1Autumn 2015

Journal

ISSN 2050-9995 (Online)

Innovations in Teaching and Learning ConferenceThursday 7 January 2016

Following on from last year’s successful event, the Teaching Fellow community is pleased to announce that the Innovations in Teaching and Learning Conference will again take place at Craiglockhart on Thursday 7 January 2016.

The conference is conceived, planned and led by Teaching Fellows and is open to all staff who teach or support student learning.

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Contents3 Editorial

4 ARISE

5 Mentoring & Coaching UpdateShifting Sands... Changes in Quality Assessment

6 ENroute Conversations

7 Mentoring CirclesSIG TELSIG Int

8 Evaluating Assessment and Feedback Practice Within Nursing and Midwifery Programmes Using TESTA

9 Creative Failure and the LTA Resource Bank

10 The Dissertation Maze – The Business School’s Dissertation E-toolkit

11 What’s New in the New PG Cert Learning, Teaching and Assessment Practice?

12 TF Mozambique Report

14 eTIPS – Exploring the Institution as Publisher

15 Diary Dates

16 Conference Reports

18 Book Reviews

19 LTA Resource Bank Updates

20 Around the Schools

21 Grants Panel Update

22 Student Focus

23 Editorial Team Contacts

tfj Autumn 2015 EditorialBrian J Webster-Henderson

I am delighted to be able to contribute to this edition of our University’s Teaching Fellows Journal as the Dean of Learning and Teaching. As an academic community we are working towards achieving the aims, key performance indicators and outcomes of the University Strategy 2020. In doing this I am reminded of the importance of ensuring that at an individual level and also at an institutional level we take the time to reflect on and consider our own contributions to the strategy. However, the heart of our strategy is not about measurements and outputs but about our students, our student centeredness and our desire to make their learning and related experiences with us a focal point of their lives.

In a number of recent forums across the University, I have been talking about the importance of “academic leadership” and its contribution to our practices as academics to achieving the University Strategy. In exploring this concept, I have been drawn to the literature of those I consider inspirational and motivating in terms of higher education policy and research: Professor Ron Barnett, the late Professor David Watson, and Paul Ramsden. Ramsden and colleagues (2007) highlight the importance of academic leadership, which they suggest is based on transformational leadership, a values based approach built on key attributes such as “exemplary practice, collaboration, spontaneity and trust” (p. 141). As an academic, I am frequently reminded and reflective of my own desire to be values based to our students and to my colleagues and to practise in a way which is collective, motivational, encouraging and student centered. I believe that all of us have a part to play in academic leadership no matter what our role is in the University, with a primary focus on developing a student centered culture which in turn will work towards achieving our Strategy 2020. I hope you will feel informed, encouraged and inspired by some of the examples and contributions of exemplary practice within this edition. •Reference

Ramsden, P., Prosser, M., Trigwell, K., & Martin, E. (2007). University teachers’ experiences

of academic leadership and their approaches to teaching. Learning and Instruction, 17,

140–155.

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If the question were put to me: would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather, or a man highly endowed by nature, and possessed of great means of influence, and yet who employs those facilities and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion – then I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape! (Thomas Huxley, 1860, defending evidence-based inquiry into evolution against Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, who ridiculed the notion that he might be descended from an ape).

There are many reasons for doing research: self-advancement, point scoring, avoiding the real world and nurturing tiny professional differences are amongst the bad ones. Huxley reminds us of the best argument in favour, the chance to use our ‘facilities and influence’ to understand the world. The argument applies whether our interests are astronomy or assessment. Whilst research might be the primary route to new knowledge, it is not the only, or the most important, door to critical understanding, that ubiquitous yet slippery shibboleth that graces all our programme outcomes. For that we need scholarship, the application of our own well-informed and circumspect judgement to the work of others. According to Immanuel Kant, without this we do not even grow-up:

If I have a book that takes care of my understanding, a preacher who takes care of my conscience, a doctor who prescribes my diet, I need not make any effort myself. I need not think, so long as I can pay; others will handle the business for me. Immanuel Kant

What excuse do I have to divert the busy readership of the tfj with such matters? Well, only the hope that I can reaffirm the fundamental place of research and

scholarship in our lives as teachers. And to encourage you to continue supporting, using and enjoying our own forum for pedagogical research, scholarship and innovation – ARISE.

ARISE is only one year old but already has an impressive track record. We hosted five public lectures, on topics ranging from student engagement to how new technologies are transforming learning. And you – along with colleagues across the University – came in hundreds to support these events. We ran workshops and webinars on educational research and worked with Jessie Kennedy and others towards a critical mass of educational research at the University; a REF 2020 submission in education is one of our goals.

We will continue the work this year. Our public programme will include a lecture by Professor Ray Land of Durham University, provisionally scheduled for Wednesday 3 February at 4pm – please note the date now. Ray is an inspiration and an authority as well as a good friend and former employee of Edinburgh Napier; come along to be inspired.

We will be bringing you at least two other public lectures during the year. We want to know what topics we should cover and what people we should involve. The lecture with Ray (and the drinks afterwards) will provide one chance for you to give us your thoughts, and we will be arranging other opportunities too. In addition to the public lectures we are planning workshops and writing retreats. Again, we welcome your thoughts on the best ways in which these can meet your needs. We will also have a new online presence, the ARISE blog: check it out here: http://blogs.napier.ac.uk/arise/

Don’t let others handle the business of thinking (about pedagogy) for you – come along to ARISE and do it for yourselves.

Contact: M.Huxham@napier.ac.uk. •

ARISE – The Academy for Research, Innovation and Scholarship in EducationMark Huxham

Academy for Research, Innovation and Scholarship in Education

ARISE

ARISE

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We are delighted to celebrate the success of the twelve participants in the Edinburgh Napier Mentoring & Coaching Award 2014/15. This included 10 Edinburgh Napier staff who supported over 20 colleagues in developing their academic practice over the course of the programme. Participating in the ENMCA involves four one-day workshops and two hours of external professional supervision alongside regular mentoring practice. Participants also complete three assignments including a skills assessment, reflective writing and a dialogue around their development plan. For 2014/15 we were also joined by two participants from Queen Margaret University, which was a valuable opportunity for shared learning that involved both common experiences and fresh perspectives.

Supportive, challenging, funny, safe, honest, open, reliable, flexible, knowledgable, constructive, warm, informed, pragmatic, listening, encouraging, suggesting, empathising, relaxed, realistic, friendly, informal, forward-looking, fun, enthusiastic, willing to share... Mentees describe their mentors (Source: ENMCA evaluation 2014/15)

Mentoring & Coaching UpdateElaine Mowat

To build on the success of the ENMCA and the growing interest in mentoring and coaching across the University, planning is now under way for an all staff Mentoring & Coaching scheme. This will offer a matching service to set up mentoring partnerships across the Schools and Professional Services, as well as a programme of learning opportunities and networking events to support participants.

SIG-M, the Teaching Fellows Special Interest Group in Mentoring which is open to all colleagues around the University with an interest in mentoring and coaching, continues its programme of events this year. The first meeting on 4 November is an opportunity to get together to consider the impact of organisational change on the work of mentors and coaches. For further details, or if you have questions or suggestions regarding any aspect of mentoring and coaching, please contact Elaine Mowat, E.Mowat@napier.ac.uk.

Mentoring is probably the most powerful developmental process people can experience. And when it works it develops two for the price of one. David Clutterbuck •

It is likely that change is on its way for how the UK approaches quality assessment for learning and teaching.

Scotland has a well-established enhancement-led approach to quality management. However, the Scottish Quality Enhancement Framework has also been subject to review by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) this year. The outcome of this review could result in an extension of the Enhancement-led Institutional Review (ELIR) cycle to six years or more as well as other changes around how universities report annually on quality assessment.

In addition, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has recently completed a consultation process on the future of quality assessment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish higher education sector is most certainly affected by this review, as it could impact on the UK-wide framework for quality should the Quality Assurance Agency’s contract with HEFCE not be renewed. It could also result in significant changes to the external examining system, with the proposed establishment of a single register of

Shifting Sands… Changes in Quality AssessmentKatrina Swanton

external examiners, including centralised training and subject-based calibration. Also added to the mix are the Conservative Government’s plans for a new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). This framework is intended to recognise universities delivering the highest teaching quality. At this time, we do not know whether this will also be adopted by the Scottish higher education sector or indeed whether Scottish institutions will have the opportunity to opt in to participate.

The University contributed to the HEFCE consultation by supporting a Scottish sector-wide collective response made by Universities Scotland. Within this response, the need to retain a UK-wide framework for quality assessment was emphasised. The response also made clear the Scottish sector’s support for the Quality Assurance Agency as an independent, unified organisation – distinct from government or funding councils and unrestrained by borders.

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Quality@napier.ac.uk. •

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If you’re involved in supporting student learning at Edinburgh Napier University, your path to pursuing one of the three categories of Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy is now clearer than it was a year ago. The newly established ENroute process has been developed by the Department of Learning and Teaching Enhancement and is open to lecturers and professional services staff. ENroute has been designed to reflect and reward the work we are already engaged in, whether at Associate Fellow, Fellow, or Senior Fellow level. These awards also happen to be the primary requirement for membership of the University’s Teaching Fellowship scheme. This article has been compiled from the views of a few current applicants for the SFHEA level of award: those from the summer of 2015 ENroute cohort are completing their applications as the Teaching Fellows Journal goes to press, while I am just at the start of the process. If you’re wondering if ENroute is for you, hopefully our experiences will answer some of your questions, or maybe pose a few new ones.

I started the conversation by asking the summer candidates what they were expecting to be asked about their ENroute experiences. This helped set the scene for our discussion as a few key themes were immediately apparent: the Mentoring Circles; the written portfolio, including the Record of Activities; and the Document or Dialogue dilemma and its implications.

My awareness of the three Mentoring Circles was quite limited before attending the first autumn session in late September. I knew they were in place to support applicants through the process and to encourage applicants to support each other. All of us were able to benefit from the Circles, although the need for preparation was highlighted by those who were nearing the end of the cycle. The meetings encourage a cohort mentality, yet the application itself has a very individual focus. To get the most out of these sessions it is clear that applicants should gather as much information as they can on what the next Circle will cover, while working with the facilitators to ensure that everyone feels supported in their application. It was also suggested that if working in pairs during a session applicants should seek to do so with someone applying to the same category of Fellowship as themselves.

All ENroute applications are built on a foundation of the Record of Professional Activities. Applicants are required to give a couple of sentences of background on topics of their choosing, matching them to the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) for Higher Education. My first Mentoring Circle made it clear to me that a Senior Fellowship application needed to draw out the leadership aspects of my activities, to show where I have influenced others. As such the choice of language used is important to meet the expectations of the Review Board, as noted by my fellow applicants. We also discussed the process of deciding what to include and what to leave out of the 10–15 activities required in a SFHEA application. This is not straightforward when tasks that we take for granted as part of our everyday job are actually well suited to supporting a Senior Fellowship claim.

Our final theme of conversation focused on the choice to take the Dialogue option. Applicants have the option to submit lengthy written case studies of key areas of their work (5,000–7,000 words for those going for SFHEA) or to put themselves through a 45-minute interview style meeting. As one of the contributors said: “I was not going to do the Dialogue route until I heard more about it in the first Mentoring Circle”. This was pretty much my own experience, so I’ll be working towards it from now on. For a number of applicants such conversations might be a new experience, although some modules and programmes across the University include similar assessments for their students (including the PgCert). With their Dialogues imminent, my colleagues highlighted knowledge of the UKPSF, engagement with the online Mahara platform, and, where possible, a clearing of the decks as important parts of their preparation. These latter two points might be easier said than done, with busy weeks the norm for many and Mahara a new platform to get to grips with.

A high level of staff membership of the HEA is one of the University’s ambitious targets, as part of the current strategy. ENroute sits alongside the PgC LTAP in HE as the primary means by which to achieve such goals for the institution, and they are both proving valuable to individual applicants as well. Preparation and coordination are key to ensuring that the ENroute scheme delivers on its promising start. •

ENroute ConversationsDavid Jarman ENro

uteHEA Fellowship at Edinburgh Napier

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Developing a Fellowship application via ENroute need not be a lonely road. All applicants are invited to join an ENroute Mentoring Circle for access to guidance, peer support and feedback throughout the application process. Three Circle meetings are offered on each campus each trimester, taking participants from ‘Getting Started’, to ‘Developing your Claim’ and finally ‘Readiness for Submission’. The Circles are coordinated by the ENroute team in the Department of Learning and Teaching Enhancement and co-facilitated by colleagues from across the University who understand the requirements for Fellowship and who are skilled in supporting others to articulate their claims. “Tell me about your practice... why did you approach it in that way – what was the significance of what you did – and how do you know?” are common Circle conversations.

The Circles draw on the core principles of mentoring to create a welcoming space for shared exploration and learning. Our aim is to enable conversations that are curious, encouraging and authentic, through which participants can support and challenge each other in making sense of their practice. At the time of writing, we have run one full round of Mentoring Circles during the summer period 2015 and have just started on the second round for those preparing applications over the first trimester of 2015/16. Our experiences so far suggest that the Circles offer a number of benefits, particularly in relation to the diverse experiences and fresh perspectives that are shared as participants reflect on their practice and push each other to articulate their claims.

A group process such as a Mentoring Circle inevitably has drawbacks too. Not everyone enjoys group learning and sharing, and opportunities to get detailed feedback on individual drafts are more limited than in a traditional one-to-one mentoring relationship. It can also be challenging to fully address the different categories (Associate Fellow, Fellow and Senior Fellow) and review options (Documentary/Dialogue) that applicants are working towards within the one session. For this reason, we aim to do a good amount of small group work based on Fellowship categories within each session. A dedicated preparation workshop for Dialogue applicants and an individual feedback opportunity on drafts for Documentary applicants are also on offer each trimester.

Overall, the role of the Circles in making the road to Fellowship a shared endeavour alongside a personal journey feels like a key part of the ENroute experience, which is designed to be transparent, flexible and supportive throughout. The Circles also highlight the potential of group processes to support us in other aspects of professional learning and student support, such as action learning sets around particular projects or development interests, or group approaches to working with PDTs. If you would like to share your own experiences of group processes or are keen to consider how this model could apply to your own practice, we would be glad to discuss – please contact Elaine Mowat, E.Mowat@napier.ac.uk. •

Mentoring CirclesElaine MowatENro

uteHEA Fellowship at Edinburgh Napier

ENroute

HEA Fellowship at Edinburgh Napier

Joan McLatchie

There has been a lack of activity in the SIG-TEL for some time now, due to the departure of several of its members. If technology-enhanced learning is your area of interest and you would like to join this special interest group, please let Ruth know via email (R.Doak@napier.ac.uk). •

Joan McLatchie

This is a new SIG, led by Joan McLatchie. Its aim is to develop and promote ways in which all of our students can have a similar quality of experience at Edinburgh Napier. If you would be interested in becoming part of this SIG, please let Ruth know (R.Doak@napier.ac.uk), and we will set up a meeting to set our objectives and plan our activities.•

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Feature

Assessment is central to student learning and a powerful driver in determining how and what students will learn (Beaumont , O’Doherty, & Shannon, 2011). Feedback is also an important learning tool and valued by students; however, NSS results continue to highlight dissatisfaction despite increased efforts by lecturers to improve practice. An over-focus on modules with associated growth in summative assessment is thought to contribute to this (Ball et al., 2012), and recent publications encourage a move towards increased formative assessment (Beaumont, O’Doherty, & Shannon, 2011) and a greater programme focus (Hartley & Whitfield, 2011).

In response to this and funded by a Teaching Fellowship Development Grant the School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Care at Edinburgh Napier University set out to uncover what students are seeking in terms of assessment and feedback and to evaluate the assessment and feedback strategies within our nursing programmes. To enable this, the TESTA (Transforming the Expedience of Students Through Assessment) methodology, developed at the University of Winchester and now being used worldwide to asses practice, was employed within the UG nursing and midwifery programmes.

The TESTA methodology uses validated tools to evaluate assessment and feedback practices and student responses to these (Gibbs, 2010) and has been used successfully in several institutions worldwide (Jessop, El-Hakim, & Gibbs, 2014). The TESTA process involved collecting data across the programmes in terms of number and range of assessment that a student might experience across a three-year programme and capturing the student voice through questionnaires and focus group discussions. The number of summative as opposed to formative assessments was also calculated and showed that assessments were mainly summative. The questionnaire data provided valuable insight into students’ views and perceptions about assessment and feedback including clarity of goals and standards, whether they use the feedback they receive, and perceived quantity of effort required to succeed in their assessments. The focus group themes identified were as shown in the figure opposite.

The findings were fed back to staff through written

reports, face-to-face sessions and an away day where priorities for change were identified. One of the key benefits of the TESTA process is that it initiates rich and reflective discussions amongst staff (Jessop et al., 2014). Programme teams are working on enhancing the student assessment and feedback experience through consideration of the student assessment journey as a whole, and three groups are working on strategies to enhance feedback and clarify goals and standards and value of assessment as a learning tool. The findings will inform design of the new curriculum, and a second away day has been arranged to progress the work further. As a result of this pilot the TESTA process will be rolled out and used to audit other programmes within the wider University during 2015/16. •References

Ball, S., Bew, C., Bloxham, S., Brown, S., Kleiman, P., May, H., … & Waterfield, J. (2012). A marked improvement: Transforming assessment in higher education. York: The Higher Education Academy. Retrieved 27 February 2015 from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/assessment/a-marked-improvement

Beaumont, C., O’Doherty, M., & Shannon, L. (2011). Reconceptualising

assessment feedback: A key to improving student learning? Studies in

Higher Education, 36(6), 671–687.

Gibbs, G. (2010). Dimensions of quality. York: The Higher Education Academy. Retrieved 1 March 2015 from https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/node/3165

Hartley, P., & Whitefield, R. (2011). The case for programme focused assessment. Educational Developments, 12(4), 8–12.

Jessop, T., El-Hakim, Y., & Gibbs, G. (2014). The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: A large scale study of students learning in response to different programme assessment patterns. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(1), 73–88.

Evaluating Assessment and Feedback Practice Within Nursing and Midwifery Programmes Using TESTAElizabeth Adamson and Brian Webster

Erratum: We apologise for the error in the article’s title in the previous issue. This was an editorial mistake and not as submitted by the authors.

Essays, exams, online discussion, peer assessment and variety of assessments

Quantity and quality of feedbackInconsistency in feedback

Inconsistency in tutor expectationAcademic guidance and support

Learning and assessment opportunities in practiceFeedback on placementRole of mentorTools of assessmentWorkload

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Back in the autumn of 2014, a group of us started having a conversation about the LTA Resource Bank. One year later, the conversation has produced some interesting outcomes and continues on. However, this article isn’t about where we’ve gotten with the Bank, but what we found along the way. Another conversation – harder to sustain but just as difficult to repress – about a skill that in many ways defines our purpose as a university; a skill we all like to believe we have, even though no one likes to talk about how they got it.

We found this hidden conversation in our pursuit of improving the Bank. There was a lot to cover and (if we dare say it) a lot to refine, and very relevant issues like professional recognition, pedagogy and research output began to arise. However, the familiar names of colleagues, departments and movements in the institution added a different dimension to these issues, and they gave way to the most basic concerns of being a human in the world, such as passion, personal growth and the limited number of hours in a day. After all, how do busy educators find time for everything else in between educating?

Every member of the Resource Bank team started to have their ‘favourite cases’, and all had something in common. We were all struck by entries where the author learned something, and where we learned something from them. All the old questions came flooding back, but this time they all had the same answer. How do we teach and research at the same time? How do we earn professional recognition? How do we become better teachers? What’s the real potential of the Bank? How can we help our colleagues? The answer is, through learning. We developed a focused interest in making the Bank a place where it happens for us and our colleagues – by filling it with the most meaningful bits of our lives here at Edinburgh Napier. Facilitating this meant understanding what made professional moments meaningful to us as academics, educators and supporters of learning.

We were thrilled to see the Bank filled with so many examples of good practice for others to emulate and be inspired by. But as educators we also knew taking the Bank beyond an impressive toolkit or showcase of excellence, and elevating it to a place of learning, meant making it a safe space for experimentation, collaboration, play, and even failure.

It sounds professionally untenable to have an online space where you post your on-the-job stumbles for the whole world to see, especially when so many others have only shown the best of themselves. But in those Resource Bank meetings (and beyond), it became clear everyone had a story to tell, and with it was usually a well-remembered process of critical self-reflection on what we had taken from our own

missteps, and the subsequent moments of professional transcendence that relied on them – the most meaningful bits of the job.

We learned we weren’t the only ones kicking the word ‘failure’ around their office. Some of those who work on the Bank have close ties to ENroute, where success is more dependent on demonstrable learning than flawless performance. Some colleagues had long been interested in the pedagogy surrounding failure, and for others the notion of failure held a value in tension with the professionalisation of teaching.

Down at his end of the hall, Mark Huxham had started interrogating the word and its place in the classroom as well as our careers. He was designing an exercise in taxonomising what he called ‘creative failure’ based on the kind of learning that follows a mistake. At the 2015 LTA Conference, he debuted it to an audience who not only joined him in attempting to apply a kind of rigour and framework to their failures but also shared their experiences with a room full of people, some of whom they had never met. And for every moment of fear, trepidation and potential embarrassment, there was also thoughtful consideration, bravery, and a genuine connectivity of people and ideas. In other words – everything we ask of our students.

By the time this is published, the University will have thrown its first ‘Festival of Failure’. The conversation is gaining momentum, and it’s easy to see why. If you think about it hard enough, the showcase of excellence alone starts to feel a bit hollow – and maybe even a little silly. Excellence (that contested and ambiguous word) grows from challenge, struggle and, yes, failure. When the meaning of a word like ‘failure’ starts to shift, the rest of your language shifts right along with it. Words like ‘success’, ‘teaching’, ‘learning’ and ‘fellowship’ converge when you can walk into a room with strangers, engage with something you’re unsure of – even your own failures – and then leave, knowing that everyone understood exactly what you were talking about.

If you’re interested in sharing some of the more meaningful events from your time here, and want to do that in a way that’ll benefit your colleagues, then swing by the LTA Resource Bank and have a look around.

http://staff.napier.ac.uk/services/vice-principal-academic/academic/LTA/Pages/Welcome.aspx

There’s a video that’ll walk you through the submission process at https://onlinevideo.napier.ac.uk/Play/5097 although you’ll now find us under the name of Department of Learning and Teaching Enhancement. •

Creative Failure and the LTA Resource BankErrol Rivera and Mark Huxham

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Feature

The Dissertation Maze is an e-toolkit conceived by Dr Kay Penny, Dr Jackie Brodie and Dr Brian Windram in the Business School. Written and developed by Dr Colin MacKenzie, it seeks to support the transition of articulating home and international students arriving at Edinburgh Napier University for their final year of study. The development of the e-toolkit was in response to our research into the barriers and enablers of direct entry students embarking on the undergraduate dissertation in the Business School. Direct entry students often find embarking on a dissertation a daunting prospect since they can lack the required knowledge and academic writing skills to formulate a viable dissertation proposal and have not given sufficient thought to deciding on a topic for their dissertation study. Through our initial research we identified that one way to support students’ transition into Higher Education, and ease ‘chronic uncertainty’, was to provide opportunities for ‘scaffolding’. In response to this, an innovative online e-toolkit was developed with the aim of supporting students’ preparation for undertaking the dissertation in the Business School.

The Dissertation Maze is hosted on the University’s online learning platform on the open Moodle server. This offers a number of advantages to direct entry students. It allows the students to get experience of

The Dissertation Maze – The Business School’s Dissertation E-toolkitJackie Brodie, Colin MacKenzie and Kay Penny

the look and style of the University’s virtual learning platform in advance of starting their programme and also allows those students soon to matriculate unhindered access to the Maze (since they only need the access key to self-enrol).

The metaphor chosen for the e-toolkit is a maze, as this represents the iterative nature of the students’ experiences during their dissertation journey. A video introduction to the Dissertation Maze, featuring the fun maze at Traquair House Innerleithen, can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/105336866

While completing the bite sized chunks of learning in the Maze students are encouraged to think about their main dissertation idea and directed to resources available pre and post arrival. In addition, one section of the Maze was written especially for direct entry international students and highlights cultural differences they may encounter when beginning their dissertation studies. To date over 220 students have enrolled on the undergraduate Dissertation Maze, and feedback from the students has been positive. More recent developments have seen a funded QAA project to create a postgraduate version of the Dissertation Maze, which will launch late October 2015, and one of the videos created for the Maze is being used to support Dissertation students in an English University. •

The Undergraduate Dissertation Maze e-toolkit

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In September we opened our virtual doors to the first group of students registered on the redeveloped PG Cert in Learning, Teaching and Assessment Practice (LTAP) in HE. We thought you’d appreciate an update on the revised programme because we know so many of you are involved in supporting individuals undertaking the PG Cert here at Edinburgh Napier University.

The new programme, which has been re-accredited by the HEA and NMC and recognised by SEDA, comprises one 60-credit module delivered over one academic year. The module is divided into three thematic areas (Learning and Teaching, Assessment and Feedback, and Research and Scholarship), with three learning outcomes in each area. Resources are organised in Moodle around each of the learning outcomes with a Moodle Book for each Learning Outcome, and a series of workshops matched to the learning outcomes. Thematic Areas are led by members of the LTAP programme team, which includes NMC colleagues from the School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Care. This blend of staff from two different areas has served the PG Cert well since its introduction in 2001, and we are happy to retain what we think is one of the most successful aspects of the previous programme.

The Buffet Model of course redesignThe National Centre for Academic Transformation (NCAT) offers six models of curriculum redesign for large enrolment programmes; and we have found that the ‘buffet model’ is most closely aligned with the design model which we have adopted for the PG Cert LTAP.

The buffet model customizes the learning environ-ment for each student based on background, learning preference, and academic/professional goals and offers students an assortment of individualized paths to reach the same learning outcomes. (Twigg, 2003)

Students are able to customise their learning environment in a number of ways in the PG Cert, starting with their choice of learning outcomes to be addressed each trimester. In discussion with their PDT, students will select three learning outcomes out of the nine available according to their work roles and responsibilities. There is no need to stick to one thematic area, but rather they can choose the learning outcomes best aligned with their planned activities for the trimester/year ahead. Although the model of delivery is predominantly online, students are able to choose the medium for meeting their PDT; to date

we have held meetings person-to-person, in WebEx, Skype, Facetime and by phone. The outcome of the meetings has been a draft learning contract uploaded into Mahara. This contract is then agreed by the PDT, with reviews scheduled for week 7 and 14 of the trimester.

There is further choice when it comes to workshops; not only which ones to attend, but for most topics there is a workshop held in WebEx with a face-to-face alternative. The recorded WebEX session is available to students who cannot attend either of the synchronous options. This is proving useful when students are working overseas and are unavailable at a particular time.

Learning Contracts and Patchwork TextThe assessment strategy for the PG Cert is the fulfilment of three agreed Learning Contracts and the compilation of a summatively assessed Patchwork Text, which comprises nine critically reflective patches (one for each learning outcome) and a wrap-around reflection which needs to ensure that the requirements of the HEA at Descriptor 2, SEDA and, where appropriate, the NMC are met.

Expert voices from across the UniversityHearing from expert colleagues across the University supports new members of staff to feel a part of the teaching and learning community here at Edinburgh Napier. If you would like to contribute to the programme by joining a workshop, making an audio, mentoring a new member of staff or even just to find out more about the programme, its structure and assessment strategy, which we believe to be innovative and very much aligned with the University’s Strategy 2020, then please do get in touch with Julia Fotheringham (Programme Leader), J.Fotheringham@napier.ac.uk. •Reference

Twigg, C. (2003). New models for online learning. Educause Review,

Sept/Oct, 28–38. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/

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Feedback from PDT and Peers

What’s New in the New PG Cert Learning, Teaching and Assessment Practice?Julia Fotheringham

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Feature

In a previous Teaching Fellows Journal (Autumn 2014) we reported on our graphic design research project in Mozambique. This follow-up report captures the recent exhibitions, talks and conferences that Dr Iain Macdonald and Myrna MacLeod have given to disseminate the research findings from our Teaching Fellows funded work. The project has been widely received within the University: our students have made presentations to the ULT and we have presented to the recent ELIR. We have had exhibitions of student and staff work at Merchiston (November 2014–February 2015) and Craiglockhart (April–May 2015) (see pictures), and so you may have seen the students’ beautiful photographs and short videos and read a little of their experiences and learning.

But to recap, in November 2013 our 3rd Year BDes Graphic Design students began working with a German/Mozambican Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) to design soap packaging and publicity material for a women’s co-operative and their other supporting initiative, a new annual film festival. The NGO were so impressed with the designs that they felt that the student designers could gain valuable experience by participating in their implementation in Mozambique. Four of the five students were University funded (one was self funded) to allow the project to be set as a credit-bearing module, formalising it into their assessed programme of study.

The aim of this project was to develop student intercultural competencies using critical approaches to global consumerism through a cultural learning experience in Africa, a continent where the inequalities of global capitalism are most acute. Using student interviews and evidence from their reflective journals this paper analyses how Edinburgh Napier design students participated in and negotiated the implementation of local live projects in Mozambique. It also examines the wider impact on the cohort of students and friends who did not travel to Africa but followed the experience online. In the analysis their understanding of Mozambican nationalism as an “imagined community” (Anderson, 1991) and post-colonial identity (Said, 1994; Chomsky, 2000) is questioned.

With Teaching Fellows support we have recently presented papers at two international conferences:

AIGA Design Educators Conference, Spaces of Learning Conference, Toronto Canada, 16–18 April 2015

This international conference explored the idea that graphic design education is rapidly evolving: the social spaces we work in and practices of teaching and learning are all mediated by larger contexts of social, cultural, political and technological change. There were three conversational platforms embedded in the conference title: Design Education as Interface, Design Education as Diverse Cultural and Social Space, and Design Education as Political Space.

Our paper, How can design education develop intercultural competencies using critical approaches to global consumerism?, fitted well with the conference theme as it explored new cultural and political spaces of teaching, while challenging post-colonial and consumerist attitudes.

Several other papers explored multicultural working between students in the USA and Qatar, and also within the diversity of multicultural America. Haptics and digital learning, that chimed with our paper, were also discussed. The keynotes by Denise Gonzales Crisp, Professor of Graphic Design at North Carolina State University and Carl DiSalvo, Associate Professor of Digital Media at Georgia Institute of Technology, explored the concepts of new old discipline and political practice respectively. Both echoed aspects of our paper that illustrated an overlap of handmade materials and graphic communication with digital creation and output, and the socio-cultural dimension of our project.

CUMULUS The Virtuous Circle: Design Culture and Experimentation, Milan Italy, 3–7 June 2015

This international conference aimed to investigate how design (not just graphic design) comes out of the interaction between a practice, which seeks to change the state of things, and a culture, which makes sense of this change. In the current period of turbulent transformation of society and the economy, it is important to go back and reflect on the cultural dimension of design, its capacity to produce not only solutions but also meanings, and its relations with pragmatic aspects. Good design does not limit itself to tackling functional and technological questions, but it also always adopts a specific cultural approach that

TF Mozambique ReportIain Macdonald and Myrna MacLeod

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Feature

emerges, takes shape and changes direction through a continuous circle of experimenting and reflecting.

We presented a different aspect of our project that drew out the professional practice and global citizenship in the Training and Educating theme. In our cluster we presented new paradigms of design that could respond to the rapidly changing world, although as we also found a world that retained old traditions and cultures.

CUMULUS is a global organisation and as such the representation of academics reflected this. It was an important opportunity to present our research in front of academics from all corners of the globe. We were particularly pleased to receive a warm response from academics from Nairobi University, who were interested to know how our research would develop into future projects.

Future plans

Our future plan is to seek funding and sponsors for a new inter-disciplinary project that could involve Nursing & Midwifery staff and students in a malaria education and prevention programme in Mozambique. Graphic design students alongside Mozambican students could engage in co-designing ways and forms of improving communication about malaria. Malaria is the primary killer of children under five in Mozambique – a third of all children die from it. As in other African countries, it is not only one of the leading causes of death, but it also cripples productivity and contributes to poverty. “Distributing these nets is one thing, especially to the hardest to reach, but getting people to use them is another thing,” says Paul Ngwakum, UNICEF Mozambique. “Education is not easy as we must convince people to change their behaviour. And some people will sell their nets. But the good news is that over the years, the number of people sleeping under a net has increased.” (http://www.unicef.org/mozambique/child_survival_5591.html)

There is clearly work to do. •

Merchiston Exhibition

Craiglockhart Exhibition

I completed my short documentary of the Mozambique project which I hope to enter into future conferences. You can view it here: https://vimeo.com/133320372

ReferencesAnderson, B. (1991). Imagined Communities (revised edition).

London and New York.

Chomsky, N. (2000). Chomsky on Miseducation. New York:

Rowman & Littlefield.

Said, E. (1994). Culture and Imperialism. London: Virago.

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Feature

In April 2014, JISC Collections began to fund four national projects towards investigating the viability of universities publishing their own e-textbooks. While the creation and publication of texts is being carried out in different ways by different participating universities, each project seeks to answer the same question – will the academic institution as e-textbook creator help learning and teaching by providing a more affordable model that’s infused with the culture of the university? Additionally, will this be done while making their texts more accessible to the rest of the world and also promoting a sustainable information environment for libraries, students and teaching?

The eTIPS project, a collaboration between the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) and Edinburgh Napier University, will produce two e-textbooks for sale across the Amazon network. How to write a research dissertation: Essential guidance in getting started for undergraduates and postgraduates was released in September 2015; Student research projects is in production and due in early 2016. Accompanying both texts is a collaborative online community resource that will grow all the time.

Electronic resources are unquestionably important to both Edinburgh Napier University and UHI, particularly when considering the decentralised nature of our campuses and schools. Taking an active role in the publication of our texts, as well as choosing to share them with the rest of the academic world, could offer benefits for the University and its students and increase our sense of community. The eTIPS evaluation team are particularly interested in focusing on four distinct areas:

• production (including the role of the author)• distribution (the value of Amazon KDP)• impact (uptake and use both institutionally and

commercially)• legacy (viability, communication and growth in and

beyond collaborating institutions).

In producing the e-textbooks, the team seek to understand the necessary process of publishing itself – investigating broader concepts like traditional paths of publication but also getting into the nitty-gritty by examining the affordance of appropriate publishing tools like Sigil and Calibre. Additional

consideration is also given to the relationship between the author and the production team, with attention paid to project management, collaborative processes and the production team’s handling of content. The approach taken for our first e-textbook was to keep the team small, use free to cheap tools and follow a quality process to publication. The second e-textbook develops this model but also sources content from a broader range of authors and builds on the team’s learning from their production experience.

At the level of distribution, eTIPS examines the process of e-textbook release across the Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) network, requirements on the publisher, and implications from this method of distribution. While there are many ways to distribute an academic text, eTIPS chose Amazon KDP due to its accessibility for readers, as an expression of the project’s ethos to make education as accessible as possible. Understanding what does and doesn’t work in this academic foray into a commercial market place is crucial to the viability of the project, but only time will tell if this remains the text’s preferred method of reaching readers.

Finally eTIPS seeks to understand the impact that e-textbooks have on learning and teaching in UHI and Edinburgh Napier, on student engagement, as well as across its distribution route. To do this, the team is approaching module leaders in both Institutions to look for opportunities to engage with readers, and benchmark analysis against similar e-textbooks across Amazon.

We hope that the eTIPS project provides an opportunity for Edinburgh Napier to establish a conversation around e-textbook publishing.

The JISC funded eTIPS project continues until 2017. Further information on eTIPS is available from Laurence Patterson, L.Patterson@napier.ac.uk, and Errol Rivera, E.Rivera@napier.ac.uk •

eTIPS – Exploring the Institution as PublisherLaurence Patterson and Errol Rivera

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Diary Dates

To submit to Diary Dates contact Kate Durkacz (K.Durkacz@napier.ac.uk) and Joan McLatchie

(J.McLatchie@napier.ac.uk)

Higher Education Academy: Annual Conferences on Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines

• Social Science conference: Manchester, 3–4 December 2015

• STEM conference: Nottingham, 28–29 January 2016

• Health and Social Care conference: Glasgow, 24–25 February 2016

• Arts and Humanities conference: Brighton, 3–4 March 2016

Call for papers still open for STEM, Health & Social Care and Arts & Humanities. Website: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/about/news/call-papers-open-teaching-and-learning-conferences

Innovative Learning: Driving Educational Change Manchester Conference Centre, UK, 8 December 2015

Our agenda aims to support the education and training sector to be more flexible and agile enough to meet user demands and to keep pace with the latest trends and innovations that are driving educational change. Website: http://www.openforumevents.co.uk/innovative-learning-driving-educational-change-programme/

The IAFOR International Conference on Education 2016 Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, 8–11 January 2016

This international and interdisciplinary conference, with its theme of education and social justice, will act as a centre for academics, practitioners and professionals to discuss new research in education. IICE-Hawaii2016 will create opportunities for the internationalisation of higher education and sharing of expertise. We invite professionals from all corners of the world to develop policies, exchange ideas and promote new partnerships with organisations and peers.

Submission of papers – 1 November 2015. Registration closes 1 December 2015. Website: http://iafor.org/conferences/iicehawaii2016/

18th International Conference on Higher Education (ICHE 2016) Boston, USA, 25–26 April 2016

This conference aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results about all aspects of Higher Education. It also provides the premier interdisciplinary forum for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns, practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted in the field of Higher Education.

Submission of papers – 19 October 2015. Registration closes 19 December 2015. Full paper submission – 19 December 2015. Website: https://www.waset.org/conference/2016/04/boston/ICHE

International Conference on Research in Education and Science (ICRES 2016) Bodrum, Turkey, 19–22 May 2016

The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars, students and administrators from different countries and to discuss theoretical and practical issues in the fields of information and communication technologies in education, science education and mathematics education.

Submission of abstracts – continuing (no deadline date provided). Early bird registration closes 1 December 2015. Full paper submission – 1 May 2016. Website: http://www.icres.net

6th International Symposium of Engineering Education (ISEE 2016) Sheffield, UK, 14–15 July 2016

The title of this symposium is Interdisciplinary Engineering – Breaking Boundaries, and conference themes include curriculum development, employability, internationalisation and learning technologies.

Submission of abstracts – 27 November 2015 Early bird registration closes 15 April 2016 Full paper submission – 15 April 2016 Website: http://isee2016.group.shef.ac.uk/index.html

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The conference was opened by Park Geun-hye, the President of South Korea, at a ceremony within the Seoul Olympic gymnastics arena, a very impressive venue. Can you imagine David Cameron undertaking such duties? Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organisation, delivered the first plenary session in the context of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) epidemic in South Korea. It was a privilege to hear such distinguished speakers talking about the “global politics” of nursing and the potential influence of the nursing profession in the future of healthcare.

Some 7,000 delegates representing over 100 countries attended the conference, although some countries had been unable to send their delegates following government advice about the ongoing MERS situation in South Korea. It was hard to take in the enormity of the Seoul Coex Conference Centre as a venue with 100 seats per row facing forwards and blocks of about 70 rows backwards. There were many smiling student volunteers constantly guiding delegates to the right venues, of which there were a great deal spread throughout the conference centre. I was offered a photo opportunity with three US delegates who were Korean, proudly dressed in their Korean national costumes.

I presented two papers at the conference. The first was a position paper in collaboration with a colleague from Kings College, London. This was regarding our experiences with the Nursing and Midwifery Council Standards (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2010) in respect of Fitness to Practise (FtP) processes for UK student nurses and midwives. Unlike most countries, the NMC delegates FtP responsibilities to universities, which must ensure their nursing & midwifery students are in “good health” and of “good character”. The paper focused on the educational approach used by both universities that encourages students to develop a professional approach to their social networking activities.

The second presentation related to the use of digital stories created by students in which they share their experiences of compassionate care. These narratives readily trigger active engagement, promoting discussion and reflection within the classroom. As this inexpensive technique relies on student nurses creating their own stories, it could be easily replicated to reflect any culture, care setting or local/national context.

Conference Reports

In both concurrent sessions my papers generated most of the questions and discussion, demonstrating their interest as academic topics.

Many things in Seoul are large! It was an interesting city to visit; it has a clean and modern infrastructure including a subway and abundant modern office blocks, along with plenty of traditional street food, every type of restaurant and, of course, Starbucks. I managed to fit some sightseeing into my hectic programme, including the Changing of the Guard, the National Museum and several historic temples.

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to attend this conference, from which I have many memories, cultural, professional and social, and which was made possible by funding from the Teaching Fellow Grant Fund. •Reference

Nursing and Midwifery Council. (2010). Standards for

preregistration nursing education. Retrieved from http://www.nmc.

org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/standards-

for-pre-registration-nursing-education-16082010.pdf

The ICN Conference in SeoulAnne Waugh

The band at the Changing of the Guard, Seoul, South Korea

The Olympic apartment blocks in the background at the opening ceremony

American delegates in their Korean national costumes

tfj Autumn 2015 17

Conference Reports cont.

This was billed as the first international conference of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) exploring approaches to teaching and learning mathematics. A particular focus was on teaching mathematics to non-specialists, such as science and engineering students, and themes included ‘maths anxiety’, inclusive practice and the use of technology.

I attended the conference and also presented a paper entitled Experiences of using Audio Feedback in Engineering Mathematics Modules, which I co-authored with Elaine Mowat. This paper is a summary of five years’ experience of providing engineering students with audio feedback on class tests and obtaining their views via focus groups.

Whilst preparing the slides for the presentation, it occurred to me that rather than simply presenting feedback which has been collected over the years, it would be better to hear from some of the students themselves. The IMA were very supportive of this idea, and the School of Engineering & Built Environment provided the necessary funding, so then I found three volunteers. One of these, László, had just successfully completed his engineering degree and is now working as an engineer, and the other two, Robbie and Keith, had just completed their first year. All three students had received audio feedback, attended focus groups and given their thoughts on audio feedback. I sent the students copies of the paper and slides before the conference, and we had a short meeting to discuss what I was going to say and how I thought the session would proceed.

Our session was on the final half day of the conference (a Friday) and it was the last talk in the last session before lunch – the graveyard slot! Despite this, there was a good audience who were very interested in our work, and a lively discussion developed, which continued over the lunch break. The audience were very keen on hearing the students’ views about audio feedback, and in particular the impact and the value of the feedback. Robbie’s views on the feedback were that hearing the spoken word about your achievement on an exam has a greater impact on how you will exert yourself for future tests; be it a good or not so good tone, it definitely makes it clear what effort you need to put in.

Keith’s overview of the day: “The morning started with a keynote speech on ‘putting lid on pedagogy’, a word I had never heard before, but the rest of the sessions and lectures highlighted its meaning to me perfectly”. He felt that the very fact that lecturers and teachers were at this conference demonstrated the level of care and engagement they want to provide for their students, and was most impressed with the hunger for information about how to impart information from all involved.

László found it a really good experience to sit in the other sessions as he found them very informative and interesting. He felt that it was a true pleasure to get to know so many people who work hard on making sure young guys like him get opportunities to get good jobs on graduation.

This was a very worthwhile experience for all of us, and I think that Keith’s reflection summarises what all good pedagogic conferences should achieve:

These academics had turned up to understand, collect and process new ideas or old ones now forgotten, to help improve the learning experience for all those they teach. Thus their questions reflected that desire to do what they do, better. •

IMA International Conference on Barriers and Enablers to Learning MathsUniversity of Glasgow, 10–12 June 2015

László Csek, Keith Dunne, Kate Durkacz and Robbie Rankin

All the conference participants

Laszlo and Keith discussing audio feedback with delegates during the lunch break

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Book Reviews

Book ReviewsBenson, P., Barkhuizen, G., Bodycott, P., & Brown, J. (2013). Second Language Identity in Narratives of Study Abroad. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN: 978-1-13-702943-0

Sibylle Ratz

This book presents narratives of Hong Kong exchange students and focuses on theoretical questions of language identity as well as practical issues of study abroad programmes. Language identity is explored through the proposal of a model on second language identity development in part 1 of the book and through analysing narratives of study abroad with the help of this model in part 2. Part 3 uses contrasting narratives in order to isolate factors influencing language identity development and to practically suggest improvements to study abroad programmes.

In part 1 the authors define second language identity as an integral part of our identity, suggesting that study abroad and language learning experiences have the potential to transform the whole identity. The authors propose a model of second language identity development which covers three areas of interest, namely pragmatic competence, the linguistic self-concept, and personal competence where it is linked to second language use.

In part 2 the authors present six case studies based on narratives to explore each of the three areas of their proposed model. The narratives are constructed from interviews and written accounts and are verified with the students. Examples of findings in relation to the linguistic self-concept show how one student continues to think of herself as a learner while the other makes the transition to becoming a user of English. In the area of personal competence, the authors present two narratives where both students strengthen their Hong Kong cultural identity while still engaging with the English language culture. These findings exemplify positive personal developments as the students become skilled in two languages and can potentially become intercultural mediators.

Part 3 presents case studies focusing on differing programmes and participants in order to identity factors vital to second language identity development.

Firstly, two contrasting programmes in terms of length are analysed where, nevertheless, both students achieve their academic, linguistic and cultural goals. Secondly, two narratives from an identical programme are compared where only one student undergoes a positive language development while the other student does not further engage in her language learning. The authors name various themes as responsible for the different outcomes: Previous experiences with English, previous travel or study abroad, goals and expectations, experiences during study abroad, personality and engagement with the programme. The authors include advice for optimising study abroad programmes.

As a lecturer teaching a foreign language and advising students going abroad, this book was a valuable resource to explore theories of identity linked to language learning. Part 1 is quite theoretical but offers a solid background to questions of identity, language identity and study abroad. The case studies which are explored in parts 2 and 3 make these sections very approachable and interesting to read. Even though each narrative explored in part 2 focuses on only one area of the proposed model, it becomes evident how each area has an impact on the entire identity of the students, while part 3 contains many practical tips for improving study abroad programmes.

Lea, J. (2015). Enhancing Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Engaging with the Dimensions of Practice. Open University Press ISBN: 978-0-33-526416-2

Fiona Smart

My initial thoughts on Lea’s book were that any publication which focuses on enhancing learning and teaching in higher education must be a welcome addition. The fact that the author connects the focus, as stated, to the Dimensions of Practice and therefore, it seemed, to the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) presented as a bonus. It was from this perspective that I explored the contents.

The book is organised into eight substantial chapters, including a conclusion. The first seven chapters provide a fascinating insight into topics of direct relevance to academics, each benefiting from the fact that the book is edited. The voices of different writers are evident, but there is a cohesion to the whole.

tfj Autumn 2015 19

Thus far so good. However, I was left contemplating how someone who is preparing to make a claim for Fellowship would use the book. For sure, they would be able to engage with the focus of each chapter, perhaps adding to the depth of their knowledge and understanding, and then using their heightened insight as the backdrop for critical reflection on their practice, so strengthening their claim. And yet there lay some of the challenge for me. It seemed as if the primary orientation of the book veered towards knowledge, so as to situate practice, but practice itself, as aligned with the elements of the Areas of Activity (AA), felt sketchy, with the case seeming similar for Professional Values (PV). Perhaps there might have been greater clarity in this respect. It is also probably the case that while extracts from submissions for Fellowship were interesting to read, the connections claimed to AAs, PVs and Core Knowledge were sometimes dubious. This illustrates the risk of extracting parts of submissions away from the whole.

Chapter 8 was the one which made me think most. It introduced new material which presented as invaluable to prospective claimants. It seemed that the detail was in the wrong place. Positioned earlier in the book it could help readers to orientate themselves to the requirements of Fellowship and to then engage more productively with the content.

This review reads a little critically. This is not the intention. As noted at the outset, the book is a welcome addition to the shelves and will be useful to a range of readers, not just those seeking Fellowship. •

Embedding Sustainability at the George Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland Miles Weaver and Jackie Brodie A case gathered via an interview with the Regional Manager of the Principal Hayley Group of hotels with the aims to discuss the benefits of achieving a ‘Green Business – gold standard’ award to strengthen the George Hotel strategic positioning and to understand how the Regional Manager Principal Hayley Group has achieved an environmental leadership position in the hotel industry.

http://staff.napier.ac.uk/services/vice-principal-academic/academic/LTA/resources/Pages/Details.aspx?ItemID=283&Section=CS

Audio Feedback for Maths Tests Kate Durkacz The purpose of the activity, which was started in September 2010 and is ongoing, is to give audio feedback on the Maths tests that the first and second year engineering students take as part of their engineering maths modules.

http://staff.napier.ac.uk/services/vice-principal-academic/academic/LTA/resources/Pages/Details.aspx?ItemID=284&Section=CS

The Engineering Peer Tutors Kate Durkacz For a variety of reasons, in 2012 the class sizes for the 1st and 2nd year engineering maths modules were too large for the students to get the individual support that they needed. Therefore, 3rd and 4th year engineering students, who had themselves studied the maths modules, were asked whether they would help out in tutorials, working alongside the lecturer.

http://staff.napier.ac.uk/services/vice-principal-academic/academic/LTA/resources/Pages/Details.aspx?ItemID=285&Section=CS

LTA Resource Bank Updates

We would like to invite teachers and supporters of learning to consider submitting examples of your work to the Resource Bank. We are looking for examples of LTA practice highlighting activities that are innovative and/or enhance the student experience. If you would like to submit a case study, please visit http://staff.napier.ac.uk/services/vice-principal-academic/academic/LTA/Pages/Welcome.aspx

Interested in writing a book review for us? Have you read an interesting book recently and want to recommend to all your colleagues?

Or do you have a book in mind that you’d like to read and review?

We’re looking for interesting book reviews for upcoming issues so please get in touch. We can also help you gain access through the publisher to any new titles that you’d like to review. Contact us with ideas on tfj@napier.ac.uk.

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Around the SchoolsSchool of Arts & Creative Industries

The School of Arts & Creative Industries has a breadth of well-established programmes in five subject areas: English and Acting, Art and Design, Music, Journalism and Publishing, and in Film, Photography and Television. Screen Academy Scotland (a partnership with Edinburgh College of Art) is one of three Creative Skillset Film Academies in the UK. Our undergraduate practice-led, industry-facing BA(Hons) Television programme is also accredited by Creative Skillset. Edinburgh Napier University is a partner with STV Edinburgh, the local channel established in January 2015.

The School is committed to research into teaching linkages and made an extremely strong showing in the recent Research Excellence Framework (REF). Our REF submission in Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management was assessed as 72% at 3* and 4* and in English Language and Literature as 64% at 3* and 4*.

Linda Dryden, L.Dryden@napier.ac.uk

Business School

Rachel Holmes is finalising her research thesis, examining the experiences of direct-entry overseas Chinese students studying accountancy at the University. She makes recommendations for practice in accountancy education which can be applied in a wider context to improve the experiences of this cohort while also broadening the inter-cultural experiences and activities of students from all nationalities and cultures. Joan McLatchie presented a research seminar based on her PhD thesis, examining the lived experience of local academics in transnational higher education. The BA Business Management team (programme leader Carles Ibanez) has drawn on the work carried out by Ben Bate and Andrea Sutherland in the BA Accounting programme to enhance and focus the role of the Personal Development Tutor (PDT) in this far larger programme. The BM system provides the PDTs with background history on their students (e.g. academic history, previous institution) and identifies the students according to level of risk. The PDTs target their efforts to the ‘at risk’ students and are guided and supported in their task by a variety of useful resources.

Joan McLatchie, J.Mclatchie@napier.ac.uk

School of Computing

The School’s new research centre for computing education research has had some early successes including publications and funded research. In addition to external funding, two projects are being funded by the Teaching Fellow Development Grant. One is exploring the impact of Curriculum for Excellence rolled out across Scotland on first year computing students and a second is investigating outcomes across the University from the Graduate Employability Project. School staff also joined the inaugural UoA 25 meeting and are ambitious about the plans that were discussed.

New teaching innovations within the School include our new projects lab (which Imed Romdhani and Brian Davison will discuss in an upcoming issue), new lab developments, innovation in online assessment and a refreshed Industry Advisory Board. In terms of future plans, we see the Property Facilities and Information Services project to create new classroom experiences as an opportunity to combine our innovation in teaching with pedagogical research.

Sally Smith, S.Smith@napier.ac.uk

School of Engineering & the Built Environment

There have been a wide variety of Learning and Teaching activities in the School of Engineering & the Built Environment in recent months.

Celine Garnier and Mike Lee have developed a new group project assessment for a postgraduate module, which now reflects a working environment and develops interpersonal skills, helping with the integration of international students. Tariq Muneer and Jorge Kubie have presented a paper entitled Use of Microsoft-Excel environment for effective teaching delivery of a course in heat transfer at the recent ICCME conference. John Shackleton has developed an engineering design project module, based on the BMFA Universities’ Heavy Lift Challenge, which is a competition to design and build an electrically powered 2-metre span aircraft to lift up to a 4kg payload. The project allowed the students to apply a wide range of knowledge gained elsewhere within their programme as well as encouraging them to engage in self-driven study of topics new to them, such as flight dynamics. Kate Durkacz visited Oslo and Ackershus

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Grants Panel UpdateThe Grants Panel met in August 2015 and approved the following applications:

Name Ref Title Amount funded

Sally Smith TF1233 Student placements: Progression or transformation? tbc

Elaine Mowat TF1234 SIG-M (Special Interest Group in Mentoring) 2015/16. £910

Julia Fotheringham TF1235 What are sector wide engagement with HEA fellowship? Dissemination of research findings. £1,655

Ian Lambert TF1237 Making Futures Conference – two papers. £680

Renata Osowska TF1243 Entrepreneurialising the curriculum. £2,705

Charlotte Chalmers TF1246 Self-assessment, grade prediction and ‘professional role confidence’ in undergraduate students. £5,095

Christine Penman TF1247 Attendance at an EU funded conference in Bologna – 23 September 2015. £255

Christine Penman TF1250 Post-conference proceedings from forthcoming TF conference January 2015. £581

Jyoti Bhardwaj TF1254 Assessing self-efficacy and Curriculum for Excellence attributes of entrants to computing degrees. £4,968

University College in Oslo, by invitation, to share her experience in teaching maths to engineering students. Alan Edgar organised and ran the third School LTA conference, which was very successful.

Kate Durcakz, K.Durcakz@napier.ac.uk

School of Life, Sport & Social Sciences

Janis MacCallum is working on producing a Mahara site for students in Biological Sciences to use in developing a ‘skills passport’. This is the culmination of work with employers and Skills Development Scotland to develop the employability skills of our science graduates. Charlotte Chalmers, Tony Westbury, Mark Huxham and Kate Durkacz received TF funding to continue their work on gender difference in student confidence within the STEM subjects.

Charlotte Chalmers, C.Chalmers@napier.ac.uk

School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Care

Many congratulations to Anne Waugh who has attained Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA). Applications are made directly to the HEA. Teaching Fellows within the School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Care continue to support those seeking HEA Fellowship via ENroute. Congratulations to Christine Pollock and Margaret Conlon who were successful in their bid for a Teaching Fellow Grant focusing on evaluation of an equivalency tool to find suitable mentorship and learning environments for student nurses in non-nursing learning environments, e.g. social work setting. Wendy McInally, Lecturer, and Anne Jamie, Learning Technologist, presented a paper on development of the ePDP at the EDULEARN15 conference in Barcelona. Also, following a successful cancer awareness amongst young people event hosted by Wendy McInally and Child Nursing students, there is a proposal that a number of students will be prepared to become Ambassadors for the Trust and will be going into secondary schools to raise cancer awareness.

Paddy Perry, P.Perry@napier.ac.uk

Around the Schools Cont.

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Student Focus

In the academic year 2014/15 Mo Andrew from Confident Futures and Julia Jung, now a 2nd year biological student, volunteered to participate in the pilot of ‘Students as Colleagues’. Here are their insights into the project and their collegiate relationship.

[MA] I had the happy and very valuable experience of being paired with Julia who I had already met when facilitating a Confident Futures workshop with her cohort. When we were reintroduced for this project I was delighted to discover that Julia was my student colleague.

[JJ] ‘Students as Colleagues’ seemed like a great possibility. I was excited to see how many new skills there would be to learn and how many nice people to meet and to learn from. When I found out that Mo was my paired staff member, I knew that we would be a good team.

[MA] From the outset Julia took her responsibilities of monitoring and engaging with my role seriously, cooperatively and enthusiastically. She prepared well for observing my facilitation practice, and carefully reviewed a Moodle course I’d designed. Julia’s verbal and written feedback was well considered and supportively delivered and I found myself not only listening carefully to her suggestions but also incorporating some into my practice.

[JJ] Even though Mo and I from the beginning had a very positive and genuine partnership, I wanted to play my role as a professional colleague. I was very focused on giving the best feedback I could and wanted to make sure my feedback was as objective, constructive and beneficial as it could be. How to observe and review the material as well as how to bring my thoughts into a clear and constructive format were very interesting challenges that gave me a new perspective on teaching and feedback. I felt like I got to see the other side of a magic mirror, the side of teaching that’s normally hidden from you.

[MA] I wasted little time in introducing Julia to the rest of the Confident Futures team and quickly they all became engaged by our collegiate relationship and informally sought her opinions as the team began to align strategic plans with the University’s vision for 2020. This culminated in Julia talking more formally with the team in our April team meeting, where she presented her ideas to us in a confident and very engaging way.

[JJ] While reviewing Mo’s teaching practice, I found myself thinking about ideas that could be beneficial for the whole Confident Futures team. It was like my partnership with Mo opened magic doors to meet

people and spread ideas that could help improve the university as a whole. It was great to get a chance to share ideas and unlock more doors.

[MA] As Julia points out, every student has the potential to be the very best version of themselves. I’d recommend this project to anyone considering it, and if you truly open up to the possibilities within it, you will gain insights into your LTA that are not available through more traditional methods – as Julia puts it, you are provided with a magic mirror that will help you see yourself from a different perspective.

[JJ] When I came to Edinburgh Napier, I was just like any other first year student. I think the only thing that makes me different is that I spend more time carefully choosing who I want to be, and practising to be that person. Anyone can be whatever type of person they choose to be. Your habits, your behaviours, your responses, are all your choice. I believe this place is actually a magical place filled with knowledge and possibilities and with great potential to change the world. If we work as a team everything is possible. For me, this project was a great way to see who is part of your team and to start working together to make Edinburgh Napier a better university and this world a better place.

[MA] Julia has chosen to take up roles this year with the NSA as a class and school rep, and as a Student Ambassador with Confident Futures. This will allow us further opportunities to work together and it all started with the ‘Students as Colleagues’ initiative. I’m going to let Julia summarise our joint hopes for the future of the project, and our partnership, in her wonderfully descriptive way.

[JJ] This has been our opportunity to inspire others to take the initiative and responsibility, and to work as a team. Let’s make it count! We are a great example of all the wonderful things that are possible when people work together. •

To get involved this year contact Rachel Murray for more information, R.Murray2@napier.ac.uk.

Students as ColleaguesMo Andrews and Julia Jung

STUDENTS asCOLLEAGUES

tfj Autumn 2015 23

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