Social Media in Teaching – 3P workshop on 23 April 2015

2015-04-23 15_43_09-mooc-images.ncl.ac.uk_blog_nutela-poster-23-April.pdfOur fourth Pizza Pop and Practice event will be on the topic of “Social Media in Teaching”

Is social media friend or foe?

  • How can I jump into the Twitter stream?
  • Can I generate conversations and connections around blogs?
  • How can I use Facebook in teaching?

 

This workshop is focused on helping you improve your teaching practice – we provide the hands-on support and the pizza!

Print off a poster for the workshop

Hashtag #social3p

Workshop materials

Twitter

Blogs

Facebook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People are really getting into ShedTalk!

The Enterprise Shed: Making Ideas Happen is Newcastle University‘s third free online course on FutureLearn. It started today and runs for four weeks with around three hours a week needed to keep up. Or you can join anytime before Sunday 26 April, and work through it at your own pace.

I’d really encourage you to sign up and take part whilst the course is running though, as this course is a little different to the two we have developed and run previously. The Enterprise Shed is almost entirely dependent on learners interactions and participation.

It’s you that will make or break this course, and it has been really encouraging to see how readily people are connecting, sharing experiences, helping each other, and sharing ideas so freely and openly.

After only a day it’s turning out to be a really inspirational space to be in.

If you haven’t signed up, there’s still plenty of time. Come and join us in The Enterprise Shed, and help others make their ideas happen, as well as get support to develop and refine your own.

You never know, it might be the start or something new for you….

Almost there – The Shed Mentors met yesterday

shed_line_drawingWe had a really productive meeting yesterday morning when the Lead Sheducator, Sheducators and Mentors met to familiarise themselves with The Enterprise Shed: Making Ideas Happen and how it will run when it starts next Monday on FutureLearn.

We have a great bunch of people, all experts in enterprise and entrepreneurial thinking, ready and eager to work with learners on The Enterprise Shed: Making Ideas Happen.

Perhaps you have met some of them already?

  • Katie Wray is a Lecturer in Enterprise in the SAgE Faculty here at Newcastle University and Lead Sheducator.
  • Rebecca Fisher is an Entrepreneurial Development Officer, also at Newcastle University and is both a Sheducator and Mentor.
  • Simon Laing is a recent Virgin Startup success story with Cullercoats Bike & Kayak.
  • Angela McLean (and her daughter, Jessica McCarthy) recently secured a deal for £100,000 from Dragon’s Den for their Baggers Originals childrens rainwear company.
  • Jane Nolan, MBE is a Teaching Fellow in Enterprise with the International Centre for Music Studies in the School of Arts and Cultures and a Visiting Entrepreneur supporting the work of Newcastle University Careers Service. She was awarded the MBE in 2000 for services to UK exports.
  • Dr Colin Jones is a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship at the University of Tasmania where he works in the Australian Innovation Research Centre.
  • Dr Victoria Mountford is an enthusiastic, entrepreneurial and people-focused individual with a range of experience in (enterprise & employability) higher education, (academic & commercial) research & business development. She works as a Development Officer in the Newcastle University Careers Service.

There will be other enterprising individuals popping up throughout this highly participatory course:

There is still plenty of time to sign up and explore your enterprising side – come and join us in The Enterprise Shed!

 

Peer recognition award – deadline extented to 30th April (5pm)

celebration-medal
Has someone helped you? Has another member of University staff gone out of their way to help you use technology? Would you like her/him to be recognised? If so, let us know!

NUTELA is offering two peer recognition awards this year. We are looking for nominations of staff members who have contributed to peer support or the mentoring of others learning about and/or working with technology.

It might be someone who has helped you understand the purpose of a specific learning technology, or someone who has been instrumental in progressing Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) initiatives in your unit. You are welcome to nominate any member of staff at Newcastle University.

The nomination process is simple. In 500 words or less, just answer these two questions and send your response to nutelaops@ncl.ac.uk.

  1. How has this staff member contributed to your learning, working or development with TEL?
  2. How has this contributed to the Learning, Teaching and Student Experience Strategy

The deadline is April 30, 2015. NUTELA will review the applications and make a decision. All nominees will be told they have been nominated, and will be invited to present their work at the year-end NUTELA conference in June, 2015. The award will be presented by Suzanne Cholerton, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) and the winners will be invited to the Vice-Chancellor’s Celebrating Success event.

Laura Delgaty
Chair
NUTELA
l.e.delgaty@ncl.ac.uk

Reciprocal links with the Archaeology of Portus

One of the great things about FutureLearn is the opportunity to work with partner institutions. For example, we have seem many synergies between our Hadrian’s Wall course and Southampton University’s Archaeology of Portus. We see learners in Hadrian’s Wall discussing and recommending Portus or referring to specific steps and activities, and even continuing dialogue with fellow learners they met through Portus.

Professor Graeme Earle (lead educator on Portus) has added links between steps in the Archaeology of Portus and other MOOCs including Hadrian’s Wall, which we have reciprocated. Learners can more easily see and follow connections between the courses (see links below the two courses below). Currently, users have to be signed up to both courses for this to work. If FutureLearn realise the plan to make individual steps more open (viewable without signing up to the course) this will become even more powerful.

Graeme’s post: Hadrian’s Wall cross references

Archaeology of Portus

Portus Hadrian’s Wall
Development of the Port Hadrian: civilisation and barbarism
Aerial photography and LiDAR What does aerial photography tell us about the Roman advance?
Aerial photography and LiDAR Which archaeological features can you identify from these aerial photographs?
Find of the week – fineware Vessels for food and drink on the frontier
The Trajanic ports Can you read a tombstone?
Some finds from today Categorising small finds
Find of the week – Byzantine crucifix Belts, brooches and late Roman soldiers
Find of the week – Byzantine crucifix Brooches, artefacts and identity
Geophysical prospection Seeing beneath the soil
Terme Della Lanterna The bath house – a hive of Roman social activity
Photogrammetry and laser scanning of artefacts Reading and recording cult objects using laser scanning

Pizza Pop and Practice – Learning and teaching off campus – 20th Feb 2015

 

Home working

  Office (at home)  Fabio Bruna CC BY 2.0.

This Practice based workshop was the third of four focused on helping you improve your teaching practice with hands on support. We covered:

Handout – Lync and Adobe Connect for meetings and teaching remotely (pdf)

Other relevant resources in response to questions on the day:

 

 

Why should you join us in The Enterprise Shed?

As we watch signup figures rise day by day for out third free online course with FutureLearn, The Enterprise Shed: Making Ideas Happen, Katie Wray, Lead Educator, for the course explores why we should all be joining her in The Enterprise Shed…

SS3Firstly, let me unpack ‘enterprise’. For me, enterprise is about making creativity, problem solving and ideas practical. This makes it relevant across all areas of education, not just business. Where enterprise is applied to creating a new venture, it is commonly known as ‘entrepreneurship’. We are increasingly aware of entrepreneurship, through the steady creation of new businesses (particularly in austere times), but also through the media. From this awareness we can each draw our own conclusions about what an entrepreneur is? The Enterprise Shed challenges a variety of definitions of an entrepreneur and looks at enterprise and entrepreneurship at a grassroots level. On the course you will be introduced to a whole bunch of entrepreneurial individuals and teams, not all of whom refer to themselves as ‘an entrepreneur’.

So if you can be ‘entrepreneurial’ (behave like an entrepreneur) without actually being an entrepreneur (starting a new business venture), who is ‘entrepreneurial’ and what can you do with your ‘entrepreneurialness’*? We are committed to exploring this with you throughout the course, and to supporting each participant to draw their own conclusions about how they can make change in their own context. Our other commitment is to exploring your ideas, to collecting insights into what a solution looks like, and to help you to turn that idea into something tangible.

This course is about you; it is about your role, through your ideas, in making change. There are 3 main reasons why you should commit 3 hours per week, for 4 weeks to The Enterprise Shed:

  1. You will develop confidence in yourself as a ‘doer’. You will do this through analysing the behaviours of other entrepreneurial people that you will be introduced to on the course, and drawing conclusions about the way that they ‘do’ and what you might ‘do’ when approaching your own challenges, problems and projects.
  2. You will discover ideas that address problems you want to play a role in changing. You will do this through identifying problems, sharing them with others, creating and collaborating on ideas generation, and developing solutions together with peers on the course.
  3. You will have the opportunity to meet people and build networks. WE will do this by forming virtual and physical networks around the globe, which can outlive the end of the course. You will meet people that share your passions and drivers to make change in your world, find out where you can go for help, and collaborate to achieve impact.

entshed_course_image_FLThe Enterprise Shed is not just a course, but a place where you can go to think, and critically, to do. Join us from 30th March 2015 in The Enterprise Shed and make your ideas happen.

Rebecca Fisher, Entrepreneurial Development Officer in our Careers Service, who is helping Katie develop the course wrote recently about what that experience is like over at the Rise Up blog.

Durham Blackboard Conference 2015 Abbi Flint Keynote – Engagement through partnership

Engagement Through Partnership – Abbi Flint

Abbi started her keynote discussing the framework that the Higher Education Academy launched regarding students as partners. Below are my rough notes from the presentation combined with Dr Rebecca Gill’s more comprehensible notes!
Fostering partnership – it’s a strong way to increase student engagement – growing topic recently.

What do we mean by partnership?

Definition(s) of partnership:

  • Partnership isn’t interchangeable with student engagement, but is a specific form of it. It is a movement away from the assumption that students aren’t initially engaged, and emphasises shared responsibility of students and staff, students and staff as ‘co-learners’.
  • Defined partnership as a process; the form of a project may not necessarily be one of partnership, but partnership is established for example by giving students autonomy and an active role in producing research, disseminating outputs and finding solutions.
  • It is contextual (specific to institution, discipline and wider culture), therefore an ideal model is impossible to produce.
  • Partnership can encompass cooperation between students as well as staff-student interactions. Embedding students within an academic community is central to student retention and success.
  • Emphasis on understanding the expertise students can offer as pedagogic consultants in curriculum design: staff provide disciplinary expertise, students are experts on the curriculum as experienced in practice.

Specific form of student engagement – student engagement – is this a buzzword? So many different meanings when looking at the published research.

Evernote Snapshot 20150106 110638

 

1. What does partnership with students mean to you?

2 why are you interested in partnership in teaching and learning?

Why are you interested in partnership in teaching and learning?

 Evernote Snapshot 20150106 110143

Pedagogically powerful approach – deeper learning, sense of community.

Behavioural perspective – something that they see and do. How often do students engage in study? A lot of research around this.

Psychological perspective – how are students engaging cognitively?  What is their sense of community?

Social cultural – how does the culture of the institution affect student engagement?

Active participation is relevant across all perspectives.

Learning relationship as well as a working relationship. Students learning as part of the partnership.

Highly contextual – this is about people and their particular context.

Partnership values-
Authenticity, inclusivity, reciprocity, empowerment, trust, challenge, community, responsibility. (these are in HEA documentation)

 Evernote Snapshot 20150106 111209
Examples

Learning and teaching assessment
Flipping the classroom
Personalisation of learning
Peer education
Active and collaborative learning
Broad vision (University of Westminster)
Subject based research and inquiry
Embedding research and inquiry based learning
Student as producer – University of Lincoln
Boutique UG research schemes
Think Ahead: SURE
These examples still need to be considered within the process. Examples above aren’t necessarily partnership, but the process needs to be considered.
Scholarship of teaching and learning
Students are often the focus rather than the partners of any research.

Institutional examples

University of Exeter – voluntary scheme where student research their teaching and learning environments and report outcomes to the staff student committee in their School. This has had high impact.

Curriculum design and pedagogic consultancy
Students often surveyed at the end of their course, but not often consulted at course design / approval stages.
This is one of the more challenging aspects of partnership. Often institutions/academics don’t want to give up any control in this area.

How do we embed partnership beyond the discrete activities that goes on?

Case studies:
Tensions/opportunities:

 Evernote Snapshot 20150106 112830

  • Significant change to existing practice/processes needed.
  • Inclusivity and scale: who is able to participate?
  • Power relationships and blurring identities: dominance of hierarchical relationships, access to resources. Experience of partnership in one context may have a problematic impact on hierarchical relationships elsewhere. Partnerships can place staff and students in different roles.
  • Reward & recognition: staff motivated by paid job role, what motivates students? Need opportunity to be full members of partnership – ensure access to larger agendas and history of projects (e.g. induction & ‘outduction’ of sabbatical officers) – students have a time limited engagement with their institution.

 

Areas for further exploration

  • Pedagogies of partnership: disciplinary research – are there disciplinary approaches to partnership?
  • Sharing lot of successes but need to learn from failures. Where does it not work and why?
  • Impact: longer term, explore potential ways of using existing institutional data more smartly to look at impact of partnership on broader learning experience.
  • Ethical implications of engagement through partnership.
  • How different student demographics engage with partnership/levels of impact at different intersectionalities (e.g. gender, race, age).

Mick Healey website – case studies with students as change agents.

 

Learning and Teaching Conference 2014

Learning and Teaching Conference 2014, 18th-19th June 2014

Group Work

Our annual Learning and Teaching Conference was on 18th-19th June 2014.  The conference theme was ‘Learning, Teaching and the Student Experience’.

The main purpose of the Conference, hosted by Suzanne Cholerton (PVC Learning and Teaching), is working with staff to enhance the student learning experience. All staff at Newcastle University were invited to take part in the Conference, students presented on their own as along side staff.

Most sessions were 20 minutes long, scheduled in themed 2 hour blocks of 4 to 6 sessions. There were refreshment breaks between blocks, and discussion time within blocks.

If you attended the conference this year please complete the feedback form if you have not already done so.

Colleagues were welcome to tweet about the Conference using the hashtag #ncllt. Please find links to the tweets below;

Day 1: https://storify.com/lyd_ncllt/day-1-newcastle-university-learning-and-teaching-c

Day 2: https://storify.com/lyd_ncllt/day-2-newcastle-university-learning-and-teaching-c

June 18th – Robert Boyle Lecture Theatre, Armstrong Building

9:00-11:00

Keynote

 

Growth

Suzanne Cholerton

Introduction by Suzanne Cholerton

Raising the Bar  – implications for Learning, Teaching and the Student Experience The session will set Newcastle University’s Raising the Bar initiative in the context of the broader, strategic HE environment, with particular emphasis on our ambitions to grow and the implications for learning, teaching and the student experience.

 

Bev Robinson (workshop)

The Learning process- how do we create the right environment?

 Focusing on the Raising the Bar initiative, this workshop aims to generate 10 key principles to develop suitable learning spaces. We will explore innovative practices and how the academic and student community can work with ESS and ISS to help design the type of spaces required.

Presentation

Spaces session doc

11:00-13:00

Transitions into, during and beyond university study

Laura Heels (Transition Officer, School of Computing Science), with Lindsay Marshall and Marie Devlin

It’s the transition that is troublesome.

This presentation introduces  our new Transition Officer and outlines the activities and processes she has implemented to help first year Computing Science students with their academic and pastoral issues.Presentation

 

Ann Musk, Jen Stewart, Laura Fletcher

Building Bridges: Successful Transition and Innovative Practice.

A workshop to explore the transitional challenges faced by current and prospective students and the innovations, which can empower students whilst supporting retention and achievement. Presentation

 

Sandra Salin and Damien Hall

Better French Living Through Independent Learning.

The main objectives of this project funded by the Innovation Fund are:

  • to collaborate with NU students in the development of online resources which will be specifically designed to help other students prepare for a placement in a francophone country.
  • to pilot an initiative that will integrate French Linguistics into French Language learning and teaching. Presentation

 

Dawn Jones

Helping students to succeed.

The presentation will address the challenges students face and the strategies used to try to enable students to understand what it is we require in order for them to succeed. Presentation

Lunch/Posters

 

History Room, Students’ Union

Sue Thorpe- Poster

Iain Keenan- Poster

Alison Clapp- Poster

14:00-16:00

Students’ professional development & career planning

Phil Ansell

Enhancing the Employability of Stage 2 Maths & Stats students through the School of Maths & Stats Careers Management Skills Award.

The School of Maths & Stats Careers Management Skills Award is for Stage 2 students who have taken part in non-compulsory (but timetabled) events and activities. We will describe the development of the award, what we have learned, what was successful and what we will change in the future. Presentation

 

Bryan Burford

Two approaches to developing medical student preparedness.

Graduating medical students must be ready to be core members of the healthcare workforce. Two recent projects looked at the contributions of clinical placements and simulated practice to developing preparedness.Presentation

Tom Hill and Jessica Strudwick

Enhancing skills in analysis and resolution of complex issues of relevance to Food and Human Nutrition.

This presentation will discuss the experiences gained from attending a major international symposium on “Dietary Guidelines: Scientific substantiation and public health impact” which took place at The Royal Society of Medicine earlier in the year.

 

Gigi Herbert & Salome Bolton

To Boldly Go: roundtable reflections on engaging students with (personal) enterprise.

Roundtable presenters will discuss key areas of practice in cultivating enterprising skills and behaviours and reflect on some of the tensions and contradictions involved in the context of assessed modules.

Twilight session HERB.1 Red & Blue Zone PC 104 Herschel Building
16:00-17:30

App Swap

Graeme Boxwell and Marc Bennett

Learning and Teaching App Swap Event

Is your mobile device improving your learning and teaching? Would you like it to? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then this is the event for you.

We will be demonstrating some L & T apps, and would also like you to show your favourites at this interactive app swap. Bring your device and learn what apps are out there to support your teaching. The apps demonstrated will be usable on Apple or Android devices.

Day 2 of Learning & Teaching Conference

June 19th – History Room, Students’ Union

 

9:00-11:00

Students as partners

Glenn Hurst

NPCEC: Postgraduate Innovation in Research and Professional Development.

The Northern Postgraduate Chemical Engineering Conference (NPCEC) received national attention in Summer 2013 for being the first event to serve as a platform for postgraduates to present their research in a prestigious yet supportive environment. This presentation outlines the positive impact and skills developed this conference had from the point of view of presenters, audience and organisers; all of whom were postgraduates. Presentation

 

Colin Bryson

Creating partnership opportunities in the curriculum

In Combined Honours we have co-designed modules with students that enable them to really take ownership – through projects they choose – many of which enhance the student experience more broadly.Presentation

 

 

Aimee Cook

Herbal Magic: Cross campus collaboration, outreach and the student experience:

Hear more about Herbal Magic, an outreach project involving the Library, AFRD and Newcastle students. Student involvement helped turn this successful project into an unusual example of collaboration, with real impact and benefits for all involved. Presentation

 

Dr Gill Vance

Student Involvement in Medical Education Research.

This presentation shares a number of strategies that we use to involve medical students in medical education research. These include optional rotations in medical education research and a research advisory group, comprising students from all years of the MBBS programme.Presentation

11:00-13:00

Innovative approaches to learning & teaching

Mark Backhouse, Michael Fitzpatrick, Jocelyn Selwyn-Gotha, Ayat Bashir (Stage 4 MBBS), Rachael Allen (Professional Artist, Gateshead), Iain D Keenan (School of Medical Sciences Education Development) (Presentation)

Transdiscipline student partner approaches for evidence-based development and evaluation of a novel cyclical ORDER (observe-reflect-draw-edit-repeat) artistic learning technique in anatomy education.

Medical and artist partners have developed ORDER to increase the variety of anatomy learning methods. Our data from a mixed-method evaluation shows ORDER can enhance student learning, engagement and experience. Presentation

Innovative Approaches to Learning & Teaching

Patrick Rosenkranz, Amy Fielden, Efstathia Tzemou

Teaching psychological research methods through a pragmatic and programmatic approach.

In this talk we will present our experience and evaluation of the first delivery of a revised research methods module in psychology.  We will focus on the students’ perception and explore how the module can support the development of psychological literacy.Presentation

 

Venda Pollock

Creative Difference: Feedback and Assessment in Fine Art.

This presentation investigates the Open Studios feedback and assessment model in Fine Art, looking at the role of feedback within the learning environment of the studio. Presentation

 

Brian Lunn

Improving feedback for students: Less effort for a greater return

The greatest potential benefit from assessment is from constructive feedback. We have developed a system that  automatically generates meaningful feedback without requiring significant time investment by academic staff. Presentation.

 

Rebecca Wassall and Divya Vedapuri

Time to listen – embedding patient feedback in student assessment (phase 1 pilot)

Patient experience is fundamental to providing high quality care. The outcomes of this pilot provide learning opportunities for student dentists, teaching staff and the NWE placement student. Presentation

 

Lunch Martin Luther King Room, Students Union
14:00-16:00

Technology-enhanced learning

Feng Hao

Enhancing teaching and learning with electronic voting

I will present a smart phone based Verifiable Classroom Voting system (https://evoting.ncl.ac.uk), which was developed at the School of Computing Science, trialled in real classroom teaching with positive student feedback and is being made available to all schools in Newcastle University. Presentation Blog

 

James Gerrard and Emma Gooch

Getting the Romans online: e-learning, student engagement and contextual knowledge in the humanities.Getting the Romans online

This presentation explores a recent initiative by Archaeology to augment student learning through the provision of additional Blackboard based resources, which allow undergraduates to develop their contextual knowledge base. Presentation.

 

Antony Mullen

An Evaluation of ePortfolio for Personal Tutoring.

This presentation shares the findings of the investigation into ePortfolio’s efficacy as a personal tutoring tool, covering tutors’ views and best practice. Presentation

 

Chris Thomson

Title: Teaching and Training Online – learning from the Netskills experience

Abstract: Jisc Netskills, based in Computer Sciences, has been successfully running full day online workshops for several years now. This presentation describes how Netskills runs a typical online workshop in a way that ensures an engaging and interactive experience and details some of the lessons we have learnt in a way that can help anyone considering using tools like Adobe Connect or Blackboard Collaborate for their own teaching practice. Presentation

 

Twilight session HERB.1 Red & Blue Zone PC 104 Herschel Building
16:00-17:30

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)

Mike Cameron and Nuala Davis

What can we learn from MOOCs?

What are the lessons learnt so far from developing ‘Massive Open Online Courses’ for the FutureLearn social learning platform? How can we apply these lessons to distance and campus based education?

Previous ULTSEC Innovation Fund Winners 2014-15

Past years’ awards

2014-15 Awards

In 2014-15 the following awards were made:

  • 7 Responsive Projects, each for up to £2,500
  • 5 Strategic Projects, each for up to £10,000

Details of all the projects can be found in the 2014/15 list of funded projects.

2014 Awards: Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching, Diversifying our portfolio of programmes, and Assessment and feedback.

In 2014 the panel funded 14 projects, each for up to £5k. Six projects were funded under the priority theme ofAssessment and feedback.  Five projects were funded under the priority theme of Diversifying our portfolio of programmes.  Three projects were funded under the priority themes Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching. Relevant resources are:

  • the 2014 list of funded projects – congratulations to all the award winners
  • guidance notes for applicants, including suggestions for projects aligned with each of the priority themes
  • resources from the Innovation Fund dissemination and welcome event on 9th December 2013 which included presentations from a number of Innovation Fund 2013 project teams. Here is the running order for the event and here is the ReCap recording (the recording lets you navigate between presentations). The table below has links to speakers’ slides and other materials
  • this short video for applicants, talking through the application process and judging criteria.
Chris Phillips and Simon Pallett (Introduction to the Innovation Fund): slides Laura Greaves and Ellen Tullo: slides
Rene Koglbauer and Paul Miller: slides, school visit news article Jarka Glassey, Katie Wray and Jess Jung: slides
Lynne Rawles, Alison Clapp and Laura Delgaty:slides Michelle Robson/Kate Aitchison and Marie Devlin: slides
Lindsey Ferrie and Simon Cotterill: slides Jean-Christophe Penet: slides
Kathryn Hollingsworth: slides John Lockey, Didier Talamona, Kenny Dalgarno: slides
Lee Fawcett: slides, ACC1012/3 course website Sara Marsham, Alison Graham, Jon Goss and Christie Harner: slides, Assessment & Student Dialogue event resources
Storify archive of tweets from the event