Category: Events and Awards

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Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards 2020

We are pleased to announce that the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards 2020 are now open for submissions.  The closing date is the 15  April 2020.

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 Appendix 1: 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 who demonstrated an exceptional commitment to enhancing our students’ educational experience in this blog post.

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

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Advance HE: Good Practice Grants

The Advance HE Good Practice Grants are now open for applications. These grants will give Advance HE members an opportunity to develop and share innovative practice.

Newcastle University is an Advance HE member so all Newcastle University staff would be eligible to apply.

There are two funding strands:

  • Up to £1000 for ‘What Works’ case studies
  • Up to £4000 for solution-based proposals

Projects that use creative approaches and mediums such as film, animation, and infographic-rich reports are particularly welcomed.

Advance HE are also particularly interested in:

  • Good practice in inclusive leadership: What works?
  • Fostering a sense of belonging for staff and students: What works?
  • Successful transitions: What works for different student groups?

Application deadline is the 7 February 2020 and you can find full information on the Advance HE website.

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Call For Abstracts 31st January Deadline For The Three Rivers Learning And Teaching Conference

Knowledge Exchange for Learning and Teaching in HE.

Colleagues are invited to submit an abstract to deliver a paper at the upcoming Three Rivers Learning and Teaching Conference which will be held on the 24th April. Please see the information below:

This 15th regional conference builds upon the success of previous partnership events held by the region’s Universities (Sunderland, Northumbria, Durham, Newcastle and Teesside).

The teaching community are invited to contribute to critical discussions on Knowledge Exchange as part of learning in higher education. This involves exploring how our institutions enable student learning as part of Knowledge Exchange processes in higher education, establishing why they are powerful approaches to student development, and sharing experiences of their impact on the students’ learning experience.

Since the title of this conference is ‘Knowledge Exchange for Learning and Teaching in HE’, contributions are welcomed on learning and teaching initiatives in higher-education which form part of Knowledge Exchange processes.

The call for abstracts is now open to staff and students (as co-authors) at Sunderland, Newcastle, Durham, Teesside and Northumbria universities.

Please see the GDPR statement page for how your data will be stored and used.

Please see the abstract submission process page to find out what information you will need to submit and the submission process.

Please see the  supporting information for advice on submitting an abstract for a paper and presenting a paper.

Click here to submit your 250 word abstract for a 20 minute paper (+5mins for questions) by midnight on the 31st January

Please go to the Three Rivers Website at https://3riversnortheast.wordpress.com/ for more information.

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Celebrating success evening for the 2018- 2019 UKPSF CPD Scheme

Attendees at the event

Emma McCulloch, Academic Practice Team

On the 12th December the Academic Practice team held a Celebrating Success evening for the 2018- 2019 UKPSF CPD Scheme. 

In total this academic year there were 154 participants gaining Fellowship Recognition with Advance HE.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening where participants got to share their experiences of gaining recognition either through the CASAP programme, Experiential Route or Certificate of Medical Education. The evening had representatives from EduBites, Library services and NUTELA to showcase the Learning and Teaching innovations taking place across the university.

A really lovely way to end 2019 reflecting on all the great Learning and Teaching that is happening here at Newcastle. Well done to all the successful participants the Academic Practice team look forward to working with you all again in the future.  

If you need any more information please get in touch at ltds@ncl.ac.uk

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Guest blog: EXPLORING the islands and marine life of the Hebrides through sound

NUTELA logo

David De La Haye, Music Technician, School of Arts and Cultures

‘Silurian’ is the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust’s research vessel and for ten days in September I joined the crew on a voyage around the Inner and Outer Hebrides. A citizen science project that was established in 2002, the trust has collected one of the largest visual and acoustic datasets of cetacean activity in the region. 

Awake to the tide crashing on the shores of an uninhabited island, the sound of snapping shrimp beneath the waters in a secluded bay. Listen to the amplified strains and groans of the vessel in swell before drifting asleep to the eerie howls of grey seals. Perhaps register the echolocation of Risso’s dolphins or the distant pulse of minke whales. The seas are awash with sounds, revealed through acoustic technologies. As we begin to explore these rich soundscapes we start to understand the impact of other anthropogenic noise, persistent throughout.

The NUTELA fund afforded me time for real-life creative practice, developing the tools needed to assist students who are beginning to embrace the growing trend towards field-recording. Realising sonic opportunity in the everyday, understanding which technologies are best suited to given tasks and advising on appropriate methods of sound diffusion within the studio environment are topics covered within my demonstrator role; this award provided invaluable experience and insight. The work-in-progress was performed as a multi-channel piece at the ‘LIVE in the Kings Hall’ series alongside other practitioners in ICMuS.

The voyage included incredible audio-finds! Recordings of unusual animal behaviour captured onboard Silurian were confirmed on Twitter and the project has already captured the imagination of the Institute of Creative Arts Practice (NICAP) who recently awarded me a ‘Pioneer Award’. This will be used to conduct an experimental research project that intercepts the acoustic data collected by HWDT and marine acoustic systems developed in SAgE, inviting listeners to imagine an oceanic perspective through the generation of sound installations, crossing boundaries between Marine Science, Bioacoustics, Electronic Engineering and Digital Arts.

Student Feedback

“Given my major project’s use of recorded sound, I thought it would be important to get some advice in order to learn more about technology and production techniques. The project focused around the Hebridean islands set in motion ideas for my project so i thought it would good to speak with David De La Haye for further development of my own work.”

David was awarded a NUTELA Small Grants Fund to explore the use of technology enhanced practices in learning and teaching. Find out more about the NUTELA Small Grants Fund.

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Transnational Educational Research Experience in TEL Project

By Bhavani Veasuvalingam, Newcastle Medicine Malaysia (NUMed).

Assessing Technologically enhanced learning (TEL) quality is a multifaceted method that, built on theoretical perspectives and on organised data collection, analysis and interpretation, leads to a decision that should promote a better understanding of quality of TEL and the enhancement of its quality (Casanova,2011). The Newcastle University’s education strategy attracts a great emphasis on bringing an educational experience supported and enhanced by technology. In this context, Newcastle University with its existing international branch campuses in Malaysia and Singapore triggers another element adding to TEL study, that is the transnational education.

Transnational education is defined as programmes located in a country other than the awarding institution (McBurnie and Ziguras, 2007, p.21). Newcastle Medicine Malaysia (NUMed) and Newcastle University Singapore (NUS) are international branch campuses who shares the same technologically enhanced learning tools from its parent institution and qualifications bear the name of the parent institution. Though branch campuses adopt much of its practices from its headquarters, the different location and the cultural differences may provide an added perspective to understanding TEL in higher education, considering globalization impacts every aspect of our lives. Mazzucato believes, local anchoring is crucial to obtain an in-depth knowledge of and this is important for our project TEL to gauge how globalized it has become.

Continue reading “Transnational Educational Research Experience in TEL Project”
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NUTELA 3PS (Pizza, pop and practice)

Group of students in a lecture theatre

Technology for Large Group Teaching

11 December 2019, 12-2pm , G.56, Frederick Douglass Centre

Are you interested in using technology for large group lectures?

The next NUTELA pizza, pop and practice event will look at a variety of technology-based strategies to increase interactivity, offer real time feedback, and reinforce learning.

You will hear more about a range of tools that are being used well across the University. We will also be welcoming lecturers from HaSS, SAgE and FMS who will each deliver a 10 minute interactive session giving you the opportunity to experience the technologies first hand, as a student.

Come along for some pizza, pop and the chance to practice in one of our newest large lecture theatres. Book your place now.

We will be sharing resources and keeping the conversation going in our NUTELA Team after the event. Everyone is welcome to join the team.

Remember to bring your own device to the session so that you can take part in the interactive aspects. Any questions please get in touch with nutelaops@ncl.ac.uk

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Award winning courses

Two free online courses from Newcastle University were recognised at the National Dementia Awards 2019 last night, where they won Outstanding Educational Resource.

Dementia Care: Staying Connected and Living Well, and Dementia Care: Living Well as Dementia Progresses were both designed to provide information, advice, and opportunities to share experiences for people living with or care for people with dementia.

Developed in partnership between academic teams in FMS led by Lynne Corner and Professor Dame Louise Robinson, and the Learning and Teaching Development Service, the course are now in their 8th and 3rd runs and consistently get great feedback from learners.

Both courses are open to anyone and are freely available on FutureLearn.

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Undergraduate research: present at BCUR, sponsorship available, CV points

If you are an undergraduate  with a piece of  research that you’re proud of—or you’re a lecturer with students like that—please read on!

Newcastle University is looking for students to represent us at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research 2020 and Posters in Parliament 2020.

You might be working on a dissertation, or you may have devised your own topic for an assessment. You might have worked with an external company, or worked with a researcher over the summer to help them with their research project. All types of research are welcome.

Postgraduates are also welcome to apply as long as the research was completed while they were an undergraduate and they graduated within the last 12 months.

Practical, transferable skills! Taking your learning outside the University! CV points!

British Conference of Undergraduate Research

  • What: the UK’s premier conference for research done at undergraduate level
  • Where: University of Leeds
  • When: 6-7 April 2020
  • How: presentations or posters

Posters in Parliament

  • What: an opportunity to present your research in the prestigious surroundings of Westminster Palace
  • Where: Houses of Parliament
  • When: tbc
  • How: posters

Continue reading “Undergraduate research: present at BCUR, sponsorship available, CV points”

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Advance HE Innovation in Teaching Practice Workshops

During 2019-20, Advance HE will be running a series of one-day Innovation in Teaching Practice Workshops.

With teaching excellence still a major focus of the HE sector, and increasing pressures across institutions to respond to policies such as the subject level TEF in England and challenges such as the mental wellbeing of both staff teams and students, Advance HE’s workshops will provide practical guidance on improving your teaching practices working alongside peers from a range of institutions and disciplines.

Click to book onto an Innovation in Teaching Practice Workshop

As members of Advance HE, staff at Newcastle University are able to receive discounted rates for Advance HE development programmes, conferences and events. Although there isn’t central funding for such events, your school may wish to fund relevant opportunities.  Whether you are near the start of your career, an academic, a member of professional services, a senior leader in an executive team or working in governance, Advance HE have timely and tailored development opportunities for you and your teams.

Find out more about Advance HE programmes and events