Learning and Teaching @ Newcastle Blog

17 August, 202016 September, 2021

Prestigious teaching award for University team

Christian Lawson-Perfect, George Stagg and Chris Graham

The E-Learning Unit in the School of Mathematics, Statistics & Physics  received the national Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE), which recognises collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning.

The successful team is made up of Dr Chris Graham, Christian Lawson-Perfect and Dr George Stagg.

Chris, Director of E-Learning, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics said:

“We are absolutely delighted to receive the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence, recognising our E-Learning Unit’s contribution to our School, institution and wider community, in enhancing the teaching and learning of mathematics, with initiatives such as the Numbas e-assessment software. 

“The award celebrates our collaborative approach to establishing Numbas as a tool used here at Newcastle by over 3,000 students each year in Schools across all three faculties, and at our Malaysia and London campuses. And recognises our role worldwide, with several key international partnerships, a role in high profile national projects in primary and secondary education, and over 2,000 teachers worldwide using our assessment software. 

14 August, 202016 September, 2021

Learning Analytics Pilot

New Analytics in Canvas is an interactive tool that helps you and your students better track performance and activity within individual courses. It can be accessed in the menu of any Canvas course and allows you to:

Identify which students have viewed pages and resources
Identify which students have participated in the course
Compare grades across assignments by cohort or individual students
Contact students, or groups of students, based on their interactions

As part of the University’s Task and Finish group on learning analytics we will be running a pilot looking to gather some Newcastle specific information and feedback on the use of the tool. Our aim is to identify the functionalities within New Analytics that Newcastle colleagues find to be most useful in improving student attainment and engagement so that we can make recommendations to the University about how best to implement this system, or others, University-wide.

As part of a pilot, all we would ask for would be a summary of what you did and how you measured any benefit for your students in terms of attainment or engagement. We appreciate how busy everyone is at the moment so are keen to make sure that taking part requires minimal extra work (setting up the New Analytics within your module assessments or workflow is quite intuitive) and fits in with your already established plans for online delivery in 20/21.

If you would be interested in taking part, please contact LTDS@newcastle.ac.uk

If you would like to know more about New Analytics in Canvas, please visit What is New Analytics?

6 August, 20206 August, 2020

CONGRATULATIONS to our new National Teaching Fellows and to the Winners of the Collaborative Award in Teaching Excellence

For the second year in a row, three Newcastle academics have been elected as National Teaching Fellows, at the same time the University has won a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence.

Awarded by Advance HE, the fellowships recognise excellence in enhancing and transforming student outcomes and teaching. Newcastle University’s Dr Clare Guilding, Professor Simon Tate and Dr Iain Keenan are among this year’s 56 new National Teaching Fellows.

There was further success for the E-Learning Unit in the School of Mathematics, Statistics & Physics Development Team received the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE). These awards recognise collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning, highlights the key role of teamwork in higher education.

Find out more and hear from the winners.

6 August, 20206 August, 2020

what has the qaa ever done for me?

Over the last three years there have been huge changes in the external framework within which English universities operate. The creation of the Office for Students (OfS) in 2018 has had significant impacts that are still working their way through the sector. One of these was to change the focus and nature of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA).

QAA still has a place in the external regulatory framework. It carries out reviews of higher education in England on behalf of OfS. It also supports development of the UK Quality Code (i.e. the things all higher education providers need to do to maintain and enhance educational quality).

The volume of this work for QAA has significantly decreased though over the last two years. In its place QAA has established a membership scheme to (as QAA put it) ‘improve quality and secure standards by giving exclusive access to expert advice, insight and valuable resources based on our extensive expertise’.

Newcastle is a QAA member. This means that we get access to a range of webinars, workshops and resources to help us in our work to give our students an outstanding educational experience while they are studying with us.

There’s an overview at https://www.qaa.ac.uk/membership/programme-2020-21, of what we have access to as QAA members. Not all of it is for everyone, but the opportunities and resources (https://www.qaa.ac.uk/membership/resources) cover a wide range of areas – including some you might not normally associate with QAA. To access these all you need is your Newcastle email address.

8 July, 20208 July, 2020

be Canvas Ready

We are getting closer to the 31 July 2020 when all access to Blackboard ends for colleagues and students and we go fully live with Canvas.

There are 5 key steps which will help colleagues to prepare for the transition date and for course delivery next academic year:

More information about each of these steps, as well as links to support, can be found on the Canvas website.

Don’t forget Canvas 24/7 support is available to all colleagues and students for any of your ‘How do I’ Canvas questions direct from the Canvas Help Menu or via telephone on + 44 808 189 2336.

2 July, 202017 September, 2021

Flexible Learning 2020 Webinars, Drop-ins and Q & A sessions

Webinars, Drop-ins and Q & A sessions are now available to support you with the planning and delivery of your modules for 2020/21.

Webinars

Rethinking your module design
Make your own module intro video
Canvas: Fundamentals, Professional Services, Assignments, Collaboration and Communication, Quizzes and Online Marking and Feedback
Turnitin

Q & A sessions

Based on the relevant sections in the Flexible Learning 2020 course that all staff have access to via Canvas (https://ncl.instructure.com/courses/28542 ), we are running Q&A sessions on the following topics:

Rethinking Lectures, Project Supervision, Online Assessment, Seminars and Small Group Teaching, Laboratory Based Learning, Content Accessibility, Building a Learning Community and Making, Producing and Creating.

Come along and bring your module design questions with you. We can share examples of effective practice and talk through your ideas.

Daily Drop-ins

You can bring any of your questions to these drop-in sessions. We also have some themed drop-ins (covering a range of topics from audio and video to Canvas, to hosting effective online discussion), but you can bring any question or issue to any drop-in session – even if it doesn’t fit with that session’s specific theme.

View the schedule or visit the webinars and support information pages to find out more.

Further support is available on the Flexible Learning 2020 web pages which includes useful resources and information and all colleagues have access to the Flexible Learning 2020 Online Course in Canvas.

1 July, 20201 July, 2020

Opportunity for officer role in Raise

RAISE is an international network of staff and students who have an interest in student engagement.

RAISE invite you to apply for the role of Communications Officer. You can have any staff role at Newcastle to apply. The role is not paid but not too onerous and all expenses will be met. Closing date: 4th July

Further details including how to apply available here.

23 June, 202016 September, 2021

Success at the International e-Assessment awards

The Newcastle University Digital Exams Service has won the Best use of Summative Assessment Award at the International e-Assessment Awards 2020.

Delivering real improvements

The winners were announced at an online awards ceremony on the 16 June. Finalists had been selected from a range of education sectors and the submissions included a number of exciting and creative projects and solutions.

When announcing the award for the Best Use of Summative Assessment, the independent panel of judges praised the Digital Exams Service for demonstrating a high level of success, delivering at real scale and meeting a defined need. They also commented that the work on supporting accessibility was particularly noteworthy.

Excellence and innovation

Professor Suzanne Cholerton, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Education said:

‘’I am extremely pleased that the hard work and dedication of colleagues has been recognised with this international award which represents a commitment to excellence, innovation and collaboration across the University.

The Digital Exams Service has been successful in diversifying online exams with the introduction of digital written exams and a bring your own device approach. This has enabled more authentic assessment and has enhanced the accessibility of exams for our students.’’

Collaboration

The Digital Exams Service is founded on collaboration between academic and professional services colleagues in academic units across the institution, together with the Learning and Teaching Development Service, NUIT, and Exams and Awards Office.

The e-Assessment awards

The e-Assessment Awards programme holds a unique position, as it encompasses all sectors of education: from schools, through further and higher education to workplace training and professional exams. The Awards programme was launched in October 2016 to highlight and celebrate the outstanding and positive contributions that technology makes to all forms of assessment, and has gone on to showcase the best practice, research and innovation in the sector. Find out more about the awards and criteria on the e-Assessment Awards website.

11 June, 202017 September, 2021

Flexible Learning 2020: Online Course and Website now available

Are you starting to plan your teaching for next year?

The new Flexible Learning 2020 online course and website are comprehensive resources developed by LTDS, FMS TEL and NUIT, and are available now. They provide achievable ideas for alternative activities as we move to a flexible education offer in 20/21.

The student learning experience in 20/21 will involve a mixture of online and on-campus learning and assessment activities. Flexible Learning 2020 articulates the delivery of the Education Resilience Framework, an institutional framework for the revision and development of our taught modules and programmes for 20-21, due to the continuing Covid-19 situation. Flexible Learning 2020 supports the design and development of teaching flexibly to deliver engaging student learning activities.

The Course

Ideas and expertise from across the University are brought together in this self paced online course available in Canvas. Complete the full course or do the Before the course starts and Building an education community sections, then dip into the sections most useful for you and your students. 12 key areas are covered including:

Rethinking lectures: Make use of recordings, readings, commentary and discussion boards.
Building a learning community: Build social and peer group connections from the start.
Involving guest speakers: Make use of Zoom and Teams.
Seminars and small group teaching: Before, during and after. How to incorporate non-synchronous activities to get the most out of synchronous delivery.
Online assessment: How a number of different assessment types can work online.
Labs : considerations for acceptable online lab resources/simulations to provide introduction/discussion points when students may not be able to take part in in-person on campus labs.
Studio/practice based activities: for supporting students on programmes in the creative disciplines or where making and producing are a significant part of the programme

You can also find ideas for field trips, project supervision and group work projects and more. The time it will take to complete each section is clearly indicated so you can complete the sections relevant to your teaching whenever it is convenient.

Participating in the course will help you think about your practice through a mix of practical Canvas based activities, examples from across the University, discussion points and useful tips. Everyone will be automatically enrolled – just look for Flexible Learning 2020 on your dashboard when you log in to Canvas.

The Website

The Flexible Learning 2020 website includes examples, resources, guides and screencasts to help deliver the alternative activities you choose.

You can also find out more about the context of Flexible Learning 2020, the key areas of alternative activities and working definitions used.

More content will be added to both the course and website over the coming weeks so keep checking back.

Canvas

Canvas is our exciting new VLE, replacing Blackboard from 1 August 2020, and provides many opportunities to deliver an enhanced online learning experience for students. This platform will be a key enabler for delivering the flexible learning offer and you can access a comprehensive range of resources including webinars, the Canvas Orientation course, and guides to help get the most out of this platform.