Festival of Learning

Current Challenges, Future Ideas

16-19 March 2015

Welcome to the 2015 Festival of Learning

This year’s four-day festival builds on the 14 previous Annual Learning and Teaching Conferences. It is organised by staff in the Department for Learning Development, in partnership with colleagues from across the University, mima and our students.

Current Challenges, Future Ideas

The theme of Current Challenges, Future Ideas will be addressed throughout the four days by a stimulating range of keynote presentations, workshops, presentations and show and tell sessions. We are delighted to have a number of high profile national and international speakers, as well as input from staff and students across the University and partner colleges. There should be plenty to interest everyone.

The Fringe Events

Alongside the formal workshops and presentations, you are invited to engage in fringe events and activities. There will also be opportunities to try out new technologies, attend trouble-shooting sessions and masterclasses and contribute to dialogues about teaching and learning in the 21st century. Students will also be showcasing some of the exciting work that they have been engaged with. We look forward to enjoying performances by some of the community groups who work with mima at the Festival finale on Thursday 19 March.

Location

The Festival of Learning will be held across our Middlesbrough campus, to showcase some of our physical learning spaces. On Monday 16 March mima are opening especially to invite all delegates to spend the afternoon at the Gallery. We hope that you can come and engage in the discussions about the relationship between art and education and enjoy tea on the terrace (weather permitting).

Further information

If you have any questions or needs, members of the organising committee will be happy to help you. They can be found at the registration desk (details in the programme).

Monday 16 March

9.30am-10.00amWelcome: Professor Eileen Martin - HO.01

10.00am-11.00amKeynote Speaker 1:Professor Ronald Barnett – Institute of Education - HO.01

Ronald Barnett is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education, University College London (where he was both Dean of Professional Development and Pro-Director for Longer Term Strategy).

In his academic work, he has been developing a social philosophy of the university, in which he has been identifying creative concepts and practical principles that might enhance universities and higher education.Recently, he has begun to sketch out an idea of the ecological university.

Ronald’s writings are influencing debate and practice across the world.His (21) books include The Idea of Higher Education, Realizing the University in an age of supercomplexity and A Will to Learn: Being a Student in an Age of Uncertainty.He is currently writing a trilogy of books, the first two volumes of which are Being a University (2011) and Imagining the University (2013).(Understanding the University is nearing completion.)His books have been translated into several languages and several have won prizes.He is the author of well over two hundred other pieces of writing.He was recently described as ‘one of the most eloquent defenders of the university of reason’ (Michael Peters).

Ronald is the inaugural recipient of the EAIR Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Higher Education Research, Policy and Practice’ and the University of London has conferred a higher doctorate upon him.He is a visiting professor in several universities and an Honorary Fellow in the University of Oxford.He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences, the Society for Research into Higher Education, and the Higher Education Academy.

Ronald is also a consultant, and has recently been working as the lead academic for the HEA in its Flexible Pedagogies project.

His presentation will be based on the following themes:

  • the contemporary university and the contemporary HE Sector
  • immediate needs for development
  • long-term needs for development
  • what will the University of 2030 look like?

11.30am - 12.00pmPresentations:

A dalliance with distance: the journey from three perspectives-HS2.01

Five years ago, a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences Law, was informed that they needed to create and deliver an online dissertation module, for police officer students around the country, as part of their top up degree.Whilst the academic had taken part in an online course as a student, to enable them to experience learning on the other side of the table, there was no actual precedent for this type of module in the School, therefore no one was able to advise on the steps that needed to be taken.

With only a few weeks’ notice before the commencement of the academic year and never having taught at a distance before, the academic enlisted the help of one of the University’s learning technologist from DfLD.This paper will share the experience and learning curve of three primary players within this journey; the academic, the learning technologist and the student.

Timescales, planning, communication, new technologies, re-education, assessment methods and the throwing away of any preconceived ideas of how to learn online, shall all be discussed, linking to theories and the experiences of those involved.Examples will be given and used in order to reflect on the process of this dalliance with distance as well as the lessons learned, to assist those who find themselves faced with a similar situation, in this new world of online and distance learning.

Speakers: Debra Tinney, Samantha Scott and Mick Jackson

Transforming Assessment Pilot Scheme (TAPs)-H0.43

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) funded TAPS project reached its conclusion in May 2014.This presentation aims to explore the main outcomes of our engagement with the TAPS project: the benefits of dialogic assessment methods and the impact of the student voice in the decision-making process of programme changes.

The School of Science Engineering set out to use TAPS to help improve assessment following a strategic decision to place group work and problem-based learning at the centre of every programme within the School.Our main aim, based on staff and student feedback, was to increase the actual and perceived reliability of assessing individual contributions to group work problems.We found that a dialogic assessment mechanism, utilising technical group interviews followed by individual reflective interviews, was a suitable tool in this instance.The interviews were tailored to assess individual levels of understanding of the process – from factual recall to deeper, thorough understanding.

Evaluation from the students suggested an increase in perceived fairness: the students felt the quantity and quality of their contribution could be ascertained, and the individual interviews provided the opportunity to further support and evidence their individual contributions to the group working process.

The positive, empowering relationship formed between staff and students was also a beneficial outcome.Embracing student involvement as an integral part of the design/re-design/evaluation stages of change was essential for informed curriculum design, increased student satisfaction and for the students to be seen as ‘partners’ within the process.

Speakers: Helen Page, Tim James, Liam O’Hare and Sam Hutchinson(S)

Engaging with pre-student partners: Lessons learned and future implications - H0.46

Students as active partners in learning is a recent policy priority in higher education (NUS, 2012; HEA, 2014; QAA, 2013) which is dominated by the experiences and interests of full-time, undergraduate students and strategies for partnering with current or past students. The relationship between universities and students remains contested (McCulloch, 2009). Student engagement is a broad term and not all student engagement is partnership (HEA, 2014), although there is consensus that partnership with students is an ethos, not merely an activity (NUS, 2012) or purely outcomes focused (HEA 2014).

HEA (2014) provides a pedagogic rationale for partnering with students to enhance student success and engagement. Andragogy has long dominated higher education theory and practice. A recent shift to a heutagogical, or student directed (McAuliffe et al 2009), approach has occurred although Hase and Kenyon (2007, p115) note ‘…only a modicum of good research to support it.’ However,a case study will be used to illustrate how the principles of heutagogy were adapted and used to effectively partner with a ‘pre-student’ through programme development to approval and delivery of a new master’s programme. This is an example of a student partner working in collaboration with interested parties, to determine what needs doing, why and how (NUS, 2012). However despite offering benefits for all parties (HEA, 2014), there are implications that warrant exploration.

Based on the reflexive analysis of a ‘pre-student’/academic duo, lessons learned and top tips for others contemplating a similar approach will include:

  • accessing ‘pre-student’ partners
  • benefits for programme viability
  • impact on curricula
  • managing multiple, shifting identities
  • impact on cohort identity
  • issues of power
  • benefits for ‘pre-student’ partners
  • implications for policy and practice

References

Hase S and Kenyon C (2007) Heutagogy: A child of complexity theory Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education 4(1) pp111-118

HEA (2014) Framework for Partnership in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education York Higher Education Academy

McAuliffe M, Hargreaves D, Winter A and Chadwick G (2009) Does pedagogy still rule? Australasian Journal of Engineering Education 15(1) pp 13-18

McCulloch A (2009) The student as co-producer: learning from public administration about the student-university relationship Studies in Higher Education 34(2) pp171-183

NUS (2012) A Manifesto For Partnership London National Union of Students

QAA (2013) The UK Quality Code for Higher Education Gloucester Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education

Speakers: Gillian Janes and Wendy Lunn(S)

Student perspectives on the National Student Survey-HS2.12

Ryan Marshall and Jon Berg from Teesside University Students’ Unionwill lead participants through the National Student Survey results, summarising the trends and benchmarking Teesside against other universities to show our strengths and weaknesses. They will share the SU’s work on interpreting the NSS, how it got in the UK top ten, and the role their officers and representatives play in NSS.

Speakers: Ryan Marshall and John Berg

12.00pm-1.00pmKeynote Speaker 2:ProfessorPenny Jane Burke – Roehampton University-H0.01

Penny Jane Burke is Professor of Education at Roehampton University, London, where she is co-Founder and Director of the Paulo Freire Institute-UK & Research in Inequalities, Policy & Education. She is also Global Innovation Chair of Equity and co-Director of the Centre of Excellence for Equity in Higher Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Penny is passionately dedicated to developing methodological, theoretical and pedagogical frameworks that support critical understanding and practice of equity and social justice in higher education and she has published extensively. After returning to study via an Access to Higher Education course, followed by a BA Honours and MA, Penny was awarded a full-time Economic and Social Research Council doctoral studentship from 1998-2001, which resulted in the publication of her book Accessing Education effectively widening participation (2002). Her most recent sole-authored book The Right to Higher Education: Beyond widening participation was published by Routledge in 2012. Her co-authored book Reconceptualising Lifelong Learning: Feminist Interventions (with Sue Jackson) was nominated for the 2008 Cyril OHoule World Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education. Penny was recipient of the Higher Education Academy’s prestigious National Teaching Fellowship award in 2008 and she is the Access and Widening Participation Network co-Convenor for the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE). She is the Editor of Teaching in Higher Education and a member of SRHE’s Governing Council and Publication Committee. Penny has held the posts of Professor of Education at the University of Sussex, Reader of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London and Visiting Professor in the Paulo Freire Institute at University of California, Los Angeles.

Penny’s presentation will be based on the following themes:

  • the nature of higher education in the 21st century (briefly considering changes in approaches to the concept of ‘widening participation’)
  • the contemporary university and the contemporary HE Sector
  • current challenges and needs for development
  • the university of 2030

2.00pm-5.00pmThe art of user-generated education - mima

Tea on the terrace

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Tuesday17 March

9.30am-10.30amKeynote Speaker 1:John Usher –Blackboard -H0.01

John Usher has been with Blackboard since 2009 and has held several roles in that time in IT, Support and Mobile. Currently he is a Senior Client Manager for the UK, Ireland and the Nordics. After moving to the UK two years ago, he has been getting to know the clients of the UK and helping them with the opportunities and challenges they face. John has worked with over 60 higher education and further education institutions in the UK.

John’s presentation will be based on the following themes:

  • how the design of Blackboard is informed by their collaboration with UK HE institutions
  • future directions in education and how Blackboard is planning to support them
  • preview of features and improvements in upcoming Blackboard releases

10.30am-11.00amPresentations:

Preparing student support materials for flexible learning -HS3.15

In addition to curriculum based study, students benefit from study skills support.This is often provided for full-time students in additional tutorials or lectures but providing equivalent opportunities for other students (particularly part-time, distance and partner college learners) is difficult.

There is evidence to show that international students in particular benefit from an opportunity to participate in such events but to have the same information available in a more flexible form (as a podcast or video) to allow them to assimilate the materials more effectively.This would of course be of benefit to all students at times of need such as in assessment periods.

This project seeks to adapt a current programme of support workshops by adapting existing classroom delivery or through specialist presentations.This is supplemented with other support materials.The purpose of the pilot study is to develop an initial set of videos and to learn from the activity by providing a development template and testing the initial work on groups of students.

The presentation will be passed around a poster with opportunities to view and comment on the materials that have been developed.

This activity was supported by funding from the Innovation Fund.

Speakers:Fred Hutchinson and Louise Watson-Spence(S)

Becoming unstuck: Student led rescue guides as an aid to retention and success -Syndicate Room, CfE

There are frequent recurring elements on courses that students might struggle with that can prevent progress.This Innovation Fund project aims to determine the areas that students identify as their re-occurring ‘sticking points’ to their learning or development and focusses on strategies to unglue them .As students’ progress some might discover their own solutions, but others often continue to struggle to the detriment of their marks, progression and ultimately their employability.By working with student teams to each focus on mastering one of these areas of difficulty the students will produce guides to help their peers’ progress.

The idea originally stemmed from second year design portfolio reviews.These are individual tutorials which review each student’s progression and it was clear that many fostered the same anxieties and many developed avoidance strategies to the areas they feared most.Follow up discussions and surveys reinforced the areas of most need and how they could benefit from ‘how to’ reference guides.

These student led ‘guides’ which might be text, video or audio,require the creators to master the area they are covering with the aid of specialist help, then to test their approach and ideas with other learners to discover the most useful and sustainable solutions to continue beyond the project lifespan.

Although these will be created by and for spatial design students the process is transferable and could aid transitions, progression and success as well as encourage subsequent peer support.

Speakers: Richard Sober, Emily Hogg(S) and Paulina Banaszek(S)

Blackboard Peer Assessment Tool -H0.43

Show and tell on the use of peer feedback in a first year BA module using the Blackboard Peer Evaluation tool.

The module concerned, covers parts of the University Personal Development requirements which includes writing and reflection; using the Blackboard Peer Evaluation tool, the students can write a short essay, related to the course content, and then grade 2-3 of their peers via a fairly well-defined set of criteria.This allows then to see and evaluate other students work, hopefully comparing it to their own, but also to better understand grading criteria and how they might affect their own marks. The presentation will give a brief description of the tool and setting it up, pitfalls and problems that might be encountered or avoided, some of the results and (yet to analysed) changes in student performance over the two years it has been used.

Speaker: Martin Kane

Providing experiences to enable students to more actively engage in their studies -HS2.13

School of Science & Engineering forensic staff provided two activities over the summer of 2014 to encourage students to actively build upon their CVs and engage more closely with their area of study.Both activities were voluntary and students engaged through an active choice.

Jo and Eve took part in an archaeological dig in Tynemouth.The dig was chosen as it was a site that had guaranteed human remains and students were given first hand experience in recovery of these remains. Students were able to apply their theoretical forensic knowledge to a practical application. Jo and Eve will talk about how this experience helped them engage with their studies as well as providing an opportunity for them to enhance their CVs.

Megan was part of a team that designed and led a mock crime scene in the science tent at Deershed festival in July 2014. During the three day event the Deershed student team helped over 300 children “solve the murder of Matthew Marshall” through teaching them about certain forensic evidence types and crime scene examination. Megan will talk about her experiences at the festival and how she feels this opportunity has helped increase her confidence and improved her approach to third year study.