Author: Claire Burnham

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Education for All: Learning Together, Learning and Teaching Conference 

31 March 2022, Frederick Douglass Centre 

Join us for this year’s conference to celebrate learning and teaching and share ideas across the University.  We can’t wait to come together, in-person, for those much-missed opportunities to catch up over coffee and we can promise a fantastic lunch.  

Come along to: 

  • Hear from Paul Ashwin, Professor of Higher Education and Head of the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University who will deliver the keynote ‘What is a university education for?’ 
  • Get involved in interactive workshops. 
  • Be inspired by approaches to assessment, wellbeing, student voice, changing practices and much more. 

The full programme will be ready early March so keep an eye on the conference website. There’s also lots of opportunities to get involved online and we’ll be sharing which sessions you can take part in on the website. 

All colleagues and students are invited to attend. Colleagues can book here and students can book here.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch nultconf1@ncl.ac.uk  

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Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards

Colleagues shaking hands

The Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards 2022 are now open for applications. These awards aim to raise the status of education at Newcastle University by rewarding those individuals and teams who make a marked impact on enhancing our student educational experience.

Completed applications should be submitted to LTDS@ncl.ac.uk  before 12.00pm Wednesday 13 April 2022.

The awards fall into two categories:

  • Individual award
  • Team award

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.

Full information about the awards and the application process is available on the Learning and Teaching website.

Contact for queries: LTDS@ncl.ac.uk

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Do you have an idea that would deliver real benefits to students education?

Group of students chatting

Apply to the University Education Development Fund by the 6 May 2022, 17:00

Two strands of funding are available:     

  • Up to £2,500 for projects focused within an individual academic unit, or across multiple areas through the  Responsive  strand.     
  • Up to  £10,000  for projects with collaboration across academic units through the Strategic  strand.    

Chaired by the PVC Education this fund support projects in the development of new approaches to learning and teaching and to enable their dissemination across the University.    

Application deadline for 2021-22: Friday 6 May, 2022, 17:00    

 Full information and guidance notes available online.     

Contact for queries  educationdevfund@newcastle.ac.uk.    

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NUTELA Presents: Augmented Reality in Laboratories and Teaching Spaces

Friday 28 January, 10:00-11:00 , Herschel Annex

Laboratory skills courses are crucial in that they help students gain hands-on experience of doing experiments, better understand the theory behind them, see practical applications of their knowledge and skills, and provide a basis for future employment. These courses are part of professional accreditation for bodies such as the Institute of Physics and integral mode of delivery for many other programmes across the University.  

Aleksey will discuss his experience of using Augmented Reality (AR) within laboratories to allow students to see the real and virtual world overlaid with each other. Within the demonstration you will see how when using a personal device, virtual objects (buttons, switches, cables, etc.) overlay with the real scenes and are made available for students to manipulate. With a switch to online learning, or to facilitate students learning remotely, the use of AR can be extended by using webcams located at the University to stream videos of real hands-on experiments live into students’ computers or tablets. With AR, students can handle virtual tools and perform the required tasks of experiments without stepping foot in a lab. Using AR can increase students’ perception and interaction with the real experiments and students will have a sensation that an activity is handled as if they would be physically on-site. Augmented Reality to enhance in person or online delivery of teaching materials has the potential to be applied across a range of different subject areas.

Join us for a live in-person demonstration of using Augmented Reality within University teaching spaces, with lots of time for questions and discussion.

This event is part of The Art of the Possible series of events giving you an opportunity to join the discussion about our future teaching and learning spaces on campus.

You can find out more about all events on the events homepage or register here.

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NUTELA Presents: Enhancing Learning Spaces with Technology

NUTELA logo

Tuesday 25 January – 11am-12pm, online

Hear ideas and current practice from colleagues across the University in this series of lightning talks exploring the innovative and future use of existing teaching spaces on campus for learning and assessment.

Presenters will discuss the future of spaces for digital exams with shifting assessment practices, how existing technology available to us all on campus can enhance education spaces for students and colleagues, and cutting-edge technology that could develop the blended learning experience. 

Talks include:

  • Digital Exams Spaces- Graeme-Redshaw-Boxwell, LTDS
  • Holograms in Teaching- Dr Aleksey Kozikov, School of Maths, Stats and Physics
  • Virtual Learning Spaces – Eleanor Gordon and Tracy Connell, Faculty of Medical Sciences
  • Special Collections Virtual Reading Room – Ian Johnson and  Dr Melanie Wood, Academic Services
  • Developing Digital Residency- Dr Jenny Davidson and Dr Lucy Hatt, NUBS
  • The Future of ReCap- Carol Summerside LTDS

This event is part of The Art of the Possible series of events giving you an opportunity to join the discussion about our future teaching and learning spaces on campus.

You can find out more about all events on the events homepage or register here.

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The Art of the Possible: The Future of Education Spaces – book your places now!

The Art of the Possible The Future of Education Spaces January 24 2022

Booking is now open for this series of events later in January, giving you an opportunity to join the discussion about our future teaching and learning spaces on campus.

This month sees the launch of The Art of the Possible: The Future of Education Spaces, a series of special talks and presentations designed to get us all thinking about how teaching and learning at Newcastle University might look in the near future.

Through this programme of online and in-person events, which is running between 24 and 28 January, we are aiming to open up new avenues for discussion between Estates & Facilities, students and colleagues who either teach or support teaching activity. The sessions are designed to inform, inspire and get everyone thinking about what we’ve learned from the past 22 months and how we might do some things differently going forward.

By taking part, you’ll get the chance to input into the ongoing investment strategy in our education spaces, which will in turn feed into the overall estate masterplan for the campus.

The Art of the Possible: The Future of Education Spaces programme is now confirmed and booking for all events is open. You can view the full events schedule on the project webpages and you can also find out more on the NU Connect homepage.

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Learning and Teaching Drop-Ins

An image of hands typing on a laptop keyboard

Need advice on getting ready for semester 2, assessment and feedback, or how to make best use of university-supported digital technologies? Colleagues can pop into an LTDS online drop-in session and speak to one of our advisors.

We have a fixed pattern for our drop-in times this month:

  • Every Monday 11:00 – 12:00
  • Every Wednesday 09:00 - 10:00
  • Every Friday 15:00 – 16:00

For log-in and access information please refer to our joining instructions.

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Keynote address: What is a university education for?

Paul Ashwin

We are pleased to be welcoming Prof. Paul Ashwin to deliver the keynote address at this year’s Learning and Teaching Conference, Education for All: Learning Together. Find out more about Paul and the keynote address below:

What is a university education for?


The global pandemic has led to changes to university teaching and learning practices and significant financial pressures on the higher education sector. In the face of unexpected social and economic challenges, there is a danger that the quality of higher education will be judged simply in terms of graduates’ employment outcomes and we will lose sight of the educational purposes of a university education. In this keynote, I will argue that, in order to reinvigorate our understanding of university education, we need to focus on how students are supported to develop transformational relationships with disciplinary and professional knowledge. These relationships change students’ understanding of themselves and the world and are central to the many ways in which going to university can transform students’ lives and contribute to societal well-being. I will explore the implications of this argument for our educational practices.

Biography

Paul Ashwin is Professor of Higher Education and Head of the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University. He is Deputy Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education, an ESRC funded research centre involving 10 international universities. Paul’s research is focused on the educational role of higher education. His book, ‘Transforming University Education: A Manifesto’ (2020), argues for a focus on the educational, rather than economic, purposes of university degrees in order to understand their transformational impact on students and societies. He is also the lead author on Reflective Teaching in Higher Education (2015, 2020) which is written by an international team to support the development of research-informed university teaching.  

Get involved in this year’s conference

The conference will take place on the 31 March 2022 and all colleagues and students are invited to register.

The call for submissions closes on the 14 January 2022 so there’s still time to submit a proposal.

Full details on the conference website and you can get in touch with nultconf1@ncl.ac.uk with any questions.

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Three Rivers Conference 2022: Engaging Students: Building Communities

Students talking

29 June 2022 

The call for abstracts for Three Rivers 2022: ‘Engaging Students: Building Communities’ 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 2022 is ‘Engaging Students: Building Communities’. Three Rivers 2022 will be hosted online by Northumbria University. The keynote speaker for the conference is Prof Peter Felten, executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and Professor of History at Elon University, US.

The theme of the Three Rivers Conference 2022 is how we engage students in learning through building communities. The conference will look at how on campus communities support student engagement, contributing to a sense of belonging, and through this enhance retention and widening participation; as well as collaborations with communities and partners that create authentic inquiry based learning opportunities for students.

Colleagues and students are all invited to submit an abstract by the 18 April 2022. 

Full details are available on the Three Rivers website.  

Registration is free for colleagues and students of the 3 Rivers Universities consortium, and will open on 28 February, closing on 28th June 2022. If you have any further queries or questions, please contact susan.mathieson@northumbria.ac.uk

Join a working group 

Colleagues are invited to join a working group that aligns with the conference themes. These groups provide a forum for bringing together and sharing ongoing work across the five partner universities in the form of strategies, initiatives, and practices that engage students through building communities. Each working group will prepare for a panel presentation at the conference.

Find out more on the conference website: 

Working Group 1: Engaging Student in Authentic Inquiry Based Learning with Communities 

If you would like to join this working group and/or would like to share and discuss work you and/or your colleagues are conducting in the area, please  initially email Dr. Sue Mathieson  susan.mathieson@northumbria.ac.uk  by the 14 February 2022

Working Group 2: Enhancing Student Engagement for Retention, Progression and Attainment 

If you would like to sign-up to be part of the Enhancing Student Engagement for Retention, Progression and Attainment working group and/or would like to share and discuss work you and/or your colleagues are conducting in the area, please initially email Dr. Sam Elkington with your contact details: s.elkington@tees.ac.uk  by the 14 February 2022. 

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Student Voice Forum

Group of students

15 December, 12-2pm

Please join us for the next Student Voice Forum on 15 December. The forum will be hosted by Professor Tom Ward and will be an opportunity to share ideas and good practice in relation to student voice activity.

The forum will take place online on Wednesday 15 December from 12 – 2pm. It’s open to everyone and we warmly welcome all colleagues with an interest in engaging with the student voice. We also welcome students and student reps so please do share this information with anyone you think might like to join us.

If you’d like to attend, please complete the sign up form.