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The Taught Postgraduate Offer

In 2011 the University developed a statement of the Newcastle Offer.  This set out the range of opportunities that we would make available to all our undergraduate students irrespective of their programme or location of study, and in 2013 the University won the THELMA for outstanding leadership and management team for its work in developing and implementing the Newcastle Offer.

Many of the Newcastle Offer developments benefitted our taught postgraduate programmes and students, as well as our undergraduates (for example ReCap;  ePortoflio;  Reward and Recognition;  a number of assessment and feedback initiatives).   It was still the case, though, that the focus of the Newcastle Offer was largely undergraduate.

The University is now developing a statement of its Taught Postgraduate Offer, focusing on the specific nature and needs of taught postgraduate provision.  A Task and Finish Group chaired by Professor Suzanne Cholerton has recently circulated to Faculties a consultation paper – Consultation paper on the development of the Taught Postgraduate Offer. This includes a draft of a statement of the Taught Postgraduate Offer, why it has been developed and how it might be implemented.

The consultation paper will go to Faculty committees over the next couple of months to get feedback from colleagues across the University, but we’re also keen to receive feedback directly from schools, subject areas and individual colleagues as well. If you want to pass on your views on the draft, please comment below this blog post or alternatively send any feedback directly to me at richard.harrison@ncl.ac.uk and the Task and Finish Group will consider what you say along with all the other feedback we get.

The consultation closes on 29 Feb. 2016.

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Star Case Study – Mock Viva Video in Politics

Doing your viva in Politics has been revolutionised by a new mock viva video for Ph.D. students.

https://youtu.be/GZ7qXpEXfAQ

 

Politics PGR Director Professor Tony Zito and Kate Manzo (Geography) realised that students often were not attending or were not paying attention to more traditional approaches to preparing students for their viva, so he decided to show them exactly what to expect by making a video.

Tony said: ‘A lot of students were just not coming to the sessions I was running about vivas and what their viva would be like.

‘I think for those who were in first or second year of their Ph.D.s their viva seemed very far away and for those nearing the end of their project the viva had become something too scary to think about.

‘So we decided to make sure that there would be something online that they could always access, perhaps even in the middle of the night when they were worrying about an upcoming viva.’

Tony enlisted the help of politics student Russell Foster, himself preparing for an upcoming viva.

Russell agreed to be filmed during a mock viva with Tony and Kate taking the roles of internal and external examiners.

The mock viva was kept very formal, with Russell entering the room in a suit to greet his examiners, just like in the real thing.

‘It was great of Russell to agree to do that on camera because it’s a pretty scary thing but he was happy to help other students.

‘The video worked really well and will hopefully give other students an idea of what to expect as their viva looms.

‘You can see Russell go through the whole process so hopefully it will be helpful to them to see the whole thing so clearly laid out.’

The video was posted on Youtube, with Russell’s permission and is used frequently as a resource for students in GPS approaching the end of their Ph.D.s.

Tony said: ‘We’re not sure of the impact yet. We did this in October 2013 and Ph.D.s are a slow process so we’ve not had that many students through yet to notice any particular trends but we expect that it can only have a positive impact.’

Thinking of doing a similar thing in your school? Contact LTDS@ncl.ac.uk  for more information or for technical support.

For more examples of good practice in teaching and learning from across Newcastle have a look at the Case Studies Database.

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New Year, New Ideas, Your Opportunity

Come and make your ideas happen in The Enterprise Shed! This free online course starts on 15 February and lasts 4 weeks, with a time commitment of around 3 hours a week. It is led by Katie Wray, Lecturer in Enterprise from here at Newcastle University.

Join Katie on this highly interactive journey exploring and developing your own entrepreneurial mindset with a community of like minded people from all over the world.

“we were all sparking off each other and I really felt I was learning and being encouraged”

“I am now more confident about my big idea and am excited to get started”

“So inspiring, and exposing me to much more than I anticipated.”

On the course, you’ll meet a whole bunch of thinkers and doers; those just starting out, makers, tinkerers and experienced entrepreneurs. Sharing your ideas with them and other learners will encourage you to have more confidence to think and do more to create change and solve problems in your own world.

You don’t need any specific skills or experience – just passion and a willingness to get involved.

Sign up at www.futurelearn.com/courses/enterprise-shed

You can download a flyer too to share with your friends, colleagues and family.

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HEA Arts and Humanities Conference CFP closing

Inspire – sharing great practice in Arts and Humanities teaching and learning
3–4 March 2016
The Waterfront Hotel, Brighton

The call for papers for the HEA Arts and Humanities conference closes on 11 January 2016.

We are accepting paper, ignite sessions, workshop and poster submissions on the following themes:

  • Innovate: How are we adopting and implementing innovative practice in Arts and Humanities teaching and learning?
  • Assessment: How can we meet the assessment & feedback challenges in Arts and Humanities?
  • Achievement: How can we support student retention and attainment in Arts and Humanities?
  • Embedding employability: How can we embed employability and prepare students for their transition into the world of work or postgraduate study through our teaching and learning strategies?
  • Developing our practice: How do we drive our own practice forwards, what are effective strategies for continuing professional development?

Download the call for papers document  and guidance for contributors for more information on preparing your submission.

For more information about the conference formats, to download a submission form, and to book your place, visit the conference page.

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Another present from HEFCE …

NSS_Logo_Black_English

Really? Can it really be nearly that time of year again? It comes round so quickly doesn’t it?

No, not Christmas. It’s nearly National Student Survey time again. Shortly after the start of the new calendar year NSS 2016 launches – at Newcastle the Survey will launch on Monday 2 February. Sometimes it can feel as though there are some Groundhog Day elements to the NSS, but this year is different. 2016 will be the last time that NSS runs in its current format as HEFCE are planning a number of significant changes for NSS 2017.

The format of the NSS has remained pretty constant since it was launched in 2005. It surveys final year undergraduates. It uses the same 22 questions, with the addition of a question on Students’ Unions in 2012 being the only change. Such a period of calm, and lack of change, is somewhat unusual in UK higher education – and it’s about to end.

HEFCE have proposed that from NSS 2017:

  • Seven of the existing questions should be dropped from the Survey – including all three on Personal Development and the question on Students’ Unions.
  • Nine new questions should be added – four under the heading Academic Challenge and Integrative Learning; three on The Student Voice; and two on The Learning Community and Collaborative Learning.
  • All three of the existing questions on Learning Resources should be re-worded, as should two of the questions on Assessment and Feedback.

Not quite all change, but if HEFCE goes ahead with these changes the NSS will look very different. I’ve uploaded a mock-up of what the new NSS 2017 would like under the proposals to highlight this, which was compiled by Corony Edwards at Exeter University (and which I’m uploading with Corony’s permission) – NSS 2017 Proposed Questions.

What it means is that NSS would start to take on a different character with a much greater focus on  student engagement issues – both student engagement with their programmes, and student engagement as members of the academic communities in the departments/schools that deliver their programmes.

Of course this isn’t  fixed and agreed yet. HEFCE have been consulting on this (the consultation closed last week), and it will be a while before the final outcome and the actual content of NSS 2017 is announced. But it seems pretty clear that as with most other things relating to learning and teaching and external ‘regulation’ (TEF, quality assessment) we’re about to enter a very different world.

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Pizza, Pop and Practice: Sound and Vision 27th November 2015

Participants at 3Ps Workshop 27th November 2015
Participants at 3Ps Workshop 27th November 2015

The recent Pizza, Pop and Practice workshop on Sound and Vision, looking at making recordings and short video clips for use in teaching, was a tremendous success.
Participants enjoyed their pizza and pop, whilst learning about Audacity (which enables you to make short sound recordings and clips), Animoto (which allows you to make short video clips to advertise events or explain simple concepts – see Jo’s video about the workshop below), as well as looking at ways to use Microsoft Office Mix to create videos and recordings for use in powerpoints or online.


Thanks to everyone who came along and thanks in particular to Lucy Keating, Marc Bennett, Jo Robinson-Lamb and Nuala Davis for delivering such interesting workshops!
All of the materials from the workshops are now available on this blog.
Interested in using these materials in your teaching? Contact LTDS for more information and support.

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Learning and Teaching Development Service Website Launch

On the 17th of December, the Learning and Teaching Development Service will be launching their new website, alongside the new Case Studies database.

The new LTDS website  replace the old QuILT website, and will provide University staff will a clear route to find the things you need related to learning and teaching development and teaching quality assurance at Newcastle University.

We have many workshops and webinars running, and we will be developing a new booking system in the New Year.

The new Case Studies database has over 100 examples of good teaching practice across the University. Use it to inspire and support you in your teaching.

Alongside the revision of the website, we have launched this Learning and Teaching Development blog covering:

  • news in learning and teaching from around the University, including teaching quality assurance
  • theme based collections of case studies of good practice from academic and support staff
  • reports from learning and teaching related projects including Innovation Award holders
  • changes and rapid updates to learning and teaching services supported by LTDS (Blackboard, ReCap, ePortfolio, etc)
  • hints and tips, tricks and tools covering all aspects of LTDS areas of responsibility

 

 

 

 

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Office Mix: Making PowerPoints Interactive

Office Mix is a PowerPoint plugin that enables you to take new and existing presentations and transform them into interactive online learning resources that you can easily publish to your website and/or Blackboard. You can use the tool to add:

Voice and Audio narration to your slides

Annotate you slides in real-time

Record your screen to demonstrate a program or process

Quizzes, polls and other interactive content

Videos and live web pages

An excellent range of resources, including some more advanced features, like embedding mixes in webpages, can be found at mixforteachers.com

When you come to publish your mixes you can either publish to a personal account or use your University account which Microsoft refers to as ‘Work or School Account’. Simply sign in with your username@newcastle.ac.uk (e.g. nmb84@newcastle.ac.uk) and your university password.

If you want to track your students’ progress and engagement with your mixes via your Blackboard Module you can use the integrated Office Mix tool in the VLE. This will give you stats on a range of things that you can link to individual students including how many attempts they took to answer questions and time spent on specific slides.

Using the Office Mix Blackboard tool

Please note: Office Mix is currently in Beta which means that it could change or be removed completely in the future. We believe this is very unlikely given the growing popularity of the product and as your mix PowerPoints will remain functional as presentations it is very low risk experiment should you wish to try it.

You can install Office Mix on your personal machine by clicking here

If you wish to install Office Mix on a University machine simply request that your computing officer apply the following policy: ‘4 NUIT Office Mix Beta’

 

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Vision – Animoto

Animoto - choose a style
Animoto – choose a style

At our last 3P’s session we also ran two sessions on vision.

These looked at using Microsoft software for developing videos and image galleries, as well as Animoto, a software available free online.

Animoto can be used for free, by registering for an Educator’s account….

It’s very simple to use.

Here are some of the materials from the session to jog your memory or get you started:

1. Step-by Step guide to Animoto (docx)

2. Video guide

3. Guide to getting an Educator’s Account

Then it’s just practice really!