the University is running a pilot with SensusAccess, a system which automatically converts documents into alternate formats. allowing you to:

Convert PDFs, JPEGs and other files into an e-book, text file, audio or braille.
Combine more than one .JPG into a single file.

Converting a document is achieved in four easy steps and full details, including the conditions of use and step by step instructions, can all be found on the ASK website.

As this is a pilot we would welcome your feedback so please get in touch with disabilityadvisor@ncl.ac.uk to share your views.

News

Converting documents to accessible formats: SensusAccess

25 January, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

SensusAccess gives users the ability to convert documents into formats that work for them. This is particularly important for documents that are inaccessible and SensusAccess offers a self-service solution to this.

We are pleased to confirm that SensusAccess will be available throughout Semester 2 for a University-wide pilot to determine whether it meets the needs of students and staff. The system will be available to all students and staff for the remainder of the current academic year, with an evaluation being undertaken in the summer to inform a decision on whether to continue to make SensusAccess available at Newcastle beyond 2018-19.

SensusAccess is available on the ASK website and there will be links to this in several locations on the University’s online provision, including the Blackboard homepage, Student Health and Wellbeing website, Library website and the LTDS website, ensuring users can find the system from a range of locations.

The system will be easy to use for students and staff. During the pilot they will be able upload documents to SensusAccess choosing the file type that they require. The uploaded document is automatically deleted after being converted. No uploaded or converted documents are stored by SensusAccess. Full information about the conditions of use, including copyright, is available on the ASK website.

As this is a pilot, we are keen to hear your views and will be conducting an evaluation at the end of the pilot period. If you would like to feedback your experiences or need any further information, please email ltds@ncl.ac.uk Students are encouraged to contact disabilityadvisor@ncl.ac.uk to provide feedback.

Funding, NUTELA

NUTELA Small Grants Fund

18 January, 2019 Claire Burnham Leave a comment

Apply for up to £500 to explore and embed technology-enhanced practices into your teaching.

Perhaps you have an idea for your teaching that uses technology, but need some funding to support it or maybe you know of interesting technology enhanced learning at another institution and would like to be able to visit to explore it further.

Applications are invited for a wide range of activities which enable you to explore, disseminate or import ideas and practices, and share these with colleagues at Newcastle through the NUTELA network.

Applications for up to £500 are welcomed, and applications will be on a rolling basis, rather than at set points in the academic year.

For more information about the fund, what it can be used for and to apply, please see the NUTELA Small Grant Fund Application and Guidance Notes.

Alternatively submit your application online here

Any queries should be sent to nutelaops@newcastle.ac.uk

Numbas, Resources

Mathematical skills catch-up: 2018 award-winning NUTELA learning and teaching conference poster

16 January, 2019 Chris Leave a comment

The 2019 Newcastle University Learning and Teaching Conference takes place at the start of April, with the theme “The changing landscape of Higher Education”. We are looking forward to hearing about what has been going on around the University over the past year, as well as disseminating info on some of the projects we’ve been involved with here in the MSP E-Learning Unit.

Last year, we were delighted to accept the NUTELA award for best Technology Enhanced Learning submission at the conference, for our poster “Mathematical skills catch-up: Developing a University-wide solution through online formative tests”. The poster described a project, supported by the University Education Development Fund (then ULTSEC Strategic Fund), which was carried out in 2017 to develop online formative Numbas tests for departments outside of our own.

The project is described in detail in this blog post and outputted nearly 150 questions, packaged into over 20 tests, covering everything from the volume of ice cream cones to the probability of rolling three sixes. The poster describes not just the resources created, but also how the collaboration between six students and several staff members worked, which might be of interest for anyone thinking of applying for the latest round of funding to work with students on a project. It also discusses how to easily add Numbas content to Blackboard, which is described in the following video:

If you don’t know about the excellent activities put on by the NUTELA (Newcastle University Teaching Enhanced Learning Advocates) team, then do check out their section of this blog. As part of the award we received a small amount of money from them to support further activities. This was used to help fund a (mainly Yorkshire-wide) tour last summer, where I was involved in talks and workshops at Durham, Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam and Huddersfield, introducing Numbas and promoting the resources we have been creating, which we make available through our public editor and database. Since last summer’s conference, I am delighted to have been invited to also actually be “a NUTELA”, so I look forward to being on the voting/awarding side of the poster presentations this year!

I am certain that technology enhanced learning will be a running theme at this year’s learning and teaching conference. I’m pleased to know of at least one submission talking about Numbas applications outside of maths, as well as another poster in the pipeline from our unit (talk about conflict of interest 😆), this time on the slightly different topic of web-based / accessible lecture notes.

Don’t forget to register, and hope to see you there…

Numbas is developed by the e-learning unit in the School of Mathematics, Statistics & Physics. If you have any questions, or are interested in using Numbas in your course, you can contact Chris at christopher.graham@ncl.ac.uk or the team at numbas@ncl.ac.uk