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Make your learning and teaching resources more inclusive – two free online courses

Home Office poster on inclusive design.
Inclusive design is better for everyone.

Following on from the interest shown in a session, run by Ruth Graham and Sandy Alden, at the 2018 Learning and Teaching Conference, on designing inclusive learning, you can now sign up for two free online courses.

Inclusive Learning and Teaching Environments and Digital Accessibility: Enabling Participation in the Information Society are both from the University of Southampton.

Inclusive Learning and Teaching Environments runs from Sept 3rd for three weeks and is specifically for those working in Higher Education and interested in making elearning accessible to all.

Explore the barriers experienced by disabled students and learn how to overcome these barriers through inclusive practices.

Digital Accessibility: Enabling Participation in the Information Society runs from Oct 8th for five weeks, and has 8 universities discussing different aspects of digital technologies and accessibility from the developer and user’s point of view. It features case studies, new technologies and the latest news about legal standards and guidelines for web, mobile, documents, IoT etc. When there is:

“a better understanding of users’ needs, technologies can be developed to be accessible & provide a more inclusive environment”

Both courses are free, and offer practical hints and tips you can use straight away to make your own resources more inclusive.

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PGT Peer Mentoring Task and Finish Group

We are looking to introduce further pilot schemes in regards to PGT buddy/mentoring within the University.

An email invitation was sent to Senior Tutors and Peer Mentoring staff coordinators to volunteer to join a Task and Finish Group to consider the best way forward regarding the launching of these pilots. If anyone would like to become a member of this group please contact Tony Chapman-Wilson, the University Peer Mentoring Coordinator for further details at Tony.Chapman-Wilson@Newcastle.ac.uk.

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Success for Dr Hélène Tyrrell at the Northern Law Awards

Dr Helene Tyrrell receiving her award

Congratulations to Newcastle University Law Lecturer, Dr Hélène Tyrrell, who won the Law Teacher of the Year award at the Northern Law Awards 2018.

To be eligible for the award individuals were expected to have demonstrated a number of excellent teaching qualities including innovative teaching practices, an interest in student development and the ability to enhance the student learning experience through scholarly activities.

Dr Tyrrell stood out to the judges who noted that she:

“..consistently demonstrated a high level of achievement across all of the criteria with clear evidence for genuine warmth and ability to build rapport with students”

Northern Law Awards Winners Guide 2018

One of the nominations highlighted a number of Dr Tyrrell’s key achievements including:

  • Redesigning and running the PARTNERS Summer School resulting in exceptional feedback from participants.
  • Successfully engaging over 200 students with detailed case and statute reading in a lecture setting . Read more about this in Dr Tyrrell’s case study.
  • Incorporating research knowledge into her teaching from her time researching in Parliament and her work on the UK Supreme Court. This ensured that students greatly benefited from her expertise.

The award was open to any law teacher working in Higher Education in the North of England so a fantastic achievement for Dr Tyrrell to win the award.

Dr Jennifer Stephens, also a lecturer here at Newcastle, was shortlisted for the award recognising the excellent work she has carried out with student support services.

There was further success for Newcastle Law School at the awards with the student-led Street Law initiative winning the Pro Bono/ Community Initiative of the Year.  Read more on the University website.

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Learning and Teaching Conference 2018: Legacy Resources

Education for Life: celebrating partnership, encouraging innovation

This year’s Learning and Teaching Conference took place on the 21 March 2018.  Staff from across the University came together to explore the following questions:

How do we provide education for life, across all of our campuses?

How can we engage, challenge and support our students to discover and fulfill their potential in Newcastle, London, Singapore and Malaysia?

This conference  highlighted partnerships, encouraged innovation, and celebrated effective teaching. Full legacy resources are available below:

Continue reading “Learning and Teaching Conference 2018: Legacy Resources”

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Programme of talks released for international EAMS 2018 Conference 

The programme for the E-Assessment in Mathematical Sciences (EAMS) conference has been released, with speakers from across the globe presenting the latest developments in the field of maths e-assessment and offering a unique opportunity to get hands-on with software, whether you are a user, a developer, or just a bit interested!

The conference takes place over 3 days here at Newcastle University, between 28th and 30th August, and is being hosted by the e-learning unit in the School of Mathematics, Statistics & Physics.

Mohamad Jebara, CEO of the award-winning Australian platform MathSpace, will open the conference, focussing on the innovative ways that MathSpace adapts to learners. Other highlights of day one include longer talks by senior figures from Vretta and DigitalEd, both with origins in Canada, and updates from EAMS 2016 keynote speakers, our own Christian Lawson-Perfect and Chris Sangwin, the lead developers of Numbas and STACK, respectively.

Opening proceedings on day two, Paul Milner, development manager at National Numeracy, will discuss the technology behind the charity’s online platform, which aims to improve the everyday maths of the UK’s adult population. The day will continue with a series of lightning talks covering topics including blended learning, online exams, and applications to subjects including statistics, engineering, physics and chemistry.

Day three will follow a new format, with the opportunity to take part in a ‘sprint’ to collaborate on new developments, to document best practice or exchange ideas. The format and content will be responsive to the topics and discussions arising from the proceedings in the first two days.

The conference takes place in the Boiler House, which will also host the conference dinner on the Wednesday night. Registration is free for Newcastle University staff and you are welcome to drop in and out of the conference sessions, however please do register on the EAMS website.

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NUTELA weeding and seeding

The last NUTELA 3Ps (pizza, pop and practice) of this academic year took place last week . It’s been a productive year for the group and we are looking forward to arranging another exciting programme of sessions for next year.

Our excellent presenters showed everyone the new online reading lists system, gave tips about cleaning up Blackboard modules, as well as well as how to explore new ways of adding value with collaboration tools, groups and tests. There was time for attendees to ask lots of questions and give some of the technologies a go.

Special thanks to Paula Fitzpatrick and Stephen Harding from Digital Library Services and Rebecca Gill and Carol Summerside from LTDS for delivering such informative sessions.

We’ve included some resources  below but please feel free to get in touch with LTDS@ncl.ac.uk with any questions.

Online Reading Lists

Quick instructions for creating your own reading lists.

Blackboard Weeding and Seeding resources

Session presentation: Covering student feedback, Blackboard Baseline,  enhancement and mobile accessibility

Blackboard module checklist: A handy resource to help you consider whether your module meets the recommendations set out in the Blackboard Baseline.

Interested in NUTELA

We are always looking to engage with more members of staff and we have a mailing list which we use to keep people up to date with events and opportunities. Anyone who would like to sign up to the mailing list can email  nutelaops@newcastle.ac.uk

Also if there are any technologies that you would like to try or find out more about let us know. We can try to include these in our Pizza, Pop and Practice Programme next year.

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Teesside University Learning and Teaching Workshop: Minecraft as a teaching tool

If you’re interested in the use of games in learning and teaching sign up to this workshop exploring the use of Minecraft, particularly how it can be used in Biosciences.

The programme includes a keynote from Joel Mills,  Minecraft Mentor & Deputy Director of Learning & Teaching Enhancement, Hull University,  as well as lots of opportunities to use the software and trial the virtual field trip exercise.

Thursday 12th July 2018
10am-4pm
Teesside University

To find out more and book your place please visit http://www.tees.ac.uk/sections/whats_on/events_details.cfm?event_id=10172 

 

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Vice Chancellor’s Education Excellence Award Winners

Dr Simon Tate, Dr Alison Graham, School of Biomedical Sciences Professional Services Team and Dr Patrick Rosenkranz

The winners of 2018 Vice Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards have now been announced after careful consideration of a number of excellent submissions.

Congratulations to Dr Alison Graham, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Dr Patrick Rosenkranz, School of Psychology and  Dr Simon Tate, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology for their outstanding achievements which resulted in them winning an  individual award.

A valued addition for 2018 was the introduction of the team award. Congratulations to the School of Biomedical Sciences Professional Services Team who won this all new award for their exceptional achievements when dealing with new challenges.

The winners have demonstrated a marked impact on the experience of students here at Newcastle University, with the panel commending the winners on a wide range of projects in which they have played an instrumental role. Professor Suzanne Cholerton, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Education highlighted the excellent achievements of all of the winners:

“The Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards celebrate outstanding contributions to our students’ educational experience. The winners of the awards have demonstrated a sustained record of innovation and creativity in supporting students’ learning and shown exceptional dedication and commitment to support their students. Congratulations to the award winners on this well-deserved recognition.”

Continue reading “Vice Chancellor’s Education Excellence Award Winners”

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Student views on feedback forms

Group of students

To find out more a student intern, working with staff in LTDS,  evaluated existing feedback forms and gathered opinions from students to identify what works and what could be improved. The project considered a total of 66 forms from 19 different schools and included focus groups and interviews with individual students.

What did they find?

These are a few key findings and you can find full details in the project report.

Form Design

Have clear, separate sections showing:

  • Strengths and areas for improvement
  • Clear advice for future work

Only use tick boxes for objective areas of the marking criteria, such as grammar. When tick boxes were used for subjective areas, such as argument, students found this unhelpful.

Look at your feedback forms and consider whether these should be redesigned. Consult with the students in your school as part of the process.

Utilising the form

Type feedback, wherever possible.

Introduce structured opportunities to help students understand:

  • expectations of the marking criteria
  • the ways in which this is reflected in the feedback sheet

Discuss how you use marking sheets with your colleagues. Try to develop a consistent approach to:

  • the volume of feedback
  • the use of notes in margins

For more information get in touch with LTDS@ncl.ac.uk

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Celebrating even more success

Lisa Fishburn

Lisa Fishburn, Learning Enhancement and Technology Adviser, was also invited to the  Celebrating Success event as a result of her fantastic work with the School of Dental Sciences transforming 15 years of unmanageable Blackboard content into the accessible, consistent structure that is in place today.

The self named ‘crack task force’ of both dental academics, Lisa and colleagues in LTDS worked together to ensure that the changes had a hugely positive impact on both the student and staff experience.

Christopher O’Connor, Clinical Fellow in the School of Dental Sciences was the lead academic member of staff for this project and you can read about his experience in this blog post

For more information or if you have any questions about Blackboard get in touch with LTDS@ncl.ac.uk