Learning and Teaching Enhancement Summer Programme: Conference - 25th June

Keynote Abstract

In this interactive session we’ll explore our individual understandings of student engagement and what we hope engaging students in the enhancement of learning and teaching will achieve. We’ll consider different forms of engagement (from consultation to partnership) and roles staff and students might play in these. The aim of this session is to provide space for you to ‘zoom out’ and consider how individual mechanisms and approaches may contribute to an institutional ecosystem of student engagement. The session will draw on my reflections from research (e.g. Flint, Goddard and Russell, 2017; Flint and Millard, under review) and invite you to share your perspectives and ideas with fellow delegates, to collaboratively develop new ways of understanding and working with student engagement.

The session will close with consideration of some of the key issues and questions we can reflect on when developing our own approaches to student engagement in the enhancement of learning and teaching in practice. Delegates are invited to take these questions away and use them to reflect on the sessions that follow throughout the learning and teaching conference.

Parallel Session Abstracts
 

11.30-12.05 Choose from A, B or C Parallel Sessions

A - Helping students reflect on feedback to inform future performance

Shane Lindsay, Michael Lupton, Kim Spendlow, School of Life Sciences (Psychology); Stuart McGugan, Learning and Teaching Enhancement

This session will discuss the results of an intervention to the submission and feedback system used on a large undergraduate module in psychology. The intervention was driven by concerns experienced by markers that however well crafted, many students were not valuing or understanding the feedback comments provided. 
The intervention involved the use of a self-reflective submission cover sheet. This sheet was part of a laboratory research report template and asked students to self-reflect and report on several aspects of their work: how they used feedback to improve this work; what was the most useful feedback last time (and why); how the quality of their report compared to their last report; what the strongest aspects of the report were; what was most challenging; what they would do differently next time; and what feedback they would most value.
The session will be of interest to colleagues with an interest in assessment and feedback processes that emphasises the need to develop students' self-regulatory abilities while at the same time ensuring that these processes will be motivating for students.

B - Student-Led Teaching and Support Awards (SLTSA) Analysis

Benedict Greenwood and Veronika Mikurova, Hull University Union Student Voice Team

This presentation will be of interest to staff who have either been nominated or shortlisted for an award in the past, or have heard of the awards and wish to know more of its purpose. During this presentation, HUU will present themes of positive teaching practice identified through the analysis of the nomination comments that were submitted by students. Staff will take away inspiration from their colleagues and peers to try new methods of student engagement and support to improve the overall student experience.

C - Sustainable Computing: a Home for Professional and Research skills

Neil Gordon and John Dixon, School of Engineering and Computer Science

This talk will describe the use of global challenges to provide a framework for the teaching of the professional and related skills that a computing graduate is expected to appreciate, alongside the development of some of the investigative and analytical skills that underpin research. Accreditation and industrial expectations frequently include the requirements that students are able to understand and demonstrate a range of non-technical specific issues and skills. This session will consider the use of global challenges to motivate the delivery and engagement with a significant (approx. 300) cohort of first year students. 
The range of issues include:

1. Legal, Social, Ethical and Professional (LSEP) topics, as identified by the British Computer Society and Association of Computing Machinery graduate expectations. These also reflect the IEEE code of ethics and professional practice
2. Appreciating the nature of research and being able to apply analytical and reporting techniques in carrying out small scale research
3. Developing team skills and understanding the broader range of activities that a practicing computing graduate may carry out in commercial practice
4. The approach and assessment practices should be transferrable to a range of disciplines, with ideas on scalable assessment methods using Canvas and team work.

12.10 -12.45 Choose from A, B or C Parallel Sessions

A - Using Blogs in Summative Assessment

Rachel Williams and Jo Metcalf, School of Histories, Languages, and Cultures

This presentation explores the benefits and challenges of using public blogging platforms in student assessment. Using our experiences on Contemporary America in Context, a team-taught level 5 American Studies module, we will explore how writing regular, short blog posts helps students build confidence in their own ideas, encourages students to think about adapting their writing to different audiences, and teaches students to be responsible citizens in a digital environment. Thus this format aids student employability, by helping students reflect critically on their writing, develop time management skills, and consider questions of ethics and responsibility. At the same time, we will consider the practical difficulties experienced in implementing this mode of assessment, from navigating an external blogging platform (in this case, Tumblr), to safeguarding against damage to the university's reputation, or against personal attacks on our students. Feedback from students suggests they find blogging challenging but enjoyable, and we therefore hope to inspire colleagues interested in the possibilities opened up by technology in teaching to incorporate this innovative and inclusive assessment mode into their pedagogy. The session will also offer some practical tips and guidelines based on our experiences and reflections.

B - Digital Shifts: Academic Identity in a Digital Age

Sue Watling, Learning and Teaching Enhancement

This paper derives from my PhD research into how staff who teach and support learning conceptualise their practice in a digital age. The research investigates influences on attitudes and behaviours with regard to the shift from traditional face-to-face to online environments where academic identity is but one element of the wider social and cultural shift move towards an internet enabled higher education experience. A three year investigation into the digital experiences of staff who teach and support learning in UK higher education explored what it means to be an academic in a digital society. The research included activities using social media to build an academic profile and revealed a number of areas of concern such as digital shyness and resistance alongside a reluctance to transfer professional identity into what was perceived as personal social spaces. There is a growing disconnect between the requirements of 21st century higher education and the reality of digital engagement among staff who teach and support learning. This is resulting in a silencing of their academic voice as the platforms for educational debate and discussion move online, and those who have yet to connect and establish digital identities are being essentially excluded from participation.

C - Use of Panopto to Deliver pre-Semester Information via Canvas

Paula Gawthorpe,  Faculty of Health and Social Work

As a module leader for a final year dissertation module within the nursing faculty / FHSW, which runs across S1 & S2, this year I introduced the delivery of a pre-recorded overview prior to the start of each semester. This offered information in relation to forthcoming semester content, expectations, and guidance regarding assessment. I have since collated a short, ten question evaluation via canvas, which has so far demonstrated an overall significantly positive response to this idea. I would be keen to perhaps share my experience with this, and the results of the evaluation. I feel that this would be of interest to other colleagues, given our limited experience with Panopto use, and the positive implications that I personally feel this technology has to offer our teaching delivery.

13.45-14.20 Choose from A, B or C Parallel Sessions

 A - Chinese Whispers - Shifting Academic Boundaries

Marina Mozzon-McPherson, School of Histories, Languages, and Cultures; Simon Desbrulais and Mark Slater, School of Arts

Chinese Whispers is a collaborative project involving academics from two disciplines (Music and Languages), diverse cultural backgrounds and international institutions (Tianjin Normal University and the Confucius Institute), various professions (e.g. a Beijing Choir Master, composers and music conductors, language teachers and trainers, technicians) and different stages of the educational journey (students, trainee and qualified teachers, lecturers and professors).
The project requires adapting and translating, sharing and adjusting disciplinary complexities to meet the final aim: a public interdisciplinary performance. At times the novice became the expert and vice versa. 
Its aims are:

1. To develop an understanding of language learning through music
2. To sharpen transferable skills
3. To embed internationalisation within a music curriculum
4. To explore ways to reach out beyond disciplinary boundaries
5. To increase student employability.

Impact and transferability 
Stressing creative collective learning, the project achieved national and international. The success of the project has now been replicated in schools and has been translated into a distinctive research cluster. 
Its distinctive collaborative framework and international approach will be of interest to all university academics who are looking for distinctive ways to link their discipline to an international outlook at home as well as abroad.

B - Using Artistic Communication to Support Students to Prepare for UG and PG Assessment in Higher Education

Kelly Dockerty,  School of Education and Social Sciences

The presentation with give an overview of a current research project into the use of Artistic Communication. This is a novel but effective form of presenting guidance to students, conveying the expectations for both UG and PG assessments in HE. The presentation will inform delegates of the reasons the project began; the brief underpinning theories in education and assessment; the methodology and methods employed, and, the emerging themes in the data resulting in the key messages from students and their perceptions, of the potential transformation to their ability to understanding and perform to a high standard in assessments.

C - Inspired by Video Games – Designing Assessment for Scale and Engagement for an Introductory Programming Course

Simon Grey and Neil Gordon, School of Engineering and Computer Science

Successful video games are hugely engaging, and their reach is immense, demonstrating enviable scalability. The fields of games based learning and gamification of education are testament to the desire to emulate such qualities, however much of what there is to learn from games is already acknowledged in good teaching practice. Often concepts such as providing timely, accurate and meaningful feedback are hard to achieve in teaching, especially at a large scale. This presentation will discuss the changes made to the assessment of an introductory first year programming module in order to increase engagement, and identify lack of engagement. A comparison of the assessment strategies across two consecutive years will be presented, together with analysis of the new assessment strategy providing some perception of its efficacy of both identifying students who are not engaged at an early stage and of evaluating the students' abilities. The evaluation will conclude with a summary of the lessons learned from this strategy, as well as potential future improvements.

14.25-15.00 Choose from A, B or C Parallel Sessions

A - Supporting and Promoting Student Engagement

Jonathan Squirrell and Emma Kerr,  Student Engagement and Transition Team

The Student Engagement and Transition Team (SETT) aim to collaborate with staff and students to support an outstanding student experience at the University of Hull.  The team comprises the Induction and Transition Officers and the Student Engagement Officers, each carrying out projects and supporting initiatives to enrich the student journey from pre-arrival to graduation and beyond.  Projects produced by SETT are developed following sector research; identifying best practice, analysing institutional qualitative and quantitative data, and evaluating impact on the student experience.

The presentation will focus on the role and methodology of the team in identifying potential areas for intervention, and discuss some of the steps taken to address current issues in student engagement, providing examples from past and current projects, as well as highlighting opportunities for future action.
This session will be of interest to all colleagues with an interest in student engagement; those with an interest to contributing to existing initiatives, those with new ideas to suggest or schemes to promote, and those who simply wish to keep up to date with current activities.

B - Embedding the Faculty Partnership Model

Kate Bridgeman and Joe Robinson, Learning and Teaching Enhancement; Colin Johnson and Jacquie White, Faculty of Health Sciences

This presentation will tell the story of the development and embedding of the faculty partnership model between the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) and the Learning Teaching Enhancement Directorate (LTE). 
In sharing our journey, we will outline the partnership model, our roles and provide some examples of the work we are involved with. We will also present a specific faculty project, the Canvas course template and demonstrate how this is supported by the model. 
The course template was identified in the educational strategy as a targeted intervention. This was in response to feedback from students which indicated concerns around the learning environment, more specifically the presentation of information in the form of learning, teaching and assessment materials within Canvas, the institutional Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). 
The project was evidence informed with data from a range of sources including the National Student Survey (NSS) and Student Experience Enhancement Reviews (SEERS). 
A pilot was undertaken with recommendations made and agreed based on qualitative feedback from academic staff and students. Supported implementation will take place in trimester three. 
Cyclical evaluation will measure impact enabling continual development and opportunities will be sought to work collaboratively with students to co-produce future versions of the template.  

C - Learning Analytics, and how to Use Student Data to Improve Learning Environments

Stuart Nattrass, Faculty of Science and Engineering

Student data collected by the university can be used to highlight key areas for intervention to improve student outcomes. We use a foundation year course with varied assessment structure to demonstrate the value of holistic analysis of the collected data and how we can use the conclusions from that analysis to make steps to provide additional support for student groups with lower retention or performance. Session should be of interest to people working on improving retention and those concerned about the equality of assessment.

Conference Poster Abstracts
 

P1 - Playing to my Strengths: Offering a Choice of Assessment Tasks to Undergraduate Student Nurses

Lizzie Ette and Jackie Hutchison, School of Health and Social Work (Nursing)

The poster will outline the way in which we have facilitated choice in assessment task in undergraduate student nurses in their final year of study. It will specifically focus on the way in which student choice can empower and motivate students to engage more effectively with their own learning and assessment. 
The Poster will offer useful context and information to those who are considering implementing choice of assessment in their own teaching and assessment practice.

P2 - Exploring the Liminal Space: Developing the Professional Practice of PGR Students who Teach

Catherine Lillie, Directorate of Learning and Teaching Enhancement

The poster will focus on the PGTS module Professional Practice in Teaching and Learning in HE. It will include the structure and development of the module as well as issues of role identity and the use of reflective practice to support effective teaching. It will include input from relevant stakeholders (PGWT, their students and their academic colleagues). Some of the content can also be covered in a workshop session.

P3- Empowering our People through HEA Fellowship

Alison Hall, Directorate of Learning and Teaching Enhancement

Outlining the impact the scheme has had on staff achievement of HEA Fellowship and more widely on effective practice. 
This poster would be of interest to any member of staff wishing to gain HEA Fellowship. 
Staff will be able to take away details of how to engage with the scheme.

P4- The Significance of a Sense of Belonging in Postgraduate Researchers

Gemma Tighe, School of Education and Social Sciences

The notion of the student experience and student's sense of belonging are central players within student performance in higher education. However, there is little-published research in relation to a sense of belonging and engagement connected to the postgraduate researcher student experience.  The limitations in relation to research specifically relating to the sense of belonging and its impact within the postgraduate student researcher experience, inspired the opportunity to explore postgraduate researchers identify with how a 'sense of belonging' impacts their postgraduate researcher experience at the University of Hull.

This small research project utilised reflective interviewing with a wide sample of postgraduate researcher students across the University of Hull to understand their idea of what a sense of belonging is and how this is influencing their success during their postgraduate research study. From this research, it has been striking how the themes of supervision, friendships, engaging with activities on campus and the age of the student have affected the student experience, demonstrating a direct correlation between the postgraduate researcher and the undergraduate student. Although there is a direct correlation between both groups, postgraduate researchers define belonging to be derived from the experiences around these themes, when they offer the opportunity for professional and personal development.

This poster would be of interest for those working specifically with the PGR group within the university and provide ideas around opportunities to provide further development for PGR students.

P5- The Role of Academic dDta in the Enhancement of Teaching Quality and Student Experience

Michelle Smith, Directorate of Learning and Teaching Enhancement

The poster will provide an introduction to the role of the Academic Data Team. We will give information about the data collected by Learning and Teaching Enhancement and the various reporting processes this is used in. We will provide a timeline of data collection and how this fits with reporting processes throughout the institution. The poster will be of interest to all academic staff involved with student experience, teaching quality and quality-reporting processes. The aim of the poster is for readers to leave with an understanding of data availability and the use of academic data in quality and enhancement processes.

P6 - The SpLD Student Experience Project

Claire Castles, Student Engagement and Transition Team, Student Services Directorate; Bob Burwell, Student Wellbeing, Learning, and Welfare Support, Student Services Directorate

The poster will summarise the results of a research project conducted by the Student Engagement and Transition Team and SpLD Team during 17/18, exploring the experiences of students with Specific Learning Differences (SpLDs) at the University of Hull. The project took the form of a survey and a series of focus groups examining the experiences of current students with SpLDs with regard to both their learning support arrangements and their perceptions of inclusive teaching and learning practices in their academic areas. This poster presentation will be of interest to anyone involved in facilitating the learning of neurodiverse students, including academic colleagues and support staff, as well as anyone interested in inclusive practice with regard to learning and teaching.

P7 - Sense of Belonging + Inclusion = Community?

Emma Palmer, Student Engagement and Transition Team

This poster explores and highlights the perception of inclusive practice and communities at the University of Hull among staff and students. In addition, it also raises the question of the sector-wide definition of inclusivity, and reflects on how the sector can influence and monitor inclusive practice, partnership and a sense of belonging for all.

P8 - Celebrating the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PCAP)

Stuart McGugan, Directorate of Learning and Teaching Enhancement

The purpose of this poster will be to share, through the words of its participants, the impact that the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice is having on learning and teaching at the University of Hull. Three areas will be highlighted: Teaching Practice; Curriculum Design and the Scholarship of Learning and Teaching.

P9 - The Hull Employability Awards: Collaborative Recognition of our Students' Success

Hannah Cooper, Careers, Entrepreneurship and Study Abroad; Isobel Hall, Employability Awards Ambassador, English and History (BA Joint Honours) Student

A poster showcasing the main features and latest developments of the University's skills award, including staff engagement and collaboration; student engagement and partnership working; managing learning through canvas; digital badging and the linking of activities within the curriculum. Aimed at informing all staff (particularly ASTs) about the Awards as an opportunity open to all students.