Category: News

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NU Reflect: engaging with reflective practice

An image of hands typing on a laptop keyboard

ePortfolio is being redeveloped and relaunched as NU Reflect for September 2021 to help support personal, professional, and academic reflection in both modular and non-modular contexts. For improved functionality and ease of use, the system will be split into two landing pages in Canvas:

The NU Reflect landing page will provide the opportunity to record and share reflections, recognise and categorise personal skills being developed, e.g., against the Graduate Framework, and to participate in Groups and collaborate with other students in Communities.

The Personal Tutoring and Support landing page will provide options to engage with tutors/tutees, create and manage individual and group meetings, and for students to access School specific and global support and guidance materials.

The benefits of reflective practice

Incorporating reflection in programmes and modules provides an effective way to support students to understand their own learning processes, and to develop their awareness of their own skills and abilities and evidence these, applying theoretical knowledge to real experiences and supporting employability. Guidance and case studies on how colleagues at the University have incorporated reflective practice are available.

If you have any questions regarding NU Reflect, please contact ltds@newcastle.ac.uk

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Coming Soon: Interactive Content Made Easy with H5P

Example H5P Hotspot item – click the + to try it out

Adding engaging and interactive content to your online course materials will get easier very soon.  The University has bought an enterprise licence for H5P for use by colleagues for a year.  Towards the end of August we’ll be making it available to all Canvas and MLE Teachers giving them the ability to make accessible interactive widgets, like the ones on this post. H5P isn’t just restricted to Canvas and MLE, it can be used on web sites too. 

We’re particularly excited about H5P!  Once it is turned on there will no longer be a need to be an HTML guru to do things like: 

  • Add accordions 
  • Add single question formative quiz questions 
  • Generate branching scenarios 
  • Create 360 degree virtual tours … and much more 

H5P has been successfully used by our friends in other universities– it’s very well documented and each content type has its own tutorial. 

We will be using the fully supported (H5P.com) version of H5P and, while we are plumbing this in, if you would like to have a peek at what is in store do check out H5Ps web pages for their documentation.  We would recommend holding fire on creating accounts on H5P.org and wait instead until we have our Newcastle H5P site up and running. It won’t be long! 

How you can help us? 

We have H5P for a one-year pilot initially – so we will need feedback on how you are using it, how your students are finding it, and how you would like our H5P support to develop. 

If you would like to get early access to H5P, receive updates, or help our evaluation please  JOIN OUR H5P COMMUNITY by filling out this form.

Sample H5P Course Presentation – try moving between the slides and answering the questions

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Online External Examiner Training

People working on a computer

Starting this September, Newcastle University is working with Advance HE to offer online External Examiner Training. The training will run over two months and is aimed at aspiring, new, or experienced examiners. It will support you to:

  • understand the role of the external examiner as articulated in the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, and be confident to undertake it; 
  • develop a deeper understanding of the nature of academic standards and professional judgement, and explore the implications for external examining; 
  • use evidence-informed approaches to contribute to impartial, transparent judgements on academic standards and the enhancement of student learning. 

Participation in the course can be used as evidence towards gaining (Senior or Principal) Fellowship of the HEA. 

The course begins on Monday 13 September 2021. You will be guided to complete five units over two months. Each unit takes 2-3 hours to complete, and on the whole there are 4 hours of online contact with the team.

More information can be found in the External Examiner Training Poster.

Colleagues should register by Friday 16 July by completing this form.

Should you have any queries, do not hesitate to contact ltds@ncl.ac.uk

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Reading group in LTDS

A little while ago we started a small reading group for colleagues in the Learning and Teaching Development Service to share ideas and discuss current issues and publications related to learning and teaching in Higher Education.

We set ourselves a couple of parameters to encourage engagement, as we had tried a journal club previously to not a great deal of success.

This time we decided to limit ourselves:

  • to things that could be read or digested in around less than half an hour
  • to try too keep the readings short and digestible
  • to keep the discussion sessions to 30 minutes
  • to use small groups for discussion of themes, impressions etc

Over the past few groups we have:

Our next group will explore microcredentials by looking at the recent QAA quality compass paper – which way for micro credentials.  

This will be the first meeting of a slightly expanded group which includes colleagues from FMS TEL .

We have one person running the group for 6 months (Me!) and I look after collating suggestions which come in from anyone who wants to suggest something. I try to have a range of different types of materials and cover a range of learning and teaching related viewpoints as our group has people who work in policy, practice, pedagogy, quality assurance, data and governance, professional development and all the intersections thereof.

Last time we listened to a radio programme about closed captions, which really made me think about how we approach captioning in HE. Some great ideas resulted from the session and it certainly got us talking!

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Learning Design Bootcamp Success

Number of laptops together

A team of academic and professional services colleagues have successfully applied to take part in this year’s Learning Design Bootcamp. 

Introduced in 2019, the bootcamp is a fantastic opportunity for teams to work with experienced colleagues from other institutions to design and develop modules of their choice.  

The successful Newcastle University team are based in the School of Modern Languages and the Learning and Teaching Development Service, bringing lots of ideas and expertise to the process. The team will benefit from a range of workshops, the chance to connect with a community of practitioners and access to their own mentor and coach.  

The bootcamp will support teams with the implementation of online/blended learning covering 4 key aspects of learning design: 

  • Student journey 
  • Learning Design 
  • Evaluation  
  • Quality  

Nuala Davis, Learning Enhancement and Technology Projects Adviser is part of the successful team and has shared how it is going so far: 

“Even though we are now less than half-way through the Bootcamp we already have lots to reflect on and bring forward into our practice. It’s giving us the opportunity to learn more about module design in the context of a real project.” 

An educational experience supported and enhanced by technology is a key theme in our Education Strategy  and taking part in the programme offers a unique opportunity to develop confidence in broadening the choice of learning design approaches adopted by academic and professional services colleagues. 

Following the bootcamp, the team will have lots of knowledge to share, so look out for some case studies, events and our own internal bootcamp.  If you are interested in finding out more, get in touch with LTDS@ncl.ac.uk  

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New Learning and Teaching Website

Colleague typing on a laptop

The new Learning and Teaching Development Service Website is now live. 

Visit the new site to find out more about: 

  • Professional development 
  • Governance  
  • Effective practice 
  • Student voice 
  • Funding opportunities 
  • The latest case studies, events and blogs 

For help and guides to get the most out of digital technologies for teaching, learning and assessment you can visit the Digital Learning Microsite. 

We’d love to hear any feedback you have. Look out for the feedback button on the site or get in touch at LTDS@ncl.ac.uk 

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Aspiring NTF Event

The Committee for the Association of National Teaching Fellows (CANTF) shall be hosting another NTFS Roadshow, on Thursday 25th February from 13:00pm to 14:00pm.

Aspiring NTF Event: “New Year, New Network” – enhance your networking to promote your public profile

Facilitated by Professor Debbie Holley (NTF 2014) on behalf of AdvanceHE and The Association of National Teaching Fellows (ANTF)

This workshop is for those considering applying for the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) in 2022 or beyond, and will offer information that will help potential nominees consider future applications. In addition to this, the roadshow will offer insights and thoughts from an interdisciplinary panel about using existing networks. CANTF ran a session about successful networking for impact at the Association of National Teaching Fellows symposium last year and will build upon this work.

The three roadshows toward the end of last year were a great success, and very popular, and we expect this next one to be too. Please share the details of this event widely with colleagues.

Details of how to book can be found here under the “NTFS Roadshow” section.

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Student Design Sprints

By Raghda Zahran, Learning Enhancement and Technology Adviser

How could data enhance your learning experience?

At Newcastle University we are exploring the use of student data to help improve the student learning experience. That’s why we are running a number of Design Sprints for students which will introduce you to a collaborative analysis and design process. Your input will be key to determining some of the software students will use in the future at Newcastle.  

What’s a Design Sprint? 

A design sprint is a step-by-step approach to solving problems and coming up with alternative solutions. You will work together with other students during the session.  

Why take part? 

  • Great addition to your CV/resume 
  • Certificate of Participation 
  • Have a real impact on the approach the University takes 
  • Develop your collaborative working skills 

Sign up 

So, if you’re interested in collaborating in hands-on activities to critique, analyse and design a solution to a given problem,  please sign up to a workshop below. 

SAgE Design Sprint: Using Data to Support Learning Tuesday 9 February  (For students in the SAgE Faculty: Natural and Environmental Sciences, Computing, Engineering, Maths, Stats and Physics)

 HaSS Design Sprint: Using Data to Support Learning- Wednesday 10 February  (For students in the HaSS Faculty: Law, Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Modern Languages, Arts and Cultures, English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Business School, Geography, Politics and Sociology, History, Classics and Archaeology, Education, Communication and Language Sciences, Combined Honours and Philosophical Studies)

FMS Design Sprint: Using Data to Support Learning Thursday 11 February  (For students in the Faculty of Medical Sciences: Biomedical, Nutritional and Sports Sciences, Medical Education, Psychology, Pharmacy, Dental Sciences and the FMS Graduate School)

INTO Design Sprint: Using Data to Support Learning Friday 12 February  

You will receive further details when you sign up and if you have any questions get in touch with LTDS@ncl.ac.uk

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Getting ready for semester 2

Books and a computer screen

We’ve pulled together a helpful list of new and existing resources for colleagues preparing for semester 2. There are lots of quick tips, ideas from colleagues as well as guides, courses and webinars.

Getting ready for semester 2 digest

An easily skimmable digest of ideas, resources and useful links covering Canvas, assessment, synchronous online sessions and more.

What works?

Get ideas and inspiration from colleagues who have generously shared how they redesigned and delivered teaching in Semester 1.  You can read about what has worked in their short accounts on our effective practice database. 

See how modules have been redesigned, how fieldtrips have gone virtual and how lots of achievable ideas have kept students engaged.

Webinars

View and book onto available webinars.  We know time is short, so we are adding digests to the webinar listings to make it easy for you to pick up key messages from the sessions.  New webinars include Digital Polling  and NUIT will be offering some revamped Zoom sessions. 

Canvas

We have an ongoing programme of Canvas webinars and have updated and extended the Canvas Orientation course.  These will be vital for colleagues new to teaching this year.  Remember too that all staff and students can pose questions to Canvas 24/7 support.  

Flexible Learning Online Course

All colleagues also have access to the Flexible Learning 2020 Canvas course which articulates changes needed under the Education Resilience Framework.   

Join a Community

Share ideas, ask questions and find out more from your colleagues

You might be interested in the Zoom Community, Teams Community, Canvas Community and Numbas Users.  

NUTELA (Newcastle University Technology Enhanced Learning Advoates) and Newcastle Educators also run regular practice sharing sessions and have Teams sites that you can join.   

Visit the Digital Learning Site

We continue to improve the guides and resources on the Digital Learning Site and have noted important changes in the site’s newsfeed.

Get in touch

Let us know if there are any other resources you would find helpful or if you would like to share some of your teaching practice. You can get in touch at LTDS@ncl.ac.uk .

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What works? Sharing effective practice with online/blended learning

A recent DELT Forum was a great impetus for collecting some new examples of what works with online/blended learning here at Newcastle University as the current situation has meant that lots of colleagues have been doing lots of really great stuff to make student learning experiences rich and meaningful.

There are 9 new case studies to explore right now and more to come soon at the case studies site.

A team drawn from LTDS and FMS TEL drew together examples of effective practice in action on three themes:

  1. Supporting and promoting a sense of community for students in online environments.
  2. Providing pathways for students through online modules/programmes to help them structure their studies and learning.
  3. Achieving, promoting and maintaining student engagement with online learning. 

The slide deck from this event is available to all Newcastle University staff.

It contains examples from all three Faculties together with supporting resources and pointers to more developed case studies and contact details for colleagues.

If you have something you’d like to share please let us know by emailing ltds@ncl.ac.uk and we will get back to you.