Posts

Posted on

The Art of the Possible: The Future of Education Spaces – book your places now!

The Art of the Possible The Future of Education Spaces January 24 2022

Booking is now open for this series of events later in January, giving you an opportunity to join the discussion about our future teaching and learning spaces on campus.

This month sees the launch of The Art of the Possible: The Future of Education Spaces, a series of special talks and presentations designed to get us all thinking about how teaching and learning at Newcastle University might look in the near future.

Through this programme of online and in-person events, which is running between 24 and 28 January, we are aiming to open up new avenues for discussion between Estates & Facilities, students and colleagues who either teach or support teaching activity. The sessions are designed to inform, inspire and get everyone thinking about what we’ve learned from the past 22 months and how we might do some things differently going forward.

By taking part, you’ll get the chance to input into the ongoing investment strategy in our education spaces, which will in turn feed into the overall estate masterplan for the campus.

The Art of the Possible: The Future of Education Spaces programme is now confirmed and booking for all events is open. You can view the full events schedule on the project webpages and you can also find out more on the NU Connect homepage.

Posted on

Learning and Teaching Drop-Ins

An image of hands typing on a laptop keyboard

Need advice on getting ready for semester 2, assessment and feedback, or how to make best use of university-supported digital technologies? Colleagues can pop into an LTDS online drop-in session and speak to one of our advisors.

We have a fixed pattern for our drop-in times this month:

  • Every Monday 11:00 – 12:00
  • Every Wednesday 09:00 - 10:00
  • Every Friday 15:00 – 16:00

For log-in and access information please refer to our joining instructions.

Posted on

Keynote address: What is a university education for?

Paul Ashwin

We are pleased to be welcoming Prof. Paul Ashwin to deliver the keynote address at this year’s Learning and Teaching Conference, Education for All: Learning Together. Find out more about Paul and the keynote address below:

What is a university education for?


The global pandemic has led to changes to university teaching and learning practices and significant financial pressures on the higher education sector. In the face of unexpected social and economic challenges, there is a danger that the quality of higher education will be judged simply in terms of graduates’ employment outcomes and we will lose sight of the educational purposes of a university education. In this keynote, I will argue that, in order to reinvigorate our understanding of university education, we need to focus on how students are supported to develop transformational relationships with disciplinary and professional knowledge. These relationships change students’ understanding of themselves and the world and are central to the many ways in which going to university can transform students’ lives and contribute to societal well-being. I will explore the implications of this argument for our educational practices.

Biography

Paul Ashwin is Professor of Higher Education and Head of the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University. He is Deputy Director of the Centre for Global Higher Education, an ESRC funded research centre involving 10 international universities. Paul’s research is focused on the educational role of higher education. His book, ‘Transforming University Education: A Manifesto’ (2020), argues for a focus on the educational, rather than economic, purposes of university degrees in order to understand their transformational impact on students and societies. He is also the lead author on Reflective Teaching in Higher Education (2015, 2020) which is written by an international team to support the development of research-informed university teaching.  

Get involved in this year’s conference

The conference will take place on the 31 March 2022 and all colleagues and students are invited to register.

The call for submissions closes on the 14 January 2022 so there’s still time to submit a proposal.

Full details on the conference website and you can get in touch with nultconf1@ncl.ac.uk with any questions.

Posted on

Three Rivers Conference 2022: Engaging Students: Building Communities

Students talking

29 June 2022 

The call for abstracts for Three Rivers 2022: ‘Engaging Students: Building Communities’ is now open.

Building upon the success of previous partnership events held by the region’s Universities (Teesside, Durham, Newcastle, Sunderland and Northumbria), our theme for 2022 is ‘Engaging Students: Building Communities’. Three Rivers 2022 will be hosted online by Northumbria University. The keynote speaker for the conference is Prof Peter Felten, executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and Professor of History at Elon University, US.

The theme of the Three Rivers Conference 2022 is how we engage students in learning through building communities. The conference will look at how on campus communities support student engagement, contributing to a sense of belonging, and through this enhance retention and widening participation; as well as collaborations with communities and partners that create authentic inquiry based learning opportunities for students.

Colleagues and students are all invited to submit an abstract by the 18 April 2022. 

Full details are available on the Three Rivers website.  

Registration is free for colleagues and students of the 3 Rivers Universities consortium, and will open on 28 February, closing on 28th June 2022. If you have any further queries or questions, please contact susan.mathieson@northumbria.ac.uk

Join a working group 

Colleagues are invited to join a working group that aligns with the conference themes. These groups provide a forum for bringing together and sharing ongoing work across the five partner universities in the form of strategies, initiatives, and practices that engage students through building communities. Each working group will prepare for a panel presentation at the conference.

Find out more on the conference website: 

Working Group 1: Engaging Student in Authentic Inquiry Based Learning with Communities 

If you would like to join this working group and/or would like to share and discuss work you and/or your colleagues are conducting in the area, please  initially email Dr. Sue Mathieson  susan.mathieson@northumbria.ac.uk  by the 14 February 2022

Working Group 2: Enhancing Student Engagement for Retention, Progression and Attainment 

If you would like to sign-up to be part of the Enhancing Student Engagement for Retention, Progression and Attainment working group and/or would like to share and discuss work you and/or your colleagues are conducting in the area, please initially email Dr. Sam Elkington with your contact details: s.elkington@tees.ac.uk  by the 14 February 2022. 

Posted on

Student Voice Forum

Group of students

15 December, 12-2pm

Please join us for the next Student Voice Forum on 15 December. The forum will be hosted by Professor Tom Ward and will be an opportunity to share ideas and good practice in relation to student voice activity.

The forum will take place online on Wednesday 15 December from 12 – 2pm. It’s open to everyone and we warmly welcome all colleagues with an interest in engaging with the student voice. We also welcome students and student reps so please do share this information with anyone you think might like to join us.

If you’d like to attend, please complete the sign up form.

Posted on

Connect with colleagues by joining the Canvas Team

Canvas logo

Join the Canvas Team for:  

  • Announcements – Hear about Canvas updates, upcoming features and Newcastle specific Canvas resources. 
  • Ask the Community – Ask other Newcastle Canvas users a question. This channel will not be managed by LTDS or NUIT colleagues but is a useful channel for the user community to help each other.  
  • Sharing Practice – A channel for you to share effective practice and find out about the fantastic things your colleagues are doing with Canvas. 
  • Support – This channel links off to all of the Canvas support and resources available to you. 

If you have any queries about the Canvas Team get in touch at LTDS@ncl.ac.uk

Posted on

Learning and Teaching Conference 2022: Call for submissions open

Education for All: Learning Together, Learning and Teaching Conference, 31 March 2022

Education for All: Learning Together, Thursday 31 March 2022 

The Learning and Teaching Conference is all about learning together, sharing effective practice and exploring an education for all.  The call for submissions is now open and we want to hear about your successes, challenges and future plans. 

The programme committee welcomes submissions linked to the following areas but get in touch if you have other ideas you’d like to share: 

  • Student voice 
  • Co-creation of the curriculum 
  • Changing practice through the pandemic 
  • Wellbeing and mental health 
  • Novel and varied assessment methods 
  • Designing inclusive learning 
  • Decolonising the curriculum 
  • Impact through collaboration
  • Education for sustainable development

The conference is open to everyone involved in learning and teaching – students, academic colleagues, professional services colleagues, technicians and external collaborators. All are invited to submit a proposal for the conference and to register as a delegate.

We very much hope to run our conference day this year as a present in-person event in the Frederick Douglass Centre, with online workshops taking place over the conference week. However, if this is not possible we will move to a fully online event.

We encourage submissions from all of our campuses and if you can’t attend in person you can get involved virtually by delivering an online workshop during the conference week or submitting a lightning talk video. 

Deadline for submissions: 14 January 2022

Submit your proposal here.

Registration Open

All colleagues and students are invited to attend the learning and teaching conference and we are looking forward to seeing you all there.

Colleagues can register here.

Students can register here.

#ltncl22

If you have any questions, get in touch with the conference team nultconf1@ncl.ac.uk .

Posted on

University Education Development Fund

Group of students

The University Education Development Fund supports colleagues to undertake projects with real benefit to students’ education at Newcastle University.  

Two strands of funding are available:  

  • Up to £2,500 for projects focused within an individual academic unit, or across multiple areas through the Responsive strand.  
  • Up to £10,000 for projects with collaboration across academic units through the Strategic strand.  

Chaired by the PVC Education this fund support projects which further the aims and key themes of the Education Strategy and applications in the areas of UN Sustainable Development Goals and decolonising the curriculum agenda would be welcome. 

Application deadline for 2021-22:  

Friday 19 November 2021, 17:00 

Full information and guidance notes available online.  Contact for queries  educationdevfund@newcastle.ac.uk.  

Posted on

Inspera Assessment, Digital Exams Launch – Presentation Recording

Inspera joined us via zoom for a presentation about the new Inspera Assessment software.

The presentation was delivered by Graeme Redshaw-Boxwell and Susan Barfield from the Learning and Teaching Development Service, who were joined by Suzanne Keys and Harvey Tayman from Inspera. Graeme and Susan discussed the journey Newcastle has taken with Digital Exams, why we are excited about the new software and what it will allow future digital exams to do. Suzanne and Harvey went on to demonstrate the assessment software, from a student and academics perspective.

This is the link to the recording from the session.

The following questions and answers were discussed during the sessions

I want to introduce a digital exam using Inspera, what can I do next? 

Digital exams for semester 1 are only available for modules that have this listed in their 2021-22 MOFS. If you wish to run a digital exam for 2022-23, when you complete your 2022-23 MOF select “PC Examination” for  the Assessment Component.  

If you are interested in running a digital exam in future and would like to find out more, please see our Digital Exams webpages, or contact digital.exams@newcastle.ac.uk .  

We would like to pilot it on some modules, where do we start? 

Please see the  Digital Exams webpages for information on how to get started. I you have a semester 2 exam that you would like to turn into a digital exam, please email digital.exams@newcastle.ac.uk to discuss. 

What capacity is there for digital exams with large cohorts?  
We have previously supported exams with over 400 students and it possible to manage large cohorts, although this may be over several venues. 

Can external examiners access? 

All Canvas users have access to Inspera. If your external examiner has been set up with a Canvas account, they can access Inspera. 

Can you download a copy of the exam paper? 

It is possible to download a PDF version of the exam. 

Can I download feedback 

It is possible to download students’ submissions, feedback annotations and marks as two separate PDFs. 

Can you use Turnitin to check for similarity on typed essay questions? 

Turnitin has been integrated into Inspera, so it possible to check a student’s submission for similarity. The Turnitin marking tools are not available, so it is not possible to use QuickMarks. 

How do we ensure the academic integrity of digital exams? 

It is possible to use a lock down browser on cluster room PCs and students’ own devices exam for digital exams. Ahead of the exam, the students will be asked to install the Safe Exam Browser software on their own laptop if it is bring your own device exam. To start the exam, they must run Safe Exam Browser, which will lock their PC from being able to access anything else. When they submit their exam and close lockdown browser, they can use laptop as normal.

It is not possible for a student to access an exam that requires use of Safe Exam Browser without using Safe Exam Browser. There are warnings in the monitor module if a student had tried to exit the lockdown browser. 

The Inspera Assessment, Digital Exam Launch will continue with two more sessions taking place in person on the 9th and 10th November, click for further details and to book a place

Posted on

Applying for recognition as Principal Fellow of the HEA

Colleagues shaking hands

Principal Fellow of the HEA (UKPSF Descriptor 4) workshops

We are hosting two sessions to support those applying for recognition as Principal Fellow of the HEA (UKPSF Descriptor 4). The first is a workshop to support those thinking about applying or wanting more information before they start their application. The second is a writing retreat to support those already in the process of developing an application. See below for booking links and more information. Both are campus-based events.

Readiness for Principal Fellowship Workshop – Thursday 11 November 2021, 1-4pm
This workshop is aimed at those with a role in strategic leadership of learning and teaching who want to apply for recognition as a Principal Fellow of the HEA

Principal Fellowship Writing Retreat – Tuesday 30 November 2021, 9-5pm
A focused day of writing to enable colleagues who have started creating an application for Principal Fellowship to dedicate time to developing/completing their submission

Feel free to get in touch if you’d like further information or to discuss our support of Principal Fellowship.

Contact for queries: LTDS@ncl.ac.uk