ULTSEC Innovation Fund 2014: list of funded projects Each year ULTSEC makes Innovation Fund awards to teams and/or individuals for projects designed to support the student learning experience. This document gives details of the fourteen Innovation Fund 2014 projects funded by a panel chaired by Suzanne Cholerton, PVC for Learning and Teaching. Congratulations to all the successful project teams. Six projects were funded under the priority theme of Assessment and feedback. In alphabetical order by Faculty/Unit these projects are: Project team Title of project Summary of project Priority theme and additional themes Ruth.valentine @ncl.ac.uk (FMS – Dental School); Simon.cotterill @ncl.ac.uk (FMS – MSED) Ensuring fairness in group work assessment: an online tool to facilitate interaction and monitor group meetings Teamwork is an essential transferable skill that all graduates need to develop. However, ensuring fair and transparent assessment of group work can be challenging when awarding individual marks. To address this we will develop a facility for groups to record meetings and discussions, building on ePortfolio and with significant student input into its design. This will enable tutors and peer mentors to monitor individual and group participation during the assignment period, giving potential to intervene for non-contributors. This will be piloted in summative group work in Stage 1 Dentistry, with the intention that this could be used by other programmes. Assessment and feedback clare.guilding@ ncl.ac.uk, david.kennedy @ncl.ac.uk, richard.price@n cl.ac.uk (FMS – MBBS) Piloting and development of an end of year appraisal scheme which enables students to reflect on academic performance, receive feedback and set personal development goals for the coming year. The MBBS programme runs an annual end of year student appraisal. While students value the opportunity for one-to-one feedback on academic progress with a senior staff member, satisfaction with the current system is low. We have conducted a review of the process and based on results from a questionnaire survey of all students and involved staff aim to pilot and evaluate a new appraisals system. This system will be a two-way discussion including a reflection by the student on their academic progress, feedback from the academic staff on aspects of their performance, and agreement of academic goals to take forward. Assessment and feedback 1 jon.haines@ncl. ac.uk (HaSS – Education Communication and Language Sciences); p.t.miller@ncl.a c.uk (EdD student, HaSS – Education Communication and Language Sciences How can video enhanced observation improve student and staff interaction and practice? A crossdiscipline exploration of tagged video as a shared focus for reflection. Video enhanced observation of practice is introduced to assist assessment and feedback of students on Secondary PGCE school placements and the Speech and Language Therapy clinical placements. A video app to tag practice is used to record live mentor responses to novice performance before shared analysis occurs in subsequent feedback sessions. Students and lecturers are trained on the app and then invited to co-create relevant tags that would aid with improving practice, before analysing and developing the process of evaluation as mediated in this way. Findings will support roll out of this innovative assessment and feedback mechanism to other fields. Assessment and feedback, Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching. christopher.jon es@ncl.ac.uk, catrin.huber@n cl.ac.uk (HaSS – Fine Art, School of Arts and Cultures) Raising assessment awareness in the Fine Art studio This project addresses the widely acknowledged issue of poor student understanding of assessment in creative subjects (Vaughan & Yorke, 2009 & GLAD report, 2012). Fine Art students’ latent perception of subjectivity as the basis of assessment is reinforced when transparency and awareness of assessment methods are lacking. Innovatively the project proposes forming a student-staff partnership to provide a student perspective on current assessment methods, to direct the design of a progressive programme of practical assessment awareness workjshops tailored to each year stage of BA Fine Art and to define a new role of assessment awareness tutor responsible for that programme. Assessment and feedback 2 michael.jin@ncl .ac.uk, t.w.wang@new castle.ac.uk (HaSS – School of Modern Languages, Chinese Translating and Interpreting) Writing as thinking: note-taking training in consecutive interpreting empowered by digital pens and collaborative learning with the online annotator, NB Effective note-taking (NT) in a lecture helps students focus, remember, and organize information better, which equally applies to NT in Consecutive Interpreting (CI). But NT in CI is conducted under greater time pressure due to the immediacy of interpreters’ oral translation into a target language following a stretch of speech in a source language. This also creates challenges in CI training: first, beginners have great difficulties in deciding the content and the best timing for NT; second, traditional penand-pencil notes show severe limitation in offering timely and reliable feedback. This project combines computer-assisted collaborative learning and digital pens to tackle those inseparable challenges. Assessment and feedback, Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching Catherine.dougl as@ncl.ac.uk, Fernando.Damata@ncl.ac.uk , Helen.adamson @ncl.ac.uk Steven.hall@ncl .ac.uk (SAgE – Agriculture Food and Rural Development); bill.foster@ncl. ac.uk (SAgE – Mathematics and Statistics), christian.perfec t@ncl.ac.uk (SAgE – Mathematics and Statistics) Feedback on the feedback – contextualizing maths feedback by degree subject: a pilot in Animal Science The School of Maths and Stats, together with Maths-Aid, has generic numeracy support resources available to students of all disciplines across the University. They are a good example of timeliness of feedback, but we have no feedback on the feedback. How useful is it to non-maths students? This project engages an interdisciplinary team of Animal Science and Maths students to reflect on the feedback available in e.g. Numbas, The Maths Suppport Wiki and Maths-Aid, and to develop and pilot subject-specific examples to increase engagement with this feedback. This will be evaluated by the next cohort of Stage 1 Animal Scientists. Assessment and feedback 3 Five projects were funded under the priority theme of Diversifying our portfolio of programmes. In alphabetical order by Faculty/ Unit these projects are: Project team Title of project Summary of project Priority theme and additional themes Jacqueline.richa rds@ncl.ac.uk, Monique.riviera @ncl.ac.uk (SAgE – Agriculture Food and Rural Development, Singapore) ruth.connolly@ ncl.ac.uk, stacy.gillis@ncl. ac.uk (HaSS – English Literature Language and Linguistics) Developing a taught “Transition” module for BSc Food and Human Nutrition students based in Singapore. This project aims to facilitate a more effective “transition” from a Singapore “Polytechnic” to Stage 2 of a UK “University” degree programme focussing on the BSc Food and Human Nutrition programme delivered in Singapore. In particular, focusing on the perceived gaps in skills, knowledge and cultural factors that have been identified by students, staff and the external examiner alike. The project aims to identify and address the gaps, initially by understanding what the gaps are, developing materials to address the gaps and delivering those materials within a credit bearing module. Diversifying our portfolio of programmes, Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching, and Assessment and feedback. Making the archive public: digital skills, research and public engagement Diversifying our portfolio of programmes, Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching Emily.Clough@ ncl.ac.uk, Derek.Bell@ncl. ac.uk (HaSS – GPS, Politics) Community-based research in Politics Sandra.salin@n cl.ac.uk, Damien.hall@n Better French living through the internet and linguistics This project brings senior BA and MA students together with professional archivists and librarians from Northumberland Archives and the Literary and Philosophical Society, and university staff specialising in the editing and digitisation of documents and images. It will train its participants to develop curated online spaces that can stimulate multiple forms of interaction with an archival collection, using open-source platforms like Omeka, Viewshare and Tumblr, and techniques such as crowd-sourcing. As they develop these spaces, students will acquire and practise archival, digital and public engagement skills, and develop the intellectual and creative capacities needed to communicate arts and humanities research to wider audiences. We are introducing a new final year research module in the Politics unit, offered as an alternative to the traditional dissertation. Students will develop and address an indepth research question related to issues of fairness and justice in the Newcastle community with the input of policy practitioners and community organisations. They will present their final findings to these organisations at the end of the year, helping them develop employability skills and network contacts. Innovation Fund money will be used to fund workshops with community practitioners and deploy a studentdeveloped survey to residents of the region. The main objective of this pilot project is to collaborate with Stage 2, 3 and 4 French language students in the development of online resources which would be specifically designed to help Stage 2 students prepare for the time they will spend in a 4 Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching, Assessment and feedback Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching, cl.ac.uk (HaSS – School of Modern Languages, French) Alton.horsfall@ ncl.ac.uk, Jonathon.goss @ncl.ac.uk (SAgE – Electrical and Electronic Engineering); Jarka.glassey@ ncl.ac.uk (SAgE - Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials) francophone country during their Year Abroad (Stage 3). The secondary aim is to pilot an initiative that will narrow the gap existing between research-based content modules and Language modules in the School of Modern Languages by integrating French Linguistics material and content into French Language learning and teaching. pReCap for supporting the teaching of Engineering Improving student experience in the context of increasing student numbers, the diversification of student cohorts and the increase in various modes of programme delivery can at least partially be addressed by a more effective utilisation of education technology, such as pReCap (prerecorded targeted material in podcast form) in the delivery of core knowledge. However, important issues of ensuring student engagement with material, in particular where pReCap is a part of face-to-face delivery, remain to be resolved. This proposal aims to investigate the most effective methods of incorporating pReCap material into face to face and distance learning in engineering subject areas. Language Skills development; internationalisation of the student experience; developing the cultural awareness of students; student engagement and peer learning; knowledge sharing and supporting the wider academic community. Diversifying our portfolio of programmes, Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching Three projects were funded under the priority theme of Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching. In alphabetical order by Faculty/Unit these projects are: Project team Title of project Summary of project Priority theme and additional themes 5 Two linked projects supporting postgraduates who teach, linking school-specific support with the initial, mandatory, ILTHE workshop as part of the University’s UKPSF CPD scheme: Peter.hopkins@ ncl.ac.uk, simon.tate@ncl .ac.uk (HaSS – GPS, Geography); Sean.gill@ncl.ac .uk (PhD student, HaSS – GPS, Geography); rosalind.beaum ont@newcastle .ac.uk (Staff Development Unit) Creating an interactive online resource for Postgraduate Teaching Assistants (PGTAs) who lead undergraduate seminars This project aims to create a set of online resources that PGTAs can access in order to assist them when they are tasked with leading seminars for undergraduate students. The resources will include videos, information sheets and top tips for enhancing the student seminar experience. There will also be an interactive element where PGTAs could share experiences/views on particular topics. PGTAs will be informed about it at their induction, invited and encouraged to enrol onto the it and will be encouraged to use it at follow-up monthly meetings of PGTAs. It will be further promoted through DPDs and PG Directors. alison.graham @ncl.ac.uk, gordon.port@n cl.ac.uk, heather.martin @ncl.ac.uk (SAgE – Biology) Encouraging student interaction in practical classes through tailored demonstrator training This project seeks to facilitate an improved relationship between undergraduate students and their postgraduate demonstrators. Undergraduate students often perceive a lack of consistency in the support they receive in class and in the feedback they receive on assessed work from demonstrators. Equally, demonstrators report that they often feel unprepared for their role. Both student groups, and academic staff, have a lot gain from a closer working relationship. We aim to survey all stakeholders before developing a tailored set of training materials and guidelines. The ultimate aim is to engender a more productive learning environment for undergraduate and postgraduate students alike. One University-wide project led by the Newcastle University Teaching and Scholarship Forum: Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching, Assessment and feedback sara.marsham @ncl.ac.uk (SAgE, Marine The NUTS and bolts of learning and teaching: a staff- Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching, We will organise and host a workshop aimed at strengthening the relationship between research in learning and teaching, and teaching at Newcastle University by asking students directly which issues in learning and teaching are most important to 6 Strengthening the relationship between research and teaching Science and Technology); jeanchristophe.pen et@ncl.ac.uk (HaSS – School of Modern Languages, French); vanessa.armstr ong@ncl.ac.uk (FMS – Biomedical Sciences) student partnership at Newcastle University them. As the workshop will be delivered through the NUTS Forum, the event is crossFaculty and multidisciplinary. In addition, a key aspect of the project is that the NUTS Forum will develop from being principally staff-led to integrating students as partners in research in learning and teaching by making their voices heard. Innovation Fund information is online: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/quilt/resources/excellence/innovationfund.htm Contact for Innovation Fund queries: lydia.wysocki@ncl.ac.uk 23rd May 2014 7