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PRES & PTES: Record Response Rates, High Satisfaction

Record Response Rates

Both the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey and the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey closed with the highest response rates that Newcastle University has ever achieved at 65% and 57% respectively.

This is a fantastic achievement which would not be possible without the continued support and promotion of the surveys from colleagues across the university, thank you!

High Satisfaction

In terms of Newcastle’s overall satisfaction rate for the PRES, 85% of students agreed with the statement ‘Overall, I am satisfied with the experience of my research degree programme’. This represents an increase of 2% on 2015, and is 3% higher than the Russell Group average.

Also in the PRES, over 90% of students agreed that their supervisor has the skills and subject knowledge to support their research and that they have regular contact with their supervisor that is appropriate to their needs. This represents an increase of 2% on 2016

In the PTES Early results show that satisfaction has remained high with over 90% of students agreeing that staff are good at explaining things and are enthusiastic about their teaching.

 

For further information regarding student surveys please visit our webpage.

 

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Workshop: Exploring career development via teaching and learning

Workshop: Exploring career development via teaching and learning

3rd July 2017 – The Core

This one-day workshop is for all academic staff interested in developing their career on the basis of teaching.

This interactive day will involve: identifying activities that may lead to reward and recognition, reflections from successful colleagues both internally and externally, and developing action plans.

It will be a space to discuss approaches to building your career, gaining internal, or external, validation of excellence and to consider your individual development path.

See the programme of the day: programme_final

Places are limited. To attend please complete the booking form.

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Upcoming HEA Events

The Higher Education Academy have just released their list of upcoming events which can be found here http://mail.heacademy.ac.uk/12ZA-4Z4E8-CB5ILPSUD6/cr.aspx.

Please note the University is a Strategic Partner with the HEA and we are entitled to get the relevant rate for events. (You can check the rate by going to the information about the event and selecting Newcastle university in the Price details box.)

Note there is an early bird booking discount until the end of July.

 

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Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey: Open Now

The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) will remain open until Friday 16th June. hea_surveys_logos_ptes-colour

The PTES asks postgraduate taught students in universities across the United Kingdom about their course and their learning experiences.

What is it?

The survey asks eligible postgraduate taught students about the whole student learning experience including;

  • motivations for taking the programme
  • information they were given to help choose their programme
  • their experience of teaching and learning
  • the organisation of the programme
  • assessment and dissertation (or major project)
  • career development

Why is it important?

The survey presents an opportunity for students to shape the student experience: the feedback we receive is valuable in helping to enhance the postgraduate taught experience at Newcastle.

Incentives

All the respondents are entered into a prize draw (see terms and conditions). In 2017, the prizes include:

  • 1st Place prize: 9.7-inch iPad Pro (one available to win)
  • 2nd Place prizes: iPad mini 4 (two available to win)
  • 3rd Place prizes: £20 Amazon gift card (20 available to win)

Further details and support can be found on the LTDS webages. If you have any specific questions please contact LTDS@ncl.ac.uk

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Feeling Connected

lecturemontage

LTDS hosted the first of our Feeling Connected events last week.  The series is all about how to help to engage large students cohorts in the classroom and beyond. In this initial session we considered how to engage students in the lecture.

Tony Chapman-Wilson brought an actors perspective on how to get the best out of, and look after our voices.  He had us humming, thinking about our diaphragms and tripping over tongue twisters.

Sue Gill spoke about Powerpoint as an aid; we presented feedback from the recent TEA awards from NUSU on what student appreciate; heard top tips from colleagues via podcasts and Dr Alison Graham rounded the session off with real examples and insights from her use of the OMBEA student response system.

Handouts

Podcasts

We interviewed Dr Sylvia de-Mars, Dr Julian Knight and Dr Keith Brewster and shared their insights in the session.

The links below take you to the recordings on ReCap.

Thanks to all who attended and contributed to a lively session, and to and to colleagues who gave up their time to contribute before and after.

Insights from NUSU Teaching Excellence Awards (TEAs)

Rowan South and Dr Joe Barton from NUSU talk about what students value:

Next in the series…staying connected

Our next Feeling Connected event will focus on how to stay connected between lectures.  It will take place on Tuesday 19 September in the Herschel Learning Lab and have a hands-on feel.  You can book via our web-page: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ltds/about/training/feelingconnected/

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Learning and Teaching Conference 2017: Reimagining Teaching Excellence

In 2017 the Newcastle University annual Learning and Teaching Conference  took place on 27 March 2017.

Conference theme: Reimagining Teaching Excellence

Newcastle’s commitment to excellent teaching is at the heart of our University mission, and is crucial to our aim of providing an educational experience that challenges and supports our students to fulfil their potential.  At a time when external agencies are seeking to define this for us, it is more important than ever that we have a clear understanding of what we as an academic community understand by learninhe phrase ‘teaching excellence’.

Teaching excellence was therefore the focus of the 2017 Conference and the programme for the day provided an opportunity to:

  • hear an external view point on teaching excellence from keynote speaker Paul Blackmore – Professor of Higher Education at The Policy Institute, King’s College London
  • hear about what our staff and students view as teaching excellence
  • see examples of teaching practice and innovation from across the institution
  • contribute to how the University will pursue excellence in learning and teaching in the future through a session on the development of our new University Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Strategy.

 

Resources From The Day

Introduction Presentation from Professor Suzanne Cholerton

PowerPoint slides and ReCap recording

Keynote – Professor Paul Blackmore – Professor of Higher Education at The Policy Institute at King’s College London

PowerPoint slides and ReCap recording

Teaching Excellence at Newcastle

Newcastle Educators Group – Dr Vanessa Armstrong (Biomedical Sciences), Dr Sara Marsham (Marine Science & Technology) and Dr JC Penet (Modern Languages)

PowerPoint slides and ReCap recording

Teaching Excellence Awards (TEAs)

Chris Duddy (Education Officer, NUSU), David Jones (Assistant Development Officer, HaSS Faculty) and Joe Barton (Representation Support Worker, NUSU)

PowerPoint slides, ReCap recording and TEAs Report 2016

Development of Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Strategy

Facilitated by Craig Smith from Flint Spark Consulting.

PowerPoint slides and ReCap recording (audio only)

Herschel Learning Lab – experiences of use

ReCap recording

Mrs Ulrike Thomas – Research Associate, Education Communication and Language Sciences) PowerPoint slides
Dr Ellen Tullo – Lecturer, Biomedical Sciences PowerPoint slides
Professor TT Arvind – Professor of Law, Newcastle Law School PowerPoint slides
Dr James Stanfield – Lecturer, Education Communication and Language Sciences Website
Miss Katie Wray – Lecturer, SAgE Faculty Office PowerPoint slides

Posters

View the list of poster presentations at the 2017 Learning and Teaching Conference, and view the posters online.

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Student trade fair: come along to this a student, industry and academic event

Advertising for a mechanical engineering student trade fair.
Come along to the Lindisfarne Room on 25 April 2017

Anyone is welcome to come along to this exciting student trade fair.

  • Designed in response to industry and employer requests for graduates that can apply their learning, and who are entrepreneurial in their approach to developing new approaches, products and services for industry.
  • A chance for students to showcase their problem solving, innovation, product design and commercial awareness skills through problem-based, demand-led design.

This is about design and selling; in industry you need to present to clients and get their buy-in through a sales pitch. It takes students outside their comfort zone to look from the point of view of a client
(MWH/Stantec)

Mechanical Engineering  Trade Fair
25 April 2017
2pm to 4.30pm
Lindisfarne Room
Kings Road Centre

There is another Trade Fair for Computing Science on 2 May:
Computing Science Trade Fair
2 May 2017
2pm to 4.30pm
Lindisfarne Room
Kings Road Centre

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Contact the Numbas Team

Mailing List

If you are using Numbas on your course then you can receive updates on the Numbas service by subscribing to our new mailing list ncl-numbas-users: visit https://lists.ncl.ac.uk/wws/subscribe/ncl-numbas-users.

E-mail

If you would like to find out more about using Numbas, or are having problems, then you can reach the Mathematics & Statistics e-learning unit at the role account numbas@ncl.ac.uk.

E-learning Team Members

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Feeling Connected: Working with large groups

  • teaching_large_classes
    Teaching Large Classes Giulia Forsythe CC-BY-SA https://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/8261536706

    How can you engage large student cohorts in the classroom/lecture theatre?

  • And how could you maintain those connections when the lecture is over?
  • How do you make meaningful connections with all your students?

Aimed at academic and professional services staff these practical workshops draw on examples of effective practice from within the University and from outside. Ranging from using technology effectively, and utilising basic acting techniques, to creating accessible materials for everyone, we share ideas and tips you can take away and try with your large groups tomorrow.

You can attend all three, or choose the ones that best meet your needs

Creating connections: Managing large groups in the lecture theatre

Tuesday 9th May 12.00-14.00, G.07 Daysh Building

In this workshop we share tips and tricks for how we can effectively manage large groups in the lecture theatre, You’ll be able to try out some techniques for yourself in this interactive session, with case studies from colleagues from across the University and some practical exercises ranging from maintaining audience attention and using lecture theatre technology to how to stop your voice giving out as term progresses.

Staying connected: Facilitating large groups outside of the lecture theatre

Tuesday 19th September 12.00-14.00, Herschel Learning Lab, Herschel Building

The recent NUSU report on the Teaching Excellence Awards contained some gems of information from students, one of which was that they really value the activities before and after a lecture. But how do you build meaningful activities and maintain attention outside of the lecture theatre? This workshop looks at ‘the lecture sandwich’ where we share tips and get some hands on experience  of using Blackboard, ReCap discussion boards etc to help build collaborative learning before and after the lecture. We also look at boundary setting and expectation management with email and in discussion boards.

Connecting everyone

Date tbc (pending timetabling)

Drawing on inclusive learning principles this cluster based hands on workshop focuses on learning for all and reaching everyone on your large group. We share tips on using multiple communication channels, and how using module handbooks, reading lists, well structured documents effectively can help get to hard to reach students.

Further information and bookings

For more information and to book: www.ncl.ac.uk/ltds/about/training/feelingconnected/

You can choose to come to all three or just pick the ones that best suit your needs. And bring a sandwich with you, if you like.