PARALLEL SESSION ABSTRACTS
NB: (i) the abstract numbers correspond to the numbers on the parallel session schedule in this guide, and (ii)the abstracts are exactly as received, i.e. no corrections have been made to typos.
Title: Using Building Information Modelling (BIM) to Foster Collaborative Learning
Presenters:David Comiskey, The Belfast School of Architecture
Mark McKane, School of the Built Environment
Abstract:
Historically, most undergraduate degree courses within built environment disciplines have predominantly delivered their programme content in “disciplinary silos” (Chapman, 2009), with minimal collaborative working between students on other built environment and construction related courses. Sayce & Clements (2010) outline, “the need for existing and future professionals to be equipped with the skills and understanding necessary to function effectively in interdisciplinary teams.” Therefore, a “silo based” approach to learning and teaching is far from ideal as it does not encourage collaborative working, thinking and problem solving, all of which are key skills that are expected of today’s graduates.
The emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has highlighted the need for greater collaboration and meant that those involved in the delivery of built environment related programmes have had to re-evaluate their learning and teaching methods to ensure students are being prepared for the built environment of the twenty-first century. This presentation will discuss how BIM has been used to address the issue of “silo based” learning and teaching at Ulster University, highlighting collaboration that has taken place between staff and students on the Architectural Technology and Management and Quantity Surveying and Commercial Management programmes. The presentation will provide a reflective account of a collaborative project that was undertaken between Year 2 students on both courses and how communication took place via an online common data environment. The presentation will outline the benefits of the project and provide evidence of impact, with other academics and student groups now becoming involved as a result of the success of this initial project. This session will be useful to those academics considering implementing similar collaborative learning practices within their subject areas and will focus on transferable elements of the project that may be adopted by staff regardless of discipline.
Title: Patient-Public Integration into the MPharm Curriculum at Ulster University
Presenter:Dr Kathryn Burnett, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Abstract:
Personal and Public Involvement (PPI) encompasses ensuring services that are commissioned and provided, organisation processes, and research undertaken within Health and Social Care, respond to and meet the needs of the users and carers1,2,3. Within pharmacy education, the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence4 and the General Pharmaceutical Council5 require standards to be met which include the incorporation of views and experiences of key stakeholders.
PPI in pharmacy education is aimed at supporting students to develop effective communication with patients, empathise with sick or worried people, and support patients in their medications use. PPI workshops were integrated into the MPharm at Ulster in which patients talk to students about their views of their disease state and medication, and the impact that these have on their quality of life.
A SurveyMonkey® was developed involving Likert scale responses to statements made around the aims of the workshops. It was distributed by email to all four years of undergraduate pharmacy students and responses analysed.
There was an overall response rate of 61%. The workshops were felt to improve the effectiveness of communication skills in 88.4% of students, with 86.9% feeling more confident in talking to patients/ carers. Greater empathy was felt by 88.4% of students and 81.1% felt they had applied their clinical knowledge into practice. A comment made by a third year student was: “Brilliant aspect of the course, really puts theory into practice and you get a real awakening that it’s not just a disease or symptom you are treating it’s a patient”.
The PPI workshops integrated into the MPharm curriculum at Ulster are supporting students in improving their communication skills with patient/carers, enhancing their empathetic qualities towards patient/carers and helping to consolidate students’ clinical knowledge with practice. The results of this survey supported the benefits to having PPI within undergraduate pharmacy education.
References
1. Florin D and Dixon J (2004). Public involvement in healthcare. British Medical Journal: 328: 159-161
2. Safety, Quality and Standards Directorate, DHSSPS (2007). Circular HSC (SQSD) 29/07. Guidance on strengthening personal and public involvement in Health and Social Care.
3. Lenaghan J (1999). Involving the public in rationing decisions. The experience of citizens juries. Health Policy; 49: 45-91
4. The Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (2011). Performance review report: Changing regulation in changing times, 2010/11. Available at: [Last accessed 02/04/14]
5. The General Pharmaceutical Council (2011). Future pharmacists: Standards for the initial education and training of pharmacists, May 2011. Available at: [Last accessed 02/04/14]
Title:DisplayNote as a Collaboration Tool in Enhancing Student Participation
Presenter: Dr Anne Moorhead, School of Communication
Abstract: Collaboration between students and their peers and tutors is encouraged to enhance thestudent experience (Healey et al. 2014). Technologies can have role in enhancing this collaboration (HEA,2013; Powell & Varga-Atkins, 2013; Ryan & Tilbury, 2013). With new technologies emerging, it is importantto research their potential in higher education (Powell & Varga-Atkins, 2013). DisplayNote is an applicationthat can be used for screen mirroring, wireless presenting, personalised notes, student polling, real-timecollaboration and lecture capture. For real-time collaboration, students can contribute to and collaborate onslides using their device, and also share their annotations with others in the session. There is limitedresearch into the use of DisplayNote.
Objective: To explore the use of DisplayNote as a collaboration tool to enhance participation among
undergraduate students within class.
Methods: This is a current exploratory study investigating the use of DisplayNote among 35 undergraduateyear 2 students. Students completed a baseline questionnaire in Week 1 (start of the module) oncollaborating with peers and tutors, and participating in class; and they were invited to use DisplayNote inclass each week with the Tutor using it every week, and then complete an evaluation questionnaire inWeek 12 (end of the module).
Results: Baseline questionnaire revealed that the students reported that they can participate in class with peers and tutors easily but would like to participate further. There were issues in setting up and usingDisplayNote such as lack of connectivity and students engaging with the application. DisplayNote wasmoved from the lecture to the seminar and used by groups of students rather than individuals. Thepresentation will include the challenges and benefits of using DisplayNote, and the findings from thestudent questionnaires.
Discussion/Conclusion: DisplayNote has potential in enhancing student participation in class, and
recommendations on using Display will be presented.
Discussion Question: Do staff consider wireless projection and collaboration on smartphones and tablets as a possible enabler of learning or a hindrance, and why?
References
Healey, M., Flint, A., and Harrington, A. (2014). Engagement through partnership: students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. York: Higher Education Academy.
Higher Education Academy (HEA) (2013). Learning and Technology. Available from:
Powell, S. S and Varga-Atkins, T. (2013) ‘Digital Literacies: A Study of Perspectives and Practices of
Academic Staff’: a project report. SEDA Small Grants Scheme. Liverpool: University of Liverpool. July.
Version 1.
Ryan, A and Tilbury, D (2013). Flexible Pedagogies: new pedagogical ideas. York: Higher Education
Academy.
Title: Rethinking Vocational Learning and Teaching Spaces for Media Curriculums in Higher Education
Presenters: Adrian Hickey, School of Media, Film and Journalism
Alan Hook, School of Media, Film and Journalism
Abstract:
This paper is a call to address the provision that we make for vocational teaching in New Media courses. It argues that we need to address the way that the curriculum delivery space effects the learning behaviours that are produced in these spaces. Furthermore the paper reflects on the use of learning spaces and their relationship to pedagogy. Using the 2006 JISC report; Designing Spaces for Effective Learning as the starting point we aim to discuss possible futures for learning space design. The 2006 JISC study outlines ‘Vocational Teaching Spaces’ as rooms which require specialist equipment which would be discipline specific (JISC 2006 p16). The paper looks at the provision made for other disciplines within Media, and reviews the spaces in industry that students graduate into in an attempt to highlight the tension between the teaching spaces and industrial models of space design.
We will argue towards a conclusion that highlights the tension between the teacher centred, formal classroom, with identical workstations and an inflexibility of furniture and working patterns and the style, space and approach of the new digital creative economies. Buckingham stresses the instability of the market place and industry, that graduates need to be “mobile, multi-skilled and flexible, and adapt to the stresses of a ‘portfolio’ lifestyle” (Buckingham, 2014 p30). We argue that departments should look to the spaces that industry creates to help redefine and restructure the teaching spaces. This is paramount to help students meet the needs of industry and create graduates with the attributes that industry desires such as diagonal thinking, “ie: those able to think creatively and practically” (Skillset report, 2011, p44).
Title: Pedagogy in the Woods: Teaching Walden in Ulster
Presenter:Dr Willa Murphy, School of English and History
Abstract:This paper will reflect on the use of creative learning spaces in my 19th Century American literature module at Ulster University, Coleraine. One of the central texts of this module is Henry David Thoreau’s Walden (1854), which details the author’s experiment with living simply in the woods, in a small cabin built by his own labor. Thoreau addresses his book mainly to students, and argues that his cabin was “more favorable . . . to thought . . . than a university.” A foundational text in American culture, Walden calls students not simply to read about life, but to live it. “I went to the woods,” explains Thoreau, “because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
Walden is a book that cries out to be taught creatively, rather than in the typical lecture/seminar format. Leaders in the field of pedagogy similarly argue that students learn more by active engagement in the subject, and in spaces that encourage such experiential learning (Kolb and Kolb, 2005; Lave and Wenger, 1991). The project began by asking students to think about what a Walden seminar might look like. Reading Walden allowed them to begin thinking critically about their learning spaces, and to imagine something different. A series of workshop activities encouraged students to explore the under-used natural landscapes of the Coleraine campus, and locate a suitable space for a Walden event. The students went on to organize an evening of readings, discussion, poetry and song in the woods on the Western edge of the campus. Photographs and student testimonials will accompany this paper, which will argue that the under-used natural sites on the campus are ready-made learning spaces. This paper will evaluate the impact on student experience of this approach to teaching the text, and suggest ways to transfer this approach to other teaching fields.
References
Kolb, Alice Y., and David A. Kolb. 2005. Learning Styles and Learning Spaces: Enhancing Experiential Learning in Higher Education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2005, Vol. 4, No. 2, 193–212.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Thoreau, Henry David. 1854. Walden, or Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields.
Title: Experiential Sociology: Out of the Classroom and into the Field.
Presenters:Dr Ciaran Acton, School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies
Dr Marie Braniff, School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies
Mrs Claire Mulrone, Centre for Widening Access & Participation
Abstract:
Although space can have a powerful impact on the learning process (Oblinger, 2006), it is one of the elements over which academic staff often feel they have relatively little control. Bureaucratic timetabling systems and inflexible classroom designs serve as barriers to the various innovative, interactive and collaborative learning activities that have been shown to enhance student engagement (Beichner 2013). The current paper will focus on an initiative designed to overcome the constraints imposed by traditional teaching methods, by bringing sociology students out of the classroom and into more authentic and applied learning environments. The inaugural sociological fieldtrip in November 2013 entailed a series of sociology-themed activities in the setting of the Crumlin Road Gaol, and was introduced in the context of a broader first year induction strategy aimed at enhancing student engagement and ‘belonging’ (Trowler, 2010; Thomas 2012). However, prompted by an acknowledgement of the need for greater student-community engagement, the involvement of the Science Shop in the current academic year provided an extra dimension to the project. The opportunity to engage in a meaningful way with community partners around key sociological themes such as power, cultural diversity, racism, and differential educational attainment, allowed students to enter a creative and imaginative space not usually accessible to them through conventional teaching and assessment methods.
Although the activities described in this presentation have a particular sociological focus, the overall process, with its emphasis on active and collaborative learning in non-traditional learning environments, has applicability across a wide range of subject areas. With this cross-disciplinary emphasis in mind, the session will be structured around the following themes: the challenges and opportunities associated with operating outside conventional learning environments; the role of the science shop in fostering student and community engagement, collaborative learning and graduate qualities; the benefits of employing a partnership approach when designing learning and assessment strategies; and the nature of the evaluation and curriculum development process.
References
Beichner (2013) 7 Things You Should Know about Collaborative Learning Spaces, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative
Healey, M., Flint, A., and Harrington, K. (2014) Engagement through partnership: students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education, York: Higher Education Academy
Neary, M. (2010) Student as producer: Research engaged teaching and learning at the University of Lincoln User’s Guide 2010-11 [Internet]. Lincoln: University of Lincoln. Available from:
Oblinger, D. (2006) ‘Space as a Change Agent’ in D. Oblinger (Ed) Learning Spaces, EDUCAUSE Thomas, L (2012) Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change: final report from the What Works? Student Retention & Success Programme, London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation and HEFCE.
Trowler, V. (2010) Student Engagement Literature Review. York: Higher Education Academy. Available from:
Title: Staff Student Partnership: More than Tokenism, a Catalyst for Active Engagement
Presenter: Roisín Curran, Staff Development
Abstract:
At Ulster we believe that there is a moral, as well as both an academic and economic imperative upon us to support and retain as many of our students as possible, and to foster a real sense of belonging which optimises students’ opportunity to succeed and to fulfil their potential, regardless of their social background.
Through Ulster’s involvement in the What Works? Student Retention & Success (SRS) Phase II change programme (HEA, 2012) a multifaceted approach has been taken to improving student engagement, belonging and retention, incorporating induction, active learning and co-curricular activities across a range of disciplines. The conceptual model (Thomas, 2012) which underpins the What works? change programme emphasises the importance of focusing activities in the academic sphere and on institutional, staff and student capacity building of a partnership approach in which everyone is responsible for providing an engaging experience for students.
This paper explores the impact of staff and student partnership in the SRS programme over the last two years and seeks to highlight how such partnerships affect not just the individual staff and students involved but the wider student body in terms of promoting active learning. In doing so, it addresses what Healey et al. (2014) highlight; that the understandings of the impact of partnership work – for students, staff, institutions, society more broadly – remain relatively poor and there is a need for a greater evidence base around the benefits of partnership. Themes emerging from the research are mainly positive and revolve around, inter alia, better working relationships between staff and students, changing mindsets, acquisition of new skills and practice that mirrors professional life beyond university. This concurs with similar recent explorations elsewhere in the UK and US which identify outcomes of partnership in three clusters; engagement, awareness and enhancement (Cook-Sather et al. 2014, p.100).
References
Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C. & Felten, P. (2014) Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Healey, M., Flint, A. & Harrington, K. (2014) Engagement through partnership: students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. York: HEA. Available at (Accessed 21 September 2014)
HEA (2012) Student retention and success change programme: Implementing and evaluating the impact of the ‘What works?’ programme. Available at [Accessed 01 Nov, 2014]