Category: News

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Profile: VC Award Winner JC Penet

Vice Chancellor’s Award-Winning JC Penet talks about good practice, employability and why he is happiest when teaching.

Jean-Christophe Penet, a teaching fellow in the School of Modern Languages has a number of strings to his bow.

An accomplished teacher, he’s seen his professional practice grow to become a huge influence on his life and on the institution.

Penet, who started life at the UWE before moving to Newcastle to take up a teaching fellowship in 2010, has won one of this year’s VC Awards, recognising his work in learning and teaching, in SML and across the Institution.

JC Penet
JC outside the School of Modern Languages, where he teaches.

‘These awards represent a really important way of recognising learning and teaching and the crucial role they play in the University.

‘I like especially that these awards are not based simply on module evaluations or peer review but on a more holistic approach to teaching and learning, taking in lots of elements of professional practice.’

Some of Penet’s major contributions have been above and beyond the realm of classroom teaching or delivering information, focussing on a key student concern: employability.

He’s worked on two key projects in this area for SML, each begun as a response to student demand.

‘The first was in response to a focus group report which we received about concerns students had about employability.

‘We started by running a networking event in which alumni and the companies our students have gone to work for in the past, come in to meet the students of the present.

‘Often I think SML courses are seen as vocational, that you will certainly go into translation or teaching but we wanted to show that there was lots more you could do.

‘We started a blog, run by Joss Harrison in the School called Careers Translated which looks at all the options with a degree in Modern Languages.

‘We now also have an alumni evening where alumni come back and meet with students to discuss what the options are after finishing their degrees.

‘The evening raises money for the Modern Languages Society, so that they can pay for trips etc. throughout the year.

‘We also organised an afternoon event to help students to meet with potential employers and to showcase different careers for languages students.

‘All of these events have drawn really positive feedback from both students and the businesses involved.’

As well as this event, JC is involved in recruitment in the school, running events which bring together local sixthformers, UG and PG students such as ‘Meet the Translators/Interpreters’  to look at transition and progression between school, university and postgraduate study.

Alongside these achievements JC was recognised for his contribution to teaching and learning across the University and is a familiar face on committees and in cross-faculty groups.

He is a founding member of Newcastle Educators, a group started by teaching staff across the University to provide support, advice and a forum for discussion of all things teaching and learning.

He still views this as one of his proudest achievements: ‘It’s changed my professional life having that community to draw on. Having peers to offer advice on teaching but also books, applications and career options.’

Do you have a colleague who goes above and beyond in the name of learning and teaching? Or know someone who has a particularly innovative approach to their teaching?

Find out more about the VC’s Awards or persuade them to put in a Case Study.

 

 

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Vice-Chancellor’s Award – Winners Announced!

We are pleased to announce that this year’s Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Teachers Award winners are Jean-Christophe Penet (SML) and Clare Guilding (SME).

Both Clare and JC will receive their awards in congregations taking place today.

The awards were launched in 2010 in order to celebrate and recognise outstanding teaching at Newcastle.

Each year three types of award are made; two for academic staff – a general award and an award for staff working within the societal challenge theme; and one for professional support staff.

Candidates for the awards are expected to demonstrate leadership in teaching and learning and to innovate across the areas of pastoral care, supervision and curriculum design.

Clare’s innovative teaching techniques have already been the subject of one of our Case Studies, which looked at her use of Sim-Man to teaching students diagnostic techniques!

Clare said: ‘I’m delighted to receive this award which shows Newcastle University’s continued commitment to supporting good teaching practice and teachers in the institution.’

She has also been nominated for numerous Newcastle University Student Union Teaching Excellence Awards for Innovative Teaching Methods, Contribution to Pastoral Support and last year picked up the Overall Outstanding Teacher Award.

She has also received the Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) EDG Educator Innovator Award (January 2016) and British Pharmacological Society Education Prize (December 2015).

Jean-Christophe is a lecturer in French and Translation studies in the School of Modern Languages.

A founding member of the peer-support network EDUBITES and a committed advocate of peer support for teaching –focused staff, he’s the Employability Officer in his School and runs a range of initiatives with local businesses.

He said: ‘I like especially that these awards are not based simply on module evaluations or peer review but on a more holistic approach to teaching and learning, taking in lots of elements of professional practice.

‘It’s so important to recognise the value of great teaching and to support and encourage that across the University.’

Unfortunately there were no nominations in the Professional Support Staff category this year – we hope that this will be rectified next year and would like to encourage staff to nominate support staff who have made an outstanding contribution to learning and teaching.

You can read profiles of each of the VC Award winners and hear more about what they think makes for outstanding teaching on the LTDS blog next week!

Congratulations Clare and JC!

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Guest Blog: NCL London One Year On…

NCL London’s Paul Fleet, Vanessa Varvas and Claire Twyman look back on the last year…

Newcastle University London is coming to the end of its formative and founding year.  It has an excellent number of Pathway students who have completed their studies and are ready to progress onto its Marketing, Management, Finance & Accounting UG and PG programmes; whilst its current PGTs are now in ‘dissertation mode’ after being immersed in the industry of business through their studies.

Included in this core phrase of the campus are industry guest speakers on a Masterclass series, the students going out into the City in work-based projects (such as the Spitalfield’s Market Challenge), and students being involved in similarly immersive events back at the mothership (such as the Gain A Global Advantage day at NUBS).

Not content with just with industry immersion, the Campus is bringing in ideas of innovation to its learning and teaching.

These include specific speakers from the City of London being part of the delivery within the modules so that the students experience a healthy balance of research-informed theory into practice during their lectures and seminars; the Campus moving in 2016/17 to an all online assessment and feedback process; boosting the technology of ReCap to capture three streams (slides, audio, and presenter/whiteboard) for the benefit of post-lecture revision; the linking of translation students at Newcastle with business students at London so both can role play elements of their future careers in a multi-lingual business negotiation meeting, and… if all goes to plan the installation of a Decision Theatre (think IMAX for Education) so that there can be simultaneous cross-campus delivery of equivalent/complementary modules.

The next academic cycle will see Pathway, UG, PGT, PGR (including PhD) all happening at the Campus, and, at the point of writing this, the firm acceptances at NCL-LDN look to exceed the set UG target.

Further, where these potential students are coming from is not just an international market and nor is it in competition with Newcastle itself.  Analysis has shown that potential students in the overwhelming majority (96%) apply to one campus or the other, and those that apply for NCL-LDN have Firm and Insurance choices with Queen Mary, University of London, City University (CASS Business School), Royal Holloway, University of London, University of Surrey, Coventry University, King’s College London, LSE, University of Reading, UCL and University of Exeter rather than Newcastle.

This all makes for good news for those units and staff who are looking to have an involvement with NCL-LDN.

The Campus is strong in its beliefs and presence (it is not a flying faculty in retreat like some across the sector); has administrative, professional support and academic staff with a can-do mind set; has established itself as a point of the North in the South for meetings, conferences, policy events, and so on breaking the London-centric barriers; and it firmly upholds the governance, community and civic ethos of Newcastle University.

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UCISA Learning Analytics Conference

On the 12th of April, I attended the UCISA event on learning analytics. This was a single day event held in Birmingham. Due to travel issues, we unfortunately missed the first speaker, Sarah Porter, Co-Chair of the National Inquiry into data in HE, High Education Commission – the author of the HEA report, “from bricks to clicks”

OU Analyse (ppt)

Zdenek Zdrahal, Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University

The second speaker was Zdenek Zdrahal from Media Unit at the Open University. He described the use of predictive analytics to attempt to identify at-risk students even before the first assignment had taken place, as 98.6% of students who failed the first assignment did not complete the programme. They used a combination of static data including gender and educational history, and fluid data notably VLE interactions. The accuracy of the predictions was increased greatly even when only using the count of “no of clicks” in the VLE.

In practice, each item in the VLE was given a label and different paths were mapped to view the successful students possible paths and the typical failing student path. The  data analysis involved the use of 4 different data modelling techniques. If the student failed two of those techniques they were classified as at risk and intervention was put in place by the School. Spreadsheets were sent to the School highlighting the risk levels of each student. A dashboard has been created that highlights at risk students and the data used.

A student dashboard has been created that shows the student their “nearest neighbours”. These are students showing similar engagement behaviours and the predicted outcome for those students. It also predicts whether the student will submit the next assignment. To improve the students predicted outcomes, various activities are recommended. Currently, students cannot access this dashboard but it is now a priority to release this. I think the extra step of showing suggested activity to students has a real benefit to the learning experience. There is an intervention strategy automatically suggested to the student. The key would be to make sure these suggestions are accurate and relevant.

OULA
They have released an anonymised open source dataset. – https://analyse.kmi.open.ac.uk/open_dataset

Newcastle University does not have a retention issue overall but there may be areas where the use of data in this way may be beneficial – for example distance learning programmes.

JISC Learning Analytics (ppt)

Michael Webb, the Director of Technology and Analytics at JISC talked about the history of learning analytics , then through some of the work that they are carrying out in the field of learning analytics.

Michael described their work with learning analytics as “the application of big data techniques such as machine-based learning and data mining to help learners and institutions meet their goals.”

Predictive learning analytics as seen in the Open University presentation was defined as the “statistical analysis of historical and current data derived from the learning process to create models that allow for predictions that can be used to improve learning outcomes. Models are developed by ‘mining’ large amounts of data to find hidden patterns that correlate to specific outcomes.” JISC are confident that predictive learning models would be ‘fairly’ transferable between institutions.

JISC currently have a learning analytics project that has three core strands:

  • Learning analytics architecture and service
  • Toolkit
  • Community

Learning analytics architecture and service

JISC are looking to create a national architecture that would help data modelling become transferable. They are working with several institutions to develop core services that institutions would be able to implement at a much lower cost than if developing themselves.
JISCLAJISC demonstrated their student app. It’s based on fitness apps where users can view an activity stream with their (and their peers) activity, including performance against student defined targets.
phoneLAJISC are also developing dashboards for students and for administrators:
dashboardLA dashboardLA2

Toolkit
They have released the JISC Code of Practice that outlines some of the ethical considerations institutions should make before embarking on a learning analytics project. This has been worked on with consultation from NUS. They have released their own guidance to University Students’ Unions.Michael finished off discussing what future developments may occur in learning analytics, including links to the teaching excellence framework and personalised next generation e-learning.

Beyond the dashboard: the practical application of analytics (ppt)

Ben Stein, Director, Student Success, Hobsons
Ben from Hobsons spoke about the inevitable rise in student dashboards. While dashboards are an integral part of learning analytics providing methods to display predictive statistics and recommended activities,  it is crucial that the support structures are in place that will provide positive interventions. Mark asked, “does a deeper understanding of the problem actually lead to a solution?” and stated, “ultimately it’s what you do with the information that makes the difference.” Mark then demonstrated a product from Hobsons that provide student / staff dashboards.

Personal tutor dashboards (ppt)

David Mutti, Head of Programme Management, University of Greenwich
David Mutti from the University of Greenwich showed their development of a personal tutoring system that pulls together various pieces of information about a tutee including a very basic application of learning analytics. Although feedback from academics was very positive, actual use was minimal. There was no compulsion to use the system. I thought the system was very well thought out with some good features, but the system was developed and promoted by the IT service. Would an increase in academic involvement lead to a greater take-up perhaps an academic lead?

Piloting learner analytics at the University of London International Programmes (ppt)

Dave Kenworthy, Head of Software Services , University of London Computer Centre and Tom Inkelaar, Head of Management Information, University of London
Tom described how the University of London International Programmes are using learning analytics with their students to try to improve retention. The University have 50,000 distance learning students across 100 countries.
The University implemented Bloom Thrive analytics in partnership with ULCC and Altis. They used student record data along with VLE usage to determine at-risk students. As part of this data, they created a happiness block in their Moodle environments where students could say how happy they were as well as providing some free text comments.
happyLA
The University found it relatively easy to determine which students were at risk but the intervention is more difficult when spread across such a wide geographical area. Another challenge they faced was regarding the data protection and whether the appropriate consent has been received for all students.

The conference was a very useful event to attend, and it demonstrated that although we are not currently implementing any centralised learning analytics we are in a good place to do so as required. The data sets we have could provide a rich learning experience for students.

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Research informed teaching: Do your students value it?

A study into our students’ perceptions of the links between research and teaching is currently considering this question.

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Charlotte Huggins, a Psychology MSc student, is investigating this issue through a series of student consultations and a survey. Supported by LTDS she is asking students about their understanding of the term, if they recognise the ways in which staff research expertise feeds into teaching, and whether this is something that students value.

This study is well underway with a number of focus groups involving students from across the University being held this week.

A survey is also gathering a wider set of responses. The survey is open to all Newcastle University students and can be accessed online here.

Do encourage your students to complete the survey, we want to hear their views. Those who complete the survey will be entered in a prize draw for a £20 Eldon Square voucher.

Dr Sara Marsham, Associate Dean in SAgE, is conducting the parallel staff consultation. These two strands will be collated and fed back to the University Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Committee (ULTSEC) under the direction of Professor Suzanne Cholerton, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching.

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EDUBITES Supporting Reflective Practice event

Guest blog by Katie Wray on behalf of EDUBITES:

Newcastle Educators held their inaugural EDUBITES event over lunch on Wednesday 27th January 2016. Dr James Field (Lecturer in Restorative Dentistry) kicked off the sharing events with a look at how we can support reflective practice.

James simulator 3

Across all disciplines, for learners and for ourselves as ‘learner-educators’, self-reflection plays an important role in enabling us to articulate what we have really learned through our study and practice by examining ‘where we have been’ and ‘where we are going’. ‘Supporting Reflective Practice’ was a great topic to begin the series of EDUBITES events, which are intended for educators to gather and discuss issues of importance to practice and personal development.

Furthermore, James demonstrated to us how we can map what we do to the UKPSF, in order to support us in obtaining recognition from the Higher Education Academy, which is becoming even more important in light of new measures such as the forthcoming TEF.

Key to this is the ability to evidence what we do, and how we do it, as we seek to achieve higher recognition for our work by demonstrating support for others, and for the leadership of teaching.

Many of you will be aware that LTDS link their development sessions to the UKPSF standards, so if you are looking to fill some gaps, you could find a relevant session here.

The Case Studies LTDS have collected are also useful. The ePortfolio can help you to record and share evidence with others, and also has a mapping to UKPSF (quite a number of the group did not know this).

James, and his colleagues have undertaken some research which shows that 96% of educators feel that reflection is important, whilst only 2% currently use a framework for reflection. Without doubt, the most important tools to help educators and their students with reflective practice are ‘being able to record and sort through evidence and commentaries, getting into the habit and sharing your experiences’.

Through his research, James has identified a gap in the availability of a dedicated reflection tool which enables you to understand and practice the various levels of reflective practice, and conduct that practice within your work/lifestyle. They are working on a reflection toolkit which could address this gap, so watch this space. At this point in the event, a lively discussion was had. We look forward to inviting you to help trial the toolkit during its development.

Finally, if you are looking for a guide for Reflective Writing to use yourself and with your students, we would recommend the 2012 text ‘Reflective Writing’ (Pocket Study Skills) by Williams et al. available in the Robinson and Walton libraries.

Are you involved in the use of reflective practice at Newcastle? You can get in touch with members of the EDUBITES group directly or contact ltds@ncl.ac.uk who can pass information on.

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National Student Survey Launches on Campus

Students on campus

This week sees the launch of the 2016 National Student Survey (NSS) at Newcastle University.

Entering its twelfth year, the NSS gives students the opportunity to give their opinions on their experiences at Newcastle, from teaching to accommodation.

We will survey our final year undergraduate students in Malaysia and Singapore as well as those based here in the UK. We are unable to survey non-UK based students as part of the NSS, so we will be running a simultaneous survey using EvaSys for students at NUMed and those at SIT. The results of this additional survey will not be publicly available in the same way that NSS results are, but will allow us to have comparable data for Schools and programmes on our international campuses as well as for those programmes delivered here in the UK.

What is the NSS?

The NSS is an annual survey of final year undergraduates in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. It is a high profile annual census of nearly half a million students across the UK, which gives students a powerful collective voice to help shape the future of both their course and university or college.

The survey is widely recognised as an authoritative measure of student satisfaction and, as such, the results are highly visible on Key Information Sets (KIS) and on Unistats, and often reported in the media. It has helped to build a broader picture of the quality of higher education in the UK and has made it possible to monitor trends over time.

The NSS is commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) on behalf of the UK funding bodies. Ipsos MORI, an independent research company, conducts the survey.

What questions does the NSS ask?

The questions allows students to provide feedback on a range of topics, relating to six aspects of their learning experience: 1) the teaching on the course, 2) assessment and feedback, 3) academic support, 4) organisation and management, 5) learning resources, and 6) personal development. Students also are asked about their overall satisfaction.

All final year undergraduates can complete the NSS.

WHO BENEFITS FROM THE NSS?

Current students

The University and NUSU examines the anonymised NSS data internally to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses. This information can be used to help effect changes designed to enhance or improve the student experience for both current and prospective students.

Newcastle has always supported the NSS and as a result of listening to what former students had to say, the following changes have been implemented in recent years:

  • increased opening of Robinson Library
  • increased availability of computer clusters
  • improved access to internet in University accommodation
  • new University policies on feedback turnaround time and feedback on exams

 

How important is the NSS?

Aside from helping the University ensure that students are satisfied with its courses the NSS is also increasingly crucial for prospective students and parents in deciding which institution to choose.

Data from the NSS are publicly available via Unistats. This official site allows prospective students to compare information across institutions and subjects/courses. The site draws together comparable data on areas that students have identified as important in making decisions about what and where to study, including the findings of the NSS.

As it is publicly available and the NSS can also be used by prospective students but also by other bodies wishing to measure student satisfaction and experience, from newspapers to government and policymakers.

Promotions and Incentives

This year we will once again be focusing on the Schools’ league table that has been a success in previous years. Two prize categories will exist – one for subject areas with fewer than 100 students, and one for those with 100 students or more, with two prizes available within each category: £500 for first place and £250 for second place. Again, we are including Malaysia and Singapore in the league table to help support their efforts in encouraging responses too.

Weekly response rate updates will be circulated to on the nss-updates mail list, so everyone can see how their School/subject area is doing and who is in the lead on the league tables. Members of staff who would like to be included in this list can request inclusion by contacting ltds@ncl.ac.uk.

We will be using more social media outlets to promote NSS this year and are putting together the final details of a plan with the University’s Social Media Team. Thank you for recently sharing School platform addresses and administrators. Please get in touch with Myra Giesen (myra.giesen@ncl.ac.uk) if you think we can help with your School’s NSS campaign.

Student ambassadors promoting the NSS across campus will be strategically located across campus starting in teaching week 6 through the end of April. Locations and times will be advertised through social media outlets once they are set.

Want to know more

To find out more visit www.thestudentsurvey.com or contact the NSS team at Ipsos MORI directly at thestudentsurvey@ipsos.com. You can always contact the Learning and Teaching Development Service on campus by emailing ltds@ncl.ac.uk.

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1st FutureLearn Asia Pacific Forum, Shanghai, China

future-learn-cupcakes_cropped
FutureLearn cupcakes. Source: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/the-free-learning-revolution-simon-nelson-futurelearn-22-jul-2015 CC-BY-NC-ND

I was delighted to be asked to represent one of three UK FutureLearn partner institutions at the first FutureLearn Asia Pacific Partner Forum, held in Shanghai, 24 & 25 November 2015.

Partner Forums are one of the things that make working with the FutureLearn partnership so useful. A chance to meet others a few times a year who are facing the same challenges, providing regular opportunities to share experiences and learn from each other, as well as influence the development of the platform. And we do really influence the development of the platform. Previously Partner Forums have happened in London, but with recent expansions in the Asia Pacific partnership, an inaugural Forum was planned in Shanghai, aiming to replicate meetings in the UK, but for Asia Pacific partners.

I set off to meet up in Shanghai with Kate Dickens, Project Lead for FutureLearn from University of Southampton, Joanna Stroud, Project Lead for FutureLearn from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Simon Nelson, CEO of FutureLearn, and 4 of his staff. We took part in a very well organised and intensive two day forum with around 70 representatives from HEIs and specialist organisations based in the Asia Pacific region, from countries including Australia, Malaysia, Japan, and Korea,  as well as several Chinese institutions and representatives from the British Council and Consulate.

In a packed two days, as well as getting to know each other, we got to know a bit about how the approaches developed within UK and European FutureLearn partners were being received by more recent Asia Pacific partners, and had the opportunity to share with each other some of the things we have learned in our time developing and delivering free online courses with FutureLearn.

FutureLearn’s mantra for free online courses, which appears at the beginning of nearly every presentation,  is to ‘Tell stories, provoke conversation and celebrate success’.

As Newcastle University courses have consistently succeeded in achieving higher than average engagement with our courses,  I was asked to present a session on Effective Storytelling in Newcastle’s free online courses, and to sit on a panel discussing approaches to course development and sharing top tips.

For the panel session, which took place on the morning of day 2, I was on the stage with Kate Dickens from University of Southampton, David Major, Learning Technologist from FutureLearn, and Professor Hongling Zhang from Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), Lead Educator on the Intercultural Communication free online course. The session was facilitated by Kate Sandars, Partnership Manager from FutureLearn and was based on questions from the floor, which were many, and discussion around them, which was lively. The session was very much about the practical aspects of developing and delivering free online courses, and about how this aligns with institutional strategy. The panel session overran and there was much continued discussion  in the following tea break.

Just before lunch on day 2 I presented a half hour slot on ‘Effective Storytelling’ in our free online courses at Newcastle University. I was pleased to be asked to do this session, as our courses consistently achieve higher than the FutureLearn average for social learning (engagement of learners with discussion and comments), and we also achieve higher than the average FutureLearn full participation rate (the nearest metric we have to ‘course completion’) – with our Ageing Well: Falls course having the highest full participation rate of any FutureLearn course to date, at 57% of those who started the course.

This indicates to us that there is something about our approach to working with teams of educators on developing our courses which works. Our focus on learning design is crucial to course success and we do focus on it a lot, right from course conception to delivery.

Why is storytelling so important? Well I think that the telling stories analogy is a great one for us to focus on. It enables us to talk about course creation in a different way, it encourages us to examine what is special about storytelling and storytellers. Why do stories work? Why are they compelling? What qualities to they have which are different to campus based courses? How can we replicate some of that in free online courses? And why is making courses online so different to making campus based programmes?

The session went down really well, and there was further lively discussion afterwards over a delicious lunch with colleagues from Monash University, the University of Malaya, RMIT, Fudan University, SISU and others.

An afternoon tea reception hosted by the British Council ended the Forum, which was an amazing privilege to be asked to attend, and which profiled the work of the University and its approach to online course development which has generated much interest from Asia Pacific HEIs.  We look forward to following up with these contacts over the coming weeks.  Many thanks go to Simon Nelson and his team at FutureLearn for asking us to represent established partners, for giving us the opportunity to profile our work and courses in the Asia Pacific region, and for looking after us so well in Shanghai.

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Innovation Fund Winners Ask School Students What They Expect From University Life

Researchers from the School of Medical Education have won funding for a project which interviews future students to discover what they might expect from their University learning experience.

Laura Delgaty, Lynne Rawles, Joanna Matthan, Sally Munford and Claire Guilding submitted a proposal to the University’s Innovation Fund in order to complete the work.

The project looks specifically at how young people use technology and the sorts of technologies they may expect from their future learning environment.

The project also ties in with the University’s own five-year strategy to enhance their digital capability to ensure that they are catering to the needs of future generations of students.

Principal Investigator Laura Delgaty said: ‘What was really interesting was talking to these 15/16 year olds and hearing how they actually use technology.

‘We were incredibly surprised by the things that were really important to them because they were not necessarily the things that we thought.’

The project encouraged school students across Tyne and Wear to consider what attracted them to certain types of technology

‘For most of them the most important thing was that all of the software they were being asked to use could work on a number of different devices, allowing them to choose what brand of phone or i-pad etc. they wanted without being tied to a certain brand or model.

‘Obviously they asked for lots of chargers to be available but one really surprising thing was that they said that they expected fresh drinking water to be available in all teaching spaces.

‘That was just something that we’d never thought about, but I think these students are very alive to healthy lifestyle choices and drinking water is something that they expect the learning environment.’

‘It was amazing the amount of time these school students put in on answering the questions and the amount of detail they went into.

‘Some even described how they wanted different spaces to smell!

‘But what really came across was that they don’t think of technology as something new or separate. This will help contribute to the way we think about our five year strategy.

‘They think of it as something that is just there, that is just always part of their lives and which should be easy and functional and barely noticeable.’

The Innovation Fund supports projects which aim to provide innovative approaches to learning and teaching in the University.

This project was successful in the Strategic Project strand the call for this semester’s strategic strand closes on 15th January 2016.

There is also a Postgraduate Innovation Fund competition for innovative approaches to postgraduate learning or to enhancing the postgraduate experience.

Interested in applying for the Innovation Fund? Apply online or contact innovfund@ncl.ac.uk for more information.

 

 

 

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Scotland’s QAA Focus on Student Transitions

Using the findings of a recent project focused on student transitions, Scotland’s QAA will build resources to help students with transitions at University, from a sense of ‘belonging’ to their institution to the development of graduate skills.

The project, led by Dr Ming Cheng, a Lecturer in the Academic Development Unit at the University of Glasgow, examined models of transition and their applicability to HE.

The study’s findings and a range of resources are available online.

The aim was to provide students and staff with resources to help them to gain an insight into these processes but also to highlight transition, and a continuing process of change, as an inherent part of the University experience for students.

The project formed part of QAA’s Scotland’s Student Transitions Enhancement Theme.

The work is likely to feed into future projects looking at how transitions skills can be beneficial at university but also in alter life.

In recent years a variety of institutions and research bodies have been focusing on student transitions, as a way of improving students’ experiences at and after University, both academically and personally.

These transitions also take into account the movement from school, college or work to University and can contribute to processes of recruitment and widening participation.

At Newcastle this has led to the appointment of a Transitions Officer in Computing Science, who helps undergraduates and postgraduates to adjust as they move through the different levels of their academic courses and out into the world of work.

Are you doing research into student transitions at Newcastle? Tell us about it: ltds@ncl.ac.uk or @ncllt.