Category: News

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May 2018 Learning and Teaching Newsletter

Advance HE continuing to support the HEA Fellowship network

As you’ll probably have seen in the press Advance HE is the new agency formed from the merger of the Equality Challenge Unit, the Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

However your Fellowship post-nominals to demonstrate Fellowship status: AFHEA, FHEA, SFHEA, PFHEA will stay the same. If you’re just going through the process of applying for fellowship, it too is not changing and our accreditation for programmes is continuing.

New or innovative approaches to Learning and Teaching

The ULTSEC Innovation fund provides a fantastic opportunity for you to propose and develop projects with real benefit to learning. Continue reading “May 2018 Learning and Teaching Newsletter”

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Student research success at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research

Thirteen Newcastle University undergraduate students brilliantly represented all three faculties and their own research at this year’s British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR).

This annual event is going from strength to strength with over 250 presentations and 180 posters over two days at this year’s host institution, the University of Sheffield.

Recognising that this was a fantastic opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning and develop key employability skills, Professor Suzanne Cholerton (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Learning and Teaching) sponsored eleven students to attend.  An extra two students successfully applied for funding from their Schools, so Newcastle was very well represented.

Delegation of staff and students at the BCUR
Delegation of staff and students at the BCUR

 

Continue reading “Student research success at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research”

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Using neuroscience research to influence teaching: Could ‘spaced learning’ work in higher education?

By Dr Paul Hubbard, Teaching Fellow, School of Medical Education

Paul Hubbard

Neuroeducation is an emerging educational discipline where a neuroscientific understanding of how the brain learns is used to drive forward current teaching methods or to develop new and innovative methods of teaching and learning.  Whilst neuroeducation does not claim to be a complete solution, it is hoped that an increasing knowledge of the biology behind the process of forming memories in the brain will make teaching methods more efficient.

As this is an interesting topic area for me I decided to submit an abstract to the 2018 learning and teaching conference with the aim to raise the idea of ‘neuroeducation’ and to start a discussion as to whether techniques based on the science of learning could be used in higher education to advance teaching.

Continue reading “Using neuroscience research to influence teaching: Could ‘spaced learning’ work in higher education?”

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April 2018 Learning and Teaching Newsletter

Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards

Applications are now open for the all-new Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards – a chance to recognise the exceptional contributions of staff who teach or support students’ learning.

The awards are open to all members of staff, academic and professional services, individuals and teams who have made a marked impact on enhancing our students’ educational experience.
Groups of colleagues who work closely together are invited to apply for the newly-established team award.

For details of the revised criteria, and application process, please see http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ltds/funding/vc/

Deadline for applications: Wednesday the 25th April

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey

Continue reading “April 2018 Learning and Teaching Newsletter”

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Approaches and tools for Internationalisation at home in higher education

Education Research Seminars

School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences

Tuesday 17th April 2018
Location: KGVI Howden Room, 1-2.30 p.m.

Dr Joana Almeida and Professor Sue Robson

Higher education internationalisation is more than mobility – if universities are to become truly ‘international’, they have to start ‘at home’. This is the motto of Developing Innovative Approaches and Tools for Internationalisation at Home (ATIAH), an Erasmus+ project between three European universities: Newcastle University (Coordinating institution), University of Bologna (Italy) and KU Leuven (Belgium). Continue reading “Approaches and tools for Internationalisation at home in higher education”

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Advance HE: new sector agency

Advance HE, the new sector agency, has been formally launched.

Advance HE is a merger of  Equality Challenge Unit, Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

One of the first things the agency will focus on is consultation with the sector and the agency have outlined their aim:

” to advance practice and improve outcomes for the benefit of students, staff and society.”

The organisations that have merged will continue to work towards their business plans for the current academic year and the HEA website has been retained at the moment so staff will still currently be able to access this, however, this may change.

You can read full details on the Advance HE website.

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Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2018

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey

We will shortly be launching this year’s Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES).  PTES will open on Monday 16 April and run until Friday 15 June.

PTES is the only national survey of postgraduate taught students’ experience of learning and teaching.  The results will allow you to compare students’ experience of postgraduate programmes both internally and against the groups of institutions so to make changes that better meet their future needs.

The survey is also an opportunity for students to voice their opinion and to be partners in developing the postgraduate learning experience.  Information gathered helps us to demonstrate the quality of taught postgraduate degree programmes and show commitment to postgraduate education.

Please do all that you can to promote it.  The more students that take part the better the picture we will get of the taught postgraduate experience at Newcastle.

To find out more about PTES this year, visit http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ltds/student/opinion/PTES/ or contact newcastlestudentsurveys@ncl.ac.uk

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CASAP Review: Share Your Views

LTDS has been asked by ULTSEC to consider what is needed to ensure Newcastle University staff are confident, informed teachers and supporters of learning, able to enthuse, encourage and inform their students.

We will be spending the next 2 months gathering views, ideas and suggestions from colleagues all across the university. Your views will be used to develop a proposal for university approval with a start date for the new provision of September 2019.

To enable us to capture the widest possible range of views we have an online questionnaire, will be hosting a workshop at the Learning and Teaching Conference and will be meeting with groups and individuals to gather their views.

As we gather your ideas and suggestions we will be updating the blog and review web page with the ideas. You are welcome to respond to these ideas as they are posted.

You can find the questionnaire here https://forms.ncl.ac.uk/view.php?id=1495678 and our web page here http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ltds/professional/casap/review/ .

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Inter-disciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference

The University is currently consulting on a draft of a new Education Strategy (see this blog post for further information on this).  One of the important strands running through the draft Education Strategy is the emphasis on multi- and inter-disciplinary educational opportunities:  encouraging and promoting these opportunities is one of the draft Strategy’s aims.

Colleagues working and/or interested in this area might be interested in a conference that’s taking place at Leeds University next month.  The conference title is Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching:  Pedagogy and Practice.  The programme is available at Initial Programme IDLT 2018, and places on the conference can be booked online.

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Puzzled by GDPR? It’s UK law from May 2018….

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes law in the UK this May.

Despite the vote to leave the European Union, the Government has confirmed that they will adopt the GDPR, which will therefore be law in the UK from 25 May 2018.

How does it affect learning and teaching?

Well, all members of University staff have certain responsibilities under our Data Protection Policy to:

  • be aware of the Data Protection Act (and therefore GDPR) and what it means to the University
  • follow the policy and procedures for handling personal data
  • consult with the Information Security Officer (Compliance) for advice and guidance when necessary

Wherever personal data is held about anyone, staff, students, visitors etc. there is a legal requirement to comply with the regulation.

The University takes it’s responsibilities for GDPR seriously, and has a number of Information Security Officers who deal with compliance, but there are local requirements and schools and units should familiarise themselves with the changes.

Newcastle University IT service (NUIT) has put together some brief guidance on how the GDPR affects schools, some Dos and Don’ts and some useful links to further guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the regulation itself on the EU website.

There is a Brief Update and Guidance (PDF) from the Registrar.

 

How can I find out more?