Learning Development and Innovation Overview and

Updates

Steve Wyn Williams

March 2013

Academic Strategy

The learning and teaching framework recognises that student expectations of how they engage with their learning, and with the University, are changing and will continue to change in the new HE environment. Students, increasingly will want and expect: increased flexibility of study; to be treated as partners in the learning process that places them at the centre of learning rather than treated as the objects of it; the ubiquitous use of technologies that enrich their learning experience, supports flexible access to learning materials and enables communication with staff and to other students.

Academic Strategy

Support learning by using technologies that reflect and anticipate the needs of our students.Targets•Expand the use of Blackboard 9 as the required University VLE for on-campus awards and those in partners and to optimise its pedagogic applications including e-assessment and feedback•Develop a consistent approach to the delivery of Distance Learning in order to support an increase in the number of online and blended learning programmes across levels•Broaden use of new technologies such as mobile devices, new social media and other innovations

Overview and Update

Working with colleagues across the University, over the last year, Academic Development Unit/Learning Development and Innovation has been working towards achieving the challenges in the university plan…

Putting Students at the Heart of what we do…

Training, Mentoring

and CommunityDistance

Learning Working Group

Project

Upgrade to Blackboard 9

Assessment and

Feedback Project

Blackboard Community and

Content

Projects

Upgrade to Blackboard 9

• More assessment features for blogs, wikis and discussion boards

• Better support for group work• Integrations with Helix and Pebblepad• Improved admin and enrolment processes• Modular and award templates for a consistent

look and feel

Distance Learning Project

• Review and analysis of existing DL awards

• Consultation with wide numbers of staff and students about current experiences

• Recommendations to Executive

Bb Assessment and Feedback Project

• Enhancing the students’ experience of assessment through the application of technology to assignment management and online delivery of marks and feedback.

• Pilots currently being run across the university to evaluate prior to wider implementation.

Training, Mentoring and Community

• Principles of e-Learning module• Mentoring for module leaders

developing Distance Learning modules• Training for assessment tools etc• Presentations at ALT C and SEDA

conferences - “Serious Technology Use: Using Analytics for online Collaborative Group Work and Assessment Design”

• Contribution to Turnitin Conference

Blackboard Community and Content

• Further upgrade to Blackboard 9• Will enable ‘community’ groupings of

awards/subjects• Will enable sharing of resources

Projects

• JISC Transformations project: APPLE– Law School team looking at the innovative

development of summative assessment within awards

• JISC Transformations project: EPISA- Business School team looking at the engaging

employers in summative assessment within awards• JISC Benefits Realisation project: Enterprise

Architecture and the new External Examiners database– Sharing our experience of using Enterprise

Architecture via a series of workshops and webinars– Delivering the new External Examiners database

Assessment and Feedback

‘Nothing that we do to, or for, our students is more important than our assessment of their work and the feedback we give them on it. The results of our assessment influence our students for the rest of their lives and careers – fine if we get it right, but unthinkable if we get it wrong.’

Race, Brown and Smith (2005), 500 Tips on Assessment

NSS 2012: Assessment and Feedback• Overall satisfaction with Assessment and

Feedback (71%) has improved to a rate 1% higher than the sector average with many subject areas delivering improvements.

• A and F still records some of the lowest levels of satisfaction than any other, both within the University and sector.

• As in 2011, students were generally positive about assessment but much less so about feedback.

Staffordshire University: 7 Feedback Principles

Good feedback should be:•Be an interactive process involving student-tutor and student-student dialogue •Facilitate the development of self assessment and reflection•Clarify for students and staff, through dialogue, what good or bad performance actually is in the assignment or task. •Be developmental, progressive and transferable to new learning contexts •Be ongoing and embedded in the learning process•Motivate, build esteem and confidence to support sustainable lifelong learning •Support the development of learning groups and communities

What technology offers assessment and feedback (JISC (2010) Effective Assessment in a Digital Age)

Technology-enhanced assessment and feedback refers to practices that provide some, or all, of the following benefits:•Greater variety and authenticity in the design of assessments•Improved learner engagement, for example through interactive formative assessments with adaptive feedback•Choice in the timing and location of assessments•Capture of wider skills and attributes not easily assessed by other means, for example through simulations, e-portfolios and interactive games

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• Efficient submission, marking, moderation and data storage processes Consistent, accurate results with opportunities to combine human and computer marking

• Immediate feedback• Increased opportunities for learners to act on

feedback, for example by reflection in e-portfolios• Innovative approaches based around use of

creative media and online peer and self-assessment• Accurate, timely and accessible evidence on the

effectiveness of curriculum design and delivery

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