All 89 entries tagged Teaching

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): Considering and measuring impact

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): Considering and measuring impact

By Dr Kerry Dobbins (Assistant Professor, Academic Development Centre) and Dr Isabel Fischer (Reader in Information Systems at Warwick Business School)

Questions about how to evaluate and measure impact of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning activities (SoTL) have always generated much lively discussion and debate within the SoTL community. For example, a recent LTHE Tweetchat focused on the topic of ‘Breaking boundaries: career progression and education-focused roles’. At the heart of the discussion was the nature and purpose of SoTL in relation to career advancement. Two specific questions discussed were ‘what forms and outputs can SoTL take?’ and ‘how should quality and impact be measured?’ In recent times, these questions have become more important than ever for all colleagues on education or teaching-focused contracts due to their connection to institutional promotions criteria. Routes to promotion for these colleagues will often involve criteria including:

• Making a significant contribution to pedagogy.
• Gaining recognition for quality and impact of scholarship.
• Demonstrating educational impact and influence within and beyond the University.
• Producing scholarly outcomes that advance learning, teaching and assessment.

Outputs and demonstrable impact of SoTL underpin these criteria and highlight why the recent Tweetchat was such a topical discussion. Considering the various forms or outputs that SoTL can take connects to how impact from those outputs may be measured or viewed to have made a significant contribution. The Twitter community identified a wide range of forms that SoTL outputs can take. These included:

• Conference/webinar presentations
• Publications
• Podcasts, blogs, vlogs
• Infographics
• Content for repositories, e.g. the National Teaching Repository
• Books
• Invited talks
• Staff/student development training
• Well-designed courses/modules

There was much leaning towards open access forms and critical scrutiny occurring through the teaching community, rather than tying outputs largely to journal publications and scrutiny through the standard academic peer review process. This leaning is still in line with the SoTL principles of sharing findings for communal use and review, but importantly the Twitter community placed considerable value on practitioner-focused scrutiny.

There was also recognition that different outputs serve different purposes and that any output can have an impact. This takes us into the realms of questioning what ‘impact’ means in SoTL and how it might be measured. Again, the Twitter community identified various ways that ‘impact’ of SoTL could be considered and/or measured:

• Policy changes – national, institutional, departmental, etc.
• Creation of staff development provision.
• Explicit recognition and reward of teaching through, for example, promotion and recruitment criteria.
• Improved module/course evaluations and student grades.
• Enhanced student engagement.
• Paper citations, usage metrics.
• Engagement in networks or communities of practice.
• Improved resourcing for teaching/development.
• Changes in colleagues’ practices.
• Engagement in collaborative activities.

It is interesting to see from the responses the different levels at which impact may play out (e.g. individual, institutional, etc). Of course, one of the ultimate aims of SoTL is to understand how students learn effectively so that learning experiences can be enhanced. However, SoTL is also recognised as an essential component of academic professional development and a mechanism through which HE teaching as a profession is advanced. As the responses above show, this wide remit of SoTL means that impacts from its activities can take many forms.

It is also apparent that some of the impact examples offered above may take longer to realise than others and be harder to measure in a quantifiable sense. A key question emerging in the Twitter discussion was whether SoTL impact needs to be measurable. This again takes us back to the question of what ‘impact’ means in SoTL and more specifically, what type of impact is being sought.

Different stakeholders (e.g., individuals, community groups, institutions) may of course be seeking different types of impact from SoTL activities but in reality, the needs of the different stakeholders are not so easily separated. There continues to be a challenging balancing act being played out in SoTL between it being an activity to develop individual and community practices, and it becoming a significant feature of aspects like promotions criteria. Whilst inclusion in promotions criteria demonstrates institutional recognition and reward of SoTL, it adds a layer of trying to measure or capture a narrative of identifiable and evidence-based impact that resonates with a panel who may or may not be familiar with the various lenses and dynamics of SoTL.

What all of this leads to is the need to keep engaging in institutional conversations about SoTL so that purposes, outputs and impacts of this activity are not viewed in too reductive terms and the various lenses and levels identified by the Twitter community are not overlooked. This is the vast flavour of SoTL and if we are too reductive, we may only taste elements of the impacts that it could have.

Two further questions should also be asked in the context of these institutional discussions:

1. How to align expectations about output and impact with time allocated for SoTL, e.g. what should be the output for somebody who receives a workload allocation of, say, two to three hours a week versus somebody who receives one to two full days per week?
2. How might expectations about output and impact be aligned on an inter-disciplinary instructional-level to encourage transferability?

It is important to ensure that discussions to define impact more clearly (and broadly) at an institutional level do not deter us from seeing the sharing of SoTL work and findings as an activity worthy in and of itself. At Warwick, we aim to create and encourage opportunities for the sharing of SoTL activities as part of our internal communities of practice. This way inspirational SoTL findings can be spread and impact upon colleagues’ practices, independent of views about measurability.

Abigail Ball : 10 Jan 2022 09:43 |  Tags: Isabel Fischer Kerry Dobbins Learning Scholarship Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Happy New year!

Welcome to the new year and a new term. We hope that you have managed to have a restful break and spent some time with your loved ones.

Is one of your new year's resolutions to start your research journey? Ever considered blogging as a first step?

What is WJETT?

The WJETT blog or Warwick Journal of Education - Transforming Teaching blog is designed to encourage staff and students to disseminate good practice and to engage with their peers on academic cultural critique or areas of research that they find interesting. With the increased focus on ‘teachers as researchers’ in the sector, many qualified teachers are expected to publish the outcomes of any action research projects they undertake. The WJETT blog can be the first step on your journey towards publishing and enables you to experience publishing and reviewing in a friendly and supportive environment.

Can I write about anything in my blog post?

Yes pretty much. Academic cultural critique (Thomson and Mewburn, 2013) is always a good source of content for academic blogs. This can include (but is not limited to) comments and reflections on funding; higher education policy or academic life. You might also want to consider blogging about:

• Academic practice (Saper, 2006)
• Information and/or self-help advice
• Technical, teaching and careers advice
• Your research or practice
• How you’ve undertaken research
• The impact of research on your practice
• An area of research/practice that interests you
• Your teaching experiences/reflections

How long can my blog post be?

Each individual blog post should be no longer than 500 words. Long blocks of text are sometimes hard for readers to digest. Break up your content into shorter paragraphs, bullet points and lists whenever possible. Also include a list of keywords or tags as this makes it easier for Google to find your work.

Do I need to use citations?

No, this is a reflective piece so it does not need to include citations (but you obviously can include them if they are relevant).

Can I include links or images?

We would encourage you to include links to any articles that you have considered whilst writing your blog post. We also welcome the use of images (as long as you have permission to use them) as they can often help to illustrate a point and obviously will not be included in the word limit. Please remember this is a public site so if you want to include images of your students in your classes then you will need permission to do this.

What is the process for submitting a piece of work?

Your blog post should be emailed to me at A.Ball.1@warwick.ac.uk. Once the submission has been reviewed it will either be uploaded at the beginning of the next available week or sent back to you for editing if it requires amendments. You should then send the amended work to me once again and I will then upload it onto the WJETT site.

Abigail Ball : 04 Jan 2022 08:25 |  Tags: Blog Reflections Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What is your teaching philosophy? – Aimee Barker

What is your teaching philosophy? How has this originated and can you evaluate how your educational touchstones will impact on the teacher you aspire to be?

Classroom environment is said to be one of the most important factors affecting students' ability to learn. According to (Dorman, Alridge & Fraser 2016) cited by (Young, 2014, p.1) students learn better when they view the learning environment as positive and supportive.

It is within my belief system that we all have the ability to learn. Humans are instinctive learners; we are continuously absorbing and organising an abundance of new information that we are exposed to each and every day. However, although learning is a natural process, I believe that for many students, they can come to fear learning, through worry of failure or disappointing the many anxious adults around them (Holt, 1964, p.1). Subsequently, I believe that it is the responsibility of the teacher to inculcate a positive relationship between a student and their ability to learn, whilst also ensuring that we are immensely supportive.

My current teaching philosophy - that learning is an intuitive human process that needs to be positively curated - derives from my own learning experiences. Historically, I believed that I was not naturally ‘academic’. Throughout primary and high school I struggled to find my strengths and always focused on my weaknesses. Therefore after completing my A-Levels, I found that my confidence to continue with further education was low, thus I decided to train as a hairdresser. Hairdressing is seen as an ‘easy’ choice for many young people and admittedly, I thought the same. It was only when I turned 21, after 3 years of working in the ‘real world’, I realised that I was capable of studying, I just needed the confidence and motivation behind me, in order to succeed.

As you can imagine, after graduating from University in 2018 with a first class honours degree, I was in complete shock at my academic capability and realised that I had in fact ‘feared’ learning. This I believe was down to the ‘old school’ educational setting that I had previously attended, where a supportive, nurturing environment ceased to exist and we were told to “get on with it”. (Moore, 2013 cited by Hargeaves, 2017) states that fear is rarely discussed within teaching pedagogy given its potential impact on learning.

To me, the classroom should be a community (whether it be in class or online), to which students feel safe and confident to learn, without fear of ‘getting it wrong’ (TS1). We all have strengths and weaknesses, it is the teacher who must endeavour to adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils (TS5). It is my belief that in order for a child to flourish and fulfil their greatest potential, a teacher must create a strong classroom community. By classroom community, I mean a trusted, motivational relationship between the teacher and the student, as well as continually building a student's positive attitude towards learning and confidence in oneself as a good learner.

I have no doubt my teaching philosophy may change. However after reflecting at present, I realise the responsibility as a teacher to continually strengthen a students positive outlook upon their learning and create a safe space, where students ideas, answers, voices and opinions are heard and valued (Stead & Sabharwal, 2017).

References

Department for Education. (2011). Teachers Standards: Guidance for school leaders, school staff and governing bodies. Secretary of State for Education, pp.10-11.

Hargreaves, E. (2017). ‘Authority and Authoritarianism in the Classroom’. Children's experience of classrooms: Talking about being pupils in the classroom. UK: SAGE, p.31.

Holt, J. (1964). How Children Fail. Middlesex: Penguin, p.1.

Stead, J. and R, Sabharwal. (2017) Learning without fear: A practical toolkit for developing growth mindset in the early years and primary classroom. Wales: Crown House Publishing, p.35.

Young, J. (2014). The importance of a positive classroom. USA: ASCD Publications.

Abigail Ball : 13 Dec 2021 10:33 |  Tags: Aimee Barker Philosophy Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What is your teaching philosophy? – Suzanne Bacon

What is your teaching philosophy? How has this originated and can you evaluate how your educational touchstones will impact on the teacher you aspire to be?

Central to my teaching philosophy is my belief that children need to have a positive, nurturing connection with their teachers and feel safe and comfortable in their environment in order to learn effectively. Many of the learners that I meet are encountering new experiences for the first time - they could be new to the country, culture, school setting or language. It is easy to forget how young they are, and behind the uniform and face masks are children who have each encountered vastly different circumstances on their individual life journey into my classroom. Building relationships and creating a nurturing environment are central to teaching these (and all) children. Evidence shows that “children with close teacher–student relationships tend to perform well academically including having higher scores on achievement tests, more positive attitudes toward school, more engagement in the classroom, less retention in grade, and fewer referrals for special education” (Bergin & Bergin, 2009, p.152).

Flowing from this core belief is my behaviour management style, which is relationship-centred and restorative. Reflecting on my recent school experience working as a classroom assistant, I have noticed an emphasis on developing relationships with the learners to promote good behaviour. The school uses a restorative approach to manage behaviour and I have found that this allows behaviour to be managed whilst maintaining and restoring the relationships between learners, and between teachers and learners. This preserves the secure teacher-student relationship, which I think is so crucial to allowing students to feel safe and comfortable in order to learn.

When I think of an inspirational teacher, I think of my secondary school geography and geology teacher. He taught with such passion that we never noticed that some of the material that we covered was actually quite dry, and his enthusiasm was infectious. I intend to promote a love of learning (UK Teacher Standard 4) using my own passions and enthusiasm. I will seek engaging, stimulating ways to develop understanding in my learners in the hope that this gives them a lifelong love of learning.

I believe that learning is so much more than just the subjects which are learnt in the classroom during the school day. When I reflect on my own education, I had a very positive experience with a strong emphasis on academic achievement at my secondary school, but the elements of my education that helped me to develop the character strengths that I now rely on such as resilience, open-mindedness, and teamwork were really developed outside of the classroom through activities such as orchestra, playing team sport, Girlguiding and joining special interest groups such as the school’s conservation club. These activities gave me access to people, experiences and challenges which I didn’t encounter in the traditional classroom. This is highlighted in Principle 8 of the TLRP Ten Principles of Effective Learning - Recognises the Significance of Informal Learning. I aspire to be a teacher who creates and encourages opportunities to learn outside the classroom for my learners during and outside of the school day, as I believe that they are crucial to developing confident, balanced children.  

References

Bergin, C. & Bergin, D. (2009), Attachment in the Classroom. Educational Psychology Review, 21 pp.141-170

Department for Education (2011). Teachers’ Standards: Guidance for school leaders, school staff and governing bodies.

Crown Copyright. M, J & Pollard, AJ 2011, 'TLRP’s ten principles for effective pedagogy: rationale, development, evidence, argument and impact', Research Papers in Education, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 275 - 328.

Abigail Ball : 06 Dec 2021 12:42 |  Tags: Philosophy Suzanne Bacon Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Using Machine Learning to offer students optional feedback on their draft essay

Using Machine Learning to offer students optional feedback on their draft essays: A joint initiative with Progressay

By Rebecca Mace (Progressay), Moktar Alqaderi (Progressay), and Dr Isabel Fischer (Reader in Information Systems at Warwick Business School)

As part of their Digital Marketing and Technologies module WBS students had this summer the opportunity to receive feedback generated by Progressay, an EdAI organisation, on their draft assignment essays. The initiative was in response to students asking for more academic writing support. The project received formal ethics approval from the university. Students who decided to participate found the recommendations received useful, e.g., ‘I found the graph that showed where the references come from very useful. It is good to see what kind of research my peers do’ and ‘I think it is relatively objective and trustable, because the different evaluations it gave were consistent with my expectations.'

We discussed the importance of ethics for this type of projects already in previous articles and blogs, e.g.:

• https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2043886920961782#articleCitationDownloadContainer
• https://www.wbs.ac.uk/news/five-reads-you-need-to-make-ai-ethical-and-trustworthy/
• https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/wjett/entry/ai_ethics_for/

Rebecca Mace, from Progressay, explains here her thoughts on the ethical foundations of Progressay generally and this project in particular:

Progressay is a disrupter in the EdTech world, not only due to the technology, gamification and feedback systems it offers, but due to its deeply human desire to change things from the inside. We are educationalists, not technologists, at heart. Although we work developing EdTech and EdAI, our fundamental aim is to make things better for those who struggle to find ease of access with regards to learning. Our ethical value system is almost hardcoded into everything we do. Here is how:

• We are acutely aware of the potential for algorithmic bias and seeks to avoid this by working with schools and universities that have significant diversity in their student population. This goes a long way towards ensuring that training for the machine learning model does not reflect common problems such as race or class bias.
• We firmly believe that access to education is a human right, however, having access is so much more than having the ability to attend but feeling you can fully participate in the process. Truly understanding the teaching and learning available is fundamental to a deeper understanding of ‘access’. We facilitate this through gamified and adaptive learning activities for students.
• We focus especially upon making higher achievement a understandable process and understand what reduced transparency within the marking process can do to student aspiration. Our tool marks the essay and shows the student/lecturer in a detailed way how the grade generated was arrived at. It does this using written feedback and infographic dashboards, but also a series of targets for how to improve. Aspiration is translated into achievable reality.

• We adopt an honest and open approach that allows students, lecturers and parents access and understanding into how the system works. It presents this in understandable and easily accessible dashboards. The information it presents is designed to be immediately useable. Students and lecturers can feel informed and knowledgeable about fine grained information relating to their work. Transparency is facilitated through fairness and trust.

• Humanity, not technology, is at the core of everything we do. Education is about the quality of relationships that can be developed, fostered and maintained. We have specifically designed its entire platform to retain this educational ideal adopting an “augmented” approach, where humans are helped rather than replaced. It positively impacts upon areas such as marking workload, leaving increased time (and energy) for lecturers to focus on in depth knowledge of their students’ strengths and weaknesses. It also retains a human in the loop throughout with lecturers having the option to override the system, change feedback, offer alternative comments to their students. Furthermore, the system has been developed to promote student agency. Having deeper engagement with ones learning through transparency of grading, coupled with gamification to enhance understanding, has been shown to increase student efficacy and have positive impacts on motivation and engagement.

In short, we have deliberately and mindfully developed our platform to reflect its ethical values. At the heart is a drive to enhance social mobility by democratising access to education. Those involved in developing the platform have an in-depth understanding of educational theory, as well as years of experience teaching, lecturing, and working with students at all levels. They know what limited transparency, conscious and unconscious bias, a lack of motivation, discrimination, and reduced expectation can do to a student’s educational aspiration. It is out of personal experience and a real desire for change, that we have sought to develop a tool that speaks to these issues directly.

For more information about this project please contact:

• moktar@progressay.com
• Rebecca@progressay.com
• Isabel.fischer@wbs.ac.uk

Abigail Ball : 02 Dec 2021 09:26 |  Tags: Isabel Fischer Machin Learning Moktar Alqader Progressay Rebecca Mace Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL)

Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL): How to get started with a journey in mind

By Dr Isabel Fischer (Reader in Information Systems at Warwick Business School) and Dr Kerry Dobbins (Assistant Professor, Academic Development Centre)

Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) represents the opportunity for critical reflection both on generic pedagogic practices as well as on subject specialisms. It leads to knowledge‐in‐practice, knowledge‐of‐practice and productive disciplinary engagement.1 Based on a panel discussion at Warwick’s Education forum here an overview of how we got started, as well as lessons that we have learned along the way. We hope that the following ten suggestions might help colleagues either to get started, or to reflect on and engage with discussions on their SoTL journey. For colleagues considering applying for promotion, we have loosely aligned our suggestions to our interpretation of the current promotion research bands.

Approx. Band 2:

1.Decide on your interest and intellectual position, this might be pedagogic and/or disciplinary. For Isabel, this was (and still is) the intersection of Ethics & ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), Technologies, and Education. For Kerry, it was initially the interplay between particular HE policies and individual teaching practices and has now evolved to communities of practice, particularly in relation to SoTL.

2. Start reading articles in the area of your interest, taking note of what was researched and how it was researched, i.e. methodology. Google Scholar can be a good place to start finding relevant articles and you might also try an online education database like British Education Index (BEI). One learning point here is that it is actually good to align yourself with relatively recent and frequently cited papers rather than trying to develop something completely new. Another learning point is that you might want to consider a systematic literature review to perhaps be able to convert this later into a ‘systematic literature review and research agenda paper’.

3. Develop your research proposal including ethics approval. Both of us have conducted several research projects on our own modules (with students explicitly agreeing to these as per ethics requirements) and this is our favourite part of SoTL. For all of our projects, we have learned so much from students. Action research for your own teaching is also quite popular for SoTL and if the activity is purely for professional development purposes, it would not require ethical approval (though it would still have to be conducted in an ethical manner of course). For those new to SoTL and education research, you might start first with a question that you have about your teaching in relation to your area of interest. From there, you could identify various sources of evidence that already exist that will allow you to gain insight into your question, e.g., published studies, module evaluation data, student feedback, performance data, etc. You might then begin to make changes to your teaching practices using insights gained from this evidence-informed approach whilst building confidence to develop a more formal research proposal. It is important to note that it is possible to engage in SoTL without conducting primary research but through engagement with literature and/or communities of practice. Up to hear, this represents roughly band 2 of the research-related academic promotion criteria (there is no band 1).

Approx. Band 3:

4. Having gained these insights, it’s time to talk to colleagues at conferences and/or events. There are always a range of internal and external conferences as well as sharing practice events. These are good ways to connect to a wider network of colleagues and build confidence in presenting your education-focused work to broader and interdisciplinary audiences. My (Isabel’s) first conference presentation was at Advance HE. I have since expanded to international conferences and also organised my own specific events. While applying for conferences and organising events seems time consuming, these are extremely useful both for disseminating own findings and for getting feedback on these, as well as for hearing about and getting inspired by other research. Presenting at conferences and being a reviewer for journals translate roughly to band 3 of the promotion criteria. And don’t forget, presenting at conferences might also help with demonstrating impact in FHEA or SFHEA applications.

5. Similar to conferences, a good way to engage with other academics and to understand more about research as well as teaching, is to become a reviewer for journals and/or an external examiner. One way to do this is to apply for these roles as they are often advertised. Another is to talk to colleagues about their external engagements as they might be looking for reviewers for the journals that they are editing. Do not hesitate to contact external editors too as most are always eager for reviewers and usually very happy to be contacted directly. This is particularly relevant if there is a journal which focuses on your area of interest and many articles on topics that you find interesting are published in that particular journal. Once you have been a reviewer for some time as a next step you could consider guest editing or assistant editing of journals.

Approx. Band 4+:

6. The more you engage with academic literature you start to understand some of the complexities of publication, especially the length it takes from writing a first draft to publication. For high impact journal the review and resubmit process takes several years. You might therefore want to consider developing a portfolio of output and consider writing a blog, producing some videos and/or writing article(s) for journals with lower impact factors. Many journals publish conceptual or case-study papers as well as research articles. All output, independent of the journal’s impact factor, might be helpful for future FHEA or SFHEA applications as by disseminating to colleagues and/or the public - rather than ‘just’ your own students - these demonstrate an increased sphere of influence. For promotion criteria, depending on the journal’s impact and ranking this might be classified as band 4 and if sustained even higher.

7. You might consider inviting co-author(s) for your research projects. Of course, you can also consider doing so from the start of your research process or alternatively colleagues might ask you if you want to join some of their research projects. Both of us really enjoy working with co-authors, our second favourite part of SoTL after the primary research, however, the downside is that your co-author(s) might work at a different pace to yours or have different aspirations of journal impact factors.

8. Instead of peers as co-authors you might want to consider doing a joint student-project where students are the co-authors or co-creators. This is also very enjoyable, however, when initially starting with SoTL, you might feel that you want to exchange ideas with colleagues who are more or as experienced rather than guiding students.

Outlook:

9. Possible barriers? You might think there is not enough time for SoTL (and you should check your departments policy on workload allocation for SoTL), or you might encounter ‘representativeness heuristics’ where you are compared to an existing prototype of colleagues who have already published many articles, however, this might only be you thinking it (no need to feel like an amateur or imposter, or to hide your educational research!)

10. Finally, and possibly most importantly, SoTL allows you to be slightly less theory-driven and more action oriented than traditional research. Hence, SoTL provides you with the opportunity to make change happen. Enjoy the journey!

References

Gregory J. Kelly, The social bases of disciplinary knowledge and practice in productive disciplinary engagement, International Journal of Educational Research, Volume 64, 2014, Pages 211-214, ISSN 0883-0355

https://warwick.ac.uk/services/humanresources/internal/academicprocesses/academicpromotion/academic_promotions_criteria.pdf

Abigail Ball : 09 Nov 2021 16:40 |  Tags: Isabel Fischer Kerry Dobbins Learning Scholarship Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

AI Ethics for Assessments in Higher Education

AI Ethics for Assessments in Higher Education: A project example of an interdisciplinary social sciences undergraduate summer research scheme

By Isabel Fischer (Warwick Business School) and Thomas Martin (Economics)

Warwick’s Social Sciences offer students and faculty from economics, education and Warwick Business School (WBS) the opportunity to take part in an interdisciplinary summer research project to improve awareness and understanding of collaborative research work on a topic of the students’ choice. One of this summer’s group focused on AI ethics for assessments where students applied the EU Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI to Higher Education Assessment. Students concluded that despite the limitations of AI, AI has the potential to make assessment processes in higher education more effective and fairer. Students suggested that AI should be embraced, but only with human oversight and agency, and with clear stakeholder communication in place.

Linden Davison, a student from the Department of Economics, commented: “Getting involved in the UG research scheme broadened my awareness beyond my single subject discipline - working in a field I wasn't aware existed when we started! It was a pleasure to work alongside students from different departments and be guided by such engaging, motivated staff alike.” Toby Pia, also from Economics, added: “Throughout my URSS experience I improved my ability to explain complex ideas in a more understandable way. I also got better in conveying a balanced argument as previously I tended to get more entrenched into one side of a debate rather than looking at it from both sides.”

At the end of the project each student produced a research poster, depicting one of the seven overarching themes of the EU Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI. Below an example by Shubhangi Bhatt, a student from the Department of Education Studies, on Transparency.

poster_example.pdf

AI poster (text only version)

Finally, here a link to five articles that explain how AI could be made ethical and trustworthy:

https://www.wbs.ac.uk/news/five-reads-you-need-to-make-ai-ethical-and-trustworthy/

And you also might want to read here how AI can (positively) influence education generally:

https://www.wbs.ac.uk/news/five-areas-ai-can-have-the-greatest-impact/

Abigail Ball : 25 Oct 2021 13:30 |  Tags: AI Assessment Isabel Fischer Research Teaching Thomas Martin |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Making the most of the spaces we have: Design principles for successful hybrid and hyflex learning

The Co-Design Research Group at the University of Sydney in Australia, have posted an interesting article on Making the most of the spaces we have: Design principles for successful hybrid and hyflex learning.

To read the full article see:https://cdrg.blog/2021/10/08/making-the-most-of-the-spaces-we-have-design-principles-for-successful-hybrid-and-hyflex-learning/

Abigail Ball : 08 Oct 2021 10:37 |  Tags: Hybrid Hyflex Online Pedagogy Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Scholarly blogs part two

Scholarly blogs: An assessment tool to strengthen students’ personal brand by developing an online presence (part two)

Isabel Fischer, Associate Professor Information Systems and Management, WBS

As discussed here, as part of their assessments, WBS Digital Leadership and Design Thinking students submitted scholarly blogs as an authentic assessment in preparation for the digital workplace and to increase their online presence. Many students submitted very engaging blogs, getting readers ‘hooked’ from the start by asking and answering insightful questions. Some examples can be found here:

1. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/helper-hinderer-ai-replace-reinforce-stack-overflows-digital-becky-wl7be/?trackingId=%2BqvIVnNRQ26FMiAF41UBcA%3D%3D
2. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/future-bright-vinted-critical-evaluation-role-digital-buraimoh-zowse/?trackingId=f%2FdNTv0JQlCrmwCzC2H0kw%3D%3D
3. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/media-vs-social-unleashing-power-influencer-marketing-butt-snfhf%3FtrackingId=v%252FgysT6ZRE6aAijDPb9xbw%253D%253D/?trackingId=v%2FgysT6ZRE6aAijDPb9xbw%3D%3D
4. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dark-side-personalized-ads-eavesdropping-devices-our-homes-yadav%3FtrackingId=4gVGNKPZQLCMkR%252BF4NJaOg%253D%253D/?trackingId=4gVGNKPZQLCMkR%2BF4NJaOg%3D%3D
5. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/revolutionizing-digital-odyssey-ai-machine-learning-modern-mittal%3FtrackingId=xbOClCnQTdGSMGsvjLjFJA%253D%253D/?trackingId=xbOClCnQTdGSMGsvjLjFJA%3D%3D
6. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dark-social-unravelling-hidden-power-private-sharing-singhania%3FtrackingId=4uo2i%252BhiTXOCr72leisPKA%253D%253D/?trackingId=4uo2i%2BhiTXOCr72leisPKA%3D%3D
7. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/micro-influencers-spell-dominance-declare-battle-real-vishva-yadav%3FtrackingId=6pUFJuYVR0mhkPTQcfQnRg%253D%253D/?trackingId=6pUFJuYVR0mhkPTQcfQnRg%3D%3D
8. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dont-miss-out-secret-behind-fomo-marketing-digital-you-keshav-agarwal%3FtrackingId=tuxGfqVtQ0i5%252FQqi3ZAvWw%253D%253D/?trackingId=tuxGfqVtQ0i5%2FQqi3ZAvWw%3D%3D
9. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gamification-digital-marketing-future-user-engagement-burak-erensoy%3FtrackingId=TN%252B5tFOlRxSyy32C4MbAEQ%253D%253D/?trackingId=TN%2B5tFOlRxSyy32C4MbAEQ%3D%3D
10. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/product-marketing-odyssey-ahmed-elyamany/
11. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-ai-changing-consumer-behavior-decision-making-haya-yousef
12. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nfts-hype-marketing-revolution-leon-heinrich/?trackingId=9xoIwv8KSbyaa0byo0s3jQ%3D%3D
13. https://medium.com/@kenan.shikhlinsky/our-career-in-the-hands-of-artificial-intelligence-and-machinelearning-will-the-recruiting-process-f5dbfd656b80
14. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-influential-virtual-media-influencers-fatma-anwar-sajwani/?trackingId=l7m0yxM9SCGYmvTCLzaDpw%3D%3D
15. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6944744930804215808/
16. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-could-applying-modern-business-strategies-data-transform-webb/?trackingId=1Mbdm%2F1PTr2bm1YjfWn3Dw%3D%3D
17. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/personalisation-profiling-pain-point-danya-hannah/?trackingId=6UwMDzDWQ1WzvKcOHNw6IA%3D%3D
18. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/transforming-edtech-saas-products-platforms-real-world-joseph-conlon/?trackingId=1hC4RyRhRrSxMqlr4wA19A%3D%3D
19. https://pabloramirezgarcia.wixsite.com/technologyandinnovat/post/team-work-10-tools-to-ensure-successful-collaborations
20. https://bushrapatel.wixsite.com/thecoinreview/post/blockchain-in-videogames
21. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/could-blockchains-improve-data-integrity-transparency-peter-nadudvari/?trackingId=ilaX%2FjNxQtmCzRaat52%2FCg%3D%3D
22. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/please-mind-gender-gap-ai-help-hinder-goal-equality-thilaganathan/?trackingId=pLGGMxMiQTuRko5yPDUb4A%3D%3D
23. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bamboozled-blockchain-read-priyanka-kaur/?trackingId=8XCAqFjgShWuvpWibgUgNQ%3D%3D
24. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/criticizing-ai-digitization-hrm-gig-economy-how-digital-jiaqi-wu/?trackingId=DsFIdvOySRCe4Wn6mJiz5A%3D%3D
25. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/esg-ratings-why-ai-silver-bullet-astitva-karunesh-1e/

In addition, here is a blog that you need to be a LinkedIn member to read:

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-can-potentially-make-better-faster-credit-risk-decisions-sechin/?trackingId=GchJXDinRPC42ZFOclcBPw%3D%3D

For further questions or comments on introducing scholarly blogs as an assessment tool please email: Isabel.Fischer@wbs.ac.uk

Abigail Ball : 02 Aug 2021 09:52 |  Tags: Assessment Blog Isabel Fischer Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Podcasting for a module: I dare you! by Bo Kelestyn

Podcasts are everywhere. More precisely (according to PodcastInsights.com), there are over 2,000,000 podcasts (up from 1,750,000 in January 2021 when I initially wrote this article). So, why not throw in my own attempt into the void, I thought.

They are easy to start, very low cost to record and share, and everyone is entitled to an opinion. I follow a few and listen to them as part of my self-care routine. I thought they could be an interesting medium to experiment with for my new module. I designed a lectureless module (ahead of the global pandemic, I’ll have you know!) titled Innovation 101 (CH3G4 and CH417) and podcasts were a good way to invite guest speakers. I was hugely inspired by the Distance Design Education community, led by Derek Jones (@plug103 on Twitter) from The Open University, and the Design Theory and Methodology module at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, who have been using podcasts as a pedagogy for a number of years.

What I did

I shared a 20–40-minute episode each week with a guest speaker asking the same questions about their innovation journey, relationship to creativity, failure, things that excite them, and advice to young innovators. These were really open ended, so some episodes delved deeper into certain topics, but overall, my aim was to show the universality of fear of failure and the ‘innovator’ label whilst celebrating diversity of thought, stories, and ideas.

What I thought would happen

This module was designed for UG Chemistry students, and I thought they were going to boo me out of the Department at a mention of the word ‘podcast’. The module was an experiment and I enjoyed talking to my guests so much! To hell with it, I thought.

What actually happened

Students L-O-V-E-D it! Yey!

What students loved

• Using it to get into a work mode and start their day: as simple as that. It was a semi-academic resource that made them feel like they were working without really doing anything. It was also a great way to ease into more intense content for my and other modules.
• Interacting with something other than videos: switching up the format was a great way to spark students’ curiosity and allowed them to multitask whilst listening.
• Having an option: The podcast was optional, but more and more students chose to reflect on it and make connections to the podcast when posting their weekly reflections (15% of the module was assessed on engagement with weekly reflections in MS Teams). Having a choice and directing their own learning made a difference. This was an optional module, so I did have that advantage.
• Learning from industry and diverse practitioners: with so many students taking the module to explore their interests, start thinking about their place in the world and the impact they wanted to make with their degree, this was the perfect opportunity to show there was no one way to succeed.
• Learning from academics: including academic staff voice was one of the best decisions and sparked so many ideas for my work on community building. Students really enjoyed learning about a more human side of academic superstars in their department they have struggled to reach out to or connect with.
• Expanding their network: I closed each episode on ‘how can our listeners connect with you and your work’ and encouraged all students to reach out to guests whose stories or ideas resonated with them. Having the opportunity to connect with others, especially during the pandemic, extended the cohort’s sense of community and their individual networks. It also gave me huge amounts of confidence and reassurance that I was doing something worthwhile. At least one student secured a job opportunity by connecting with one of the speakers and many other sought mentorship and career advice.
• The filtered and ‘approved’ content: there is so much out there and whilst students and I also did a lot of sharing and curation of resources and other podcasts, students loved having an ‘official’ and ‘approved’ podcast they could turn to.

How I started

I approached colleagues and friends that I really looked up to and I knew I would vibe with. I also approached a few Chemistry colleagues to give the podcast some familiarity and to talk to colleagues I knew less about. I was genuinely curious to find out more about how Chemistry does and sees innovation!

I asked for advice from students who do this so well. The Human Entrepreneur podcast hosted by Luke Netherclift and Varun Balsara, two of my former students, collaborators and just all-round superstars. Incidentally, whilst I was agonising myself with the should-I-shouldn’t I dilemma, they released a bonus episode on how to get started with podcasting, which gave me that sign from the Universe. They recommended Zancastr, which was so easy to use and although I paid for postproduction, it just took away any worries of losing files or compromising on the quality of the recordings. I bought some cheap headphones (I was not prepared to invest in anything more sophisticated at that stage) and asked Luke and Varun to be my first guests. That recording gave me so much confidence! Thank you, guys!

I did not edit any of the episodes or add any background music to it. I simply did not have the skills. I just trusted my gut and made sure my guests were OK with the raw and unedited format. I really wanted to challenge the perception of innovation, creativity, failure that students held and so the more unedited, raw and human centred my podcast would be, the better. Hard to believe, I know! It was scary and I had no idea what I was doing. But it did work, and I am still learning.

What now?

Podcast back by popular demand. Aside from doing this again next academic year, I am co-creating an extension of the module podcast with a student as a way to share stories of our academic staff members. Students crave proximity to academics and want to know more about their stories. This extension podcast will feature academics from the Department to help with building our sense of community, start conversations between different groups of staff and students in the department, and of course to inspire students with different stories of success. To me, these are some of the key pillars of a distinctive learning experience.

My inner critic tells me this success is due to some of the more specific learning needs students had during the pandemic. My inner mentor tells me if I succeeded this year, it could only get better. The podcast would not have been possible if it wasn’t for my amazing guests and all the support and encouragement from students, colleagues and friends. Thank you so much to each and every one of you!

If you are an educator, I dare you to give this medium a go (and if you have, I’d love to connect and hear how you got on!), especially if it terrifies you or you are finding yourself turning your nose up at it! There are so many reasons why it is a good idea to mix things up for your students and for your own development. My favourite among them is students really appreciate any help with filtering out the noise, particularly when it comes to online resources. 2,000,000 podcasts would give anyone information paralysis. I had some great results with it, and I think it will truly make your module stand out. It might not work for all disciplines, but I think it is a perfect way to add diversity to many subjects and create a real network for your learners and for yourself. Happy podcasting!

Where do I start?

You might find the 2021 TEALfest session titled Podcasting: Learn from a Professional with Jemima Rathbone very helpful. I also recommend checking out Descript for editing, good quality mics from Blue, and Pixapay for free podcast jingle music.

Abigail Ball : 26 Jul 2021 12:08 |  Tags: Bo Kelestyn Podcasting Teaching |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem