Canvas Best Practice – Using the Rich Content Editor (RCE) to style your content

The Rich Content Editor in Canvas offers a straightforward and efficient method for building content in your Canvas courses.

The Rich Content Editor is available in:

  • Announcements
  • Assignments
  • Discussions
  • Pages
  • Quizzes
  • Calendar

The Rich Content Editor allows for the embedding of various elements such as videos, images, other types of media files, course files. Additionally, it enables the creation of tables and lists. You are also able to link to content within your courses and to materials outside your course via hyperlinks.

The Rich Content Editor allows you to bring all your content together in one place.

In this blog post, we will show you examples of how to can use this in Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, Pages and Quizzes.

This short video from Instructure, you can see how to use the RCE in Canvas:

An example of using the RCE in Announcements

Links can be incorporated into your announcements to guide students towards specific resources you wish to highlight.

In the example provided, we prompt students to review a pre-lecture task located on a Canvas page. By including a direct link (highlighted as 1 below), students are navigated straight to the resource, eliminating any potential confusion. This ensures that all necessary resources are conveniently provided within the announcement message itself.

An example of using the RCE in Assignments

Essential resources for the assessment can be made readily accessible to students by providing pertinent links. These may include links to guidelines, policies, and additional support such as discussion boards.

In the following example, we have incorporated a link to a discussion board (1), enabling students to anonymously pose questions about the assessment. Additionally, we have included an email link (2) for direct communication with the module leader. Links to school policies and university regulations, such as student progress and plagiarism, are also provided.

By consolidating all necessary information for the assessment in one place, we eliminate the need for students to search elsewhere.

This approach promotes clarity and guidance, ensuring that students fully comprehend the expectations and requirements of their assessment

An example of using the RCE in Quizzes

In the Quizzes section, you have the option to include links that can assist students with their assessments. These could be links to the content that will be evaluated or to technical guidance.

In the given example, we are notifying students that the assessment will be based on the Week 1 Lecture (highlighted as 1). Additionally, a link for technical support (highlighted as 2) is provided for their convenience.

An example of using the RCE in Discussions

Links to the discussion topic and technical guidance on utilising Canvas Discussion boards can be incorporated. This approach is beneficial as it equips students with all the necessary resources for active participation in the discussion, while also providing context to the discussion topic.

In this instance, we are offering a link to the module corresponding to the current teaching week (highlighted as 1). This serves to give students a prompt for the discussion and context for the topic under discussion. Additionally, we provide technical guidance for utilising discussions (highlighted as 2).

An example of using the RCE in Pages

Using the RCE in Canvas Pages

Leveraging the Rich Content Editor (RCE) in Canvas Pages, you have the flexibility to enrich your teaching materials with a diverse range of content items. This includes not only links to course-specific content and videos, but also resources like PowerPoint presentations and external webpages.

In the below example

Canvas New Feature – Find and Replace in the RCE

Overview

Canvas, our Virtual Learning Environment is constantly evolving to enhance user experience and functionality. Each month we inform you via this blog what changes are taking place, how they will impact users and how to make the best out of this new functionality.

In this blog, we will look at the new Find and Replace tool in the Rich Content Editor.

Rich Content Editor – Find and Replace

What is this new feature?

A find and replace tool has been added to the Rich Content Editor (RCE). This will be similar in functionality to Find and Replace your would find in Word Processing applications like Microsoft Word.

As this is a Rich Content Editor enhancement, you will be able to use this in the following areas of Canvas:

  • Announcements
  • Assignments
  • Discussions
  • New Quizzes
  • Pages
  • Quizzes

How do I use this Find and Replace Tool?

  1. Access the Rich Content Editor:
    • When editing a Canvas page, discussion post, or any other content, click the Tools drop-down menu in the Rich Content Editor.
    • Select Find and Replace from the options.
  2. Search and Replace:
    • In the modal that appears, enter the text you want to find in the Find field.
    • Enter the replacement text in the Replace field.
    • Click Replace to replace the first occurrence, or Replace All to replace all occurrences.
  3. Keyboard Shortcut:
    • You can also use the keyboard shortcut:
      • Mac: Command + F
      • Windows: Control + F

Video Demonstration

Label Filtering Improvement for Questions in Inspera

Improvements to filtering

Users can add labels to individual questions to help with general organising and for locating questions with specific content. 

Inspera have created the option to filter on labels that have been added to questions. Until now, if filtering on more than one label, the result has been to show all content with any of these labels. We know there is a need to search for all content that has all the selected labels. It is now possible to be able to filter on more than one label simultaneously. 

Using labels in practice… 

You can add labels to questions in your question set. For example, you may wish to label your questions with the topic (e.g. Topic X, Y OR Z) but you may also want to add another filter, such as the year the question is from. When searching the question bank of all your questions in Inspera, it is now be possible to filter so that you can find questions that are say from ‘2023/24’ and from ‘topic X’, rather than all questions coming up with either of those filters.

How to filter using labels

  1. Go to Author, and then select Questions 
  1. You will then select ‘filter’. 
  1. Select the ‘labels’ drop down and search for the labels you wish to find via the search box. You can then select these via the tickboxes. 
  1. Use the ‘any’ button if you would like to find any questions using any of the label(s) selected, or use the ‘all’ button if you wish to find questions that have all of the labels you have selected. This will exclude questions that only have one of the selected filters. 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Digital Exams Team via Digital.Exams@newcastle.ac.uk.

Congratulations to the 2024 winners of the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards

The Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards aim to raise the status of education at Newcastle University by rewarding individuals and teams who have made a marked impact on the student educational experience.

The 2024 winners of the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards have now been announced, with five winning submissions out of a very competitive field of nominations:

Professor David Rose

School X

Professor Rose receives his award for his innovative and sustained contributions to the field of Philosophy. The awarding panel praised David’s passion and commitment to his students and commended his work in “context based learning”. David’s teaching approaches have also attracted consistently excellent student feedback and have gained him international recognition and multiple teaching awards.

David commented “This award reflects a long development from my early days here at Newcastle and I would like to recognise my peers and students who have helped me to fashion an innovative way for learning to be personal and valuable and mostly to affirm its very social, collective aspect.”

(David will be presented his award at the winter congregation ceremony.)

Dr Jane Nolan

School of Arts and Cultures

Dr Nolan receives her award for her sustained, and much valued, dedication to student learning and support. Jane is commended for identifying student needs when coming to university, and for helping them attain the skills they need to thrive – in education and in the workplace. Jane’s work to build connections between students and alumni was particularly noted by the awarding panel, and reflects her passion and continued commitment to student support.

Jane told us “I am delighted to receive this award. It has been a joy to work with brilliant students, colleagues, alumni and external partners, helping to enrich the educational experience through research- and industry-informed curricula, experiential learning and extra-curricular projects, supporting students during their studies and as they prepare for their futures, and reaching out to our communities through engagement work. It is such an honour, and a highlight in my career as an educator, to have my work recognised by the Vice Chancellor’s Education Excellence award.”

Dr Simon Stone

Dental School

Dr Stone receives his award for his leadership, teaching excellence, and contributions to education across the dental curriculum, with student experience and inclusivity at the forefront of his work. Simon is particularly commended for his work to champion post-Covid return to clinical practice, and for enabling valuable clinical experience for students.

Simon explained “I’m delighted to be able to receive this award.  Clinical dental training involves a huge circus of people and resources, in particular the need for a close, cohesive relationship the NHS, many people are unaware that Dental Students play such an active role in delivering healthcare to our community, with roughly 30,000 patient appointments delivered each year.  The last 5 years have been particularly challenging with the pandemic forcing the temporary closure of student delivered patient facing activity, the first time this has been the case in our 125 year history.  The restart and reshaping of clinical activity within the School was nothing short of exceptional and meant that we were to be in a position to safely return our students to patient facing activity and at the same time grow our portfolio of programmes. I am very proud to have played a key role in this and work alongside an exceptional team of academic and clinical colleagues who help to deliver our programmes.”

Language Resource Centre Team

Pictured: Lina Liu, Andrew Grenfell, Edward Shek and Maka Bekurishvili. Other members of the team include Sarah Crampton and Holly Penal

The Language Resource Centre Team receive their award for demonstrating sustained commitment to student support and service delivery. The awarding panel noted their excellence in supporting equity and cultural understanding, which has had a significant impact on staff and students across the University. The Language Resource Centre’s external engagement and outreach work was also commended, as was their support for learners during Covid.

Andrew Grenfell told us ‘This award is very important for the Language Resource Centre as it recognises the underlying pedagogy of the Centre’s approach to supporting the student learning experience. The award celebrates what is truly a team effort involving the LRC staff and the all the students employed in various roles to deliver an integrated student-centred learning environment, celebrating languages and cultures across the NU campuses and in the NE region as well as in Ukraine.’  

Maths Stats and Physics, SAgE + GO Team

Pictured: Joe Matthews, Lucy Bell, Lee Fawcett and Lana Spour

The Maths Stats and Physics “SAgE + GO Team” receive their award for demonstrating sustained commitment to the student learning experience and for encouraging global opportunities. The team were commended for their innovative approaches to student mobility and for making maths more accessible at scale. The support in place for exchange students is particularly noteworthy, as is the development of a global curriculum which is ambitious and future focused.

Lucy explained “We are honoured to be recognised for our ongoing passion and commitment to global opportunities for our students. Our collaboration with staff across the University means we can make student mobility more accessible and truly develop a forward-thinking global curriculum.”

Lee added “It is a privilege to be recognised for our commitment to making global opportunities accessible to all students in the School of Maths, Stats and Physics and the wider SAgE Faculty.  The development of short-term mobilities, including field trips, summer schools and virtual exchanges – as well as a range of new opportunities for study abroad – has made this a reality.  Of course, none of this would have been possible without close co-operation with our colleagues from the Global Education team.”

The panel, chaired by Ruth Valentine, PVC Education, were extremely impressed with the scale of impact, breadth of activity, and the creative approaches to education and student support demonstrated by all awardees.

For more information about the awards, and how to apply next year, please visit the Learning and Teaching @ Newcastle website

Inspera – New Feedback release option 

Assessment Feedback Digital Inspera Exams 

Markers can release a ‘common feedback’ statement to all students once all submissions have been graded. This common feedback should relate to the full exam. Feedback about specific questions can be addressed using Page Notes (you can also view a demo page note functionality). 

Important note: Assessment Feedback must be created before confirming marks. Once marks are confirmed, the option in Inspera will be greyed out.  

To use this feature, the candidate report must be enabled, for further details on Inspera feedback release and how to enable the candidate report please see our feedback release webpage 

Instructions for use of Assessment Feedback: 

  1. Within the Inspera Grade tool, to the left hand side you have workspaces. Go to the Planner workspace  
  1. Select ‘Assessment Feedback’ 
  1. This allows you to provide feedback to all students using the following methods: 

a. Text 

b. Audio 

c. Attach a file 

The example below is a Text feedback box. There is a rich text editor option for the general feedback. 

  1. Once you’ve created your feedback, click Save 
  1. For students to view this feedback on Inspera, you must enable the candidate report and select the appropriate the feedback release settings in Deliver options under ‘After Test’
  1.  ‘Enable general feedback for assessment’ 
  1.  ‘Share assessment feedback with candidates’  

Important note: Assessment Feedback cannot be edited after the Candidate Report has been released to students.  

Developing Graduate Teaching Assistants: A co-created developmental space via community building chat​

Venue/Time:    19 June 2024, University of Sheffield

Network:            AdvanceHE_GTA Developers Network

Who:                    Dangeni, Professional Development Adviser, LTDS and

Minki Sung, Postgraduate who Teach, HaSS

Graduate students frequently act as instructors for labs and lead seminar discussions while juggling significant research and academic duties. This dual role places graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), or Postgraduates who Teach at Newcastle University, in a unique position. The Academic Practice Team at LTDS provides essential training and community support through various routes: 

  1. Introduction to Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (ILTHE) 

This blended learning programme offers those with little to no teaching experience an opportunity to explore key concepts and issues in Higher Education teaching. It aims to equip participants with the practical skills and knowledge necessary to begin teaching and supporting learning at Newcastle University with confidence and enthusiasm. 

  1. Evidencing Learning and Teaching (ELT) 

This pathway, accredited by Advance HE, leads to recognition as an Associate Fellow of the HEA (AFHEA). It is designed for Postgraduates Who Teach (PGRwT) at Newcastle University who want to develop their early teaching careers in Higher Education. The syllabus and assessments are based on standards set by Advance HE, focusing on the professional practice of teaching and supporting learning as described in the Professional Standards Framework (PSF).  

  1. Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) Community Building Chat 

An online communication platform has been developed since 2023 to allow PgRs who Teach to continue engaging with teaching practices. This initiative emerged from the anticipation that micro-teaching sessions could focus on sharing PhD research and provide opportunities for those interested in further developing their teaching skills after completing the ILTHE and ELTS pathway. 

Following last year’s discussion at the Advance HE GTA Network event at the University of Manchester, this year the community continued these discussions at the University of Sheffield on June 19th. The event aimed to champion the voice of GTAs, sharing ideas, resources, and educational development practices across the sector. The day featured three main themes: developing teaching competencies, inclusion and its relationship to GTA work, and institutional approaches to GTA development, with speakers from UK institutions sharing effective practices and case studies. 

Case 1: Effective Use of Peer Teaching and Self-Reflection for Pedagogical Training 

A notable example from colleagues at the University of Sheffield highlighted a training method for GTAs teaching in engineering laboratories. This training, based on session-specific content and contextualized pedagogical material, emphasized self-reflection and peer teaching. 

It included individual and group sessions where GTAs could practice before engaging in real teaching, building their confidence, supporting self-reflection, and developing student-centered teaching skills. By comparing their training perceptions with their teaching assessments and feedback, the programme demonstrated its effectiveness. 

These figures are from Di Benedetti, M., Plumb, S., & Beck, S. B. M. (2022). Effective use of peer teaching and self-reflection for the pedagogical training of graduate teaching assistants in engineering. European Journal of Engineering Education48(1), 59–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2022.2054313

Case 2: Towards a Toolkit for Supporting GTA Teaching Identity 

Colleagues from University of Glasgow shared another excellent example, a training model that supports GTAs in developing their teacher identity through best practice pedagogy, Brookfield’s lenses of reflection (see figure below), and graduate attributes has been considered and embedded. This model aims to enhance GTAs’ ability to engage with and confidently deliver active learning practices, thereby generating stronger learning experiences for undergraduate students. 

This figure is from https://learningportfoliorichter.wordpress.com/2022/10/09/reflecting-on-myself-through-brookfields-four-lenses/

Case 3: Newcastle University GTA Community Building Chat 

As the lead and convener of ILTHE and ELTS, as well as the creator of the community building chat, I invited Minki Sung, a PGRwT from HaSS, to co-present with me. The following section is taken from Minki’s reflection. It outlines his motivations, benefits, impact and areas for follow-up. 

Motivations 

After attending the introductory workshop, i.e., ILTHE and six ELTS sessions on applying for associate teaching fellowship, I decided to participate in the GTA community to enhance my current teaching practices. 

Firstly, the motivation for joining the GTA community chat was that it didn’t require much time commitment. At that time, I had my PhD project, teaching responsibilities, and research assistant work for government projects. Secondly, there was no dedicated teaching community for PGRs who teach, except for the GTA community chat. By sharing some challenges and best practices with other TAs, I realized that I was not alone in struggling to increase student attendance. Thirdly, my previous experience as an educational military officer in my home country made the PGR demonstrator role familiar, but seminar-leading was quite new to me. Learning how other TAs lead their seminars and manage teaching difficulties was valuable. 

Gains 

A GTA community chat offers several advantages. It provides a platform to share teaching-related anxieties and concerns with minimal time commitment (one hour per month). It also facilitates the integration of research and teaching skills, broadening the understanding of different TA roles: PGR demonstrator, seminar leader, lab leader, and guest lecturer. 

Personally, I learned the value of student interaction and understanding their different needs based on their learning stage. For example, Stage 1 students sometimes view their first year as a “party year,” which was surprising to me. Also, most students prefer visual and technological content over reading or seminar discussions. I am interested in exploring the access and using technological tools, although in my country, I would have to pay for these gadgets. Additionally, I was able to support and challenge students’ thinking using various case studies from my experiences in South Korea, China, Japan, and Vietnam, which was able to foster their critical thinking. Finally, I could pilot test some teaching ideas with other TAs and gain valuable feedback. 

Impact of Community Engagement 

The ELTS initially offered six workshops, providing a good starting point for PGRs assuming teaching roles in higher education. However, further development is necessary to share best practices and address challenges. For instance, at a recent sociology TA workshop, the lack of training after the ELTS workshop was highlighted. I suggested introducing a GTA community chat to gain practical experience together.  

In summary, participating in this GTA community helped me understand my students’ needs and integrate my knowledge into their learning process effectively. This involvement also had a larger impact, as I connected with some PGR and PGT students in my seminars and labs, which helped me perform effectively as a school rep. Ultimately, many PGR colleagues and PGTs nominated me for School Rep of the Year, and I won the award. 

Current Gaps and Challenges in Participating in the Community Chat 

 Advertisement and Participation 

As a PGR school rep in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape, I’ve observed similar challenges with participation between the PGR community cohorts and the GTA community chat. Some TAs hesitate to share difficulties, fearing it may be perceived as a weakness and jeopardize future TA opportunities. Additionally, disciplinary differences pose a challenge. Each discipline has its teaching requirements and TA recruitment practices.  

Additionally, nurturing the GTA community chat may rely heavily on word-of-mouth within the PGR community. Utilizing networks established by PGRs who have completed ELTS workshops and achieved D1 certificates could enhance visibility and participation in the community chat. It needs to be advertised with a clear message that it will benefit any PGRs interested in teaching post-PhD. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this GTA-themed blog post. Please get in touch at apt.lts@newcastle.ac.uk if you’d like to chat about our pathways and your practice! 

Inspera: June 2024 – New Features and Resources  

New Feature: Grading of Candidate Selected Questions (CSQs) 

If you are marking an Inspera exam where students have been given an option to answer certain questions from a range of question options (i.e. students answer one out of three possible questions), this is known as Candidate Selected Questions (CSQs). When in use, the grading per student function (where markers would move to the next student awaiting grading using the downward direction arrow), meant that markers were shown the next student in the list, even if they had answered an alternate option.  

Now, markers who move to the next student using the direction arrow next to the student information (as shown below), will find clicking the down arrow will take them to the next student who answered the same question option. This means that marking of a particular question can be achieved. 

More information about the candidate selected questions feature can be found on the Inspera Help Centre.   

New Feature: Deleting Multiple Questions 

It’s now possible to select more than one question and delete in bulk. Previously, the deletion was only possible per question. Deletions should only occur if you no longer wish to use the question, for example, if you found errors or will no longer use the question in future.  

Deleting questions can be done via the Author Tab.  

To delete multiple, select the tick boxes on the left hand side of the questions you wish to delete. 

Multiple questions can be deleted simultaneously by using ‘move to trash’ – a pop up which will appear on the bottom panel. 

New Resources

The Digital Exams Team have created some new resources for colleagues. We have a brand-new website dedicated to the use of Grading Committees in Inspera. This website provides users information about what these committees are, how to use them and Frequently Asked Questions area.  

We have also recently released information on our colleague facing Inspera webpages relating to Inspera Feedback Release, as well as an Inspera for Professional Services Colleagues area.  

Inspera Marking: Hints and Tips

As we enter the assessment marking period, the Digital Exams Team want to share some marking ‘hints and tips’ for Inspera Digital Exams. Check out some of our hints and tips listed below. 

Hints and Tips

  1. To attach yourself to an exam as a grader, make sure you click the link from the Inspera assignment point in Canvas. This takes you into the ‘Deliver’ area of the exam and you can click the ‘Open in Grade’ button to enter the ‘Grade area’. 
  1. If you need to search for a specific student, within the ‘Overview’ section of the Grader area, you can search for a student number to locate their submission. In the screenshot below, ‘stutestX’ is a placeholder for a student ID. In your exams you will see student numbers listed instead. 
  1. If you are in the Grade area and need to go back to the Deliver area (for example, to set the feedback settings), there is a shortcut available. Click the ‘Options’ button at the top of the screen and navigate to ‘Shortcuts’. Select ‘Deliver’ and click ‘Open test in Deliver’, 
  1. It is possible to download raw marks from Inspera as an Excel file. Click the ‘Options’ button at the top of the screen and navigate to ‘Downloads’. Select ‘Marks as Excel file’, 
  1. As standard the Digital Exams team will set up the Canvas assignment associated with your Inspera exam as 100 points. This means (once released) students will view their Canvas Gradebook mark as a proportion. If you’d like students to see raw marks, please edit the Canvas assignment points area to match that of your total Inspera marks.  
  1. For manually marked questions, Graders can add Annotations to student submissions. Within student submitted text, click the left mouse button and move the mouse across the text you want to annotate. Click Annotate:  
  1. Within the Grade ‘marking’ area there is a search icon for students now for all graders. When marking, use the bottom panel to navigate to specific students using their ID. For example: 

Further Support

Webinars

The Digital Exams Team run two dedicated marking webinars which colleagues can book onto: 

These training webinars cover a range of marking workflows, including how to amend auto-marked questions and adding annotations to manually marked questions such as essays. 

Videos

There are a range of marking videos available on the Inspera L&T website which provide on-screen demonstrations of grading tasks. 

Feedback Release

If you would like to release feedback to your students on your auto or manually marked Inspera questions, check out our dedicated webpage on Inspera Feedback Release for further information.

Further questions?

If you have any questions about marking an Inspera exam, please contact the Digital Exams Team via Digital.Exams@newcastle.ac.uk.  

If you have any hints or tips that you think we could add to the above list, please do share them with the Digital Exams Team. 

Demonstrable impact on teaching and learning: 2024 The Association of National Teaching Fellows (ANTF) Symposium 

Each year, the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) and the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) celebrate and recognise individuals and collaborative work that have had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning.

ANTF symposium

As a professional development adviser in the Academic Practice Team at LTDS who support colleagues learning and teaching development as well as the deputy TEAL at Newcastle University who support the NTF and CATE nominations, I attended the 2024 The Association of National Teaching Fellows (ANTF) Symposium at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK, on 23rd to 24th April, which features two days of sharing and reflections from NTFs and CATEs in relations to wellbeing, Innovation and Impact, Reward and Recognition and Equity and Ethics. 

National Teaching Repository

A variety of effective practices and resources have been introduced throughout the conference. For example, the National Teaching Repository, which is an open access online searchable database where tried and tested strategies ‘that work’ can be housed and harvested. Contributing and sharing your effective teaching and research via the platform means effective ways to Measure the impact of practice as well as making the resources more discoverable, shareable & citable as you will Attain a unique DOI for each item uploaded. 

The National Learning and Teaching Focused Network

Another example is The National Learning and Teaching Focused Network, which connects colleagues in learning and teaching focused roles across the UK Higher Education sector. Through a one-hour workshop, presenters’ first-hand experiences were shared, and we discussed some common concerns and feelings among staff members who have a learning and teaching focused role, that in being learning and teaching focused, staff can feel misunderstood and like they do not belong. They often don’t know how to tell their “story” for promotion and because these pathways are relatively new and often the guidance from HR and senior staff can be lacking or at best narrow and restrictive. Yet these colleagues bring a richness and diversity to their institutions, but this is often rarely recognised. As a group, we explored the breadth of roles and activities of staff on learning and teaching focused pathways (The photo below shows some examples of the wide range of roles we discussed as a group). 

Raising the profile of professional service staff with teaching and learning responsibilities

One of the important and timely discussion I engaged with was a workshop exploring potential ways to raise the profile of professional service staff with teaching and learning responsibilities. Within the higher education sector there are a significant number of teaching and learning professionals employed on non-academic contracts. This could include Learning Developers, Librarians, Technicians or Learning Technologists, for example. However, despite the important role these individuals play in the student learning experience, they are particularly underrepresented in institutional nominations for the NTFS: only 5.8% of NTFS nominees in 2023, 5.1% in 2022 and 10.6% between 2018-2022. Questions were raised and discussed, which also are important for professional services colleagues who are considering NTF and CATE applications as well as for those institutional stakeholders who support such applicants. 

 For example: 

  • What are the range of professional service positions with teaching and learning. responsibilities?  
  • Where might professional service staff with teaching and learning responsibilities be based within a university?  
  • What are examples of professional service staff with teaching and learning responsibilities influencing institutional teaching practices within your institutions?  
  • How can the profile of professional service staff with teaching and learning responsibilities be showcased to the institutional Teaching Excellence Award Leads (TEALs) who support and submit the nominations?  
  • How can teaching and learning evaluation be inclusive of professional services to support demonstration of impact? 

Mapping scholarship

A highlight of the conference was an interactive workshop on Making scholarship Inclusive, in which we discussed a key notion and concept, i.e., ‘scholarship’, with the growing emphasis on ensuring a sound evidence base for education, arising from ‘scholarship’ activities. Based on presenters’ recent ‘Mapping Scholarship’ project demonstrated that some staff are uncertain about what ‘counts’ as scholarship, whilst nevertheless undertaking activities that relate to education, that are or could be public, evaluated, and impactful, and thus are easily included under broad definitions of scholarship. Kern et al.’s (2015) Dimensions and Activities Related to Teaching Model (DART, see Figure below) proved immensely useful for stimulating discussion of the nature of scholarship. We discussed and evaluated the potential limitations of this model, and considered a proposed model that is both inclusive and useful in stimulating scholarship activity. 

  

  

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/view/13623/25313

Find out more

If you are interested in finding out more about how to get your teaching recognised, please go to the page to explore a potential route and contact APT if you have any questions. 

A review of Student evaluation for Inspera  

Inspera Assessment, one of the University’s Digital Exam platforms, is in its third academic year of deployment. Following the launch of Inspera, the Learning and Teaching Development Service (LTDS) have asked for student feedback annually. Such feedback aids LTDS to ensure we are continually developing the service to improve student experience when taking an Inspera Digital Exam.  

  • 142 students submitted their feedback in academic year 21-22  
  • 104 students submitted their feedback in academic year 22-23 

Our comparison findings: 

Students are reporting that they are more satisfied with Inspera Digital Exams in academic year 22-23 compared with 21-22.  An increase is also seen in its ease of use: 

Evaluation statements from Student Users 21-22 22-23 % increase (21-22 to 22-23) 
I found starting my Inspera exam somewhat or very easy 81% 89% +8% 
I found submitting my Inspera exam somewhat or very easy 80% 93% +13% 
I am satisfied or very satisfied with my experience of taking an exam(s) using Inspera within a PC Cluster venue 73% 79% +6% 
I have tried at least one Inspera demo exam  60% 73% +13% 

The use of demo or practice Inspera exams is also on the up. Students reporting using demos more so in 22-23 compared with 21-22; this is reflected in the increased figures on the self-enrol Student Inspera Demo Canvas course. Enrolment figures across the demo exams showed an 87% increase in usage for 22-23.  

Student engagement with Inspera demos is encouraging and LTDS would like to thank all colleagues who are promoting the use of demo exams to aid students’ familiarity with the Inspera platform. Try it out or share with your students: Student Inspera Demo Course

Next Steps 

LTDS will be requesting feedback from students for our current academic year after Semester 2’s assessment period. Where possible please encourage your students to complete the form as it helps to continue the improvement of the service.