Category Archives: Teaching Bites

Teaching Bites

The next set of Teaching Bites sessions will start on 16th March 2016. The sessions running are:

Wednesday 16th March, 3-4pm,  S10 –  Working Towards Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning

This Teaching Bite will enable delegates to explore how they might weave interdiscplinarity into their teaching practice.

  • Participants will have the opportunity to: explore examples of interdisciplinary practice from a national and international perspective
  • consider how these examples might work in their own context

Tuesday 22nd March, 10-11am, S10 – Teaching in an Internationalised Context

Given the increasing numbers of international students, many universities have explored ways of internationalising the curriculum to meet the changing needs and expectations of their students. This Teaching Bite is a taster of what that could look like in your own context.

Participants will have the opportunity to:

  • Gain knowledge of current practices in internationalising the curriculum in a UK context
  • Examine their own practice and identify potential for change

Tuesday 29th March, 11-12, S10 –  The Research-Teaching Nexus

What is the research-teaching nexus and what does it mean for you? This Teaching Bite offers a chance to explore the possible connections between your research and your teaching, as well as the potential for your students.

Delegates will have the opportunity to:

  • Examine different models of the research-teaching nexus
  • Work with colleagues to explore what model could work in your discipline and your context

Wednesday 13th April, 3-4pm, S10 – Student Mobility 

This Teaching Bite will be of interest to all staff considering ways to develop effective student mobility opportunities for students to stay or study abroad.

  • Consider different types of student mobility approaches across various disciplines
  • Reflect on the benefits and impact of student mobility for the institution and student learning experience
  • Explore the barriers to student mobility in your own institution and identify strategies/approaches to help you to plan for change

An additional session entitled Academic Writing led by Dr Jennie Osborn will also run (details are still to be confirmed).

To book, go to Succeed -> Learning and Development – My Learning -> Teaching Bites -> and book into the relevant session(s)

 

Teaching Bites

Wednesday 27th January,  12-1pm,  S10: Module Design — Make Your Succeed a Better Place
Building a module in Succeed where the content is easy for the students to navigate is not as straight-forward as it might first appear. This session looks at some easy wins:

  • Using Content Areas affectively
  • Naming Content and the Description area
  • Use of the Table of Content (left-hand menu/navigation)
  • Consistency

Sarah Grayston, e-Learning Developer

Thursday 28th January, 1-2pm, S10: Enhancing conversations using Talking Mats

Talking Mats is a visual card sort tool that is highly effective in enabling students to express their views or plan and organise their thinking.
This session will look at ways in which staff in the Career Development Centre have been working with the Talking Mats team who created the tool to research its uses in a Higher Education setting and will explore it’s potential uses for Personal Tutors, Advisers of Study and its scope for use to great effect in teaching sessions, seminars and tutorials.

Elaine Watson, CDC

Friday 29th January, 1-2pm, S10: Qwizdom – Engaging Learners

Transform the classroom into learning environment that engages students and improves understanding. Qwizdom works with mobile phones (QVR) and clickers (we have 50) and integrates with PowerPoint to provide immediate feedback/grading/performance tracking. Come along and find out how it works.

Simon Booth, e-Learning Manager

Monday 1st February, 1-2pm, S10: Engaging employers in the curriculum

Research underpinning the development of employability in higher education places high importance on the value of employer engagement. This applies to both vocational and non-vocational subjects alike. This session will explore the different forms of employer engagement and how to progress their development in the curriculum.

Pam Crawford/Lesley Grayburn, CDC

Thursday 4th February: 1-2pm, S10: Quizzes/Surveys
The session will look at the Tests, Surveys and Pools area of Succeed. Users will be shown how to set up a test or a survey and how to add questions to it. An explanation of the available question types will be given. The session will also cover how to edit the settings for a test or survey so it is made available to the relevant users at the relevant time, including how to set up exceptions for AAA students who require more time to complete their assessments. An explanation will also be given of the question pool, and how to add questions to this pool, and how to select questions from the pool to add to tests and surveys.

Steve Boulton, e-Learning Developer

Friday 5th February, 1-2pm, S10: Turnitin – GradeMark
Turnitin offers much more than plagiarism detection. It has tools to facilitate peer marking and online marking (‘GradeMark’). This talk will demonstrate how to use GradeMark and discuss the positive and negative features of marking online.

Simon Booth, e-Learning Manager

Thursday 18th February, 1-2pm, S10: Students as reflective learners

This session will explore practical tools and strategies which staff can employ to help develop students’ reflective practice. We will be discussing:

  • What a reflective learner is.
  • The issues students face in trying to self-assess what their strengths and development needs are.
  • Practical strategies to help students learn to reflect.

Ruth Watkins, Student Learning Services

To book, Succeed -> Learning and Development – My Learning -> Teaching Bites -> and booking into the relevant session(s)

Teaching Bites

The next set of Teaching Bites are mainly on the theme of employability and will be delivered by the Career Development Centre.

Thursday 19th November, 1-2pm, S10: Planning and evaluating employability in the curriculum

This session will explore the values and benefits to pro-actively planning and evaluating employability in the curriculum. It will also outline a variety of approaches and share existing best practice.

Pam Crawford/Lesley Grayburn, CDC

Thursday 26th November, 1-2pm, S10:  Development of career management skills in the curriculum

Equipping Stirling’s students and graduates with career management skills is a key goal of the University’s Employability Strategy. These skills are key to successfully managing the transition from University and a graduate’s longer term career development. This session will look at what career management skills are, why they are important, and approaches to embedding them in the curriculum.

Pam Crawford/Lesley Grayburn, CDC

Wednesday 2nd December, 1-2pm, S10: Learning Outcomes and Assessment: How do we align them?

In order to support our students by helping to direct their learning, we need to be clear in our expectations of the level at which they engage in our modules and across our programmes. This session will look at a model of curriculum development that helps us to align our module learning outcomes with the ways in which we assess our students. Participants are encouraged to bring a module outline with which they are familiar, with them to the session.

Dr Mary McCulloch, Academic Development Team

Thursday 10th December, 1-2pm, S10: Delivering work based learning and placements

With many employers increasingly looking for experience as well as academic achievement in candidates, work placements and work related learning have an increasing importance in gaining graduate level employment. This session will look at the issues involved in the delivery of work related/based learning.  Perspectives and practice will be taken from the learning achieved through Making the Most of Masters that develops masters dissertation projects with external organisations and will also cover the development of undergraduate placements.

Eunice Atkins, CDC

Wednesday 13th January, 1-2pm, S10: Learning Outcomes and Assessment: How do we align them? (Repeat session)

In order to support our students by helping to direct their learning, we need to be clear in our expectations of the level at which they engage in our modules and across our programmes. This session will look at a model of curriculum development that helps us to align our module learning outcomes with the ways in which we assess our students. Participants are encouraged to bring a module outline with which they are familiar, with them to the session.

Dr Mary McCulloch, Academic Development Team

Thursday 28th January, 1-2pm, S10: Enhancing conversations using Talking Mats

Talking Mats is a visual card sort tool that is highly effective in enabling students to express their views or plan and organise their thinking.
This session will look at ways in which staff in the Career Development Centre have been working with the Talking Mats team who created the tool to research its uses in a Higher Education setting and will explore it’s potential uses for Personal Tutors, Advisers of Study and its scope for use to great effect in teaching sessions, seminars and tutorials.

Elaine Watson, CDC

Monday 1st February, 1-2pm, S10: Engaging employers in the curriculump

Research underpinning the development of employability in higher education places high importance on the value of employer engagement. This applies to both vocational and non-vocational subjects alike. This session will explore the different forms of employer engagement and how to progress their development in the curriculum.

Pam Crawford/Lesley Grayburn, CDC

Thursday 18th February, 1-2pm, S10: Students as reflective learners

This session will explore practical tools and strategies which staff can employ to help develop students’ reflective practice. We will be discussing:

  • What a reflective learner is.
  • The issues students face in trying to self-assess what their strengths and development needs are.
  • Practical strategies to help students learn to reflect.

To book, Succeed -> Learning and Development – My Learning -> Teaching Bites -> and booking into the relevant session(s)

Flipping the Classroom

A special e-Learning Forum is planned for later this month on Thursday 29th October, 11.00 – 15.40. The subject is Flipping the Classroom and we have arranged a number of speakers. The event will be held in the Enterprise Zone on level 3 of the library.

Programme
11.00 – 11.10 Welcome: Tim Whalley
11.10 – 11.40 Alan Masson
11.40 – 12.00 Rhian Williams
12.00 – 12.20 Kevin Tipton

12.20 – 13.30 Lunch

13.30 – 14.00 Sheila McNeill
14.00 – 14.20 Tim Whalley
14.20 – 14.40 Hollie Cameron
14.40 – 15.00 Eddy Moran

15.00 – 15.20 Discussion: What Next
15.20 – 15.30 Closing remarks: Mary McCulloch/Simon Booth

Dr Alan Masson – Senior Manager, International Customer Success, Blackboard.
Reimagining the flipped classroom?
This hands on interactive session will use recognised principles of assessment and feedback and educational interactions to articulate an aspirational vision for the educational design of blended learning / flipped classroom. This vision will then be used to inform the development of a learning design framework and patterns of Blackboard tools and resources to best address these educational requirements.

Dr Alan Masson is the Head of Blackboard International Customer Success. Previous to this role he was the Head of Technology Facilitated Learning at the University of Ulster where he led a number of national projects in the areas of Assessment and Feedback, Learning Design and Curriculum Enhancement. He has extensive experience of delivering assessment and feedback enhancement workshops to a range of UK Universities and has acted as a critical friend to the QAA to support the development of curriculum innovation toolkits. This workshop is part of an academic success initiative which is seeking to support Blackboard customers to get the best educational value and impact from their Blackboard investments.

Ms Sheila McNeill – UK Learning Technologist of the Year, 2013, Glasgow Caledonian University.
What the Flip?
Flipped teaching approaches are becoming increasingly popular and are even being hailed as the future for all learning and teaching.  More and more educators are flipping their classrooms, but there are many who are still unsure about what flipping actually means, how and what to flip in their contexts. As well as exploring the concepts of flipped teaching, this presentation will share an example of how a course team at GCU restructured their modules using a flipped approach. The team abolished lectures and moved to a more self directed and discursive workshop approach. This has led to increased engagement (and enjoyment) for both students and staff.

Sheila MacNeill is a Senior Lecturer in Blended Learning at Glasgow Caledonian University, where she works as part of a team who provide strategic direction, pedagogic guidance and practical support to staff embedding digital, blended online learning across the curriculum. Open-ness is at the heart of Sheila’s professional practice and she regularly blogs about her adventures and musing in and around the use of technology in education at www.howsheilaseesit.wordpress.com and can be found on twitter @sheilmcn.  Before working at GCU, Sheila was one of the Assistant Director’s at Jisc Cetis, a national innovation support centre for the UK HE Sector. She was the ALT Learning Technologist of the Year 2013.

Dr Rhian Williams – English Literature, University of Glasgow.
Poetry Podcasts
I will be talking about the ‘Poetry Podcasts’ project that she developed with then-colleague, Professor Kirstie Blair in 2011. The podcasts appear on iTunes and online and have received a significant number of ‘hits’. The project was aimed at school leavers and first year University students, but has scope for wider application.

Dr Rhian Williams is a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow, specialising in teaching poetry. She is the author of The Poetry Toolkit: The Essential Guide to Studying Poetry (Bloomsbury, 2nd Ed. 2013), which appears on many reading lists in the UK and USA

Professor Kevin Tipton – School of Sport, University of Stirling.
Experiences with flipping large sports science classrooms
I will discuss some methods that I’ve used in sports science classes to enhance learning despite increasing number of students. These methods are designed to provide an interactive learning environment for students in large classrooms. The basis for these sessions are video lectures that are uploaded onto Succeed. In class, I have used Peer Instruction and Think-Pair-Share and other methods. Finally, I have used Twitter to stimulate critical evaluation of research papers.

Kevin Tipton is a Professor of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences at the University of Stirling in Scotland. His research is focused on exercise, nutrition and muscle metabolism. He is an author of over 80 papers, book chapters and review articles. His interest in exercise nutrition extends to application of the science to athletic populations. He served on the USA Committee for Military Nutrition Research and helped develop sports nutrition consensus statements for the IOC, FIFA, FINA and IAAF and has served on the UK Sport Nutritional Supplements Advisory Board. When not working he enjoys walking the hills and muirs with his dog, Reiver.

Dr Tim Whalley – Dean of Students, University of Stirling.

Ms Hollie Cameron – VP Education, Students’ Union

Dr Eddy Moran – School of Education, University of Stirling.
Is It Real Teaching? Post-Graduate Students’ Perceptions and Use of Online Video Tutorials
This presentation reports a small scale study funded by SELF of post-graduate students’ perceptions of online video tutorials compared to face to face lectures, their use of the videos and the learning strategies they employed while watching them. Data was collected from online tracking of user-interaction, usage statistics collected by Succeed, and semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that while learners recognise and value the strengths of online delivery of teaching input and interact with the material in purposeful ways, they also recognise and value the social interaction of face to face teaching and learning

Eddy Moran is a teaching fellow specializing in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in the TESOL unit of the School of Education. He also contributes to courses on TESOL theory and methodology and language assessment. His research interests are language learners’ epistemologies of learning, learner interaction with CALL software, and the application of blended learning for taught postgraduates, particularly the use of online video.

This workshop takes ‘Flipping’ to mean any activity that replaces a traditional lecture with an activity designed to improve student learning. We don’t simply mean replacing a lecture with a Listen Again recording but any prior activity undertaken with the purpose of making the lecture time more valuable for student learning. Come along and listen to a range of perspectives on flipping and ways to flip from staff at Stirling and elsewhere.

To book, Succeed -> Learning and Development – My Learning -> Teaching Bites -> e-Learning Forum: Flipping the Classroom.

Teaching Bites: Open Badges

Open Badges: Creating a New Learning Currency – Wed 12th August (13.00-14.00) in Cottrell W1

Grainne Hamilton, DigitalMe

Open Badges provide a way to earn, issue and share achievements across the web and represent a paradigm shift in how and what we recognise in terms or a person’s ability. They can help people to evidence their skills, personal attributes and interests and are being issued by employers as well as educational institutions to link people to employment, apprenticeships and further learning. There have been a number of developments recently in the Open Badges sphere, both to the Open Badge specification and around uptake.

Grainne Hamilton will discuss these, highlight some current projects and developments in industry, further and higher education and share some of the thinking influencing technical developments at DigitalMe.

To sign-up for any of this talk simply go to Succeed -> Learning and Development – My Learning -> Teaching Bites

Teaching Bites

To sign-up for any of the talks below simply go to Succeed -> Learning and Development – My Learning -> Teaching Bites and then select the talks you wish to attend.

Wednesday 11th March 2015, 1-2pm, S10
Professor Kirstie Blair, English Studies, University of Stirling
Using Podcasts in Student Learning

This session reflects on a SELF-funded project designed to engage students in English literature with the study of poetry, and to provide a resource for Highers/A-level students that would introduce them to university-level critical practice. The project involved creating podcasts that modelled collaborative readings of literary text through conversation between two staff members.

Workshop, 18th March 2015. 12-2pm,  S10
Dr Michael McEwan, Learning and Teaching Centre, University of Glasgow
International Students in UK HE: supporting inclusive learning, teaching and assessment.

In this workshop participants will explore some of the challenges faced when teaching in a multicultural, international classroom. Key to improving student outcomes in a multicultural classroom is the development of a mutual understanding of different cultural expectations (McEwan, 2013) and how those differences can impact on the teaching, learning and assessment activities for students and staff. Participants will begin by looking at what diversity and the individuality of learners means on a personal level and for their current teaching, learning and assessment practice. Participants will further explore the different challenges faced by teachers and learners in any multicultural classrooms and discuss strategies to manage such challenges within small groups. We will examine some issues of cultural diversity through the lens of Hofstede’s (1986) cultural dimensions and will relate these to the dimensions of culture in order to provide a framework to interpret cultural differences.
Accordingly, participants will develop an understanding of how different challenges within an international classroom may be perceived by all stakeholders. The workshop will close with the application of this understanding to generate strategies which enable more effective learning environments for diverse, multicultural, international groups.

Thursday 26th March 2015, 1-2pm, S10
Dr Amanda Sykes, Learning and Teaching Centre, University of Glasgow
PeerWise: more new-fangled technology or a useful tool?

The website says that PeerWise supports students to create, share, evaluate and discuss MCQs. This sounds great, but what is PeerWise, does it really do what they say it does, is it as simple to set up as they suggest and what do staff and students think about using it?’

Amanda will show you PeerWise, consider the results of studies around its use and what we might learn from them, and will share her experiences of using this software with students in life sciences.

Bring along a wifi connected device, and you can try it for yourself.

Tuesday 31st March 1-2pm, S10
Mark Charters, Glasgow School of Art
Supporting Student Learning: Collecting and Using Feedback from Students

Student feedback is an important and influential part of how we evaluate and enhance our teaching as well as improving student learning. There are many approaches, methods and tools we can use to gather student feedback and to analyse it to get the best results from the information. This workshop will allow colleagues to explore opportunities for gathering student feedback throughout the learning process and how best to utilise this information to enhance our teaching practice and improve our student learning.

Thursday 16th April 1-2pm, S10
Dr Joe Gray, Life Sciences, University of Glasgow,
Dealing with all the emails, what happens when you decide to communicate with students through the VLE?

How can a traditional, lecture-driven undergraduate course taken by a large number of students be delivered effectively and efficiently? In particular, how can a few staff encourage active engagement and provide effective feedback to a wide range of learners that differ in their academic interest, academic ability, learning style and cultural background?
Successfully addressing this question is important for the higher education sector not least because it will improve performance, satisfaction and retention of the increasingly diverse student body. Here, we will report a cost-benefit analysis of the use of an asynchronous online forum in providing feedback to and supporting a large Level 2 Genetics class at the University of Glasgow. The course is taken by 300-400 students from diverse backgrounds and with a wide range of intended degrees as the outcome. This course is taught by only two staff members. We make substantial, though measured, use of an asynchronous Moodle forum. Student traffic on this forum is significant.
This presentation will explore the following: How much time and effort do we spend on the forum? Why do students engage so actively with the forum? What benefits, if any, do staff and students gain from the forum? What lessons have we learned? Should other courses consider adopting such a forum?

Teaching Bites: Teaching, assessing and engaging large groups of students: a biological example

The following session has been added to the current series of Teaching Bites.

‘Teaching, assessing and engaging large groups of students: a biological example’

Large class sizes bring their own challenges to teaching, assessment and student engagement.  Level 1 Biology at the University of Glasgow has approximately 700+ students each year and has developed several different approaches to try and address such challenges.  Some have worked, some haven’t.  This meeting will show examples of these and explore any points that the audience wishes to discuss.

The session will be given by Dr Chris Finlay, Senior University Teacher, University of Glasgow and will take place on Friday 12th December, 13.00-14.00 in Room S10 in the Library.

To sign-up go into Succeed and then into Learning & Development – My Learning, IT & Information Skills, Succeed Training. Also don’t forget to bring your sandwiches!

These session can be available to remote campuses. To register for remote access please email Simon Booth.

Teaching Bites: Common Problems in Student Writing

We have added another session to the current series of Teaching Bites. The session; ‘Common Problems in Student Writing’ is an informal discussion with Cherise Saywell (Royal Literary Fund Fellow) providing an overview of the kinds of issues students present, when bringing their work to Cherise. Cherise works in Arts and Humanities providing writing support to students in Pathfoot.

The session will take place on Monday 1st December, 13.00-14.00 in Room S10 in the Library.

To sign-up go into Succeed and then into Learning & Development – My Learning, IT & Information Skills, Succeed Training. Also don’t forget to bring your sandwiches!

These session can be available to remote campuses. To register for remote access please email Simon Booth.

Teaching Bites

The next series of Teaching Bites starts on Thursday 6th Nov (all are in S10). The sessions running are:

6th Nov: 13.00-14.00: Mobile
The new wireless service at the University opens up some exciting possibilities for student engagement in teaching and learning – laptops, tablets and smart phones can now quickly and easily connect to Eduroam and get Internet access. Students amongst other things can then participate in polls (rather similar to clicker technology) or tweet questions/comments.

13th Nov: 13.00-14.00: Module Design — Make Your Succeed a Better Place
Building a module in Succeed where the content is easy for the students to navigate is not as straight-forward as it might first appear. This session looks at some easy wins:

  • Using Content Areas affectively
  • Naming Content and the Description area
  • Use of the Table of Content (left-hand menu/navigation)
  • Consistency

20th Nov: 13.00-14.00: Quizzes/Surveys
The session will look at the Tests, Surveys and Pools area of Succeed. Users will be shown how to set up a test or a survey and how to add questions to it. An explanation of the available question types will be given. The session will also cover how to edit the settings for a test or survey so it is made available to the relevant users at the relevant time, including how to set up exceptions for AAA students who require more time to complete their assessments. An explanation will also be given of the question pool, and how to add questions to this pool, and how to select questions from the pool to add to tests and surveys.

27th Nov: 13.00-14.00: Discussion Tool, Blogs, and Wikis
This session will look at some of the collaboration tools within blackboard, these tools can be used to help build a sense of community in modules, can be used for group working, social interaction and the exchange of ideas.  The session will look at the discussion tool, blogs and wikis and give examples of where these might be used successfully within your succeed module.

To sign-up go into Succeed and then to Learning & Development – My Learning, IT & Information Skills, Succeed Training. Also don’t forget to bring along your sandwiches!

These sessions can be available to remote campuses. To register for remote access please email Simon Booth.

Teaching Bites

The new wireless service (Stirling Campus) at the University opens up some exciting possibilities for student engagement in teaching and learning – laptops, tablets and smart phones can now quickly and easily connect to Eduroam. Students can then participate in polls (rather similar to clicker technology) or tweet questions/comments.

eLD is putting on a special ‘Teaching Bites’ session in S10 on 10th October (12.00-13.00) to discuss some the tools available to support engagement in the classroom. Please bring along your laptop, tablet or smart phone and join-in!

Email Simon Booth if you would like to come along.

Both Highlands and WI can use mobile technology in the classroom but the arrangements for connecting are different at each Campus. We will not cover connecting but remainder of the session will be useful.