Project Title: Using corpora to enhance autonomous language learning unit in PGR students Project Leader(s): Russell Clark, Suzanne Heaton and Alison Long
This project will develop a series of videos and activities to train international postgraduate research students in how to use published English language corpora, corpus programmes, and the information generated. It will then create specialised corpora, initially for students studying in Keele Management School and the School of Pharmacy, along with tasks designed to raise awareness of specialised language use. The students will then be trained in how to create and exploit their own corpus, and how to use the information generated not only to improve their writing, but also to develop a sense of autonomy and ownership. Using corpora - Final Project Report
Project Title: Project Ponder - Making students think using 'Posh Clickers' Project Leader(s): Russell Pearson and Tejesh M.Pattni
Project Ponder encourages students to think using small, frequent interludes of a classroom response system based on “Clicker” handsets. Phase 1 of this project involved 140 students having a year-long loan of a clicker handset to answer MCQs. Our student feedback clearly shows that smart and thoughtful clicker usage has a powerful impact with 97% requesting their continuation next year and 81% asking for handsets with free text answering capabilities. Phase 2, therefore, introduces “Posh Clickers” and so this proposal describes (1) how just 35 devices would be required, and (2) why alternative mobile phone technology should be avoided. Project Ponder - Final Project Report This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Project Title: Virtual laboratories as a complementary E-learning tool in Biomedical Science Project Leader(s): Anne Loweth and Sheila Hope
Laboratory investigation lies at the heart of the biomedical sciences and acquisition of excellent laboratory skills is essential to our undergraduates’ employability. Delivering high quality, resource-intensive practical classes is economically challenging hence, despite extensive laboratory classes, students encounter some complex techniques in theory only. This project evaluates the merits of Labster laboratory simulations, integrating virtual laboratories with theory and molecular animations, in improving students’ learning, firstly, of a theoretically-encountered technique and, secondly, as a preparative adjunct to support laboratory classes. Test performance and questionnaire data analysis will assess our hypothesis that female students may especially benefit from this learning resource. Virtual laboratories - Final Project Report This work is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Project Title: Video Resource Pack: Developing Academic Communication Skills for International Students Project Leader(s): Ella Tennant
The need to adapt to Keele’s academic culture is one of many challenges faced by international students. This project will focus on the design, production and publication of a video resource pack aimed at helping students develop the communication skills necessary to succeed in their degree programmes. The resource pack composed of short video films and an accompanying handbook will serve as a learning tool embedded in the KLE, concentrating on three areas: giving presentations, participating in tutorial/seminar discussions and communicating with a personal tutor, within the Keele academic context.
Project Title: The Lecture as Performative Pantomime: (Back)channelling student conversations to maximise engagement and collaborative learning in lectures Project Leader(s): Angela Rhead and Matthew Brannan
This project will explore the use of TodaysMeet to create temporary chatrooms unique to each lecture, which employs students’ personal electronic devices (smartphones / tablets / laptops) to stimulate and capture individual / small group dialogues. These dialogues create a feedback loop between lecturer and audience to facilitate a collectively produced learning event.
Project Title: Supporting the international student transition: The English-Mandarin 'talking glossary' for Environmental students Project Leader(s): Katie Szkornik
Students from China coming to study in the UK face significant language and cultural barriers. Studies show that despite extensive support, English Language problems remain a major barrier to achievement within assessment from China (Mathias et al., 2013; Szkornik et al., 2015). This study develops a subject-specific, English-Mandarin 'talking glossary', which will be used as a learning tool in modules currently delivered in China by Keele-based academics (flying faculty; Smith, 2014), as part of our collaborative degree programme in Environment and Sustainability with Nanjing Xiaozhuang University.
Project Title: 'Lets meet at basecamp': A mobile app designed to increase group cohesion and student satisfaction in collaborative learning projects Project Leader(s): Grant Bosworth and Donna Berry
Many modules involve elements of group work aimed at enhancing certain employability skills. However, students often cite difficulties regarding communication with, and contributions made by, other group members. The aim of our teaching innovation project is to tailor a project management app to better engage students and facilitate collaborative learning. The app creatively combines the features students desire from social media (instant message, notifications on progress) with required components for academic work (transparent scheduling, equitable workload distribution and file sharing). Any improvements in the student learning experience will be evaluated from questionnaire responses, compared to responses from a control group.
Project Title: Introducing undergraduate students to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles' theory and practice Project Leader(s): Alex Nobajas
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have become increasingly popular and feature regularly on the news, both for positive and negative reasons. However controversial, their use has proven to be successful in a myriad of applications which go from disaster management to agricultural surveying. Nonetheless, due to a lack of courses offering UAV training there is a current shortage of professionals capable of performing missions with UAVs satisfactorily, something this project aims to mitigate by introducing UAV training as part of the university offering. This will be achieved by developing new teaching materials and activities involving UAVs. Introduction to UAVs - Final Project Report
Project Title: The pedagogic potential of Turnitin's originality reports Project Leader(s): Nicholas Seager and Ben Anderson
This project explores the educational potential of Turnitin’s originality reports, as used by students, guided by educators. The project’s foci are: (1) the implications of shifting from a detection-based to a prevention-based approach to academic misconduct with the aid of software; (2) using the instant and ongoing formative feedback that originality reports can provide to develop students’ academic skills (referencing, writing, finding and using sources). To these ends, the investigators will measure Humanities’ students’ take-up of access to the originality reports, the nature of how they use them (and how they might), and staff and student perceptions of the reports. The Pedagogic Potential - Final Project Report
Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice
Author: Sarah Aynsley
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Medicine
Abstract: Video use in our student population has soared in popularity over the years and there have been benefits to using videos identified in regards to teaching and learning. However just capturing a lecture as a recording doesn't always fulfill the needs of the students or topic, instead I use three different approaches to produce short custom video animations to support learning including bespoke video animations, Snagit capture of images and lecture snippets and hand drawn responses to student questions captured as short video responses. This session will introduce you to these three different approaches how they work and what you could use them for.
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Abstract: This session will explore the relationship between the use of digital technology and challenging unconscious bias. Using examples from Keele, personal experience and pedagogy, you will gain insight and strategies to reflect and review your current practices.
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Chemical and Physical Sciences
Abstract: The intention of this lightning presentation is to highlight the breadth of applications of Google apps to support teaching and learning and the administration of teaching within Chemistry at Keele. Examples include: Google Docs for undergraduate group projects; Google Slides for Group Presentations; Google sheets for data pooling (e.g. laboratory practicals); Google forms for module evaluations; Google sheets for assessment timetables; Google sheets for marking teams; Google sheets for Peer Observation of Teaching; Google sheets for coordinating external examiner feedback on assessments and responses.
Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice
Author: Phil Devine
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Lancaster University
Abstract: At times the institutional VLE, third party applications and related plugins can not, or do not, meet the pedagogical needs of lecturers. Reasons for this can be legion, for example, the institutional VLE may not have that native functionality available to meet that specific pedagogical outcome or, the wider institutional suite of existing applications and third party tools do not integrate with institutional processes, regulations, systems or financial budgets. Set within that context, my presentation will give an account of, the use of, the 'Moodle Database Activity'. The 'Moodle Database activity' is a semi-flexible 'in' VLE 'small' scale development environment that can combine, html templates, cascading style sheets (CSS), javascript and database field entry - connecting with Moodle Grade-Book.
Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice
Author: Paul Newton, Tom Maurice
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Marketing and Communications
Abstract: Social media has changed. So far in 2018 we have seen organic Facebook and Snapchat reach decline, Instagram stories become even more important, and the benefits of a 'mobile first' social approach. Paul and Tom (MAC) will talk about the latest developments in their world of social, and how colleagues can get the best communications results from their social media presence. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Lancaster University
Abstract: Digital has the capability to transform experience. If we accept that is the case, and understand that experience is the key to the acquisition of knowledge and understanding (Vygotsky et al) we can begin to unpack more deeply the relationship between digital and learning (and teaching). My presentation will be an attempt to do just that. The presentation will view digital as a conduit for new and existing student experience in language learning by accessing the immediacy, interactivity, fluency and responsiveness of digital technology, in this case, the Microsoft Surface Hub - bringing experiential and authentic learning opportunities into the seminar or workshop.
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Language Centre
Abstract: Whether learning, teaching, or in the world of work, we often find ourselves in situations which require us to speak in public.
In the past, a proliferation of books and training workshops were available to help in this (Ellis and O'Driscoll, 1992, for example), and it could be argued that technology might now have superseded the need to develop the art of speaking. This talk will provide an overview of how digital technology and resources can be blended with traditional ‘old school’ methods to practise public speaking/voice performance in a learning environment, in order to develop public speaking and presentation skills.
For many, the idea of standing up in front of a room of people - friends or strangers, can be the source of anxiety (Idzikowski & Baddeley 2007), or what is termed ‘communication apprehension’ (Robinson ll, 2009). However, by ‘blending’ the old and the new, learners can develop confidence and overcome anxiety, as well as improve other factors, which are often overlooked in the age of PowerPoint, but are still important in the success of a presentation. These factors form part of ‘elocution’, originally the art of delivering speeches (see Thomas Sheridon’s 1762 Lectures on Elocution) and include, voice: its level and projection, posture, body language and gesture, as well as the ability to communicate with and actively engage the audience.
The incorporation of technology in teaching and learning does not mean that traditional methods are no longer valid. This presentation will show that the combination of both traditional and technological approaches in an active, anxiety-free learning environment can have a positive impact on helping students to practise and develop confidence in speaking in public, and enable them to effectively Stand and Deliver.
Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice
Author: Alex Goffe, Nick Vaughan, Sarah Thirlwall
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Faculty Medicine & Health Sciences
Abstract: The Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences introduced electronic student file storage to keep a record of student documents that would have traditionally been kept in paper format in a filing cabinet. The students digital file follows them through to graduation in harmony with SITS. Staff can easily save, create, find and restore files without the need for specialist tools or knowledge.
Abstract: In the creation of Tim Anderson’s performance piece Mother, Baby, Life,(1) sounds, images and video were carefully harvested from the media and digitally subverted to parody themselves and to provide caricatures. This is permitted by the government’s handy Exceptions to Copyright regulations (2). The sources of the clips were diverse: popular music samples, exploitative websites, Freeview television, action movies, and on-line catalogues.
Additional material was created from serendipitous street video and children’s toys. Live elements were introduced for performance: two brief narrations plus several outbursts of my collaborator, Guillaume Dujat’s digitally-based percussion and electronica. Tracing our journeys from birth to death, the piece looks at childhood, media exposure, deference, rage and violence, individual and state sponsored. Each topic lasts a minute.
By examining two of these segments, the digital processes involved can be seen and demonstrated.
The eighth segment, War, colours a still photograph of a mountainous landscape with cut-outs of tanks and fighter planes selected from online catalogues of children’s playthings. The images are digitally animated and trundle or zoom across the scene accompanied by heavy gunfire and artillery sampled by Dujat from computer games and played live on electronic pads using the video as a diegetic score.
The majority of the digital tools (mis)used are easily available and require little specialist knowledge.
1. https://youtu.be/eG2K47j5mgc
Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice
Author: Adrian Molyneux
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Medicine
Abstract: Traditionally, despite the high cost of summative medical examinations, opportunities for capturing useful in-depth performance data for all students have been limited, often resulting in a simple pass/fail result. Investigations in the School of Medicine demonstrated the wealth of data available that could be utilised for individual students to target and improve their weaker areas.
Summary of work: A bespoke analytics system was designed and developed from the ground up. This comprises (1) a feedback website giving students the means to view and listen in multiple different ways to all the feedback captured and compare themselves to the cohort average; (2) the server and database infrastructure to provide the necessary storage and statistical analysis; and (3) auditing tools to quantify the usage of the site by students.
Summary of results: Audit reports demonstrated that students made very heavy usage of the feedback website immediately following the release of results. Most made between 50 and 100 separate page “hits” within the first 24 hours. Separately, tutors report their satisfaction with the new streamlined electronic marking processes and their preference over the previous paper implementation.
Conclusions: A huge amount of data is available for capture during the various examinations that is of benefit to students in targeting areas for improvement. A technological approach facilitates this data capture and presentation.
Take-home message: With some initial investment in time and resources, summative exams may be extended to provide extremely valuable individualised and timely formative feedback for students.
Abstract: Applications for smartphone or tablet devices ("apps") are ubiquitous and used across many disciplines. Apps are often sought as solutions, but their development requires thought beyond the technical process of producing an app. This session will discuss how students on a foundation year programme used PowerApps (part of the Office365 suite currently available to all Keele staff/students) to develop a working health app within a single semester. It will explain the process used and share supporting files that fast-tracked students beyond the technical process, to think how the app would benefit potential patients. The activity formed part of a summative assessment and produced innovative ideas from the student group which can be presented.
Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice
Author: Kizzy Beaumont
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Keele Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence
Abstract: Within the Student Learning department at Keele University, we have launched a series of university-wide freestanding workshops focusing on developing academic practice. Alongside this, Google Classroom was used to create a blended approach to these workshops, providing an online community for students to share and open dialogue around topics discussed during workshops. The aim was to bring students from different faculties together and create a sense of community surrounding enhancement of academic practice.
We selected Google Classroom for its intuitive and accessible interface for both staff and students, and its ability to create an online community. From both a student and staff perspective feedback was very positive. Students engaged in discussions, answered and posed questions to incite discussion, and gave feedback on resources. There is still much to do and learn in establishing whether Google Classroom can be used effectively in creating a sense of community through the shared want to improve academic practice. This conference paper will demonstrate how we have used Google Classroom whilst sharing frameworks for colleagues to explore in their own practice.
Theme: Sharing experiences of using technology to enhance your practice
Author: Ben Simkins, Keren Coney
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Keele Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence Abstract: Feedback nationally has been consistently identified as an area for improvement through the National Student Survey. Screencasting has been identified as a form of technology that can help improve student perception of the feedback that they receive. It is also an approach associated with benefits for those who provide feedback. This session will explore, in detail, the benefits of adopting screencasting to both student and staff and will share the findings of a HECSU-funded research project conducted at Keele University. The research project explored the impact of adopting screencasting on the quality of feedback, in terms of depth, level of understanding, the extent to which the feedback is perceived as more personal and the impact of introducing this approach on learning gain.
Theme: Encouraging students to use digital platforms and tools for collaboration, debate and the production of online research and learning outputs.
Author: Maria Tzanou
School/Directorate/Research Institute: Law
Abstract: This proposal aims to explore the various ways Law students can approach and learn about new technologies and the relationship between these and the law. The contribution draws upon the innovative methods employed to teach a recently designed and developed module on ‘Law and New Technologies’ to third year undergraduate Law students at Keele University. The module which was awarded the 2018 Routledge/ALT Teaching Law with New Technologies Prize, adopts an active learning method and approaches technology in four ways: first, it encourages students to critically think about new technologies and evaluate how the law can approach these; second, it examines how new technologies respond to and incorporate the law (code is law); third, it uses new technologies at the object of socio-legal research; and, fourth, it employs technologies as a tool to enhance the actual learning in the module. In this way, new technologies play three distinct, crucial roles within the context of this module: they constitute the subject of the students’ learning, the object of their research and they are instrumental tools enhancing the learning process. An active learning approach is adopted in order to foster deeper understanding of the subject alongside transferrable skills based on teamwork, public speaking, advocacy and mooting.
Daniela Plana, Teaching Fellow in Chemistry, Keele University
The term “lecture capture technology” has been used in the literature to encompass a range of different technologies, ranging from pre-recording lectures in a separate environment to the recording of live lectures and their later distribution to students.[1-4] At Keele Playback is currently used, which allows for the audio (mainly the lecturer) and the screen to be recorded (both through projection from a computer or using a visualiser).
Lecture capture is a particularly inclusive tool, as it not only especially supports students who have genuine reasons for missing sessions (illness, caring responsibilities, work), but also students learning in a language that is not their own.[1, 5] The ability to re-live a lecture, to pause it and go at their own speed, as well as possibly having captions added, is incredibly helpful for learners that are not studying in their native tongue. For many of the same factors, it is also helpful for students with particular learning disabilities. Given Keele's strategic focus on both International Attainment Gap and Social Inclusion, it seems quite relevant to embrace a tool that quite easily can serve both aims effectively.
Lecture capture generates an extensive collection of learning materials. Although it has become commonplace, both at Keele and within the HE sector, there are fewer examples of lecture recordings being edited to create shorter clips.[6] Here we describe the editing of lecture recordings to provide short resources which can be used in a ‘flipped classroom’ approach or as revision resources. Through a Teaching Innovation Project, we (Laura Hancock, Graeme Jones and I) were able to partner with students who edited lecture capture recordings and produced “Lecture Highlights”. Details on the project can be found here and a report will be available in due course. Working with students to produce the resources provided additional value, as they said themselves “… lecturers can make what you think… I want a little bit more… you can get that if you have a student doing it, I think”. It allowed the students to focus on the key elements of the relevant lectures, which they considered important or particularly difficult.
“Lecture Highlights” are resources made from edited recordings from lecture capture, focusing on a key concept from a lecture. Each resource has a clear title, concise one sentence summary and at the end a handful of bullet points answering the statement “you should now be able to…” Additionally, they are fully captioned and have accompanying edited lecture notes for students to use whilst they watch. They are not necessarily of the polished quality of a standalone screencast, but as such require significantly less time and effort to produce.
Camtasia was used during the project, but any video editing software could be equally useful. Technically, the most difficult issue was the captioning of the Lecture Highlights; although various speech-to-text programmes were trialled, there were issues with the quality of the audio and the subject-specific terminology, which required significant input and on occasion full transcriptions. We initially included captioning, based on feedback from international students who had engaged with existing resources, such as screencasts. The effort was definitely worth it, as a large majority of the students who have used the resources have said they found the captions useful, many explaining that it made understanding easier, but also citing a range of other uses such as enabling note-taking, that they “can pause and read them”, for “clear understanding of terminology” or when “I couldn’t have the volume on”.
Student feedback has been generally positive, describing Lecture Highlights as “the vital information of the lecture but extracted and shortened for a quick review when you need to be reminded of key concepts”, mentioning that they are “concise and easy to understand” and saying that they are “Good because it is easier to find the info you need than Playback and easier to understand than just lecture notes.”
Newton, G., et al., Use of Lecture Capture in Higher Education - Lessons from the Trenches. TechTrends, 2014. 58(2): p. 32-45.
Witton, G., The value of capture: Taking an alternative approach to using lecture capture technologies for increased impact on student learning and engagement. British Journal of Educational Technology, 2017. 48(4): p. 1010-1019.
Leadbeater, W., et al., Evaluating the use and impact of lecture recording in undergraduates: Evidence for distinct approaches by different groups of students. Computers & Education, 2013. 61: p. 185-192.
Groen, J.F., B. Quigley, and Y. Herry, Examining the Use of Lecture Capture Technology: Implications for Teaching and Learning. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2016. 7(1).
Shaw, G.P. and D. Molnar, Non-native english language speakers benefit most from the use of lecture capture in medical school. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 2011. 39(6): p. 416-420.
Ferriday, R., Innovative lecture capture. Proceedings of INTED2015 Conference 2nd-4th March 2015, 2015. Madrid: p. 0657–0661.
We thank Sam Goodwin and Asma Kabiri for their amazing work on producing Lecture Highlights.
By Matthew Wyman, School of Politics, Philosophy, International Relations and Environment
In this short video Matthew outlines the approach taken in one of his modules the Practice of Politics. The module recognised for its innovative approach through the Political Studies Association in 2016-17 has also been recognised by the external examiner for the programme
Contact details
Matthew Wyman (m.d.wyman@keele.ac.uk)
Sarah Longwell (s.f.longwell@keele.ac.uk)
By Angela Rhead, Student Learning, Keele University
Introduction
Academic Reading Retreats are one-day learning and teaching events that explore the purpose and structure of academic journal articles and the dark art of ‘critical reading’. They offer learning opportunities for both students and academic staff: students gain confidence in handling academic papers, but also in becoming disciplinary enquirers, with a new understanding of why they read. Academics gain insight into the challenges students face in this aspect and often into their own assumptions about students’ reading behaviours, which in turn encourages critical reflection on curriculum design.
In conversation with students and colleagues from across the disciplines, reading emerges as an almost universally ‘sticky’ (Schon, 1987) concept for higher level learning, persistently frustrating for both students and academics alike. This seems particularly acute in the humanities and social sciences, with their disciplinary view of criticality often emerging from a student’s individual engagement with reading and their positioning in terms of that discourse (Moore, 2013). However, whilst the retreat has emerged from an interpretive perspective, I’ve come to realise that reading research articles for academic purpose is equally challenging for many students studying sciences. Whilst I always ‘warn’ applicants from scientific disciplines that the retreat does not focus on methods or statistics, those students that persist report positive learning experiences. Their participation has also enriched my own understanding of criticality and improved my ability to adapt to individual concerns and challenges in an interdisciplinary setting.
Academic Reading Retreats consist of three cycles of teaching, individual silent reading and reflective group discussion. Participants from any discipline bring an article they have selected for a specific enquiry or assessment, to which they apply the taught strategies throughout the day. Student participants are usually undergraduate second and third years approaching or already engaged in dissertations or independent projects, although postgraduate students can also benefit. One novel aspect of the retreats is to have academics reading alongside students to expose the continuing and inevitable challenge of reading for academic purposes. Ideally, two academics participate as ‘readers-in’ residence’ in a group of twelve to twenty (larger groups may require more academic participants).
Background and History
Moving to Keele in 2015, metamorphosing from an Education lecturer into a ‘Learning Developer’, I was confident of strategies that could support students in reading and exploring intertextual relationships, but I continued to wrestle with the ‘stickiness’ around literature selection and those initial scanning stages. With a much wider remit now, and access to threshold concept discussions (Meyer and Land, 2013) across a range of disciplines, it became increasingly clear that these more fundamental practices, which unless addressed would make the later practices meaningless, needed closer attention in the curriculum. I began to experiment with two strategies aimed at engaging students in understanding the purpose of academic reading (and enquiry) and exploring the implication of that for literature selection and initial reading: the ‘stage’ and the ‘scroll’.
For more detail, background and to find out how to use the stage follow this link
The Stage: Early work on selecting literature
For more detail and background about how to use scrolling follow this link
Scrolling: Early work on initial reading of journal articles
Academic Reading Retreats: The early days
In many ways, Academic Reading Retreats appear to work against the direction of travel I have been pursuing by bringing academic practice development back out of curriculum programmes. As a ‘Learning Developer’ I have concentrated on three aspects in my work with students and academics: firstly, a move from generic to contextualised content that locates the development of academic practices such as reading or writing within the discipline. Secondly, a move from extra-curricular to embedded delivery that sits inside the student’s programme and timetable with, hopefully, a reduced sense of the remedial or extraneous (Wingate, 2006). Thirdly, a change in relationship with academics from doing ‘for’ to doing ‘with’, which includes collaborative reflection, planning and delivery. However, I had become frustrated in curriculum-restricted one or two hour sessions by the limited space for deeper engagement with academic texts and reading. Additionally, students had also suggested more time and a whole day event might be more effective. Coincidentally, after presenting scrolling at a Keele Teaching and Learning Conference, two academics asked to observe the next scrolling workshop…
…So, inspired by attending a writing retreat, I designed ‘academic reading retreats’. Loosely based on the same format as writing retreats, with scheduled silent time and group discussion, academic reading retreats are offered as open learning events, distinctly driven by formal delivery of key reading strategies, which take the content of a one or two hour workshop on academic and critical reading and lengthen the practical application phases. I invited both academics to attend as participant ‘readers-in-residence’ rather than observers and teachers, and advertised places to the second year undergraduate students. The impact of the first retreat was powerful for all participants, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from students and academics alike. For students, the combination of teaching with time for individual practice and group discussion gained most comment; for academics, the opportunity to gain insight into the challenges students face and to uncover their own previous assumptions. Whilst the retreats were wholly interdisciplinary, the individual learning was entirely embedded within the discipline and subject.
As a result of this pilot academic reading retreat, we collaboratively designed, and I facilitated, curriculum-based reading retreats in both programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, with a range of academics participating as readers-in-residence. This seemed to be taking the retreats back into the curriculum programme itself, where they belonged, as it were. However, in many ways the learning was less powerful, less rich than that in the smaller, interdisciplinary events and poses interesting questions for curriculum design.
Academic Reading Retreats: What next?
This is an exciting innovation, which has struck a chord across disciplines, and which I hope will begin to reach further into other programmes as I share this practice more widely at Keele and further afield, I have a strong commitment to inclusion and an awareness of the continuing barrier that common curriculum design and delivery practices present to that cause. The barriers are often laid down unknowingly, based on dangerous assumptions most of ‘us’ have about ‘them’ and their reading habits (MacMillan, 2014), which leads to student difficulties then being cast as a remedial matter, for which ‘they’ are responsible (Wingate, 2006). This transmission-based curriculum approach, coupled with the lack of confidence and real skills in practices of academic reading amongst many graduates and undergraduates alike, results in high levels of anxiety and concern. That anxiety is increased where students have little previous exposure to the HE academic community and its cultural norms. The importance of embedding both the purpose (in epistemological terms) and the processes of academic reading cannot be underestimated in supporting all students’ to achieve their best outcomes.
Open interdisciplinary Academic Reading Retreats will continue to be offered and developed. Their capacity to support both learning and teaching development offers a range of opportunities for further development. Where programme-specific reading retreats are planned, it is important to look for ways to recover the rich and powerful learning observe din the small-scale and interdisciplinary setting.
Academic Reading Retreat Programme and Materials
Follow thislink to a detailed breakdown of how a Reading Retreat works
All I ask is you attribute me according to the creative commons licence but most importantly get in contact and let me know how it worked (a.rhead@keele.ac.uk)
References
Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hill, P. & Tinker, A. (2013) Integrating Learning Development into the Student Experience Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Vol 5. Available at: http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/journal.html
Macmillan, M. (2014). Student connections with academic texts: a phenomenographic study of reading. Teaching in Higher Education, 19:8, 943-954
Meyer, Jan H. F., & Land, Ray. (2005). Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge (2): Epistemological Considerations and a Conceptual Framework for Teaching and Learning. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, 49(3), 373-388.
Middlebrook, R.D. (1994). Instructional Benefits of Textmapping [Online]. Available at: http://www.textmapping.org/benefits.html
Moore, T. (2013). Critical thinking: seven definitions in search of a concept, Studies in Higher Education, Vol. 38 (4): 506–522
Schön, D. A. (1987) .Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Wingate, U. (2006). Doing away with study skills. Teaching in Higher Education, Vol 11 (4):457-469
By Dr Martyn Parker, School of Computing and Mathematics, Keele University
Early in my academic career, I recognised that I had fallen into the same educational traps
as many of my colleagues. At this stage, I worked in a department full of blackboards, and
my initial attempts at educating students were identical to my experiences as a student.
A walk around mathematics departments the world over usually reveals corridors and
rooms full of blackboards. It is not atypical for lecturers to fill blackboards several times over
rather than use a few sketches or keywords. Other subjects use modern presentation tools
and other learning methods, why not mathematics?
A typical mathematics department blackboard covered in technical mathematics. Image licence: The image is released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required.) 1
Completing my first year teaching in higher education made me challenged myself to
provide an excellent education that confronted the traditional blackboard method of
university mathematics education. The entrenched view among mathematician that
blackboard ‘chalk and talk’ is the only way at university and the ease with which I followed
the ‘standard path’, meant I needed to demonstrate clear benefits to both staff and
students of any alternative. This journey started before I joined Keele when I recognised
early in my career that emerging technologies presented the opportunity to advance my
educational practices. Nevertheless, it was not until I joined Keele that I made progress in
developing both my practice and that of my peers.
I joined Keele in 2010 and challenged myself to demonstrate that mathematics education
did not need to use nineteenth-century tools—the blackboard (or whiteboard). In particular, I wanted to demonstrate that appropriate technology has all the (perceived) advantages of the blackboard-based methods and can improve the student experience.
Mathematics is characterised as a `network of norms’ where interconnectedness must be
material manifest2
. This networking of esoteric language is one reason so many
departments use blackboards/whiteboards; learners need to see and engage mathematics
as a process that creates the network and interconnected relationships3. For this reason,
any technology that attempts to enhance mathematics education must continue to show
these abstract ideas develop4
; that is, replacing `chalk and talk’ with `PowerPoint and talk’ is
not the answer!
Several stages characterise my approach. Rather than take these stages chronologically, it is
better to discuss these by area. Below I summarise these areas, provide examples, detail the
tool necessary to replicate them and some of the broader impact on the department.
Technology-enhanced delivery. My modules utilise a Tablet PC with a stylus (henceforth
called a Tablet, the essential characteristic is a screen and stylus that can write directly on
the screen). I employed a three-component framework5 consisting of a deficit, where
technology provides missing support for learning activities; substitution, where a traditional
element is replaced with a technology-based activity; enrichment, where technology offers
a choice that complements existing materials. Tablets immediately address the three
components. Specifically, they are a substitute for traditional blackboards, replicating the
best features of blackboards: speed, space, visibility and legibility. They address the deficit
of blackboards by providing the ability to switch between multiple delivery methods such as
videos, quizzes, information delivery and Internet web pages allowing for breaks,
consolidation periods and changes of activity within the class. Once complete, class material
is uploaded to the KLE. This change in practice has impacted students with specific learning
disabilities positively, rather than struggling to copy content from the board, they actively
listen, knowing the written component is available to them after class.
Sample page from a class show a mixture of prepared material and content produced live. Students receive these gapped notes at the start of the module. They complete the examples with the class leader, engaging with mathematics as they do.
A short sample video taken from the lecture Playback demonstrating how
the static image evolved during the class. Note, the video’s sound is muted due to students
asking and answering questions. Furthermore, for brevity the video is sped up.)
Equipment requirements: A standard Tablet PC with a stylus. Microsoft Office provides
annotation tools. The department utilise software called PDF Annotator since staff outputs
are typically PDFs.
Departmental impact: In 2010, no staff except me utilised a Tablet for class delivery, now
almost all staff now utilise a Tablet to deliver their classes. The School issues all new
mathematics staff with Tablets.
Feedback. A five-minute video is likely to contain the equivalent of 500 - 600 words of
written feedback, so a video provides ‘more’ feedback. This advantage, however, must be
tempered with the fundamental idea that quality is better than quantity. Social changes
mean greater student exposure to visual and audio media and research suggests better
students response to multimodal feedback, where the tutor’s voice and the visuals convey
relevant information. For students with, for example, dyslexia, students receive visual and
oral information. From the mathematical perspective, video feedback permits students to
experience the process of mathematical reasoning, seeing ideas materialise in front of
them; that is, mathematics is visualised as a process and not a product, a key reason cited
by mathematicians for blackboard use6. The videos are embedded directly into the module
KLE page.
A short sample of class test feedback
Equipment requirements: A standard Tablet PC with stylus and screen recording software
such as Camtasia or Snagit. Departmental impact: The percentage of students agreeing that ‘feedback on my work has
helped me clarify things I did not understand’ rose from 68% agree or strongly agree in 2010
to 81% in 2016. The 2016 result compares to a sector average of 71%. The 2017 result for `I
have received helpful comments on my work’ is 89%, above the 73% sector average.
Video tutorials and problem-classes. I wanted to increase student engagement with
formative assessment. Using Tablet PCs, screencast technology, YouTube and the KLE I
created pre-recorded online classes. The classes’ structure consists of online tutorials,
supporting formative assessment material together with online feedback on the formative
assessment. Learners engage with the content at their pace and can move onto a new
tutorial when they judge they have achieved particular outcomes. The aim being for
students to regulate their learning.
Example suite of video tutorials for a mathematics module.
Example tutorial videos and support materials. This tutorial covers the “Video Tutorial for Interacting Species” in the previous image.
Equipment requirements: A standard Tablet PC with stylus and screen recording software
such as Camtasia or Snagit.
Departmental impact: Other members of the mathematics department now create video
tutorials for their modules. I supported and mentored staff in the use and development of
materials. The department currently has 765 videos that include feedback and tutorials. The
analytics demonstrate student engagement that presently stands at 108,000 minutes
watched from 23,500 video views. (These videos are only available to Keele mathematics
students registered on the relevant modules.)
Multimedia-based assessment. I took the Keele-led in a National HESTEM Programme
Grant on ‘Mathematical Modelling and Problem Solving’. The project’s primary aim was to
aim to create a sustainable model that provides STEM undergraduates with the transferable
skills and abilities to solve real-world problems. To meet this aim I designed a new module
where students needed to create creative instructional videos that demonstrate the
solutions to problems. The grant funded video cameras with students using free software to
edit their creations. Students participated in the evaluation of each other’s presentation,
with the department’s academic staff acting as facilitators and possessing the final say on
marks. This approach provides a variant on Adaptive Comparative Judgement (ACJ) which is
relatively untested in mathematics but has been employed in less creative settings7. The ACJ
variant used is appealing since it is well suited to assess creativity and I wanted to determine
its applicability as a peer-assessment tool. Engagement with this assessment was
phenomenal. In all cases, students not only solved complex mathematical problems but
provided incredibly creative video presentations of their work.
The video cameras found a second use. The School provides these to students preparing for
presentation as a self-reflection tool so that they can film, watch and reflect on their
presentations, creating their formative self-assessment.
Equipment requirements: Purchasing video cameras is optional; more recently, students use
their mobile phones and free editing software.
There is more to say, for example, recent developments include using YouTube's live
streaming facility to escape from a physical classroom. Recognising there is more to say and
looking back reveals the ever-changing ability for technology to enhance both the student
and staff experience. The enhanced student experience is summarised by the words of a
current student's response to their learning experience that "...brings Keele maths
department into the 2010s." For me, technology has improved not only my practice, not
only regarding student education but also my ability to effectively focus on education rather
than just writing. It is worth closing by reminding ourselves that technology is one of many
tools available to us and we must always be mindful of the words "the right tool for the
right job".
1Phhere. (2017). The free high-resolution photo of writing, blackboard, math, research, text, handwriting, mathematics, lecture, presentation, insight, chalk board, abstract algebra, critical thinking, definitions, propositions, deductive reasoning. [Online] Available from: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/973959 Accessed: 14 February 2018. 2Wittgenstein, L. (1978). Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics. Oxford:Basil Blackwell. 3Mason, J. (2002). Mathematics Teaching Practice: A Guide for University and College Lecturers. UK: Horwood Publishing Limited. 4D. O. Tall, D. O. and Mejia-Ramos, J. P. (2006). The long-term cognitive development of different types of reasoning and proof. In Hanna, G., Jahnke, H. N., and Pulte, H., editors, Conference on explanation and proof in mathematics: Philosophical and educational perspectives, pages 1 – 11. Universiat Duisburg-Essen, Campus Essen. 5Thorne, K. (2003). Blended learning: How to integrate online and traditional learning. Kogan Page, London. 6Greiffenhagen, C. (2014). The materiality of mathematics: Presenting mathematics at the blackboard. The British Journal of Sociology, 65(3):502–528. 7Jones, I. and Alcock, L. (2012). Summative peer assessment of undergraduate calculus using adaptive comparative judgement. In Iannone, P. and Simpson, A., editors, Mapping University Mathematics Assessment Practices, chapter 17, pages 63 – 74. University of East Anglia.
By Dan Harding, Learning Technology Officer Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Keele University
Last summer, HumSS embarked on a review of its baseline course provision within the Keele Learning Environment (KLE), aiming to make each module an easier space to navigate for students. Previous attempts to introduce templates at an institutional level, combined with existing local practices, had seen some success. However, overall consistency remained patchy with navigation structures ranging from non-existent to overly complex and inaccessible.
Drivers included feedback from past IT surveys, a recent pilot of the Jisc Student Digital Experience Tracker and discussions around accessibility with Student Services. All pointed towards the need for a back-to-basics approach that would pre-populate each module with clearer signposting to key resources such as handbooks, learning materials, and assessment information.
Example infographic, demonstrating how to use the new template structure.
Processes reliant upon commonly used tools within the KLE (e.g. Turnitin) also had the potential for improvement, particularly in relation to assessment. As the Faculty was moving towards electronic submission for summative assignments, the opportunity to create more standardised guidance would alleviate some of the issues often reported by staff and students. A network of TEL Champions, represented by academic and professional support staff from across the Faculty, would also be critical in understanding each school’s requirements.
Some of the main actions included:
The HumSS TEL Team meeting with TEL Champions to understand current practice, and to develop new, school-specific templates.
Exploring the possibilities for customising the Blackboard interface by manually altering some of its CSS. For example, making better use of ‘Review Status’ for acknowledging assignment submission requirements.
Revising the information at https://www.keele.ac.uk/kletemplates to feature downloadable templates for each school, and keep other areas of the University who use the generic template up to date.
Professional support staff taking responsibility for the initial setup of all KLE courses by applying a standard school template at the beginning of each semester.
To avoid a reoccurrence of the same issue, develop guidance materials that provide simple steps on how to keep courses intuitive and accessible.
A customised Blackboard Review Status for students acknowledging assignment requirements.
The inclusion of a ‘Study Support’ folder, containing links to University support providers (e.g. the Library, Student’s Union, IT and Student Services) also directs students to services available in relation to their learning. This is accompanied by local sources of information such as school blogs and social media feeds that have been added as custom panels within each home page to keep students informed of extra curricula activities they may wish to know about.
Quick Tips for KLE Accessibility - A Guide for Staff
Following a successful first year, there remains the potential for further work. By having templates in place, it offers a foundation for more collaboration with schools and support providers to target other areas for development; especially those identified in exercises such as the NSS, module evaluations and surveys related to the student digital experience. Also, it is hoped that by encouraging thoughtful course design and demystifying some of the features found within Blackboard, the KLE will continue its overall development as Keele’s main online learning environment.
by Rebecca Laycock, Teaching Fellow in Environment and Sustainability, Keele University
Bekki is a previous winner of the Keele excellence awards more details can be found here
In the autumn semester 2017 I was faced with one of my biggest challenge I’ve had to deal with so far as a teacher. When I first started teaching it was expected that I would take more time to prepare for classes, be less efficient, and make more mistakes. It’s part of what it means to start something new.
My first real teaching experience was a condensed two-week module taught in Nanjing, China at part of an international collaborative undergraduate programme in Environment and Sustainability. I have since taught this module two more times.
But having completed over a year of teaching, I was starting to feel like a real teacher - not just someone faking it at the front of the class. And since I was a real teacher, there were certain expectations that were attached to this newfound credibility… one of which was that I needed to do more with less time. Fair enough, I thought. I am a real teacher now. So, I started finding ways to cut corners. My challenge became how can I deliver a quality educational experience as efficiently as possible?
Around this time, I also took on a role in the HEFCE-funded ‘Unmaking Single Perspectives: A Listening Project’. The aim of the project was to support students develop their listening skills. The rationale behind it was that, in spite of being an important communication skill, there is far greater emphasis on teaching students to argue a point than on how to be an effective listener.
Student Advisor Roxy Birdsall talks about her experience being involved with Unmaking Single Perspectives: A Listening Project
So what is listening? It’s more than hearing. You need to open a space for another person to speak. Because of this, listening is more than sitting and being quiet while another person talks. Listening uses your whole body. You use your ears to hear, sometimes you look at the person to read their body language - and you use your whole body too, to show the other person that you are listening. All of this enables them to openly share their thoughts.
Listening is challenging mental work because it isn’t passive – it requires physical and mental engagement. You need to be taking in what the other person is saying (though their words and tone of voice), and you need to be quick thinking enough to respond and probe thoughtfully without letting your own thoughts prevent you from listening, all whilst reading and responding to their body language.
Before getting involved in the Listening Project, I hadn’t reflected much on listening in the context of my role as a teacher. But before long, I became conscious of the range of listening skills that are required in all different modes of teaching, from lectures, to seminars, to one-on-one support. I came to be especially aware of listening in a particular type of one-on-one teaching interactions: meetings with dissertation students. My meetings with my dissertation students usually ran between 15 and 45 minutes, depending on their needs, the stage they were at, and their English language skills. I started arranging these meetings back to back to save time and to limit the length of the meetings.
But it didn’t feel right. It was utterly draining, and as a result I wasn’t able to listen properly to the students. My patience waned. I heard myself telling them what to do rather than asking questions to find out what they really meant. This was one area of my teaching that I couldn’t seem to make more efficient.
This push for efficiency, this challenge I was being faced with as a ‘real’ teacher, is a manifestation of the demand of the neoliberal university which asks academics to do more and more with less. This was (and is) a model I can’t make sense of – it is unsustainable to expect more efficiency year on year.
In the face of this apparent oxymoron, I found an article by Alison Mountz and her colleagues who were making a case for an alternative. They argued to slow down and claim time for slow scholarship as an in the face of a fast-paced, metric-oriented neoliberal university. I was heartened by this idea. Like them, I feel that slowing down represents a commitment to good scholarship, teaching, and service, and a collective feminist ethics of care that challenges the accelerated time and elitism of the neoliberal university (emphasis mine).
Like them, I am in favour of a fundamental restructuring of the university as a workplace
and learning environment, but this isn’t something that can be done overnight. This is why they suggest ways academics, as individuals and as a community, can take steps towards change. They say to take time for your work. Reach for the minimum (rather than maximum) level of achievement in order to produce quality rather than quantity. Say no to more work. Don’t respond you your email at all hours. All of these actions provide space to become a better listener, and a better teacher.
I help tend to the student-run beds in Walled Garden on Fridays. This is where some of the most genuine and productive conversations I’ve had with students have taken place. I attribute much of this to the fact that the conversations aren’t time-restricted or purpose-driven. [Photo by Greenie Mine]
It must be said that I do feel there are ways to be an efficient teacher. I usually take an afternoon walk to clear my head, so scheduling dissertation meetings either side means that I can have some mental respite before resuming the taxing challenge of listening. And it’s true that I need less time to prepare for lectures and seminars I have already delivered. But at some point, we need to recognise that the reality is this: a good teacher is not one who can be increasingly more and more efficient. Being a good teacher requires effective listening, and effective listening requires time. And there is no room for compromise.
To find out more about Unmaking Single Perspectives: A Listening Project click here, and click here to see their upcoming events.
Mountz, A., Bonds, A., Mansfield, B., Loyd, J., Hyndman, J., Walton-Roberts, M., ... & Curran, W. (2015). For slow scholarship: A feminist politics of resistance through collective action in the neoliberal university. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 14(4), 1235-1259.
