Annual Conference 2013
The Higher Education Academy
Day 2 sessions
Nano-teach
Nano-teach sessions are short innovative and dynamic talks to showcase an idea or a learning
and teaching method. The talks last 5 minutes, with no time for questions and delegates are
encouraged to speak to presenters after the session. The following nano-teach talks will be
presented in this session, in a random order:
1.Marking students’ essays “face to face"
Charlotte Chalmers, Janis MacCallum and Claire Garden
This session will give an example of a trial of marking essays “face to face” with the students.
Individuals signed up for one ten minute appointment at which staff used the detailed marking
criteria to mark the essay. Students found the feedback much more useful than written feedback
2. It’s not rocket science – improving your NSS scores
June Dennis
This ‘in a nutshell’ session will briefly outline some of the strategies used which resulted in an 18
percentage point increase across a whole Business School in one year
3. Teaching statistics: reducing the fail rate by a factor of 5
Lalage Sanders
This session will describe changes I made to the delivery of a Level 4 module, Introduction to
Statistics, that I deliver to our undergraduate psychology students. The changes made were only to
do with accessibility; the content and assessment were unchanged, but the fail rate reduced from
50% to 10%
4.1.1. Paper presentation (20 minutes)
e-Gothicist: students as partners in the learning process
Ben Brabon
This paper introduces e-Gothicist – a web-based educational resource for Gothic scholars funded
by the HEA Teaching Development Grant scheme. Outlining it pedagogical rationale, it
summarises how it utilises technology to promote flexibility in the delivery of learning in order to
enhance the quality of student performance. Drawing upon initial data from the pilot study, it
demonstrates how the role of students as partners – including peer feedback and student
mentoring – has been central to the process of quality enhancement.
4.1.2 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Student academic partnerships within the Law School at Birmingham City University
Emma Flint
This session, led by students and a senior academic from the Law School at Birmingham City
University showcases and critiques current student & academic partnership (SAP) projects. These
SAP projects involve student peer careers mentoring and student led research based projects
examining issues of employability and use of social media.
4.1.3 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Students as educators and mentors; increasing awareness of the benefits and participation in
sandwich placements
Ruth Brooks
Completing a sandwich placement increases the probability of gaining employment upon
graduation; however, the number of students participating is decreasing nationally. Former
placement students are used to educate and mentor second years through the placement
application process to raise awareness of the benefits, share their experience and increase
participation rates.
4.2.1 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Organisations as collaborators
Jo Morrison and Leanne Manfredi
Drawing on findings from our three year collaboration, this informal session shares insights and
practical recommendations for valuable HEI-Museum partnerships that have student experience
and public engagement at its core. You will learn of different models to inspire your own
collaborative activities, and be invited to share your individual experiences and vision.
4.2.2 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
HE knowledge-transfer projects: developing applied drama activities in partnership with NHS
Persephone Sextou
The paper aims to share experience from a 3 year partnership between Newman University Drama
department and NHS Trust. It presents the development of a knowledge-transferred, empirical-led
research theatre project and aims to discuss the effectiveness of involving volunteer drama
students in research with professional organizations on enhancing informed curricular learning.
4.2.3 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Parliamentary studies – a partnership with parliament
Naomi Kent
The new ‘Parliamentary Studies’ module from the Houses of Parliament will be taught at 13
universities from September 2013 through a flexible partnership between academics and
Parliamentary officials. We will outline how the partnership works with different universities, and
explain how the involvement of Parliament as a partner delivers a unique student experience.
4.3.Discussion session (1 hour)
The impact of the UKPSF
Nigel Purcell, Nancy Turner, Rajesh Dhimar, Martin Oliver, Liz Shrives and Frances Deepwell
Key aims:
outline the rationale of the impact study;
provide a brief overview of the methodologies used;
present a summary of the key findings and;
discuss and contextualise key recommendations
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The session will combine short presentations with group and plenary discussions.
4.4 Discussion session (1 hour)
Engaging students in quality assurance and enhancement: models and options
Graham Gibbs and Yaz El Hakim
The University of Winchester has engaged one student on each degree programme to undertake
pedagogic research and development, linked to annual course review. This session will outline this
initiative, invite participants to outline their own institutional practices to engage students in
teaching improvement, and discuss the various extant models.
4.5 Discussion session (1 hour)
Actively Engaging Students to enhance Institutional Approaches to Learning
Co-ordinated by Higher Education Academy funded doctoral students
There is significant potential for working with students to support transformative change in their
learning experiences. This facilitated discussion focuses on what student engagement means to
individuals, and what can be done to enhance student engagement. It is aimed at individuals
hoping to develop new networks in this area.
4.6 Panel session (1 hour)
Creating partnerships with impact
Paul Manners, Stephen Hill, Maggie Leggett and Jane Clark
With increasing demands on universities to evidence the impact of their research, to provide
relevant teaching and learning, to address social mobility, and respond proactively to the economic
crisis, partnerships are under pressure. The panel will explore perhaps the biggest strategic
challenge currently faced by universities – developing mutually beneficial partnerships with wider
society.
4.7 Workshop session (1 hour)
In their own words: engaging with employers’, students’ and staff’s views of graduate attribute
Krista DeLeeuw
This workshop will build on the ‘employers as partners’ strand to explore how employers view
graduate attributes, in comparison to academic staff and students. The activity is based on the
work we have been carrying out in the HEA-funded project Bringing Graduate Attributes to Life.
4.8.1 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Working towards co-creation of academic development initiatives: experience in a small institution
and some emerging principles
Corinne Boz, Meg Tait and Laurence Bargery
This paper examines the process of designing and delivering a ‘co-created’ academic development
programme for a cohort of first-year undergraduates. Using contextual data, it analyses key
conceptual and practical challenges of the model, from both staff and student perspectives and
explores the idea of a continuum of co-creation.
4.8.2 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Bridging the Languages Divide – Peer Mentoring for Language Learning
Eleanor Loughlin and Laura Leonardo
This paper presentation will explore the role of peer mentors in supporting postgraduate and early
career language learners at Durham and Newcastle universities. It will present feedback from
mentors, mentees, language tutors and project organisers in order to explore the challenges and
value of the scheme.
4.8.3 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Empowering bioscience students to develop employability skills through volunteering – narrative
voices of partnership
Sheila Cunningham, Deeba Gallacher and Orkide Tunch
This presentation will be lead by a lecturer and students and focuses on a project from a HEA
teaching development grant which investigated and developed health related volunteering
opportunities in partnership with students specifically to maximise employability skills for
biomedical science undergraduate students in a North London university.
4.9 Discussion session (1 hour)
Walking the walk: beyond talking the talk of students as partners
Sarah Ingram, Nicola Poole and Student From Students As Partners Workstrand
This session will aim to share the experience of the HEA Students as Partners work strand, one of
three work strands of the Future Directions for Higher Education in Wales quality enhancement
theme programme. It will focus on the participants’ experiences of working with students as
partners and explore through discussion with participants whether there have been similar insights
of partnership working.
4.10 Discussion session (1 hour)
Student attitudes and skills in sustainable development – outcomes of a three year longitudinal
study by NUS and HEA
Simon Kemp and Jamie Agombar
This session will present the findings of a three-year longitudinal study investigating student
attitudes and skills in the increasingly important area of sustainable development in the higher
education sector. The responses of different year groups are assessed at each study point of
2010, 2011, and 2012.
5.1.1 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Facilitating the co-evolution of HE people, practice, tools and services through participatory design
thinking with staff, students, service providers and employers
Robert O'Toole
To demonstrate how we can use Participatory Design Thinking to prime and facilitate innovative
design change by making it easy for people to work together as co-designers. To show how this
can ensure equitable, transferable, sustainable development in HE.
5.1.2 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Artworld101 - adventures in crowdbuilt collaborative educational environments and questions
around who 'owns' learning
Rachel Dobbs
Artworld101 is an experimental task-led research project that utilizes online and face-to-face
spaces to develop collaborative user-generated content. Students and lecturer are positioned as
partners in the shared endeavour of generating and disseminating knowledge - questioning who
‘owns’ learning and continually challenging ‘what is important’ in the studied discipline area.
5.1.3 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Student authored vignettes
Simon J. Lancaster, Simon Child and Jo Bruce
The term vignette refers to interactive multimedia teaching packages derived from screencasts.
We will report upon a TDG-funded project to enable production of vignettes from revision
presentations by final year MChem students. The background to the chemistry vignettes will be
outlined and the extent of facilitating support summarised.
5.2 Discussion session (1 hour)
How can we recognise excellence in teaching and learning? A transnational collaboration
Annette Cashmore, Chris Cane, Craig Bartle, Sandra Wills, Christine Brown, Anne Melano, Jan
Sullivan, Stephen McHanwell, Sue Robson, Elaine Hall, David Sadler, Sara Booth, Cassie
Saunders
We will introduce key aspects of both processes and outcomes from this international project
focussed on promotions and the recognition of teaching for the modern academic role. The
session will focus on facilitated discussion of how excellence in teaching can be identified,
rewarded and developed in different higher education contexts.
5.3 Discussion session (1 hour)
Planning and partnerships for a major incident simulation experience
Jennifer Obbard, Gerri Nevin and Adrienne Jemmett
This session is an interactive discussion of how local organisational partnerships contributed to the
development & quality of student learning & experience in an Interprofessional Major Incident
Simulation. The materials are an open resource and participants will discover how they can
incorporate this kind of learning event for their students.
5.4 Discussion session (1 hour
HEA Ron Cooke International Scholars – Interactive discussions
HEA-funded international scholars
This session will provide delegates an opportunity to meet the HEA International Scholars, to
discuss the challenges of learning from other Higher Education learning environments, the value of
such projects for developing learning and teaching policy and practice within the UK, and to
discover the findings of the current scholars.
5.5.1 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
New ventures in educational partnerships
Sally Pulvertaft and Sarah Caton
Creating a powerful partnership with an organisation which has complementary services and
expertise to yours is one way to accelerate your strategy whether that’s transforming your campusbased courses or launching new distance learning programmes. In this session Sally Pulvertaft
from Leeds Metropolitan University we will share her experience of partnering with Pearson.
5.5.2 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Personalisable, distributable learning designs: a collaborative adventure
Shane Sutherland, PebblePad
Innovative use of portfolio technology throughout the user community has resulted in powerful new
learning designs to support institution-wide learning with a personal approach. The session will
share a wide range of institutional examples, encouraging delegates to reflect on how this
innovation could impact on their own curriculum design.
5.5.3 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Supporting employability with knowledge
Newell Hampson-Jones
Is embedding ‘employability’ in to curriculums just a bureaucratic tick box exercise or can the
concept be harnessed and used to deeply improve students’ learning? BSI’s Education Sector
Representative Newell Hampson-Jones discusses how contextual understanding of knowledge
tools can not only improve students’ post-graduation employability, but also engage them more
deeply in course content. Explore how fresh perspectives can translate formal and traditional
concepts and unlock the potential within students to innovate.
5.6.1 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
E-mentoring as a unique educational opportunity to improve graduate employment opportunities
Andrea Wheeler, Simon Austin and Jacqui Glass
Can e-mentoring provide international engineering and construction students with an educational
opportunity which will significantly improve their employment opportunities? This paper addresses
both the difficult employment market for graduates and the challenges arising from increased
internationalization within HEIs through an e-mentoring initiative set up funded by a HEA
departmental grant.
5.6.2 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
International professional mentoring scheme
Chandana Sanyal and Chris Rigby
A Paper Presentation on the key research findings of an International Professional Mentoring
Scheme which partners overseas employers as mentors with post graduate UK students as
mentees to widen student engagement and creates an alternative experience to learn about
international work practices and enhance their employability
5.6.3 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Mentoring students into employment - 1+1 >2
Jenni Jones
This session aims to share learning from our 3rd year student mentoring scheme, whereby
students are mentored by an Institute of Directors member. The key objectives are to discuss the
learning achieved for students, mentors and the University, to share the successes and to offer
ideas on mentoring best practice.
5.7 Workshop session (1 hour)
The creative graduate
Richard Sant and Natalie NortonIn
this workshop participants will have the opportunity to take a creativity self-measure which has
been designed in collaboration with regional graduate employers. Follow-up discussions will
explore the use of this with students and its context as a tool to develop employability.
5.8.1 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Redefining engagement; students as partners, shapers and leaders of a 21st century student
experience
Ngaere Blair
How students engage with their institutions and their learning is undergoing significant change;
time commitments, online delivery, and cost pressures are just some of these challenges, while
new generations of learners are deeply concerned about the future of higher education; its
relevance, value and quality.
This session explores new approaches and strategies for engaging students as active contributors,
shapers and leaders of a 21st century student experience.
5.8.2 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
SALTSOC – a student designed online peer network - a journey from Induction to PDP and
beyond
Nicola Poole and Sophie Leslie
The project presented has evolved from its initial focus to enhance the induction phase of the
course by the redesign of the first week by staff and students, to the design and implementation of
a student led online peer support network. Discussing the benefits and barriers staff and students
faced.
5.8.3 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Rethinking the teacher’s role for building authentic learning partnerships: learning from an
experiment in student-driven large group teaching
Dorothy Spiller and Glenys Forsyth
This paper argues for learning experiences which are directed by the students and evaluates a
case study of a teaching initiative in which students determine the lecture content. This case study
is used to suggest principles and practices that can contribute to genuine learning partnerships
between students and the teacher.
5.9 Workshop session (1 hour)
How do postgraduate research students interpret what we ask in the PRES?
Lorenzo Vigentini and Barry McCluckie
The Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) is currently offered to all HEIs in England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. About 100 HEIs currently take part providing an opportunity
to find out what their PGR students think about their experience. Although Institutional results are
confidential, the central organisation from the HEA allows to aggregate the results nationally and
according to six smaller benchmarking clusters.
The aim of this session (or workshop) is to present the methods and results of a project which
explored the validity of the items used in the PRES.
A set of recommendations have been proposed to review the PRES for 2013, however the
conference provides an opportunity to share the experience and detailed results.
5.10 Discussion session (1 hour)
Partners in curriculum change: what are the best ways of working with students as co-researchers
in assessment and digital literacies?
Anne Jones, Maria Papaefthimiou, Amy Barlow, Camille Shepherd
Participants in this discussion session will explore approaches to working with students as coresearchers in technology-enhanced practice in assessment and digital literacies. Three JISCfunded projects offer a sounding board for discussion around best practice, enabling delegates in
other institutions to build on and participate in this body of work.
6.1 Panel (1 hour)
Learning partnerships for sustainability – building bridges for curriculum innovation
Alex Ryan
This session explores the development of sector partnerships to progress Education for
Sustainability (EfS) in HE through quality assurance and quality enhancement. It builds on a
HEFCE funded sector project that worked closely with QAA and aligns with research by the HEA
and NUS on demand and needs in this area.
6.3 Discussion session (1 hour)
For who’s a jolly good fellow! – towards multinational teaching fellowship collaboration
Kirsten Hardie and Earle Abrahamson
This session aims to elicit high level discussions around collaborative partnerships between
different teaching fellowship organisations, and how these partnerships provide opportunity for
engagement with international communities of practice. The session further aims to understand the
impact of teaching fellowship on teaching and learning development.
6.4 Workshop session (1 hour)
Defining Peer Led Team Learning International Society (PLTLIS)
Ellen Goldstein West, Jose Alberte, Alberto Cruz
PLTLIS members in the US and the UK are collaborating in peer led team learning. The society
offers content, research, best practices and a website http://pltlis.org . The workshop will provide
an overview of the PLTL model, focus on training and involve participants in a peer leader training
activity.
6.5 Discussion session (1 hour)
Inernational students as consultants: developing the client relationship
Liza Pybus
This discussion session aims to explore the management of client expectations when engaging
Postgraduate Business and Management students in team based project work with international
students. The objectives are to both share our practice at Nottingham Business School and
explore the management of client relationships at other institutions.
6.6.1 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Networking – powerful partnerships in action
Christine Fountain
Aim: To share we have established and sustained new employer partnerships through the
development of a Human Resources employer network.Objectives: Highlight the way in which
such networks might be formed and sustainedShare the learning from this experience
Demonstrate the value such networks can provide to the HE environment and the student
experience.
6.6.2 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Enhancing engagement and employability: A unique partnership with LSBU marketing alumni
Anita Peleg and Mel Godfrey
A unique partnership with LSBU Marketing Alumni facilitates strong industry links, job opportunities
and internships, a network of guest speakers and contribution to academic research, curriculum
design and delivery. Sharing research and experience of this initiative and inviting participant
contributions, this session assesses the successes and challenges of alumni partnerships.
6.6.3 Paper presentation (20 minutes)
Encouraging transference of skills from doctoral study to the workplace
Hilary Burgess, Jerry Wellington and Gordon Weller
This presentation considers the strategies, skills and processes by which doctoral students
effectively transfer research outcomes to their work setting. Data is drawn from on line
questionnaires, and face-to-face and telephone interviews with both employers and students.
6.7 Workshop session (1 hour)
Students as active partners in supporting the assessment and learning of themselves and their
peers
Stephen Rutherford, Sheila Dargan and Andrew Shore
The aim is to investigate the potential for involving students as partners in supporting their peers’
learning, either through curation of open-access resources or by development of their own learning
resources. The workshop will investigate means by which this may be done as part of a module’s
assessment strategy.
6.8 Discussion session (1 hour)
Students as partners in academic staff development
Rachel Hudson, Enzo Rossi and Susan Gibbs
Helping lecturers new to teaching see things from their students’ perspective can be a powerful
means of enhancing their practice. This session focuses on benefits, impact and lessons learned
from a discussion exercise between students and staff new to teaching at the University of
Portsmouth organised by the students.
6.9 Workshop session (1 hour)
Empowerment through student-led design of teaching, assessment and feedback practice
Sivaramkumar Shanmugam, Chris Seenan, Jamie McDermot, Jennie Stewart, Katie Thomson,
Larissa Kempenaar, Lesley McAleavy, Kevan Gartland and Karen Thomson
Empowering students to become independent life-long learners isa necessary preparation for
employability. Glasgow Caledonian University has a range of initiatives focussed on empowering
students to develop essential graduate attributes. A key principle in achieving these outcomes has
been the engagement of students as partners.
6.10 Discussion session (1 hour)
Student-led assessment: who needs lecturers anyway?
Tina Bass and Leanne Demain
This workshop session will introduce an activity from a student-led assessment delivered as part of
an innovative Masters programme. The introduction of this assessment has enhanced a
programme that already has students taking considerable control and responsibility for their
learning. Further developments to enhance student learning are now sought.