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NUTELA 3Ps: Using Video in your teaching

Are you interested in using video in your teaching?  The latest NUTELA pizza, pop and practice event looked using ReCap outside of the lecture theatre, Microsoft Stream and Box of Broadcasts.

Resources

If you are interested in finding out more  and accessing some of the resources join the NUTELA Team where you can also share ideas with colleagues.

Thanks to Carol Summerside, LTDS, Dr Chris Graham, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Graeme Redshaw-Boxwell, LTDS and Marc Bennett, NUIT, for delivering the session.

Find out more about NUTELA

Get in touch with the Steering Group if you want to find out more about NUTELA and future events.

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Learning and Teaching Conference: Poster Vote Now Open

Quayside

The Learning and Teaching Conference poster competition is now open and Newcastle University staff and students can vote for 3 posters that they find most inspirational. Winners will be announced  at the end of the conference on 3 April 2019.

You can view the posters on sway (you will be prompted to log in to view these) and then submit your votes on the voting page.

Conference delegates will be able to browse the posters during registration and over lunch, where presenters will be available to answer any questions. Voting will close at 3pm  (GMT) on the 3 April 2019.

Find out full information about this year’s conference on the conference website.

If you have any questions please get in touch LTDS@ncl.ac.uk

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SEDA Workshop: Supporting Programme Leaders and Programme Leadership

Thursday 11 April 2019

University of Birmingham

This workshop is aimed at programme leaders interested in development opportunities and covers  a range of areas including:

  • How to better frame and define the role
  • Academic leadership
  • Programme level assessment
  • A year in the life of a programme assessor

Find out full details, including how to book your place  on the SEDA Website

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Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching: Pedagogy and Knowledge Production conference

9-10 April, 2019, hosted by Keele University

“The future and end of interdisciplinarity. What is implied when we aim for more robust interdisciplinary insights?” presented by Dr. Machiel Keestra has been confirmed as the Keynote talk for the  Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching: Pedagogy and Knowledge Production conference.

Machiel Keestra is assistant professor (UD) at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He studied philosophy and psychology in Amsterdam and Heidelberg (Germany) and his PhD thesis Sculpting the Space of Actions. Since 2010 Dr. Keestra has been the elected board member of the US based Association for Interdisciplinary Studies and their President from 2014-16. In addition he has been on the strategic board of the 2017 and 2019 International Transdisciplinarity Conferences and is co-chair of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies conference in Amsterdam, October 24-26th 2019 (http://aisconference2019.nl/).

Registration is open until the 29th of March at a very reasonable £60 for the full conference. The draft programme of speakers is now available from the website, https://www.keele.ac.uk/ilas/conferences/interdisciplinarylearningandteachingconference/.

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The State we’re in …

I’ve been at Newcastle for just short of five years now.  And we’re now on the third different national framework for assessing the quality of learning and teaching in English higher education since I came (back) to the University.  Not a particularly cheerful thought – I guess that (unfortunately) it’s that kind of world nowadays …

Until recently the only TLA (Three Letter Acronym) we really needed to know much about in terms of the external regulation of our learning and teaching was QAA.   Things aren’t that straightforward now, and there’s a plethora of new TLAs that form part of the new regulatory framework in England – e.g. OfS (Office for Students), CMA (Competition and Markets Authority), APP (Access and Participation Plan) and of course TEF.

For those colleagues who feel they would like or need to get a sense of how these external regulatory requirements operate, and link with each other, LTDS has published a series of short (i.e. two page) briefing notes.  You can find these on our website at https://www.ncl.ac.uk/ltds/governance/monitoring/review/.

As in the past no-one is expecting large numbers of colleagues to develop an intimate familiarity with these external requirements.  We’ll continue our approach of, wherever possible, embedding in our own University policies and processes those actions needed to meet external regulatory requirements, so that colleagues can be confident that if they follow Newcastle processes that national external regulatory requirements are being met.  The briefing notes are for those colleagues who would like to know a little more about the wider context, and how we’ve approached this as a University.

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Learning and Teaching Conference 2019: Keynote Speaker, Professor Alison Shaw

Professor Alison Shaw

The changing landscape of Higher Education,  3 April 2019

This year’s  programme includes a fantastic range of speakers and we are delighted to confirm that Professor Alison Shaw  will be delivering a keynote at the conference.

Biography

Alison has enjoyed a long and varied career in the English education system. She is Vice-President of NFER, the UK’s leading independent provider of education research and insights; and Founder of North East Futures UTC.

She studied Modern Foreign Languages to postgraduate level at the University of Leeds, to which she subsequently returned to do her PGCE after a year spent teaching at the University of Lyon in France. She has occupied senior roles in several secondary schools in England, including 11 years as a Headteacher, specialising throughout in shaping and augmenting curricula which combine academic rigour with real-world experience and relevance. Continue reading “Learning and Teaching Conference 2019: Keynote Speaker, Professor Alison Shaw”

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University Education Development Fund: Apply for up to £10,000

Are you interested in funding to support new teaching and learning ideas?

Staff can apply for up to £10,000 through the University Education Development Fund to support collaborative projects which deliver a real benefit to  students’ education at Newcastle University.

We got in touch with colleagues who have successfully applied to the fund to find out about their projects and experiences.

Dr Lana Liu, Newcastle University Business School worked with Dr. Mei Lin from the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences in a collaborative project: Enhancing critical moments in postgraduate taught programmes in Accounting and Finance and in Applied Linguistics and TESOL. 

“[There was an] easy application process with workshops, which were worth attending, as they were very informative. These workshops also helped to reduce the mist about the funding process. 

The feedback from the Panel was really useful and thought-provoking too. 

We now believe that we are in a much better position for our research investigation in this project.”

Dr Lana Liu, Newcastle University Business School

Karolien Jordens, Institute of Cellular Medicine worked with colleagues across HaSS, SAgE and FMS to explore: Postgraduate Study in Newcastle: the inter-cultural experience (PG-Nice)

“The  application process was quite straightforward. The funding helped us to get started with the practical side of our Student Experience research project. It gave us the opportunity to work with people from across the University and offer students the opportunity to get job experience while at the same time they’re part of a research project.”

Karolien Jordens, Institute of Cellular Medicine

There have been  a wide variety of strategic projects funded from across both academic units and central services in the university.

Staff from branch campuses are also encouraged to apply.

You can read more about the full range of projects on the LTDS website.

Interested in applying?

If you have an idea or want to find out a bit more about the fund you can view full information, including details of the application process on the LTDS website. The deadline for applications is Wednesday 15 May 2019.

We also recommend that you sign up to either a workshop or a webinar to find out more about the fund and hear from past successful applicants:

 University Education Development Fund Workshop, 25 March 2019, 12:00pm-1:00pm, BSTC 3.31, Bedson Building (Barbara Strang Teaching Centre)

University Education Development Fund (Webinar), 20 March 2019, 4:30pm-4:50pm

If you have any questions about the process or want to get some feedback about an idea please email:

educationdevfund@newcastle.ac.uk 

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the parent HUB

Newcastle University Peer Mentoring is proud to launch the parent HUB.

This hub is aimed for all students who are parents, foster carers, adoptive parents, or about to become parents, regardless of age, gender or sexuality.

The free online hub allows you to share experiences, ask questions and be part of a parenting community within the university. There will be trained university wide peer mentors as part of the network to offer one-to-one support and guidance, as well as answer any question in the discussion board.

The hub will be based on Microsoft Teams and is an excellent source of advice and support from like-minded, empathetic and patient peers.

There will be a schedule of face-to-face activities for you to meet up with other parents, ask questions, have a chat, share your experiences and support you through the balance of being a student and a parent. And for those of you unable to attend these, there will also be a range of ZOOM online conference activities to allow you to meet new parents and be able to engage in conversation as though you were in the same room from the comfort of your own home.

The parent hub will also allow you to share, lend, borrow, give, donate, sell, and buy those much needed pieces of equipment and clothing via the online discussion group.

The files section of the hub will allow the University to share useful information and documents with you – as well as members of the network being able to upload documents as well.

There will be the opportunity to share your experiences of child-friendly shops, restaurants, taxi companies, as well as provide some top tips of baby-changing facilities in the University and city, and baby feeding friendly places.

To join the parent HUB please email Tony Chapman-Wilson at peer.mentoring@newcastle.ac.uk now.

There will be the official launch of the parent HUB at an activity event on Wednesday 17 April 2019 between 11am and 2pm. This will take place in the Lindisfarne Room in the Hadrian’s Building opposite the Bedson Building and Boiler Room.

There will be refreshments and activities for the children, as well as the opportunity for you to meet other parents. There will be a child feeding room available, as well as the opportunity to speak to members of the University Peer Mentoring scheme and Student Health and Wellbeing Services.

Come along at any point during the event and sign up for the parent HUB on the day as well.

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Call for Papers: Enhancing Student Learning Through Innovative Scholarship Conference 2019

Active Learning for All

18-19 July, Edinburgh Napier University

The call for papers is now open and contributions are welcome for the following sessions:

  • Talks (20 mins (15 + 5 mins for questions))
  • Snapshots (5 mins)
  • Workshop (90 mins)

The theme incorporates a number of activities including:

  • Team Based Learning
  • Problem Based Learning
  • Project Based Learning
  • Playful Learning
  • Simulation & Role Play Based Learning

The deadline for submissions is 10 April 2019 and you can find full information on the conference website. 

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Have your say on the University’s future VLE

Do you want to help inform the University’s decision on the future VLE?

The University is well underway with the review of its Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and following the in-depth consultation that has taken place with staff and students over the past 18 months, the project team have worked hard to ensure the University’s requirements have been captured in the official tender which will be published later in February.

Once we receive suppliers’ responses to our tender, members of the project team will analyse these and will initially determine which suppliers meet our mandatory (pass/fail) requirements.  The project team will then score suppliers based on their responses to our highly desirable/desirable requirements.

We need your input….

The quality of the user experience is a very important element to our tender and will have significant weighting in our scoring process. We would really like both staff and students to get involved with this. During April to June, we will have access to test accounts for the systems that have met our mandatory requirements and volunteers will be asked to undertake a series of tasks, assessing each for ease of use, anticipated support required and system confidence.

It is essential that colleagues involved in this process review all systems that meet our mandatory requirements but it is not anticipated that this will take more than half a day. You will have the option of an organised workshop or completing the tasks in your own time and further details will be provided in the coming weeks.

We need representation from both academic and professional service staff with varying degrees of VLE experience from absolute beginners to expert users.

If you are interested in being involved, please complete this expression of interest form. 

On behalf of the project team, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your engagement throughout the consultation period which has been crucial in getting us to the point of publishing our tender documentation. I look forward to working with you during the next exciting phase.