The Learning and Teaching Conference 2023 will showcase effective, creative and collaborative approaches to learning and teaching across the University.
The 2023 Conference will take place on Thursday 30 March 2023. More details on the conference’s theme and keynote speaker will follow shortly. Please put the date in your diary and keep a look out for further updates.
You told us that reflective templates would help you to make more of students’ learning. Structured reflective templates give students prompts to enable them to record their learning and add tags that will help look back and build up a portfolio of learning to demonstrate competencies, knowledge and skills that secure that next step.
Following demand from colleagues and students, and a successful pilot in academic year 2021/22, structured reflective templates will be available within NU Reflect from the 1st August 2022. The Templates area will allow you to create bespoke reflective templates or choose from predefined templates, to support structured student reflection within your programme/module contexts.
Each template will offer guidance text to support students to write qualitative, impactful reflections in different context, e.g., for personal development, against course specific competencies, etc., providing a meaningful way to engage with reflection, leading to a developed understanding of the reflective process and more autonomy to engage with it throughout the learning journey.
More information on the Templates area of NU Reflect is available on the Learning and Teaching @ Newcastle website. Case studies from pilot participants highlighting the positive impact the templates had on teaching and learning will be available soon.
If you would like to find out more about how you can implement reflective practice within your programmes/modules, please contact LTDS@newcastle.ac.uk
Are you interested in using student engagement data to support the student learning journey?
The University has entered a tender process to acquire a Learning Analytics system that informs and supports students’ attainment, engagement, and wellbeing journeys in one centralised interface, putting students at the heart of decision-making about their ongoing development.
We are looking for volunteers to take part in usability testing as part of the system procurement process. Testing will take place between 1st August to 12th August 2022, and you can complete the testing tasks at any time over this period.
If you are interested and have capacity to participate, your contribution will be a key part of the evaluation stage of the tender process and will have a direct impact on which Learning Analytics system the University introduces from next academic year.
Usability testing is open to all University colleagues. To participate you need to commit to test all systems that meet the University’s mandatory requirements, which we estimate may be between 2 and 4 systems, to ensure that the evaluation process is fair. We will be able to confirm the number of systems being tested the week before testing begins.
Full instructions will be provided for each testing task, and you can complete the tasks at any time that suits your schedule over the usability testing period.
To register your interest please complete this form by Wednesday 27th July 2022. Please contact LTDS@newcastle.ac.uk with any queries.
Education for All: Learning Together
The Newcastle University Learning and Teaching Conference took place on March 31. This year’s theme was all about learning together, sharing effective practice, and exploring an education for all.
The event was opened by Professor Tom Ward, PVC Education, and was followed by a keynote presentation from Professor Paul Ashwin, Professor of Higher Education and Head of Department for Educational Research at Lancaster University.
As a result of the fantastic response to our call for submissions we ran several parallel sessions throughout the day, including over 40 workshops, lightning talks and presentations. Video recordings of the event presentations are now available to view via ReCap.
Conference poster and video winners
A massive congratulations to Ashley Reynolds and Eleanor Gordon who won our video competition with their demonstration of how animations can be used to enhance teaching and learning, and to Anna Reid and Vicky Gilbert who won our poster competition with Learning dogs; a winning ‘pawtnership’.
Thanks also to everyone who entered and voted for our winners. All posters are still available to view and video submissions are available in a ReCap playlist.
Conference feedback needed
If you attended the conference, or if you registered but were unable to attend, we would greatly appreciate your thoughts and feedback. This will help us improve our Learning and Teaching Conferences in the future.
The School of Mathematics, Statistics & Physics will host the fifth international conference on E-Assessment in Mathematical Sciences (EAMS). The conference aims to bring together researchers and practitioners with an interest in e-assessment for mathematics and the sciences. It will consist of a mix of presentations of new techniques and pedagogic research, as well as workshops where you can get hands-on with leading e-assessment software including our own Numbas.
EAMS 2022 is an entirely online conference with a mix of live sessions and web-based activities, and plenty of opportunity for discussion and collaboration. Before the conference starts there will be a programme of optional training workshops available for participants to get hands-on with state-of-the-art maths e-assessment software.
Live talks will take place over Zoom at 9am and 4pm BST (UTC +1) each weekday, with recordings available later. The online format and longer timescale allow participants to engage more deeply with the material presented.
The call for talk and workshop proposals is currently open. If you have some research or an innovative technique related to mathematical e-assessment that you would like to present, then please submit an abstract at eams.ncl.ac.uk/call-for-speakers by 13th May. We’re actively seeking to increase the diversity of our attendees and speakers, and particularly encourage speakers from groups under-represented in previous editions of EAMS to submit proposals.
To attend the conference please register for free at eams.ncl.ac.uk/register.
Join us for this year’s conference to celebrate learning and teaching and share ideas across the University. We can’t wait to come together, in-person, for those much-missed opportunities to catch up over coffee and we can promise a fantastic lunch.
Come along to:
The full programme will be ready early March so keep an eye on the conference website. There’s also lots of opportunities to get involved online and we’ll be sharing which sessions you can take part in on the website.
All colleagues and students are invited to attend. Colleagues can book here and students can book here.
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch nultconf1@ncl.ac.uk
The Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards 2022 are now open for applications. These awards aim to raise the status of education at Newcastle University by rewarding those individuals and teams who make a marked impact on enhancing our student educational experience.
Completed applications should be submitted to LTDS@ncl.ac.uk before 12.00pm Wednesday 13 April 2022.
The awards fall into two categories:
The award is open to all members of staff, at Newcastle, NUIS, NUMed and NUL, whose work enhances the student educational experience. In addition, applications are welcome from staff of associated employers with direct and substantive involvement in the delivery of the student experience at Newcastle; for example, staff of INTO Newcastle University.
Groups of colleagues who work closely together are invited to apply for the team award.
Full information about the awards and the application process is available on the Learning and Teaching website.
Contact for queries: LTDS@ncl.ac.uk
Two strands of funding are available:
Chaired by the PVC Education this fund support projects in the development of new approaches to learning and teaching and to enable their dissemination across the University.
Application deadline for 2021-22: Friday 6 May, 2022, 17:00
Full information and guidance notes available online.
Contact for queries educationdevfund@newcastle.ac.uk.
Friday 28 January, 10:00-11:00 , Herschel Annex
Laboratory skills courses are crucial in that they help students gain hands-on experience of doing experiments, better understand the theory behind them, see practical applications of their knowledge and skills, and provide a basis for future employment. These courses are part of professional accreditation for bodies such as the Institute of Physics and integral mode of delivery for many other programmes across the University.
Aleksey will discuss his experience of using Augmented Reality (AR) within laboratories to allow students to see the real and virtual world overlaid with each other. Within the demonstration you will see how when using a personal device, virtual objects (buttons, switches, cables, etc.) overlay with the real scenes and are made available for students to manipulate. With a switch to online learning, or to facilitate students learning remotely, the use of AR can be extended by using webcams located at the University to stream videos of real hands-on experiments live into students’ computers or tablets. With AR, students can handle virtual tools and perform the required tasks of experiments without stepping foot in a lab. Using AR can increase students’ perception and interaction with the real experiments and students will have a sensation that an activity is handled as if they would be physically on-site. Augmented Reality to enhance in person or online delivery of teaching materials has the potential to be applied across a range of different subject areas.
Join us for a live in-person demonstration of using Augmented Reality within University teaching spaces, with lots of time for questions and discussion.
This event is part of The Art of the Possible series of events giving you an opportunity to join the discussion about our future teaching and learning spaces on campus.
You can find out more about all events on the events homepage or register here.
Tuesday 25 January – 11am-12pm, online
Hear ideas and current practice from colleagues across the University in this series of lightning talks exploring the innovative and future use of existing teaching spaces on campus for learning and assessment.
Presenters will discuss the future of spaces for digital exams with shifting assessment practices, how existing technology available to us all on campus can enhance education spaces for students and colleagues, and cutting-edge technology that could develop the blended learning experience.
Talks include:
This event is part of The Art of the Possible series of events giving you an opportunity to join the discussion about our future teaching and learning spaces on campus.
You can find out more about all events on the events homepage or register here.
