ISSN 2050-9995 (Online)
Journal 1
March 2012
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Contents 3 Editorial tfj Blog
tfj March 2012 Editorial Angela Benzies Things continue to be busy on the Teaching Fellow front as we take forward the initiatives we highlighted in the last edition. The articles in this edition will bring you up to date with our progress on these and other changes in the community, including the departure of two leading members and the arrival of a new Teaching Fellow Administrator.
4 Comings and Goings Senior Teaching Fellows 5 HEA Update Eureka! 6 HEREN Update Mathematics Workshop 7 Mentoring 8 Feature — MSc Blended & Online Education 9 The Professional Development Page 10 Diary Dates 11 Conference Report 12 tfj Book Review 13 Around the Faculties 14 SIG—Int SIG—TEL SIG—M 15 Portfolio Workshop Janette Ryan 16 Student–Led Teaching Excellence Awards tfj Placement 17 Grants Panel Update 18 Project Report 19 Teaching Fellows Journal Contacts
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It’s also generally very busy in the Office of the Vice Principal (Academic) (OVP) and, by the time you read this article, the Professional Development team, headed by Fiona Campbell, will have joined Human Resources (HR) and Stephen Bruce will have moved to Information Services (IS). The OVP, HR and IS will continue to work closely on many aspects of the development of colleagues involved in learning, teaching and assessment so Teaching Fellows will still have access to the same range of expertise and support and the (old?!) familiar faces will still be around. Internally, our Teaching Fellow database development is getting off the ground, and we are mapping our processes and drawing flow charts in preparation for agreement of the system specification with IS. Our guidance documents are being revised by a team comprising OVP staff and Teaching Fellows. The partnership with the MSc Publishing team in SACI is being developed and consolidated as two placement students have worked with us on production of this edition of the tfj. Six Fellows are working away on the Edinburgh Napier Mentoring/Coaching Award (ENMCA), and it’s been very interesting to make many links with colleagues across the University also involved in this area of work. Edinburgh Napier genuinely seems to have many very good examples of mentoring and coaching practice and provision, and the work to connect these together continues. Externally, we have opened up a conversation with the Higher Education Academy about accreditation of the Teaching Fellowship Scheme against Descriptor 3 of the new Professional Standards Framework, UKPSF, so look out for further news on this exciting development over the next few months. Being extremely busy is an occupational hazard in education at any level, and perhaps we need to remember the importance of maintaining a healthy work/life balance. But I hope that it’s evident that all our busyness is leading to something good that is intended to provide better systems, more readily available information, further opportunities for our students to gain experience of working directly with us on projects, and a sustainable way to help each other develop our skills and maximise our contribution to the University. If you have any feedback on any of these initiatives or suggestions, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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For more information on the Edinburgh Napier Education Exchange (ENEE) please follow this link: http://www.napiereducationexchange.com/ pg/groups/10882/teaching-fellows-journal/
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Comings and Goings Ruth Lough, our Teaching Fellow Administrator, left us in February to go on maternity leave. Unfortunately, she was sick on the day of her leaving do so, rather than waste the lovely cakes baked by Ann Akcan, not to mention the famous Kenny Reid fudge, the OVP staff rose to the challenge of partying on without the guest of honour! Ruth was able to pop in the following week to say goodbye. Our congratulations to Ruth and Robert on the birth of a little brother for Oliver.
We were very sad to lose one of our leading Teaching Fellows, Courtnay McLeod, of the School of Arts & Creative Industries (SACI). Until very recently, Courtnay held the record for the shortest period of time between appointment as Fellow and obtaining money from the Teaching Development Fund! With a £5,000 grant and using her broadcast journalism expertise, she created a set of student support podcasts for use within SACI, which soon mushroomed into further work, including development of podcasts in the School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Care. Our combined institutional expertise in this area led to the publication of a podcasting guide in September 2010, How to use podcasting to enhance teaching and learning . We were less sad when we heard that Courtnay has not just one, but three great jobs lined up. The main one will be the setting up of a new media academy in Scotland for Bauer, but she will also work on bespoke media solutions through her company, The Media Rooms, and in March she starts a six–month visiting Professorship at Sassari University in Sardinia, where she is teaching media convergence and storytelling on different platforms. We wish Courtnay well in these new ventures.
The community, and the Grants Panel in particular, will miss Linda Juleff of the Business School, who was a long-standing Senior Teaching Fellow. Our congratulations to Linda on her appointment as Associate Dean (Enhancement) at Southampton Solent University.
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Debbie Raychoudhury has joined us as Administrator to cover for Ruth Lough who is currently on maternity leave. Debbie has been at the University for two years. Her previous post involved dealing with direct-entry BA Hospitality Management (International) students and liaising with their Colleges in India — originally as a member of the International Office and latterly working for the Business School. With experience in international business, working for both Johnson & Johnson and Hewlett– Packard, and 10 years spent living in Barcelona, she returned to the UK in 2003. An alumna of the University, Debbie’s first experiences at Edinburgh Napier were as an undergraduate student in the days of the College of Commerce and then as a post-graduate student in the early days of the Business School at Redwood House. Her working hours are: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday until 3pm — please introduce yourself if you are over in Sighthill.
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Senior Teaching Fellows Angela Benzies The University normally has an annual promotions round that includes an opportunity to apply for Senior Teaching Fellow, which is a grade 7, Senior Lecturer post. Alongside this, existing Senior Lecturers are invited to apply for award of titles of Reader or Senior Teaching Fellow, which requires demonstration of activities against the appropriate role profile and person specification. Once HR confirms the details of the 2012 promotion round, Teaching Fellows will be informed and the vacancies/award of title opportunities will be advertised through the standard University systems.
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HEA Update Angela Benzies The Higher Education Academy (HEA) launched the new Professional Standards Framework, UKPSF, in London on 2 November with follow up meetings throughout the UK, one of which was at the University of Dundee on 9 November. OVP staff attended both of these. It was later confirmed that the fee for an application for Fellowship of the HEA (FHEA) through the Academy’s Individual Recognition Route would rise from £50 to £200. It is currently a requirement to achieve FHEA prior to applying for an Edinburgh Napier Teaching Fellowship, so this development has significant implications for the Scheme. One option is to write FHEA out of the requirements, but this is not easy to do in the middle of the applications cycle and the wisdom of such a move is debatable. As those who complete
Academy–accredited professional development provision attain the appropriate membership for free, accreditation of Edinburgh Napier’s provision is the other option. While it has been the intention for some time to align the Teaching Fellow requirements against the new HEA Descriptor 3, in order to reflect the journey from competence to excellence, we are now urgently looking at an accreditation process which would give successful applicants to the Edinburgh Napier Scheme the title of Senior Fellow of the HEA at no cost to the individual. An HEA representative will meet with OVP and HR colleagues on 18 April at Edinburgh Napier to begin to explore the practicalities and the broader institutional aspects of HEA accreditation, which may take in other continuing professional development provision.
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Eureka! Providing practical insights and advice, sometimes with a humorous twist! Curriculum as vehicle Members of the Academic Practice team hosted the QAA Developing and Supporting the Curriculum (commonly referred to as DSC) Regional Roadshow.
We provided a range of possible answers to that question, including the idea of curriculum-as-vehicle (figure 1), where the curriculum is recognised as the driving force supporting the delivery of institutional agendas and priorities.
e bl na nt ai me st op su vel de
The curriculum as vehicle model gives rise to many important questions such as: • Who’s driving the curriculum bus?
al ci m so for re ic om ity on er ec osp pr
• Which bags will buckle the axel?
articulation
widening access
improving standards
p pa rom rt ot ne in rs g hp
G21C
techno
internationalisation
institutional
research teaching linkages
exp lor ing n ma ew rke ts
• Are students aware of the bags in the back of the bus?
logy-enh anced learning
agendas
priorities
curriculum
• Are there any bags missing?
Figure 1: curriculum as vehicle
The event presented a perfect opportunity to discuss our ambitions as a sector for this enhancement theme. But before we decide how we might take the theme forward, we need to explore the all-important question about what we mean by the term ‘curriculum’.
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Perhaps these questions could form the basis of programme team discussions.
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HEREN Update
Writing retreat
Karen Strickland
In collaboration with the Teaching Fellow community, HEREN is hosting a Writing Retreat in June this year. The aim of the writing retreat is to provide feedback and collegial support so as to increase the scholarship and writing productivity of participants.
The Hub for Educational Research at Edinburgh Napier is a collaboration of staff from across the institution who are engaged in, and passionate about, research in higher education. We have published our strategy to help define our purpose, guide our mission and inform our activity. HEREN’s strategic aims are focussed on: • Promoting research on education as fundamental to enhancing the quality of our teaching. • Promoting and enabling opportunities for the sharing and dissemination of education research activities at Edinburgh Napier. • Providing guidance and support for staff engaging in research on education throughout the University. • Developing support structures for postgraduate research students working on educational topics within the University. • Maintaining an active presence in educational research networks outwith the University to inform and enrich internal activities. • Developing a strategy for educational research to support the University’s submission to the Research Excellence Framework.
HEREN symposium The HEREN Spring Symposium is planned for the afternoon of Thursday 10 May. This event is set to celebrate the wealth of educational research activity at Edinburgh Napier and to allow staff the opportunity to share their research and network with others from across the institution. The format will allow for a number of presentation opportunities and would be an ideal opportunity for sharing Teaching Fellow projects. If you would like to present your research at this event or register as a participant, please contact Svetlana Vetchkanova (Administrator for HEREN), s.vetchkanova@napier.ac.uk. This event will be followed by a cheese and wine reception, which will provide an informal networking opportunity. More details about the programme will be published in due course on the HEREN website.
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The format is flexible but the outcome can include each participant completing a piece of writing (for example: manuscript for a peer-reviewed journal; book chapter; conference proceeding; literature review) or a conference presentation from work already in development but stalled because of lack of time or competing priorities (bottom drawer phenomenon). David Baume will help support and facilitate the event. Please let Debbie Raychoudhury, Teaching Fellow Administrator, know in the first instance if you would be interested in attending this Retreat; any suggestions of the structure are welcome. And finally, we are delighted to welcome Morag Gray, Emeritus Professor, back to the HEREN Core Group. We look forward to working with Morag on a number of projects and benefiting from her expertise in the scholarship of teaching and learning.
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The HEREN website can be found at: http://staff.napier. ac.uk/services/academicdevelopment/HEREN/Pages/ HEREN.aspx
Mathematics Workshop Kate Durkacz is co-hosting a Mathematics and Statistics workshop at Edinburgh Napier University on Monday 16 April 2012. The event is being organised by the Scottish Maths Support Network (SMSN), of which Kate is the treasurer, and is being funded by the Maths Stats and Operations Research discipline group of the Higher Education Academy. The workshop will include talks on Mathematics service teaching, teaching calculus and giving audio feedback, and there will also be discussions and time for networking. For more information please contact Kate Durkacz (k.durkacz@ napier.ac.uk) and to book please contact Alison Mooney (a.mooney@napier.ac.uk).
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Mentoring ENMCA Up and Running Angela Benzies, ENMCA Programme Leader
The pilot of the Edinburgh Napier Mentoring/Coaching Award (ENMCA) started on 11 January with the first of its four workshop sessions. Co–tutor Elaine Mowat’s graphic facilitation skills came to the fore in representing personal aspirations for the programme, and participants explored definitions and models of mentoring practice, depicting the associated processes and We are pleased to report that, after an event on 12 March, the ENMCA has been recommended for recognition by the Staff & Educational Development Association (SEDA) against their Professional Development Framework (PDF) named award on Mentoring and Coaching. Following ratification of the decision in June, those completing the ENMCA will receive a SEDA certificate as an indication of external recognition of their mentoring knowledge and practice against this national framework.
timing in charts, as you can see in these photos. The mentoring practice element is underway too, with each participant helping one or more mentees with the achievement of their goals, some of which relate to obtaining Teaching Fellowship. Colleagues from various areas in the University have generously given their time as visiting speakers in ENMCA workshops and provided helpful resources. Apart from the Moodle training course, the ENMCA has become the first programme to be delivered on the University’s new VLE, the online element designed
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to support the face-to-face sessions and mentoring practice by providing a flexible and user-friendly facility to discuss ideas, ask questions, access resources and post assessment work. Online chat, asynchronous discussion and access to e-books and digitised resources and an Elluminate Live! session are also coming up. Another aspect of the programme is the inclusion of ‘support and supervision’ by an external expert in mentoring, Professor Diana Eastcott, who has also acted as an advisor in the setting up of the ENMCA. Each participant has had one such session and a further one is planned for the early summer.
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Feature MSc Blended & Online Education: Developing Accredited Specialists in Technology–Enhanced Learning Keith Smyth
The MSc Blended and Online Education, run within the Office of the Vice Principal (Academic), is a fully online programme for educators interested in developing their knowledge and skill in technology– enhanced learning (TEL). Now in its fifth year, the MSc BOE has engaged lecturers, senior lecturers, teachers, technologists, heads of school, and academic service managers from over thirty–five institutions internationally in enhancing their own practice and that within their institutions. Central to the ethos of the MSc BOE, and highlighted as particularly valuable by participants, is the use of the programme as a collegiate platform for experiencing online learning from the student perspective and for developing the skills needed to teach in blended and online contexts. This is enabled through activities like student–led online seminars and a module designed to help participants undertake and reflect on a negotiated set of blended or online teaching activities. The emphasis on direct applicability to practice, and developing transferable online teaching skills, has seen a number of institutions including Leeds Metropolitan University and Manchester Metropolitan University sponsor teams of staff to undertake the MSc BOE, or the Pg Cert BOE, in order to support their own curriculum and staff development initiatives. A similar approach is underway at Edinburgh Napier, where we are into the third year of offering sponsored places on the Pg Cert BOE to each Faculty. The Pg Cert BOE comprises the three core modules of the programme, and is the element accredited by SEDA (Staff and Educational Development Association) against their Embedding Learning Technologies award. The sponsored place initiative enables each faculty to nominate two members of staff to undertake the Pg Cert BOE, with the intention being that these staff will liaise with their school to ensure their work on the Pg Cert has local relevance. The overall aim of the sponsored place initiative is to ensure every school has at least one accredited online educator who is
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grounded in accepted good practice in TEL, can model discipline-relevant approaches, and also play a role in the University’s wider initiatives, including Moodle and the new Benchmark for the Use of Technology in Modules.
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The team
behind the MSc BOE have developed an excellent course...
To date, eight colleagues the progressive have successfully completed the Pg Cert and associated SEDA award, with others near nature is allowing completion. By January 2013, when the latest intake of staff me to become a on sponsored places completes proactive rather the Pg Cert, it is expected the number of staff to become than reactive accredited online educators through the initiative will educator comprise by Faculty: ENBS (3), FECCI (4), FHLSS (8), in addition to one colleague within Information Services. While extremely encouraging, uptake of the sponsored places has Chris Horne, Sports not been consistent across Management/Coaching the schools, and the number of accredited online educators Lecturer, Forth Valley projected for next January is College across only six of our eight schools. However, it is very much hoped this imbalance can be addressed if another round of sponsored places is offered for September 2012. If we achieve this target, so that all areas of the University can benefit directly from having experienced and qualified TEL specialists, Edinburgh Napier can become possibly the first University in the UK to prioritise the accreditation of online educators in each of their schools!
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Benchmark for the Use of Technology in Modules: http://staff.napier.ac.uk/services/ academicdevelopment/TechBenchmark/Pages/home. aspx
The Professional Development Page Words of Welcome
Researcher Development
Elaine Mowat
Gráinne Barkess
Welcome to Edinburgh Napier! It’s important that new academic staff are made to feel welcome on joining the institution, but what about all the practical advice and timely knowledge that they need alongside that? The new Words of Welcome induction resource aims to help them by addressing a range of key topics relating to academic practice through a lively series of audio broadcasts.
I started in the Professional Development team in December. My role is to help support the development opportunities for both research students and staff at the University.
Based on interviews with experienced staff from around the institution, and introduced by Elaine Mowat, who coordinates the University’s Starter for Ten academic induction programme, it makes the most of all the friendly advice and expert commentary that’s on hand across the University. Although the episodes are aimed at new academic colleagues, it may be that staff who have been here for some time will find them useful too — so why not visit the website at staff.napier. ac.uk/wordsofwelcome and listen in! Over 30 Edinburgh Napier staff, many of them Teaching Fellows, have contributed their Words of Welcome to this project — their time and expertise has been much appreciated.
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Getting Ready for Moodle
There is a lot happening at the University already and I hope to build on this. My aim is to have a well-rounded programme that helps each researcher identify areas they would like to strengthen and provides interesting and tailored events for researchers. I hope that I can also support efforts to build a sense of community amongst our researchers. Another area I am involved in is public engagement; since the University has recently adopted the Manifesto for Public Engagement we are keen to support researchers in this area, and I would be interested to hear about what types of public engagement already go on here. As the weeks go on I will be piloting events around researcher development, so keep an eye out for them — I look forward to meeting you at a future event! I am really keen to hear what the research community want for their own development, so if you have any ideas or suggestions about this I would be happy to hear about them. Drop me an email at g.barkess@ napier.ac.uk or phone me for a quick chat at ext 3341.
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Colin Gray 2012 appears to be the year of Moodle Mania as far as Professional Development are concerned. With the changeover to Moodle drawing ever closer, staff around the University are starting to think about setting up their own modules on the new virtual learning environment. Everyone on the professional development team is doing their best to provide as much support and development on Moodle skills as possible, in order to help the change go as smoothly as possible. If you haven’t signed up to the first step in your Moodle development yet — the 2–week online Meet Moodle course — then head over to
do, but your content will come across intact and often ready to use. Much more hands-on support will be available over the coming months too from your new faculty Learning Technologists. If you haven’t met them yet, then no doubt you’ll come across them soon — John Davies in the Business School, Ruth Johnstone in FECCI and Anne Jamie in FHLSS. They will be running a number of training sessions around Moodle as we hit full transfer–mode in March, so keep an eye out for those announcements.
http://bit.ly/meetmood and sign up. Stephen Bruce has been working hard over the past few months on making sure that your current modules in WebCT come over to Moodle in as similar and as complete a condition as possible. I’ve seen a number of migrations now and I am pleased to say that modules are coming across the WebCT — Moodle chasm in great condition. There will always be a little tidying up to
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As always, the Professional Development team would love to hear from you if you and your programme team would like some tailored development around a particular Moodle topic, or anything else for that matter. In the meantime, happy Moodling and enjoy your trimester!
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Diary Dates
Improving Student Learning Symposium 2012 Improving student learning through research and scholarship: 20 years of ISL
provide delegates with the opportunity to critically and creatively engage with new ideas and research.
29 — 31 August 2012, Lund University, Sweden
Please note that the abstract submission deadline has now passed. http://cede.lboro.ac.uk/ee2012/
The major aim of the Symposium is to provide a forum which brings together those who are primarily researchers into learning in higher education and those who are primarily practitioners concerned more pragmatically with improving their practice, and encourages the sharing of scholarly work and collaborative discussion. But from whichever starting point, papers are only accepted if they take a sufficiently scholarly, research-based approach.
17th Annual SEDA Conference
In 2012, we celebrate 20 years of the Improving Student Learning Symposium with a conference theme of Improving student learning through research and scholarship: 20 years of ISL , so this year we especially invite participants to submit proposals which reflect back on what we have learnt over the past two decades, or would want to claim we now understand about student learning and the research evidence that supports it. http://www.hg3.co.uk/isl/
EE2012 International Conference on Innovation, Practice and Research in Engineering Education 18 — 20 September 2012, Coventry University, UK This international conference is dedicated to enhancing the quality of higher education in all engineering disciplines. It will serve as a forum for sharing innovation and effective practice and will
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Excellence in Teaching: recognising, enhancing, evaluating and achieving impact 15 — 16 November 2012 Aston Business School, Birmingham The November 2012 conference, to be held at Aston Business School Birmingham, will focus on Excellence in Teaching: recognising, enhancing, evaluating and achieving impact. We invite proposals for sessions exploring aspects of excellence in teaching. This brings together many activities across the sector where the focus has been on enhancing the student experience. Whilst many factors contribute to the student experience, teaching is the most significant. We are interested in your strategies to recognise and reward excellent teaching and activities you undertake to enhance teaching. The emphasis should be on reflection, exploration and evaluation. It is also a long–standing tradition at SEDA conferences to hold sessions which involve delegates in active participation and discussion. Proposals for posters, papers and workshops are invited which address the conference themes. Proposals should be submitted electronically to SEDA at conferences@seda.ac.uk, using the proposal form, by Monday 30 April 2012.
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http://www.seda.ac.uk/index.php?p=14_2&e=427&c=1
Conference Report Janis Deane, School of Life, Sport & Social Sciences
Report from the JISC Innovating e–Learning 2011 Online Conference 23 November 2011 Introduction I was lucky enough to contribute to the sixth of the popular series of JISC online conferences, which brought together delegates from further and higher education with an interest in technologyenhanced learning and teaching. Our presentation entitled Workforce and
Employer Needs: A Collaborative Solution was delivered by me from Edinburgh Napier, two colleagues from Edinburgh’s Telford College and the Director of ELRAH (Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife Regional Articulation Hub). This is very much in keeping with the collaborative philosophy of the BA (Hons) Youth Work programme development, upon which the presentation centred.
Background The BA (Hons) Youth Work Programme takes many of the ideas being considered in Scottish Government’s 2010 White Paper Putting Learners at the Centre:
Delivering our Ambitions for Post–16 Education in Scotland in that it is a demand, employer–led, work–based model, designed and delivered through partnerships, and it involves employers in both its design and delivery.
The drivers for this development In 2010, Edinburgh City Council’s Community Learning & Development Department (CLD) with their Youth Work Consortium devised the Believing in Young People framework . From this they identified a need to improve their service for young people by up skilling their workforce through a flexible, cost effective, and work–based qualification.
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The enablers for this development were: the in–depth experience Edinburgh’sTelford College had in delivering work–based qualifications; Edinburgh Napier University’s experience in Higher Education quality standards, the innovative use of technology for learning and the development of a Foundation Degree by Edinburgh Napier University; ELRAH knew from research that there was a need to encourage articulation to Higher Education using work–based routes.
Programme structure and delivery BA (Hons) Youth Work is collaborative and the programme team comprises a Programme Leader from Edinburgh Napier, an experienced curriculum developer and an expert secondee from CLD. Each stage of the programme was sent to the Employer experts for comment. The Edinburgh Napier conceptual approach for planning e-learning in the Youth Work programme used the 3 E approach — ENHANCE — EXTEND — EMPOWER. The Youth Work programme is workbased and part–time, delivered in blended learning mode with very limited face–to– face contact. Substantial involvement in a youth work setting is a condition of entry, as is having a line manager who acts as supervisor. Students can hop on and off as their work and personal commitments require. Applicants with the approved entry requirements can start at stage 2 or 3.
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The
BA (Hons) Youth Work Programme… is a demand, employer–led, work–based model, designed and delivered through partnerships…
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Where we are now 27 students started the programme in September 2011. It is early days with the BA (Hons) Youth Work and the programme team are working hard to devise meaningful, real–world and online learning activities which engage and challenge students. Networking activities with key employers and stakeholders are underway as marketing continues to promote applications for September 2012.
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tfj Book Review Anne Waugh Senior Teaching Fellow School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Care
Race, P (2008) The Lecturer’s Toolkit: a practical guide to assessment, learning and teaching Third edition London: Routledge The Lecturer’s Toolkit: a practical guide to assessment, learning and teaching is written by Phil Race, visiting Professor of Assessment, Learning and Teaching at Leeds Metropolitan University who also delivers staff development workshops in universities and colleges in the UK and overseas. The book comprises seven chapters, each of which comprehensively addresses its intended learning outcomes; the chapters are presented as essentially self–contained entities making the book suitable to ‘dip into’. Written in an easy to read style, the text is well– supported by useful practical tips to facilitate student– centred learning. Bulleted lists of key points make easy reading for busy academics who wish to reflect on their practice or consider new ideas and approaches. Chapter 1 provides an overview of well–referenced pedagogical learning theory, which makes it a good resource for those who wish to reflect on or evaluate how they facilitate effective student learning. The material is broken down into sections highly relevant to classroom practice, for example, How can we increase students’ motivation? and Positioning the
goalposts — designing and using learning outcomes . Boxes with questions to engage the reader are followed by practical and easy to apply quick tips — the busy academic’s dream! In Chapter 2, there is pragmatic discussion of assessment and feedback, including formative feedback. Advantages and disadvantages of many
types of assessment are considered here, including their associated workload. The subsequent chapters explore the place of lectures and how to enable students to get the greatest benefits from them, how to design and facilitate effective group work and an introduction to resource– based and online learning. The latter chapter includes a review of various types of resource–based learning materials and considers how these can be designed, including how existing materials might be adapted for online and/or blended learning. In addition, a practical guide is included in the form of a quality checklist for resource–based materials. Chapter 6, Looking after yourself , acknowledges that the lecturer’s role can be challenging and provides helpful suggestions in relation to workload management, managing stress and preparing for annual appraisal. The final section deals with feedback from students; it contains pragmatic ideas about what information to seek and how this may be carried out. The concluding chapter considers a range of important contemporary issues: inclusive practice (including equal opportunities and additional needs, and related legislation and guidelines) and how this can be fostered; plagiarism; working with international students; and reflective teaching practice. Although there is now newer Equality legislation (2010), the principles provided here remain sound. In summary, The Lecturer’s Toolkit: a practical guide to assessment, learning and teaching provides a valuable resource for not only those new to education but also for experienced academics who are interested in evaluating their current practice or are looking for ideas to enhance their pedagogical practice. In addition, this book would be useful to academics applying for HEA accreditation (and their mentors) or preparing for peer review of teaching. It is a rich repository of information that could be used in any discipline to provide ideas and/or facilitate translation of ideas into effective student learning experiences.
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Would you like to write a book review for the tfj? No previous experience required. You get to read something interesting on an aspect of learning and teaching and you get to keep the book! Contact Angela Benzies if you’re interested. Angela is also happy to receive suggestions of books for review.
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Around the Faculties Office of the Vice
Faculty of Engineering,
Principal
Computing & Creative
(Academic)
Industries
The reputation of Edinburgh Napier’s academic practice development work has attracted requests to participate in events at other universities. Angela Benzies gave an invited keynote presentation at the University of Aberdeen on 12 January on the theme of developing and supporting Teaching Fellows. Along with Keith Smyth (OVP) and Joan McLatchie (School of Marketing, Tourism & Languages), Angela also led a workshop session on Developing ourselves, our practice and our community. Keith Smyth gave an invited online session on the 3E framework to Teaching Fellows at Leeds Metropolitan University in December 2011. Keith will soon be starting Write–TEL 2, a follow up to last year’s successful programme of online support for authors producing materials for publication in the area of technology–enhanced learning. The project scope has increased in that Write– TEL 2 will involve three other universities as partners and up to 15 places offered across the HE sector.
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Faculty of Health, Life &
The Faculty of Computing, Creative Industries & Engineering is pleased to record that there are 6 potential applicants in SEBE, possibly as many as 8 in SACI and 3 in SoC for Teaching Fellowships from the Faculty. A group of Engineering lecturers have been discussing how modern electronic devices (iPhones, Android phones, iPads, Android tablets, Kindles, etc.) could be used to support our students. In the recent TF grant round, Alan Edgar, Neil Shearer and Kate Durkacz applied for and received funds to buy a selection of electronic readers to investigate this idea. Currently these are being trialled and will be made available to other members of staff in the school. The project has been very successful so far and there is a ‘queue’ of testers who wish to try out the options. The project team has already discovered that some initial thoughts and perceptions are incorrect, in both good and bad ways.
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The Business School
Social Sciences
Susan Watt of the School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Care (SNMSC) was granted £800 to examine simulated patient involvement care in learning, teaching and assessment (TF1124). Karen Campbell was recently supported to attend an event relating to evaluation of the impact of learning technology research. Charlotte Chalmers was granted funds to disseminate her previous Teaching Fellow project work, on perceptions of staff and student views on examinations, at the Higher Education Academy’s July 2012 conference in Manchester.
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Monika Foster has started LTA meetings in the School of Marketing, Tourism & Languages. In February, Anne MacNab from Confident Futures introduced a new workshop, Making Feedback Work for You , and Angela Benzies spoke about the Teaching Fellowship Scheme. On 30 April, Yolanda Montero will share her innovative work with blogs and Elluminate Live, and Paul Barron will talk about the Faculty’s work on dissertation supervision and alternatives.
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SIG Int
Internationalisation
SIG TEL
Technology Enhanced Learning Keith Smyth
Alison Varey SIG Internationalisation was convened in autumn 2011 to provide a forum for discussion on support for all staff and international students, and developing pedagogic research. Currently, SIG-Int is in discussion with Student & Academic Services to determine how academics and student support services can collaborate to improve international student experience holistically. SIG-Int’s website, which is currently under development, will keep staff up to date on information to support international students, funding opportunities and external resources. The aim is to create a website which is accessible and interactive and which includes a social networking aspect. In March, SIG-Int was pleased to welcome Dr Janette Ryan (see opposite) from the HEA, who ran a seminar on teaching international students, showcasing the Teaching International Students Project, which provided guidance and resources to enhance teaching not just for international but for all students in the ‘global era’. The seminar included discussion about innovative ways of supporting our students.
The Special Interest Group in Technology Enhanced Learning (SIG TEL) have made good initial progress in planning their first event, which, as reported in the last tfj, will involve a TEL Fair that will be open to all staff wishing to attend. While the date is to be finalised, we have several confirmed contributions, and stalls and demonstrations on the day will cover Moodle, the new Benchmark for the Use of Technology in Modules, using technology in large class teaching, an online international collaborative learning initiative, and input from Library and IT colleagues within Information Services. The TEL Fair will also be used to formally launch SIG TEL, to be preceded by an open invite to colleagues across the University with an interest in TEL to consider joining the SIG.
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SIG M
Mentoring
Angela Benzies and Caroline Turnbull The main focus has been the start up of the Edinburgh Napier Mentoring/Coaching Award (ENMCA) and through this work it has become clear that there are many individuals and groups around the University active in mentoring and coaching, and therefore the potential exists for a very strong SIG. These include the award-winning Employer Mentoring Programme operated by Claire Bee of Confident Futures, the Mentorcentre within the Faculty of HLSS, the Scottish Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering
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and Technology (SET) mentoring programme for women in SET-related industries, Jill Meighan, Head of Corporate Learning & Development in HR, and the MSc in Coaching and Executive Certificate in Coaching Practice run by the Business School’s Edinburgh Institute. As the ENMCA develops, the plan is to strengthen the links between it and other initiatives to enable two-way sharing of experience and resources across the University.
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Portfolio Workshop Angela Benzies As part of the support offered to applicants for Teaching Fellowship, we run a programme of workshops in which participants can learn more about the role of the Edinburgh Napier Teaching Fellow and explore together their expectations and aspirations for their personal development through the Scheme. The Applications Workshop, which is run in October and January, sets out the history of the Edinburgh Napier Teaching Fellowship Scheme and the details of how to apply, while also providing an opportunity to hear from current Fellows abouttheir own journey towards appointment and the work they do across the University. The Portfolio Workshop, which is second in the series, is offered around the end of March and provides an opportunity to look at the appointment criteria in more detail and to compare this against the participants’ draft portfolios. Examples of completed portfolios and actual, anonymised comments from the Appointments Panel are used to support discussion with the Coordinator and other Teaching Fellow co-presenters about how to make a good application. Portfolios typically take several months to create as they are a reflective account of current and developing practice against the applications criteria, all supported by appropriate evidence. So, in addition to workshops, the process stipulates that the applicant works with an established Teaching Fellow Mentor over this period in order to capture and structure the required information. Mentors are, in turn, supported by the Teaching Fellow Coordinator and Administrator, the aim of this support being to maximise the chances of first-time appointment. Mentors are also offered the opportunity to develop their practice through participation in the Edinburgh Napier Mentoring/Coaching Award.
Janette Ryan Janette, who led the recent SIGInt seminar, is Director of the Teaching International Students Project, Research Associate of the China Centre at the University of Oxford, Visiting Professor at the Centre for Academic Practice and Internationalisation at Leeds Metropolitan University. Janette’s doctorate was on teaching and learning for diverse groups of students focusing on international students and disabled students. She has published widely on teaching and learning for international students and on internationalisation and education reform in China. Her publications include China’s
higher education reform and internationalisation (Routledge, 2011), Education reform in China: Changing concepts, contexts and practices (Routledge, 2011), International schooling and the Chinese learner (University of Hong Kong Press, 2010), Teaching international students: Improving learning for all (Routledge, 2005) and A guide to teaching international students (OCSLD, 2000) Her research interests include international students, internationalising the curriculum, cross cultural teaching and comparative pedagogy, and pedagogy and scholarship in Confucian-heritage cultures. She is a Mandarin Chinese speaker and is engaged in a three country collaborative research project with Chinese universities and schools on curriculum reform.
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Professional recognition arrangements with the Higher Education Academy are changing, and these directly affect the Teaching Fellow application process, so it is particularly important that all applicants and mentors keep in touch with the Coordinator about arrangements for the 2012 applications round.
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Student Focus Student–led Teaching Excellence Awards Justyna Paslawska
Everyone remembers great teachers. They inspire and enthuse us, illuminate the darkness, challenge and stretch us intellectually. They give us the tools to build bridges between what we know and what we aspire to know, instilling in us greater self-confidence and resourcefulness in the process. Napier Students’ Association (NSA) realise that there is much to recognise and celebrate in the best of the University’s teaching. The student-nominated “Teaching Excellence Awards” were designed with this in mind. The Awards are now in their third year at Edinburgh Napier University, having been re-branded from “I Love My Tutor”. Organised and run by NSA, initially with support from the Higher Education Academy, and latterly with assistance from Student & Academic Services (Academic Quality), the awards have attracted more student participants as they have become embedded into the University calendar, with 538 voting this year. The Awards have two clear purposes: The recognition and promotion of good practice and to publicise what aspects of teaching are viewed as helpful to the students as examples of good practice to develop and roll out across the institution, hopefully raising overall standards for all students.
The selection process starts with an online questionnaire requesting student nominations in any or all of the following categories: best tutor (one for each faculty), best innovator, best feedback, most inspiring tutor, best support staff. Respondents are then asked their reasons for nominating these people. The responses are then collated and passed to a panel comprised of student representatives, supported by a staff member from NSA and from Student & Academic Services respectively. The criteria for shortlisting are set and nominations sifted. Assessment is not a crude numbers game because this would unfairly disadvantage teachers of numerically small classes, but is based primarily on the qualitative comments from the students. The winners and runners up will be invited to an awards ceremony on April 25th in the Turmeau Hall. We hope to have students there as well as members of the University Court and Management Teams. All nominees and short-listed candidates will be informed of the fact they have been nominated and they can expect some examples of the qualitative feedback they got from the students.
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http://www.studentledteachingawards.org.uk/aboutthe-nushea-project/ www.napierstudents.com/awards
tfj Placement In October 2011, we ran a Teaching Fellow project to revamp the Teaching Fellow Journal, creating a print version for the first time and making the publication available as a PDF, partly to improve readability and in order to widen the audience. Feedback from that edition was good and, in particular, people valued having a paper copy to read. Having two MSc Publishing students, Zuzana Hajašová and Tom Holland, on placement in March 2012 has allowed our work on the tfj to develop further by optimising design and production systems for the print and electronic edition, building on previous work in creating a solid foundation for the future. Zuzana and Tom have juggled their studies, their paid employment and the placement work very effectively and have impressed the OVP (Academic) team by their energy, commitment and the results they have produced. We are grateful to them for their work and to programme leader Avril Gray for supporting the placement. To continue publishing the tfj we need to identify more Fellows who are willing to take responsibility for regular items, such reports on Faculty activities, and to write or source feature articles. Very soon we will be requesting copy for the next edition so please get in touch with the editor if you would like to be involved in making the tfj happen.
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Grants Panel Update Angela Benzies The Teaching Fellow Grants Panel met on 12 January to consider 13 new proposals for funding from across the University. Of these, 10 were approved, either in full or in part, totalling £14,201. We currently have some funding left for this financial year should any current Teaching Fellow or Senior Teaching Fellow wishes to apply for a grant to fund pedagogical project work, for help with learning, teaching and assessment events in their area, or for personal support, such as a contribution towards conference attendance. This funding must be spent by the end of the financial year, July 2012.
Recent Grant Awards
TF1122
m–Napier: Mobile Learning App for Edinburgh Napier University
TF1123
12 Projects for 1st Year Product Designers: A Curriculum for Creativity and Skills
TF1124
Simulated patient involvement in LTA
Susan Watt
£814
TF1125
The development of SIG–Int
Alison Varey
£1,882
TF1129
Learning by Doing — Teaching by Doing
Ian Lambert
£2,200
TF1131
Investigation into video as a lecture alternative
Jyoti Bhardwaj
£1,340
TF1132
Mobile PDF Readers for Student Support
Alan Edgar
£600
TF1133
Write–TEL 2
Keith Smyth
£4,178
Christine Penman
£365
Sally Smith
£1,822
Ian Lambert
£1,000
Panel remit and membership The Teaching Fellow community has a say in how the funding is spent, and this is done through consultation with Fellows on policy and, at a practical level, the Fund is administered by a Grants Panel comprising two representatives from each of the Faculties working with the Teaching Fellow Coordinator. Members normally serve for a fixed period, initially set at three years. This distributes the workload among the community and will allow other Fellows to gain experience of the work of the Grants Panel. With Courtnay McLeod and Linda Juleff having now left the University, and Ian Lambert and Norrie Brown stepping down, we need to appoint two replacement representatives from the Faculty of Engineering, Computing & Creative Industries, one from the Business School and one from the Faculty of Health, Life & Social Sciences. Please contact Debbie Raychoudhury (d.raychoudhury@napier.ac.uk) for further information. We are grateful to all members for their valuable contribution to this work. Karen Strickland joins the Office of the Vice Principal (Academic) from 19 March and we are delighted that she has accepted an invitation to join the Grants Panel, bringing both her experience of running Teaching Fellow projects and her research expertise. Karen’s role in HEREN development and in the University’s exploration of a REF education submission will link well with the Panel’s work.
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Involving students in module material design for the preparation of the Residence Abroad
Next funding round First call for bids for 2012/13 Teaching Development funding will be coming out in May. Deadline date to follow.
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Project Report: The Progress of a Teaching Fellow Funded Project Kendall Richards and Nick Pilcher
We describe the ups and downs to date of a project funded by Teaching Fellows in January 2010. The project was based in FECCI and the team comprised Caroline Turnbull (lead), Kendall Richards and Nick Pilcher. The project used focus groups of UK home students, UK lecturers, Chinese students and UK–based Chinese lecturers. These focus groups were staged; in stage one the groups were by themselves, in stage two they were in two groups (Chinese students and UK–based Chinese lecturers; UK home students and UK lecturers) and then in the final stage all together in one group. The first two stages of the Chinese participant focus groups used Chinese and were transcribed and translated into English (only possible with the help of the Teaching Fellow fund). In the final stage, the group was in English, although Chinese participants were encouraged to use Chinese. The groups focused on different possible interpretations of key assessment task words such as d iscuss, analyse and define . The data was extremely rich and surprising. We now describe here the progress of the project to date. We have given a number of practical workshops and conference presentations. At Edinburgh Napier, we have presented the work at faculty and school level. In SMTL, we gave a presentation in the research seminar series entitled Trials and rewards: using staged focus groups to look at perceptions of key academic terms . We also presented to the Faculty Executive and School Conference in FECCI. At a wider University level we offered a session as part of the Academic Development Series entitled Unwrap the mummy!! — reanimating assessment terms with an ‘anti–glossary’ approach , although this has not yet run due to low numbers. At Heriot–Watt University we gave a workshop based on the findings at an Internationalisation Symposium entitled A scaffolding framework for dialogicality, or:
At De Montfort University, the work has been presented twice at PGCert workshops, once at an International Symposium and once at a Business and Law mini-conference. The work was also presented in Taiwan in a Speech for National Kaohsiung First University Language Students, and at the HEA annual conference (also funded by the Teaching Fellows fund). As a result of these presentations we have been approached by people asking about the work. De Montfort staff have asked to use the ideas with City University Hong Kong, and the HEA asked us to contribute to their September newsletter. We have also been asked to present at Glasgow Caledonian University at a HEA event. In terms of written dissemination, as ever, this is the most challenging task for any project. Our first submission to the journal Teaching in Higher Education was rejected, but we rewrote the work on the basis of the reviewer’s comments and resubmitted it to another journal in the States. We are still in the process of writing this, although to date the submission has not yet been rejected. If it is rejected, we will look elsewhere to submit. We have a chapter in a forthcoming book edited by Martin Cortazzi and Lixian Jin and published by Palgrave MacMillan. The book is about cultures of learning and we focus in the chapter on the experiences of the UK home students. We have also written pieces for the HEA newsletter and the Heriot Watt Symposium.
reanimating assessment terms with an ‘anti-glossary’ approach . The same presentation was given at a
This work started with the Teaching Fellows fund, and, although it has gone beyond the original expectations, we see the work as ongoing and hope to develop it further.
Biannual meeting of the SCOT–ELAS (Scottish Effective Learning Advisers) at Dundee University.
Contact: Kendall Richards: K.Richards@napier.ac.uk
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Teaching Fellows Journal Contacts Angela Benzies Senior Teaching Fellow Teaching Fellows Coordinator t: (0131) 455 6105 e: a.benzies@napier.ac.uk
Debbie Raychoudhury Teaching Fellows Administrator t: (0131) 455 6360 e: d.raychoudhury@napier.ac.uk
Sarah Murray Publications Officer t: (0131) 455 6122 e: s.murray@napier.ac.uk
Anastasia Dragona Information and Project Officer t: (0131) 455 5018 e: a.dragona@napier.ac.uk
Tom Holland Production team MSc Publishing
Zuzana Hajašová Production team MSc Publishing
School of Arts & Creative Industries
School of Arts & Creative Industries
Edinburgh Napier University • Office of the Vice Principal (Academic) Sighthill Campus • Sighthill Court • Edinburgh • EH11 4BN e: TFAdmin@napier.ac.uk • www.url.napier.ac.uk/tf http://www.napiereducationexchange.com/pg/groups/10882/teaching-fellows-journal/ Edinburgh Napier University is a registered Scottish charity. Reg. No. SC018373
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