The Seminar Room

Author:          Dr. Mark Atlay (Bridges CETL, University of Bedfordshire)

Title:               Building Bridges to a Promised Land

As part of its work on PDP and employability, the Bridges CETL developed a curriculum framework for application across the University of Bedfordshire which included five strands (personalised learning, the curriculum, realistic learning, employability and assessment) together with an associated model of the learning process known as SOAR (Self awareness, Opportunity awareness, Aspirations and Results).

This interactive presentation session will use the notion of Building Bridges as a metaphor to explore the rationale for this development, its key themes and the associated strategy for change exploring what worked (and what didn’t work).  It will examine issues encountered in the planning, building and implementation phases of Bridges CETL.  The importance of a clear vision, flexible plans, strong foundations, design materials, a willing and skilled workforce and effective health and safety practices will be discussed together with the wider impact of the Bridge on the local environment.  Key aspects of Bridges’ work will be introduced with links to related materials and resources where detailed outcomes and impact are discussed more fully.

Authors:        Dr. Marie Krumins, Patricia Bluteau and Lynn Clouder, The Centre for Interprofessional e-Learning (CIPeL), Coventry University and Sheffield Hallam University

Title:               Wading through treacle or flying high? Facing the challenges to adopt institutional change

The Centre for Interprofessional e-Learning (CIPeL) CETL at Coventry and Sheffield Hallam Universities, like all other CETL's, were tasked with introducing and implementing institutional change adopting innovative approaches in teaching and learning. Using Coventry University as a case study, this presentation will explore three key areas where change has been most successful and sustainable within the institution as a result of the CETL's work.

The role of the Learning Technologist, now vital to driving forward e-learning strategies will be discussed with respect to both CIPeL work, and ultimately how this has impacted the wider faculty and institution. The second major change will discuss the tangible outputs of e-learning objects in promoting and supporting applied research activity. Finally, the third transformation discussed will look at how the CIPeL (which was primarily health focussed), was used as a vehicle to introduce interdisciplinary e-learning into other areas of the University, and how this work will be carried forward in the future.

The presentation will discuss the challenges faced with regards to winning heart and minds, management buy in and facilitating change in colleagues that would ultimately lead to their respective successes across the University.

The Board Room

Authors:        Dr. Ruth Allen, Dr. Sadie Williams and Dr. Gillian Lancaster (Postgraduate Statistics Centre; Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University)

Title:               Evaluation of Learning Spaces and How Students Learn Within Them: New Methodology, New Insights

In 2009 a new visual analysis methodology was devised for researching the use of new social learning spaces by students and staff within the Postgraduate Statistics Centre (CETL) at Lancaster University. A brand new building was designed with staff and students in mind, to enhance the student experience for postgraduate statisticians as well as reward excellence within the department. The new method was created to observe the ways in which both staff and students use and interact with their space and to identify the types of activity engaged in. We were interested to see whether the building has a role in the identity-building of staff and students within the department, and whether it had an impact on the learning experience within the subject specific discipline of statistics. The findings were combined with interview and focus group data. Our method provides a new, rigorous way of evaluating space without the ad-hoc nature of still photography, the intrusion of video photography or a reliance on anecdotal evidence. Our research also offers a case-study orientated insight on how best to design learning spaces that are appropriate for their intended users. (187 words)

Authors:        Dr. Alan Booth and Dr. Angela Smallwood (CETL for Integrative Learning, University of Nottingham)

Title:               Integrative Learning – Transforming learning in the 21^st Century

This workshop aims to place Integrative Learning (IL) in its international context and to encourage participants to connect it to their own experience and to explore its potential to enhance student learning in the UK in the 21st century.

The objectives are to convey our CETL’s understanding of Integrative Learning and to engage participants in discussion of its value to them and relevance in their own institutions, including identifying and critiquing developments which are currently emerging under other names in the UK HE sector (for example, the proliferation of student award schemes).

The profile of Integrative Learning abroad has grown rapidly in recent years.  We wish to argue that it has a major role to play in transforming both the learning experience of UK students and the institutions in which they study, as both learners and HEIs respond to the challenges of a changing sector – challenges including, for instance, internationalisation, employability agendas and the question of how to enhance our students’ chances of recognising, negotiating and optimising their choices for living well in the 21st century.

The Teaching Room

Authors:       Professor Annette Cashmore, Dr. Jon Scott, Dr. Chris Cane and Professor Sue Law (GENIE – Centre of Excellence in teaching and learning in Genetics, University of Leicester; School of Biological Sciences, University of Leicester; Higher Education Academy)

Title:                           Reward and Recognition for teaching and learning: defining good teaching and good institutional practices

GENIE, in collaboration with the Higher Education Academy, have carried out research providing evidence that, in academic promotions, teaching and learning is not being consistently valued. The study involved an investigation of both academics’ perceptions of reward and recognition for teaching and learning and the implementation of promotion policies of UK Universities; 2,700 academics and 104 institutions were involved, and findings have been included in two reports published by the Academy in February and November 2009. The study indicated that inclusion of teaching in promotion criteria is inconsistent and often absent. This is mirrored in the perceptions of a large number of individual academics.

Given this evidence, we are now taking action to facilitate and motivate change in the sector. Key prerequisites to this are to establish definitions of excellence in teaching and learning activities and to identify good practice in relation to implementation of promotion policies. To this end we are now extending the study to produce case studies from a range of institutions. These are being collected through structured and more informal interviews with HR, academic managers and academic staff. The presentation will include examples of the case studies.  

Authors:        Dr. Janet Hargreaves, Dr. Idah Nkosana-Nyawata and Viktoria Joynes (University of Huddersfield; University of Leeds; ALPS CETL)

Title:               Strength in Numbers? A Collaborative Approach to Innovation in Professional Education

It is widely agreed that building and sustaining partnerships is crucial for effective education interventions and management.  Central to the Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) CETL is the need for such collaboration.  Five universities, sixteen professions and multiple health and local authority agencies have worked together, aiming to improve assessment and learning in practice settings and thus aspiring to improve the experience of service users and their carers.  As part of the evaluation a research strand attempts to capture the collaborative process through reflective accounts, documentary analysis and semi structured interviews.  For greater objectivity, the project included the use of external moderators to run Normative Group Technique events across the partnership.   

This paper will present our initial findings from the evaluation in particular identifying what may be key learning points about the ways in which this and other CETLs have been developed and implemented.  The Higher Education sector faces an uncertain future within the current economic and philosophical climate. Funding on the scale of the CETLs is unlikely to be repeated in the foreseeable future thus we argue that our learning about collaboration offers a vital contribution to the sustainable legacy of this national initiative.

Owen Classroom

Authors:        Elizabeth Clifford, Elena Zaitseva and Sue Thompson (CETL, Liverpool John Moores University)

Title:               From muddy waters to clear blue ocean: the challenges and successes of facilitating change through a CETL

The subject areas involved in LJMU’s CETL are located in two University Faculties: Education and Science. Whilst excellent in their own fields of practice and with a common subject focus, the two discipline areas are culturally very different.  The inherent challenges of bringing them together as a CETL, whilst capitalising on their diversity to promote change, were recognised from the outset.  This presentation will focus on the role of the University’s educational development unit (EDU) in providing an essential backbone of communication and co-ordination within the CETL. It will highlight the strategies and approaches employed to facilitate dialogue and change, placing particular focus on how we enhanced staff engagement with pedagogic research and evaluation.

Drawing on the results of ‘close up’ research and outcomes of the CETL self-evaluation, it will demonstrate how staff perceptions have changed over time. The presentation will also highlight some critical success factors for securing staff engagement and ‘buy in’. In reflecting on what has and has not worked, the lessons learnt from the CETL have the potential to inform more University-wide learning and teaching change processes. The role of the EDU in supporting this ongoing legacy of the CETL will also be considered.

Author:          Professor Philippa Levy (CILASS, University of Sheffield)

Title:               A theory of institutional change, and what was learned through practice

Evaluation has shown that CILASS, the Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sheffield, is perceived to have played a significant role in effecting positive cultural change at institutional level in educational development practice. This is seen as a major aspect of its institutional legacy. At the outset of the life of the CETL, a ‘theory of change’ was articulated to identify enabling factors and activities through which it was expected to achieve its institution-focused (and other) objectives. This proved to be a valuable point of reference throughout, supporting systematic reflection on process issues and outcomes relating to change facilitation. With reference to our theory of change, this presentation will highlight key ‘success factors’ in the CETL’s change facilitation practice and offer an opportunity to consider potential transferability to other HEIs. Among other themes, the CILASS models for strong staff-student partnership and enhanced cross-professional working in educational development will be described, as well as relevant features of the CETL’s engagement strategy and organizational structure. The key message is that participatory and network-oriented models of educational change facilitation have clear benefits in terms of creativity and impact.

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