Best practice pedagogy for online and in-person teaching: academics from universities around the world share their advice, insights and experience


Teaching and learning

The line separating&nbsp;life and work is increasingly fuzzy. Mobile communication devices such as laptops and smartphones have changed our work practices and given many people more flexible work hours and workplace mobility. Many academics, however, work longer hours with greater intensity than they did in the past, according to a 2022&nbsp;report from the UK’s University and College Union (UCU). Bringing work home and checking university emails outside work hours, for example, are contributing factors. Some find that this flexibility allows them to balance their work and personal lives to meet their needs best, but others feel stressed, exhausted and overwhelmed.The&nbsp;demands of a teaching workload can leave educators vulnerable to burnout, which is an emotional reaction to prolonged pressure. Its symptoms include: depersonalisation, which can present as an alienated and pessimistic attitude towards one’s environment; emotional exhaustion, which is defined as a lack of mental resources as a result of emotional overload; and decreased personal accomplishment as a result of a lack of internal or external resources. Its personal and societal ramifications – including poor performance, decreased dedication to teaching, high turnover and physical illness – for university faculty have been&nbsp;noted in numerous studies.A calendar activity that can help in the battle against burnoutSpotlight collection: what can be done to improve work-life balance?Use technology to boost productivity and beat burnoutSetting boundaries is one way to keep work and your life outside work in a healthy, sustainable balance. Here are ways to do that:Identify where your boundaries need reinforcementTeachers frequently struggle to strike a balance between their personal and professional obligations. Set limits and give self-care priority to address this. Assign planning, grading and professional development time, and set a reasonable task expectation. When feasible, learn to assign work to others and ask for assistance from administrators or coworkers. Make time for hobbies – unwinding and spending quality time with loved ones will also help maintain a healthy work-life balance. Remember that looking after your health will ultimately improve your teaching effectiveness.Establish mutually beneficial interactions with peopleTeachers, in particular, must establish clear boundaries between themselves and their students. The proper emotional line will enable them to strike a balance between professionalism and a beneficial degree of participation. This includes communicating and, if necessary, explaining limits and expectations to others.&nbsp;Prioritise self-care and allocate time for yourself to recharge and rejuvenate. Teachers who experience positive emotions such as joy, satisfaction and interest are better able to deal with stressful situations proactively and cultivate supportive interpersonal relationships, both of which can help them develop better coping mechanisms when faced with difficult situations.&nbsp;Setting boundaries does not mean taking an impersonal approach to teaching. An interactive approach to teaching has been correlated with a lower risk of burnout, according to a&nbsp;study by&nbsp;Päivi Virtanen and Anna Parpala of the University of Helsinki.Keeping students’ interest and involvement is another challenge that educators frequently encounter. To address this, use a variety of teaching strategies, including interactive exercises, group projects, multimedia materials and real-world examples. To make the material more applicable and accessible, adjust the lessons to the interests and learning preferences of the students. Promote student autonomy and choice in their education, facilitate chances for conversation and pose thought-provoking questions to elicit active engagement. Teachers can boost student engagement – and reduce their own energy drain – by creating an engaging, relevant and participatory learning environment.Protect yourself from unrealistic expectationsSocial and professional pressure can lead to feelings of inadequacy or inefficacy as a teacher. When university teachers’ stress and anxiety increase, so too can their levels of depression and feelings of discouragement and fatigue. Well-established boundaries and support will help teachers to uphold their standards and values.The temptation to accept too many requests in order to appease others can leave teachers depleted. If you feel you lack the experience, authority or professional confidence to set the boundaries you need, you can practise saying no. It can be challenging to be forceful if you are not used to it. Before agreeing to do anything you do not want, stop, take a deep breath and consider your feelings – and your capacity to accommodate the request.Seek out support from a mentor or university servicesUniversity support services help faculty members maintain good mental health through counselling services, professional advice, mentoring programmes or training. If you need guidance to establish a healthy work-life balance, seek out what support your institution offers.Boundaries are clearly defined guidelines or restrictions that individuals set to safeguard their safety and well-being. We identify and communicate the appropriate behaviours for others to exhibit around us to feel comfortable. They may also be a valuable tool for fostering an atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable being themselves and fulfilling their needs, helping us feel safe in our surroundings and with others. Mastering useful techniques to establish and maintain professional boundaries can help university teachers improve their well-being.Cheong Fan is a lecturer at the School of Liberal Arts at Macau University of Science and Technology.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Practising self-care and saying no can help university educators manage the increasing demands of teaching and find a sustainable work-life balance



Setting boundaries for teachers’ well-being

GenAI has significantly impacted marketing. It enables the creation of new services and products and the automation of existing ones (e.g., customer support). It also facilitates the production of personalised experiences, generates personalised content, recommendations, and advertisements and even provides "artificial samples" for marketing and consumer research. GenAI systems have the potential to transform entire industries, as reported by Boston Consulting Group reports. Because of this, the workforce will require a major skill upgrade.Universities have responded to the rise in GenAI by generating guidelines on its use. These have primarily focused on limiting students’ use of it in assessments. But instead of making GenAI off-limits, we must prepare marketing students with the critical skills required to thrive in a workforce increasingly shaped by AI. Below we outline the core skills that we should incorporate into marketing education.Skill 1. AI-literacy&nbsp;To effectively use AI and GenAI-based tools, students must develop their ability to use AI effectively.Try this:Get students to use one GenAI tool for three different marketing purposes (e.g. to create a new product proposition or generate a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis for a company. Ask them to compare and contrast the results and assess how they performed the tasks. Encourage them to consider the ethical and responsible use of each application.Skill 2. Critical thinking and evaluationThere is concern that a student’s over-reliance on GenAI will limit their development of key skills such as critical thinking and evaluation. Indeed, GenAI tools might help students develop their lower-level cognitive skills, such as remembering information. But GenAI is not so effective in cultivating students’ higher-order cognitive abilities, such as critical evaluation and systematic decision-making, according to research. However, critical thinking skills are of fundamental importance when it comes to evaluating GenAI outputs.Try this:&nbsp;Ask students some analytical questions such as, “What are the paradoxes of marketing? Provide examples” or “Why is ethics important in the marketing profession? Provide examples”. Then, have students pose the same questions to GenAI tools and examine the results, with an emphasis on the validity, potential biases and fairness of the results, as well as on the quality of the sources used.Resource collection: AI transformers like ChatGPT are here, so what next?AI as tutor and critic: using tech to personalise educationA four-step process to embedding AI literacy in business coursesSkill 3. AI-powered content creationAI-powered content creation enables marketing students to generate text, images and videos based on specific written instructions (prompts) that can be used for different purposes. On the one hand, students can use AI tools to draft essays, develop study guides, generate reviews and reports and to summarise different texts such as papers, articles, reports and books, significantly enhancing both productivity and writing skills. On the other hand, such tools allow students to create customised visuals or video content for presentations and learning materials. These tools can also enrich multimedia projects and digital storytelling.&nbsp;However over-reliance on AI can dilute the emotional and personal tone of content, reducing its effectiveness. Therefore, a balanced approach combining AI with human oversight is essential for maintaining authenticity and ensuring the content is high quality. Moreover, students should understand that content generated with AI might seem original, but it is produced using existing content.&nbsp;Try this:Get students to generate a short essay on a marketing topic using the prompt: “What is the main difference between B2C and B2B marketing? Provide examples” or “Why are social media influencers effective?” Then get them to critically evaluate and discuss the output. Invite students to judge the merits of the output based on its accuracy, but also on its creativity, originality, and relevance.Skill 4. AI ethicsLike humans, GenAI can be biased. Educators and students should carefully consider the data source quality and potential biases of the tools they use.&nbsp;Try this:Get students to assess a piece of AI-generated output based on a prompt such as:&nbsp; “What are the qualities of a good CEO?” followed by “What are the qualities of a good female CEO?”, or “Describe a marketing professional” and&nbsp; “Describe a marketing professional from Nigeria”. Get students to actively compare and contrast the output and to search for and discuss potential biases. Ask them to check the sources and references and judge whether these are reliable and trustworthy.&nbsp;Skill 5. AI-powered market researchIn the era of GenAI, we can conduct market analysis with the click of a button thanks to its ability to create an “artificial sample”, also known as synthetic sample or silicon sample. Examples include automated, rapid generation of interviews, surveys and completed questionnaires. Unfortunately, while these “insights” are easy to generate and interpret, they may not correctly reflect the complexity of human behaviour. We must teach students to conduct AI-powered market research effectively.Try this:Ask students to generate synthetic samples using GenAI tools and to compare and contrast these with samples from real consumers to assess the differences between each. This could be a part of written assessments on marketing analysis.Skill 6. Effective questioning&nbsp;Finally, the quality of AI output ultimately depends on the quality of the questions asked. Atlassian offers a guide to asking effective questions with recommendations such as being as specific as possible, using plain language, layering requests with context-specific information and using simply structured questions.&nbsp;Try this:For example, students can ask ChatGPT to generate a SWOT analysis for Apple in less than 200 words. Then they can ask ChatGPT to specify the SWOT in the context of: (1) a new generation of wearable devices, (2) to include relevant industry statistics, (3) to support the SWOT with relevant data on the latest UK consumer trends, (4) to consider the latest ethical and sustainable considerations.&nbsp;Additionally,&nbsp;ask students to use GenAI to propose a new product or service for an existing company. Then ask them to generate a detailed set of criteria (e.g. a specific industry, a market size, target audience, geographical area, etc). Then invite students to compare and contrast how asking specific targeted questions influences the GenAI responses, resulting in the significant differences in the outputs.We encourage educators to embrace curiosity and explore innovative teaching practices with an ethical lens to ensure students become AI-literate.Rushana Khusainova is a senior lecturer in marketing; Eleonora Pantano is an associate professor (reader) in retail and marketing technology; Esther Kang is a lecturer in Marketing and Samantha Ford is a lecturer in Marketing at the University of Bristol.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Essential AI skills for marketing students

Educators from the University of Bristol demonstrate how to equip marketing students with the skills and knowledge to use AI ethically

Emotion plays a significant role in learning, recent research suggests. When students consistently experience positive emotions while learning, they not only display improved understanding and memory retention, but their emotional involvement motivates and engages them and leads to higher academic performance.In my view, emotions are an indispensable yet frequently overlooked element of the learning process. In this resource, I share a method I have developed to leverage emotions and enhance students’ learning and engagement, called mastering emotions in entrepreneurship education (MEE). The exciting part is that educators from any discipline can apply these principles.The MEE method in actionThe MEE approach functions on the basis that by intentionally integrating emotional triggers into the curriculum educators enhance engagement and accelerate learning. The successful implementation of this technique involves considering the four following stages:1. Before class: identifying students’ emotional sourcesIt is essential to gather information about students’ primary emotional triggers before the start of class. By engaging with these emotional cues you can create lessons that resonate with them.&nbsp;One way I’ve done this in the past is to encourage students to share their favourite songs to give me an idea of what impacts them emotionally. Also, during a session I led in Finland, I asked students to bring an object that holds personal significance to them. Whether a family photo, a favourite book or a small keepsake, these objects gave me insight into personal experiences and allowed me to connect the course material to what students value. Another example includes prompting students to share stories of a time when they faced a major challenge. By understanding what evokes a sense of motivation or fear in them, you can tailor discussions accordingly.2. During class: unleashing students’ emotional triggersDuring this stage, I seek to gradually elicit emotions from students, building upon the insights gained from the previous stage. The aim is to create a lasting learning experience that effortlessly embeds the educational content into the students’ emotional memory. By fostering a positively charged emotional environment you can seize the opportunity to introduce essential concepts.In a recent technopreneurship class, I attempted to forge a stronger emotional bond between students and their learning and ignite their entrepreneurial spirit. Following the MEE approach, I composed a piece of music titled For when you need your heart blending uplifting lyrics voiced with music. The response was fantastic; students found the composition both inspiring and energising.For a class on overcoming entrepreneurial setbacks, I engineered a “failure wall” where students anonymously posted their biggest academic or personal failures on sticky notes. We then discussed how these failures could be transformed into learning opportunities and successes. The exercise not only created a safe space for sharing and reflection but also fostered a supportive atmosphere. By connecting their emotional experiences with ideas about resilience, students internalised the content and contributed to engaging discussions about practical strategies for overcoming business challenges.The MEE method sees emotions such as joy and passion as vitamins that enhance students’ connection to their learning. When these emotions are effectively induced, they become powerful catalysts, unlocking and amplifying students’ entrepreneurial learning.Resource collection: Back to the basics of pedagogySerious play: building knowledge with Lego bricksRelieve student boredom by ‘activating’ lectures3. During class: assessing students’ learning during their emotional peakDuring this stage, I harness the classroom’s positive energy to assess students’ learning. It’s a challenge to conduct assessments when emotions are at their peak, but it becomes achievable with practice.&nbsp;To do this, I use a technique called the “emotion map” exercise, during which students create a visual or descriptive representation of their emotional responses to an activity, linking these feelings to the concepts they’ve learned. This technique captures their emotions while they are still fresh, enhancing their understanding of and connection to the material.4. After class: reviewing and refiningA vital aspect of the MEE method is the continuous evaluation of students’ emotional engagement and learning outcomes. By regularly gathering feedback from students, you can fine-tune your approach to better align with their emotional triggers.As educators, we can create more dynamic, engaging and effective learning experiences for our students by harnessing the learning power of emotions. As Einstein once said, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” The MEE method seeks to realise this vision by introducing key pedagogical principles, techniques and best practices crafted to transform learning into an enriching emotional experience.Vik Perez is an associate professor at the Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Hub at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China and the author of Entrepreneurship and Neuroscience: Researching Brain-driven Entrepreneurship.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Using emotions to boost learning

A professor explains how he leverages emotions to enhance students’ learning, using an approach called ‘mastering emotions in entrepreneurship education’ 

Universities as anchor institutions do a lot to support their local regions and beyond. The UK Knowledge Exchange Framework showcases much of this remarkable work, often carried out in partnership with external collaborators. But capacity can be a barrier. Academics are already under immense pressure with teaching, assessments, scholarly and research commitments.&nbsp;So, at the University of Staffordshire, we piloted several student-led innovation projects in partnership with local government, funders and regional businesses. Through the initiative, students enhanced their career prospects, supported businesses with innovation-led growth and demonstrated applied learning to academics.&nbsp;From 2020 to 2023, the undergraduate and postgraduate students worked part-time (around 15 hours per week) with a local small to medium-sized enterprise (SME), for 12 to 24 weeks, to help them develop or improve a new product, service or process. Each student was supervised by an academic, with whom they had about 1.5 hours per week, and had access to wider support from a technical specialist and a project manager.An evaluation of the pilot showed that students supported companies in projects including developing and implementing new software and IT systems, creating physical prototypes like a female ballistic vest and embedding robotic arms in materials handling. A massive 86 per cent of SMEs surveyed confirmed that students had enhanced innovation and R&amp;D capacity, while 80 per cent reported that students had helped to convert ideas into new products or services. Participating businesses reported increased sales and new contracts from the projects as well as a positive impact on company culture.&nbsp;Students benefited from a valuable experience, with 80 per cent agreeing that “The internship helped me with my work readiness after graduation.”The projects provided valuable insight, which the university now applies to new projects, run in partnership with our local councils through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Here are some good practice points for anyone considering setting up projects in which students work directly with external partners, including:&nbsp;Set business partners’ expectations: students are not professional consultants, yet companies often describe students as technical specialists in evaluation interviews. The business engagement team and academics should communicate project limitations and realistic deliverables to the business and have this agreed upon in writing as part of the project approval process.&nbsp;Project work plan: students benefit from a clear work plan developed by the academics, where it is relevant in partnership with business.Collaborative recruitment: participating companies benefit from being part of the student recruitment process and interview panel. This, in turn, helps with the buy-in and in-company supervision and support of students.&nbsp;Business supervisor: students benefit if allocated a specific in-business supervisor as well as an academic supervisor. Having a go-to person within the business helps students navigate the unknowns or uncertainties and challenges they may face when completing their placement. This was part of the application that each company had to submit to the university.&nbsp;Student in-business onboarding: SMEs varied in the level of onboarding. Different projects called for different levels, and where product design would benefit from direct access, SMEs allowed students to interact with suppliers, customers or contractors.Kick-off meeting: this is an opportunity to reconfirm and agree the project scope, limitations and expectations. Clarify the boundaries for the business. An example is when a company could try to divert a student to a different project that is out of the project scope without agreement from the university.&nbsp;Progress reviews: ideally, a weekly meeting is held in the presence of a company representative, the student, and the academic supervisor. These meetings benefit from a standardised agenda to ensure a degree of scrutiny of progress, quality of outputs, issues and risks. Academic commitment is critical to support the review meetings.&nbsp;Software of equipment selection: the university should always consult a business before academics select any software for the project. This ensures the options are evaluated in the context of the business needs, its supply chain and sector and are not viewed as “academic toys”.&nbsp;Student training: pre-project training on workplace skills such as project management, commercial understanding or consulting skills can help prepare students for the new challenges they may face. Enabling peer network connections among students on projects is also worth exploring, so they can share experiences, advice and insight. When set up and run effectively, these student-led projects have potential to be a low-cost contributor to the UK’s productivity agenda, expand SME innovation, and support students’ graduate outcomes. Triple helix relationship between the government, universities and businesses is vital to the development of effective regional innovation ecosystems. We therefore highlighted the importance of policies, funding and interventions in driving firm-level innovation and productivity.&nbsp;Marek Hornak is an associate professor of knowledge exchange and enterprise at the University of Staffordshire and an incoming pro vice-chancellor for commercial and academic partnerships at the University of Suffolk.&nbsp;

Advice for university educators on setting up projects in which students work directly with external partners such as local businesses, based on a pilot initiative

A good practice guide for student business placements

Social media advertisements promoting AI tools seem to be proliferating. Many offer students quick solutions for their academic writing needs; others provide services such as answering multiple-choice quizzes and finding research articles. Although some marketing messages suggest questionable uses of AI, implying that students might pass off AI-generated work as their own, this doesn’t mean all AI use is negative.&nbsp;For students who struggle with writing or who are still developing their skills, these tools can be valuable scaffolds. Even expert writers can benefit from using AI to handle grunt work such as finding relevant articles, gaining an overview of the field and brainstorming ideas.&nbsp;The issue of academic integrity is increasingly complex. Like Goldilocks in the fairy story, we must determine when AI use is “too much” versus “just right”.Spotlight collection: understanding and protecting academic integrityWhen promoting academic integrity, start at the root of the problemCampus webinar: Artificial intelligence and academic integrityThe influence of AI adds a new dimension to the concept of plagiarism, for a start. How do we ensure students can use these tools to support their learning but still avoid setting them up for later accusations of academic misconduct? Is using AI the same as students passing off the work of others as their own?The issue of ownership is at the core of academic integrity and AIAs we navigate the issue of AI and integrity, the solutions to how we safeguard the value of our assessments are not black and white. If I write the essay but use AI to enhance its readability, is it still my work? What if the AI generates ideas that I then integrate with my own thoughts? Does the origin of the ideas matter as long as I’m validating, reworking and adding to the AI output? If there is any consensus among academics on these issues it is that we are moving towards a world where each assessment might have its own guidelines about the use of AI. One assessment may require that students use no AI support, such as an interactive oral assessment, while another may expect students to use a particular type of AI toolset in recommended ways.&nbsp;What is appropriate depends on the focus of the assessment.&nbsp;So, our focus must shift. Just because the student uses a tool to help them doesn’t mean there is no learning. When we fail to define the fine line for AI use, in writing, editing and proofreading, we set our students up for academic misconduct allegations. Ownership in the era of AI instead means learning to leverage, and be supported by, AI.In giving assessments, I allow students to use AI, but with the caveat that the work must still be their own. However, how can I truly know if the work is theirs? What does “just right” look like for students when ownership in AI is less and less clear?The answer to AI use cannot simply be a banSome educators argue that the risk of determining what is “just right” is too high – that in the era of AI, we can’t have academic integrity, and to counteract this, we need to ban AI.&nbsp;However, how can we do this when AI is embedded in nearly every tool students use? We would need to revert to summative assessments in controlled invigilated environments. Although this may work for some contexts, a pullback to tried-and-true measures raises more issues than solutions. There are strong pedagogical reasons to adopt approaches that focus on assessment for learning rather than of learning. If we revert to traditional exam conditions, are we protecting integrity or clinging to outdated assessment methods?Refocusing assessment is also a challengeSo, if banning is not a realistic option, how can we ensure academic integrity and that students’ use of AI is “just right”? No matter which way we reshape our assessments, if AI is part of the learning process, we are stuck with the question of where students’ work ends and AI’s begins. This will become a more pressing issue when AI output is undetectable and can perform better than the general population of students. AI writing detectors can be used to highlight areas of possible AI involvement, but they cannot provide proof of use.When we acknowledge that AI is now part of the assessment process, we move away from looking for AI writing to the murkier (but potentially more beneficial) focus on learning. I break assessments down into smaller parts, allowing students to receive feedback from myself, peers and even AI. The assessments themselves are more complex, requiring students to incorporate their own context and create more than a standard essay, often involving AI in the process. I also integrate methods to validate students’ understanding, such as presentations where they must discuss ideas and substantiate their claims. Students may initially find these approaches unfamiliar, but with careful scaffolding, this can mean more meaningful learning.In my teaching, I try to be deliberate in my inclusion of AI. My assessments are designed to help students use AI where it supports learning, and my marking is focused on the “human” input. For example, in my postgraduate course, although AI is reasonably good at summarising research papers, its outputs can often lack nuance and context. So, for their assessment, I guide the students to use these summaries as a starting point for their review; they present the AI summaries, then evaluate and critique them. This requires them to read the papers alongside the summaries. In this context, the “just right” is clearly defined and focused more on stepping them into a deeper engagement with the research.Will this prevent students from using AI to create convincing assessments that have little input from themselves? Maybe not entirely, but I believe this approach better prepares them for the realities of learning and using AI responsibly. If they are not given suitable guidance and support, many students use AI covertly. This often leads to them using it inappropriately, undermining their own learning and potentially compromising their data privacy and the intellectual property of others. Only by being open with students and helping them to use AI in their learning can we address these issues.How this looks from assessment to assessment and year to year will evolve. As these tools themselves change, it will become easier for students to use AI “too much”. We need to consider what is “just right” within the context of our assessment at this moment in time. We must move away from black-and-white notions of AI, and superficial notions of good or bad to more nuanced and continuously evolving process of redesign.Kathryn MacCallum is an associate professor of digital education futures in the School of Educational Studies and Leadership at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

When artificial intelligence is embedded into almost every tool students use, how can university educators find the line between misconduct and ethical use? A new approach to assessment is required, writes Kathryn MacCallum

The Goldilocks effect: finding ‘just right’ in the AI era

Academic life presents numerous challenges, and one of the most significant of those is exams.&nbsp;An essential part of any student’s journey,&nbsp;assessments can cause anxiety and become even harder to cope with when results don’t meet expectations, leading to feelings of frustration, discouragement and even despair.Learning to manage these feelings is a fundamental part of a student’s journey. It is crucial to help them navigate these emotions and the opportunities for personal growth they offer. The ability to handle frustration will not only be useful during their time at university but also throughout their adult lives.An effective way to support students who have received poor marks is to present academic failure as a natural and necessary part of the educational process. The focus, then, shifts because&nbsp;an exam is no longer just a test that helps students pass a&nbsp;course and demonstrate acquired knowledge, but also an opportunity to strengthen the student’s character and help them develop their&nbsp;resilience and self-confidence. Here are some ways you can&nbsp;offer support.Encourage self-reflection&nbsp;Often, students lack the information and vocabulary needed to identify what they are feeling.&nbsp;Recognising and accepting emotions is key, and we must encourage them to do this&nbsp;via discussion before&nbsp;progressing with coping strategies. Encouraging self-reflection and self-awareness is one way of doing this. Prompt students to ask themselves questions such as:Did I study as effectively as possible?How much did I understand the material before the exam?Did I dedicate enough time to studying?Did I ask for help when I needed it?Answering these questions&nbsp;and understanding the emotions they bring up&nbsp;can be the first step&nbsp;towards developing a more effective study strategy.Promote a growth mindset&nbsp;Many students believe their intelligence level is fixed and unchangeable, according to&nbsp;a March 2024 report by Argentinos por la Educación.&nbsp;This narrow view limits the potential for personal development.A growth mindset, on the other hand, is based on the belief that&nbsp;we can develop&nbsp;intelligence and skills over time through education and&nbsp;perseverance. Helping students shift to this perspective is, therefore,&nbsp;essential. We must teach them to focus on learning as a continuous process, rather than as a means to an end, as this&nbsp;can increase their motivation and resilience.One way to teach a growth mindset is to&nbsp;encourage goal planning in the lead-up to exams. This way, students can take control of their learning and develop healthy habits. It will also allow students to celebrate small&nbsp;achievements and understand that&nbsp;small steps can lead to impactful learning.Teaching and&nbsp;using a growth mindset vocabulary can also be a great help.&nbsp;This includes harnessing&nbsp;the power of “yet”. So instead of students saying: “I don’t understand this”, they say: “I don’t understand this yet.” Encourage&nbsp;students to pay special attention to their own internal dialogue when facing challenges.At Universidad Austral,&nbsp;we’ve also organised peer tutoring spaces for particularly difficult subjects during which students&nbsp;who&nbsp;passed the class previously&nbsp;have acted&nbsp;as tutors for groups of beginner-level students. The main success of this&nbsp;activity was the&nbsp;rapid shift&nbsp;in the perception and mindset of beginner students, from “this is impossible” to “I am&nbsp;speaking to someone that&nbsp;has passed&nbsp;this course&nbsp;and is just like me”.Resource collection: Getting students workplace-readyTried and tested ways to teach your students soft skillsHarnessing technology to support graduate employabilityTeach planning skills&nbsp;Once students have reflected on their poor results and processed their experiences, they&nbsp;must&nbsp;learn how to plan for the future by reviewing what additional resources they can incorporate into their exam prep to achieve better results. Teaching them to use an agenda and plan their time effectively is fundamental to approaching future assessments with greater confidence. Proposing a plan with concrete actions can help reduce anxiety and improve students’&nbsp;ability to&nbsp;prepare for upcoming challenges.&nbsp;At Universidad Austral, to help students learn to plan their time effectively, we teach them how long it takes for them to read one page or 800 words.&nbsp;To do this, we ask them to bring enjoyable reading material and to take as much time as they need while we time them. The knowledge of&nbsp;their “fun reading mode” time gives beginner students an&nbsp;idea of how much time they need to assign to reading in their agendas. Learning to manage frustration, build resilience and foster a growth mindset are skills that students will value in the long run,&nbsp;not just&nbsp;during exams. A course&nbsp;that integrates technical knowledge with personal development&nbsp;will prepare future professionals&nbsp;for success and&nbsp;contribute to their long-term well-being.Agustina Ortelli is a coach and&nbsp;coordinator of the student well-being programme at&nbsp;Universidad Austral.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Help students manage frustration and build resilience

Help students not to become discouraged by poor exam results by instilling a growth mindset, helping them plan their time and encouraging self-reflection

How can we help students manage frustration and build resilience?

One thing I’ve noticed during my lengthy teaching career is that many students are often not aware that their understanding falls short. They are oblivious as to whether they have properly understood – or have misunderstood – a particular concept. These are the same students who expect a mark of&nbsp;90 but end up in shock and send angry emails demanding a recount when they receive a&nbsp;60. Sound familiar?I argue that this is partly due to the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which posits that those who are incompetent do not have sufficient competency to even realise their own incompetence. Whatever the underlying cause, how do we, as teachers, address this problem?Assessment and feedbackOverconfidence prevents students from being able to identify areas of weakness themselves, so they need others to help them realise. One way of doing this is to provide feedback to students throughout the semester, perhaps through an agenda of formative assessments. While being cautious not to over-assess students, the idea is to introduce an opportunity to give them feedback. The feedback should be specific and help students identify areas where they excel and areas that they need to work on. Once they discover their errors, hopefully, they will go back and revisit this part and/or clarify misunderstandings with the teacher. This feedback improvement loop is the basis of active learning.Feedback can be as simple as their mark. This sets off alarm bells if student expectations are set too high, and students will calibrate them to something more realistic. Better yet, feedback will inform students not only of the problem, but also why something is misunderstood. Splitting off some lecture time to go over common problems works well in large classes when it is too time-consuming to give individualised feedback.Resource collection: Back to the basics of pedagogyMaking group work work: how to enable successful student collaborationWhy interactive and game-based instruction beats lecturing every timeMetacognitionMy second piece of advice is to use metacognitive practice exercises in class. Instead of asking students for the correct answer, ask them about the process behind deriving the answer. You could also present them with an incorrect answer and ask them to explain why it is incorrect.To demonstrate this, I can ask the first question of the Cognitive Reflection Test in its original form:A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?Alternatively, the same question can be framed in another way:A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. Explain why the ball does not cost 10 cents.Although the two questions are equivalent, the second invokes higher-order thinking and reflection. Students will come to realise that the answer is not the instinctive “10&nbsp;cents” that jumped out at them as the answer to the first question. If the ball does cost 10 cents and the bat costs $1 more than the ball, then the bat itself must cost $1.10. The problem, then, is that the bat and the ball together would cost $1.20 ($1.10 +&nbsp;0.10), which is more than the $1.10 total. Therefore, the ball cannot be 10 cents. Students can go on to work out that the ball must cost five cents. This way, they are learning through reflection and verbalisation.Framing a question this way requires students to slow down, reflect and think through the details, which students may tend to neglect. Sometimes students know something to be instinctively true or false, but otherwise difficult to verbalise and explain why: this challenges them to do so. It also works because students are much better at scrutinising and picking apart what others have to say than reflecting on what they say themselves. Proving something wrong also requires a different skill set from proving something right.Managing expectations, pointing to areas of improvement and helping students become more cognisant of their abilities and deficiencies are easier said than done – so don’t expect any silver bullets. But if you do succeed in helping students realise their own shortcomings, you could spark a light-bulb moment that they will look back on as a positive step in their learning journey.Tony So is a teaching fellow at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Let students know they don’t know

Overconfidence often prevents students from being able to identify areas of weakness. As teachers, we must help them realise what they are

Academics often come to higher education as subject matter experts, not teachers (guilty as charged). With little knowledge of curriculum or pedagogy to draw on, new educators can find designing courses, units and lessons to be a fraught and time-intensive process.Here are five hard-earned tips to help you better manage your time as a university or further education teacher.Learn your craftKnowing why you are teaching what you are teaching, learning how to organise a curriculum that makes narrative sense and how to work towards student-centred outcomes makes, in my experience, the whole process of teaching easier and faster. And it will save you from repeating the same old ineffective lecture model that you may already know well. A clear process will also remove the need to reinvent the wheel every time you encounter a new subject area.Read more: managing time, tasks and well-being in academiaHow to survive the academic treadmillAdvice for winning at the part-time ‘game’ in academiaThe best mistake I&nbsp;ever made in academia was to volunteer to cover an Education&nbsp;101 class 10 years ago. I&nbsp;knew nothing about the subject and was lucky to stay even a page ahead of the students. But, boy, was it worth it. Almost overnight, I&nbsp;became (far from) expert in social constructivism, backward design and constructive alignment. I&nbsp;left that classroom knowing that I&nbsp;didn’t know much but also knowing that I&nbsp;needed to know more.From there, I enrolled in a graduate certificate in tertiary education. Many universities offer these free to their staff – if that’s the case for you, grab the opportunity with both hands.Plan your lessonsA very few educators can wing their way through lectures, tutorials or workshops. For the rest of us, careful planning ensures that the subject we are teaching (and each session within that) has a strong narrative. Things don’t just happen one after another in the classroom; they happen for a reason, each building on the previous and setting up the next.A carefully planned approach also means we are less likely to either run over time (and not finish the lesson properly or disrupt students’ timetables) or run short of material.Get real about how much time you haveI ask new students to complete a weekly planner, noting everything they do: sport, recreation, sleep, gaming, attending classes, canoodling with partners and so on. This helps them identify how much time, and when, they will have to study and work on assessments, readings and such.Careful planning – weekly, semester and yearly – can help academics balance their workloads, too. Academic work can be amorphous; outside classroom teaching hours, our time is often our own to do with what we will. This can lead to procrastination, procrasti-baking -washing, -gardening and so on, and to a lack of awareness of how much time we do have to get things done.Academic work often spills over and out of the nine-to-five, too. Midweek may be quiet, but the weekend could be filled with marking that needs to be turned around quickly. The more aware we are of our time, the better able we are to find time for the things we need, and want, to do.Get to know those who can helpMake it your business, during quiet times, to get to know the people whose job it is to answer questions that are outside your purview as an educator. Students may come to you to ask about enrolment, fees, accessing university systems, how to transfer in and out of courses and so on. Some students may need help with literacy, numeracy and accessibility.You still have to deal with them in the name of student support and retention. However, contacting the people and bodies whose job it is to support students beyond the classroom and organising effective solutions for yourself and students can take a lot of your time. It makes sense to know how to direct queries and where to seek help.As an academic, you’re part of a much larger and often much better-qualified and prepared team – make the most of that.Avoid perfectionismIt can be tempting, as an educator, to get everything right, all at once and on the first attempt. We want our classes to be successful, our student feedback to be perfect. But we often waste a lot of time finessing that which can be better learned by doing.My first dean (wise woman) told me that it takes three deliveries of a unit to iron out the wrinkles. So expect errors, expect that you’ll get things wrong or want to make adjustments. If you’ve got a good lesson-planning system, it’ll be easy for you to record these moments so that you can act on them in review. Plan for continual reflection and ongoing work to improve units – don’t do it all at once. Take your time.The sometimes precarious nature of academic work means we often feel inclined to say “yes” to everything we are asked to do; it’s easy to overload in the hunt for promotion, tenure or publication. As a freelancer first and an educator second, it’s taken years for me to feel comfortable saying “no” to anyone in regard to work, but it’s been a journey worth the effort. Setting clear boundaries and expectations with management and students can be a confronting and uncomfortable process, but doing so will mean you are more able to manage your time and so work more comfortably and productively with both parties.John Weldon is associate professor in the First Year College at Victoria University, Australia.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Time management tips for higher education teachers

Careful lesson planning, understanding your universities’ support services and accepting mistakes will all save you time as a university educator. Here, John Weldon offers five time-management tips

Around or against the clock: time management tips for higher education teachers 

Assessment can really expose the three-way tension between the developmental needs of the student, the expectations of the real-world industries that will employ them and the academic conventions used to prepare them. Often, during assessment, academic learning designers face several paradoxes:&nbsp;The higher the stakes attached to a single assessment, the less likely it is that it will contribute to sustainable student learning for the long term The greater the emphasis on credentialling students, the less the priority on the interests of the learnerThe greater the attention to assessment details, or internal validity, the less relatable it is to the real world or external validityUsing expert assessors alone to judge the quality of a student’s work denies the student, as a future professional, the opportunity to practise these important skills while developing.We consider three of the common responses to these widely reported concerns.&nbsp;Entrustment assessment&nbsp;The theme of trust has recently become popular in health professions education.&nbsp;Recognising the dominance of trust within decision-making about new graduates in real-world settings is of particular interest, as well as considering that trust is a complex phenomenon, often involving multiple intertwined competencies.&nbsp;A blueprint for programmatic assessment in healthcare coursesPeer feedback: a burden for students or route to better academic writing?How to manage assessment feedback in large classes? Get students involvedEntrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are a defined range of activities that professionals need to be trusted to perform. Of course, trust decisions are based on more than what can be measured in traditional academic tests for knowledge or technical skills, so entrustment considers the holistic nature of professional practice and a supervisor’s tacit experience. Levels of trust are accommodated through the use of entrustment scales, often based on the level of student autonomy or the amount of supervision needed.Prioritising learner development with student-tutor consensusThe student-tutor consensus assessment (STCA) emerged in response to assessor-centric traditions, which position students as passive participants in testing. Instead, the STCA process prioritises students as leaders within assessment. The role of their assessor is essentially reassigned to the calibration of a student’s judgement.The STCA invites the student to first critique their practice ahead of their assessor. This offers insight into student metacognition and lessens the risk of chance results. As a result, the student is empowered to look beyond simply trying to optimise their test result and, as the score incentives are focused on accurate appraisal ahead of outcomes alone, it breaks away from many academic assessment traditions. Additionally, the STCA encourages students to critically reflect on their performance in real time, developing the skills they require to become reflective practitioners.&nbsp;Programmatic assessmentNow a widely accepted standard within medical programmes, Programmatic Assessment for Learning (PAL) operates on several core principles. When decisions are made about students, they should reflect performance trends or results obtained from continuous data points over time, rather than a single test outcome. The focus is on helping the student derive meaning from the results of a test and understand how it can affect future growth, rather than merely focus on the score. PAL is an educational philosophy and an umbrella term that can cover a wide range of assessment innovations.What we learned from combining these three elementsOur work was originally piloted and evaluated within an undergraduate paramedic programme before the broader utility of the methods was understood, and it is now enjoying critical acclaim in an honours-level physiotherapy degree. The following suggestions reflect our interrogation of the available literature, extensive consultation with professionals across multiple disciplines and necessary adaptations for the local context.1. Identify a real-world source of truthAccept that even the most well-constructed assessment design is largely redundant outside the classroom. We looked to our national professional regulation standards as the basis to inform the assessable content for our assessments. By doing this, we united the professional expectations of the discipline and clinical assessors, as well as the ultimate objectives of the student.2. Less is more with rubrics Don’t crowd assessment criteria with excessive detail to predict and account for every possible performance outcome. If authentic feedback is limited to what is written in the box, it is more likely to constrain examiners from sharing important feedback.3. Trust in examiners’ gut feelings and tacit knowledgeJust as a supervisor in the real world might have a gut feeling about a student that affects the level of trust they place in them, assessment should aim to accommodate similar feelings within the process. After all, experts and professionals are brought into the classroom to harness this expertise, so academics should attempt to offer support to help articulate their evaluations.&nbsp;4. Move the goalpostsThe focus of assessment should remain fixed on the long-term objectives of the event and implications for a student’s future practice as a professional. This requires teachers to repeatedly remind students to look beyond simply trying to pass a test.5. Making mistakes is part of learningAn expert is not defined as someone who doesn’t ever make mistakes. Students need to be provided with the opportunity to exercise their own critical judgement and evaluation of their own practices.6. More tests are better than bigger testsThe validity and reliability of results, and the impact on learning, all correlate with increased test intervals, a stark contrast to single high-stakes barrier exams.7. Improve your assessment culture&nbsp;Students are more accepting of results they have co-created. Grade-seeking behaviour, appeals and challenges virtually disappear when the incentive to game results is removed.&nbsp;James Thompson is a senior lecturer in health and science practice, and Amanda Maddern is a senior physiotherapist and lecturer, both at the University of Adelaide.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Taking trust to the next level 

When educating health professionals, the role of trust is paramount. Here’s how we can link entrustment with student consensus grading and programmatic assessment

Taking trust to the next level in healthcare assessment

The digital era has had a great impact on education. I remember when, as a student, the internet was first introduced. I would have to connect a cable to the computer and wait for the creepy-sounding dial-up to finish before I was able to connect and start my research for school projects. Life is so much easier for students now as they have internet access wherever they are. Here, I’ll demonstrate the value of online education to today’s students and how, as educators, we can make the most of it.1. FlexibilityOne of the major advantages of online learning is the flexibility it offers to students. Students who are enrolled in an online course have the flexibility to access the online learning materials wherever they are, at a suitable time.&nbsp;This can be particularly useful for students who are working or have a busy schedule, as they have the chance to learn online without having to physically walk into the classroom and spend time in lectures.&nbsp;Educators can also play a role in the flexibility of online education, by making more materials available online for students to access, or placing a greater emphasis on online group work, thus making the essence of online education even better.&nbsp;Cherry-pick the best of in-person and online learningDon’t forget online learning in your university marketingLessons learned in creating and using innovative social media strategiesThis factor also plays a role in contributing to the “Quality education for all” Sustainable Development Goal, as students will have the opportunity to access uniform online learning materials at a time that is more suitable for them. They don’t have to worry about their education clashing with working hours, or falling behind as a result.&nbsp;2. Time savingWhen you consider the time a student may take to travel to campus for a face-to-face class, as well as the time in the class itself, online education can be a huge time saver for them. Spending time wisely is the key to effective time management&nbsp;skills.&nbsp;For example, if the student has permission to access the learning materials during working hours or on their lunch break, they’ll have more free time to spend however they choose. This can have a positive impact on the student and their well-being.&nbsp;That being said, online education can also play a part in saving time for the educator as well. Just think of all the time that can be saved in face-to-face lectures by assigning online pre-reading materials, ahead of time!3. Saving travel costsAnother advantage of online education is that it will save the costs of having to travel to the university campus in order to sit in a classroom environment and learn. Whether it is saving the money spent on petrol or public transport, costs can be reduced as the learning materials will be accessed online, wherever they are. Another benefit that comes with this is that the money saved can be spent on the students’ other interests or hobbies.Having said that, it is wrong to think that all travel costs will be avoided, as some lecturers may decide that group work requires students to travel to the university campus, in order to work with their fellow students and present their work.&nbsp;In contrast, some lecturers may not even ask for group work to be carried out.&nbsp;My advice for the lecturer would be to perhaps offer online options for group work, or maybe ask the students to either pre-record or present their work online through platforms such as Google Meet or Zoom. This way, both travel costs can be avoided, and time can be saved.4. Real learning&nbsp;Online education as opposed to face-to-face classroom education can play a role in real learning. Just imagine sitting in a classroom environment facing the lecturer with your back to other students. Online education can be advantageous, in that the students are not sitting with their backs to one another, but rather sitting in front of a screen, facing the lecturer and other students at the same time. As a result, the student can concentrate better and is more able to learn, especially when everyone’s camera is turned on and the lecturer can see the students, just like the students can see each other.&nbsp;For this reason, educators must encourage their students to turn on their cameras in order to ensure a personable learning environment. Online tools such as in-lecture polls and online Q&amp;As can also help students to learn better too.&nbsp;As a result, one can conclude that online education is more face-to-face than the education in the classroom.Who knows what the future may hold, but online learning is particularly valuable for students, especially when&nbsp;technology is evolving for the benefit of all. Having internet access from the place where the student is can have a positive impact, especially when it comes to flexibility and time saving, saving on travel costs and the opportunity for a more “face-to-face” learning environment as opposed to that in the classroom.Ayten Ordu is a lecturer and researcher in the Faculty of Law at Near East University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Make the most of online education for your students

Students appreciate the value of online education. How can educators maximise this value as much as possible?



In traditional, physical classrooms, students benefit from real-time interaction and feedback which helps build essential thinking skills. Online courses, however, often lack that kind of spontaneity.&nbsp;Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” This attitude is especially relevant in a digital age that requires us to move beyond passive learning, the mere consumption of information. So how do we encourage critical thinking in a digital environment?&nbsp;One approach I’ve found effective is to use philosophical methods such as Socratic questioning, ethical dilemmas and logical analysis to help students engage more deeply with course material and think critically.&nbsp;Why use philosophy in online education?The appeal of using philosophy in online education is clear. At its core, it is about asking questions, reasoning through problems and examining assumptions: skills that are crucial across academic disciplines. In an online environment where students must often manage large amounts of information, these skills become even more important. The asynchronous nature of most online courses can sometimes lead to passive learning. Applying philosophical methods can counteract this by promoting deeper, more reflective engagement. By focusing on logic, ethics and reasoned debate, you can help students build critical thinking skills that can be applied across subjects, as well as in real-world scenarios.Resource collection: A warm welcome onlineResource collection: Teaching critical thinkingHow to create human connection when teaching onlineApplying Socratic questioning in online discussionsOne of the best ways to promote critical thinking in an online setting is through Socratic questioning. This technique involves asking open-ended, probing questions that encourage students to think critically about the assumptions, evidence and implications of their ideas. Rather than simply asking students to summarise what they’ve learned, Socratic questioning pushes them to explore the deeper layers of a topic.To use this method in my online courses, I create weekly discussion threads based on challenging questions. Instead of asking students to summarise a reading, I might ask them, for example, “What are the potential weaknesses in the author’s argument? How do these weaknesses affect the overall conclusion?” Students must respond to the question and engage with their peers by critiquing and analysing each other’s reasoning. This approach leads to richer, more meaningful discussions where students actively construct and deconstruct arguments, strengthening their critical thinking skills.Using ethical dilemmas to encourage debateEthical dilemmas are complex scenarios that require students to use moral reasoning and consider multiple viewpoints. They not only challenge students to think critically about difficult issues but encourage them to articulate and defend their positions thoughtfully.I’ve used this approach in my online courses through the use of case studies that relate directly to course material. For example, in an academic English course for business students, I introduced a case study about a multinational company facing a public relations crisis owing to its environmental practices. I divided students into groups and assigned each a different role such as the company, consumers or environmental advocates. The asynchronous format of the course gave students time to think carefully about their positions before responding, leading to more thoughtful debates. This approach helps students develop a deeper understanding of ethical principles while sharpening their ability to critically evaluate complex issues from multiple perspectives.Teaching logical analysis through case studiesLogical analysis is another critical component of philosophical thinking. It involves the ability to identify logical fallacies, construct sound arguments and evaluate the strength of different positions. Teaching logical analysis in an online setting can be challenging, but it is useful for helping students build strong analytical skills.I’ve developed interactive case studies that require students to apply logical analysis to real-world situations. For example, in a computer science course, I presented a case study about a tech company grappling with the ethical use of artificial intelligence in its products. Students had to evaluate arguments from different points of view, identify any logical fallacies and justify their final recommendations based on sound reasoning. This method engages students by requiring them to think critically about real-world issues while practising their analytical skills in a structured, logical way.As the landscape of education continues to evolve, we must adapt our teaching methods to meet the needs of online students. Philosophy provides a set of tools that can help achieve this, ensuring that students not only learn but also learn to think. After all, as Socrates said, “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”Garth Elzerman is a lecturer at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China.&nbsp;If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Using philosophy to enhance students’ critical thinking

Online courses often lack the kind of spontaneity that builds critical thinking skills. So how can we make up for this?

Using philosophy to enhance online students’ critical thinking skills

Philosophy graduates are highly regarded across the public, private and charity sectors. The discipline’s focus on analysing difficult problems, developing creative solutions and explaining these clearly is well recognised as developing widely transferable skills. The subject’s concern with ethics in the broadest sense fosters a sensitivity that many organisations are finding increasingly valuable.Even so, philosophy students often struggle to see how the work they do cultivates these abilities. On graduation, they can find it difficult to articulate the value their degree provides for the careers they want to enter. As a result, employers won’t always detect the contributions these candidates can make.The solution is to embed this understanding into the curriculum itself. It cannot just be described to students in the abstract in occasional talks or documents. It needs to be something they experience directly themselves. Only this can allow them to see clearly what their philosophical knowledge and skills can do in the world beyond the campus.Spotlight collection: ‘power skills’ for 21st-century academiaHarness the power of ‘I wonder’ in your teachingSocial sciences, humanities and arts are critical for sustainabilityHere at Cardiff University, we have redesigned our BA and MA degrees with this in mind. Our students will still be focused on philosophy itself, its central issues, classic texts and current debates. And they will still engage with these in the same ways they always have done. After all, that is how the knowledge and skills so valued by employers are developed.What is new is a theme running throughout our degrees: the usefulness of philosophising in working together to address problems that we face collectively as organisations and as a society.It is there in the very first semester of our bachelor’s degrees, in a core module that brings together insights from linguistics, literature and philosophy to train our students in writing effectively across genres for a variety of audiences.It is there in our assessment methods, which make regular use of group video discussions of philosophical problems. Produced using online meeting software, this kind of assessment brings Western philosophy’s oldest genre, the Platonic dialogue, directly into the 21st century.It is there in the research-led modules we teach in the final year of our bachelor’s degrees and in our master’s degree. Our students can opt to study moral and political aspects of public artworks or beauty standards, for example. They can consider the social inequalities in opportunities to speak and be heard, and what can be done about them. They can analyse the ways that features of social media apps shape our identities and political discussions online.And it is there most explicitly in our core modules bringing current philosophical work into dialogue with professions outside the academy. In our new bachelor’s degrees, all final-year students must complete a group project that recommends a specific policy or strategy for government or a large organisation. These reports draw on philosophical analyses and debates in relation to an issue of societal concern. Students must also collaborate to present this report verbally.In our master’s degree, students must work in groups to justify and design an event that brings academic philosophers together with members of another profession to exchange ideas with the aim of benefiting both groups. As with the core module at bachelor’s level, this requires students to form a deep knowledge of a current philosophical issue to see how it relates to professional practice.This new theme does not displace the content usually found in philosophy degree programmes at UK universities. Almost all our modules at every level are wholly theoretical in content. Almost every module has a traditional essay as the main assessment. Our students will still write detailed analyses of the justification of belief, the nature of the self, the relative merits of consequentialism and deontology, and so forth. They will still read Plato, Aristotle and Kant – and Arendt, Beauvoir and Fanon.But they will also end up with a clear idea of the relevance of all this to whatever careers they might want to pursue. They will be equipped with the ability, the confidence and the examples they need to explain their education’s relevance in job applications and interviews. Once in their jobs, they will immediately be able to bring their philosophical knowledge and skills into professional discussions with their colleagues.Many students interested in philosophy as a degree subject will be concerned about its employability prospects, especially if their parents and wider family have not studied at university. We are emphasising this new theme to reassure all prospective students that philosophy is a perfectly sensible degree to take, as well as one that opens up an intrinsically and endlessly fascinating world of thought.Jonathan Webber is head of philosophy at Cardiff University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Philosophy graduates need to know they are highly employable

Many students interested in studying philosophy at university will be concerned about its job prospects, so they require courses that demonstrate how to translate its skills into a career, writes Jonathan Webber

Philosophy graduates are extremely employable – but they need degree programmes that show them why

Trigger warnings for content are what forecasts are for rain; they prepare us to weather distressing experiences. In a higher education context, these warnings allow students to choose if and how to engage with the course content, such as by employing emotional management skills, refraining from a discussion or leaving the classroom. However, the balance of benefits versus risks of using trigger warnings in classrooms has become a point of contention.Triggering according to whom?Classrooms should be judgement-free zones, yet when implementing trigger warnings, the instructor subjectively defines what they consider to be triggering, but we don’t know all of our students’ idiosyncrasies so can’t always know which buttons to avoid pushing.If a student’s trigger is not prefaced with a warning, they may feel that the classroom isn’t inclusive or safe. Conversely, if an instructor tacks warnings on to all content that has the slightest potential to harm, it trivialises trauma and dilutes the authenticity of these warnings.Perhaps trigger warnings might be helpful for all students, with or without histories of significant trauma, in the way that providing sufficient colour contrast on course materials increases readability for all students, whether they have a visual impairment or not. Akin to this, we accept when television shows and news outlets warn us that “viewer discretion is advised” whether we personally need the warning or&nbsp;not.Psychologically safe or unsafe?Rates of mental illness among students have been rising. Trigger warnings can reduce stigma and increase accessibility to course content by forewarning students to set up strategies to safely engage with content. Kate Manne in The New York Times writes that not providing trigger warnings is “akin to occasionally throwing a spider at an arachnophobe”. This resistance may be tied to the medical hierarchy where physical illnesses and trauma are still seen as more legitimate than mental illness and trauma.However, adding trigger warnings to course content does not lower anxiety, a recent meta-analysis of studies worldwide found. Warnings can even raise anxiety by activating a fear-loaded, anticipatory “brace yourself!” feeling and removing an opportunity to build resilience. Avoidance of distressing stimuli is a central symptom of anxiety disorders such as PTSD and phobias, with exposure therapy being a common antidote. Furthermore, warnings will lower anxiety only if the student has sufficient time between the warning and the trigger to acquire and implement necessary support and resources. That length of time differs from person to person, and a student won’t have their therapist sitting beside them in the lecture hall.Trigger warnings might also provide a false sense of empathy and safety. Similar to land acknowledgements, trigger warnings may feel like an obligatory, disingenuous action if the instructor hasn’t done the work to become educated and committed to “do&nbsp;better”. Additionally, they aren’t usually equipped with the skills or sufficient campus resources to support students, nor is it within the scope of their responsibilities.Protecting whose autonomy?Trigger warnings provide students with the autonomy to make informed decisions about if and how they engage with triggering content. But what about instructors’ autonomy and freedom of speech? Universities are settings of rich discourse that encourage students to think critically and push the boundaries of their minds. We must tease apart the difference between discomfort caused by a trauma response or cognitive dissonance, of which the latter is necessary to grow intellectually. We must also keep in mind that trigger warnings are intended to allow students to safely engage with, not shield them from, distressing content. Although this may mean leaving the classroom for some, which disadvantages learning in another way.A sign of the times?Perhaps trigger warnings are indicative of having Generation&nbsp;Z students in our classrooms, and related factors such as mental illness rates rising and the increased focus on consent and boundary-setting. However, sometimes the pendulum may swing too far into “cancel culture” whereby an instructor’s entire career can come crumbling down because of the inclusion of one singular subjectively triggering piece of content.Trigger warnings also feed into the perception that Generation&nbsp;Z students are being coddled and bubble-wrapped. As Harold H.&nbsp;Klapper of The Harvard Crimson writes, “The real world is not curated for emotional stability.” Life doesn’t come with trigger warnings! A classroom can be a safe space for students to practise the skills necessary to build resilience and better handle the harsh realities of our world.Resource collection: Well-being in higher educationRecognising and dealing with bullying on college campusesManaging empathy fatigue as a teacherA path forward…Beyond trigger warnings, there are many other ways that instructors can create safe learning environments and help foster their students’ wellness, such as the following:Conduct a risk-benefit analysis of your course materials. Is content used to hook students with sensationalism despite adding little pedagogical purpose? Can your learning outcomes be achieved with alternatives that are less emotionally charged?Reconceptualise your course materials with a universal design for learning (UDL) lens. Give students a choice of ways to engage with course content, such as by using captions and alt-text if audio and images are too triggering, or by having an online module or video of the potentially triggering content so that students can work through it on their own pace and in the privacy of their home. You can also have students choose their own topics for essays and presentations and what to read from a selection of options each week.Include a blanket statement or content note in your syllabus alerting students that the course discusses potentially distressing topics and provide a list of resources in case they need assistance when engaging with those topics.Reconsider including attendance and participation in course grades. A student shouldn’t be inadvertently penalised if their coping mechanisms involve the need to leave the classroom or refrain from participating in a class discussion.Use trauma-informed pedagogical methods such as using mindful language, building trust and encouraging open communication.Before sharing potentially distressing content, scaffold it with a high-level contextualisation of the topic and explain how the content connects to learning outcomes.Make time for breaks during or after exposure to potentially distressing content, as well as group debriefs or personal reflection activities after.If learning is supposed to ignite a fire in our students’ minds, then we need to ask ourselves whether our choice of course content and use of trigger warnings are like pouring gasoline on the fire, or if it burns away cognitive dissonance within a safe environment, sparking enlightenment and growth.Daniella Sieukaran is a senior educational developer (curriculum) at Dalhousie University’s Centre for Learning and Teaching and teaches in the department of psychology and neuroscience.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

To trigger warn or not to trigger warn: that is the question

An instructor subjectively defines what they consider triggering, so how useful are they and how can we get trigger warnings right?


To trigger-warn or not to trigger-warn: that is the question

When students from archaeology courses at German and Australian universities collaborate on a project to build a virtual museum, this is&nbsp;online global collaborative learning (OGCL). In this model, geographically dispersed students learn with and from each other, use digital and online technologies, and follow a co-designed curriculum in a flexible learning environment that is predominantly asynchronous. Also referred to as collaborative online international learning (COIL), this approach aligns with internationalisation at home (IaH) objectives. &nbsp;&nbsp;OGCL offers increased global competence and digital literacy, global networking and enhanced employability, as well as co-creation of knowledge and reflective practice. Despite this, it is not typically embedded into formal curricula in higher education. Barriers to its implementation include educators’ lack of time, minimal understanding of learning design for cross-institution collaboration, educational technology challenges and time-zone issues.&nbsp;A good plan is essential to make online international courses a successTHE podcast: cross-cultural communication in the international classroomUnearthing the hidden curriculum in international classroomsKey concepts and practices of OGCL draw from pedagogical practices including connected learning, also known as connectivism; online collaborative learning or collaborativism; and communities of practice (CoP). Key affordances of OGCL are increased global mindset and development of cultural intelligence. In addition, curriculum design that is “glocalised” implies a “think global and act local” mantra where differences are accepted and potentially applied to a local context without homogenisation. For example, collaboration around climate change can lead to solutions with bespoke applications in each participating country.Focus on asynchronous online learningOne of the barriers to wider adoption of OGCL is lack of understanding of asynchronous online learning. Our learning management systems (such as Moodle) are geared towards “just in time” asynchronous learning, even as they allow for content sharing, interactions and assessment submission. Although edtech tools have evolved to offer interactive learning beyond the synchronous, unless these opportunities are well designed and relevant to the learning, or part of assessment, they may not be widely used by teachers or students.&nbsp;Even post-Covid, tutorials tend to be synchronous, either on campus, online or hybrid. But where multiple time zones are in play, to leverage the features of OGCL, interactions must be mostly asynchronous and this requires clear communication protocols to ensure successful collaboration.&nbsp;Learning design for online global collaborative learningCurriculum-embedded, cross-institutional collaboration must align with curriculum to some extent, at least, either within a discipline or in an interdisciplinary context.What are the attributes of a designed OGCL project?Length: collaborative projects can be anything from three weeks to three months long – with a preference for about five to six weeksGroups: cross-institution student groups with two to five participants in eachSynchronous session (opening the collaboration): an online meeting for participants usually in the first week of the projectAsynchronous collaboration: student groups communicate independently after the opening session. They are encouraged to use a combination of provided and chosen technology tools. Synchronous group meetings are optionalCo-creation: after a collaborative investigation, where students share cultural perspectives, biases and understandings around the chosen topic, they co-create an artefact such as a website, video, podcast, poster, debate or even an immersive experience (such as a virtual museum)Synchronous showcase (closing the collaboration): the final group “product” is showcased in a synchronous session at the end of the collaborationAssessment: successful OGCL is typically linked with assessment.How do you make this happen for your institution?It can be hard work proposing, encouraging and designing OGCL within higher education.These suggestions will make a positive difference to staff and student success:Support institutional adoption: Ideally, someone in your institution has the role of leading OGCL and coordinating partnerships, encouraging collaborative learning design and ensuring implementation is scaffolded.Build communities of practice: Internally a CoP provides a means for sharing the experience of OGCL among stakeholders. Externally, courses are available where you can learn more about the pedagogy. As the person leading this at the University of Southern Queensland, I encourage staff participation through a “What’s in it for me?” discussion around pedagogical leadership in online learning skills, globalisation of curriculum, research partnerships and future promotion – apart from the “feel good” aspect (which is totally true).Foster partners and plan together: Finding and maintaining viable and like-minded partners for OGCL is a key to success. You and your academic partner(s) will collaboratively design every aspect: inputs, process, outputs, technologies, guidelines for students (including communication and collaboration protocols). Be prepared for things to not go as smoothly as you want the first timeMonitor, support and encourage student groups: Often students have not been asked to collaborate across borders before and will not understand the requirement unless it is made very clear, step-by-step. Provide student autonomy and encourage agile learning within groups.I am leading an international research project, “Exploring curriculum-based online global collaboration in higher education”. By reviewing current practices, the goals of this research include determining educator preparation requirements and levels, defining attributes of learning design around co-creation of a shared product, and clarifying essential benefits for all stakeholders. Post-Covid interest has been renewed in not only making this learning experience possible within our institution but creating a bespoke programme as a point of difference in a competitive higher education market.In summary, adopting OGCL can help prepare future-ready graduates who are interculturally aware and globally competent and who are comfortable connecting beyond borders using technologies to co-create knowledge.&nbsp;The challenge of how we infuse online global collaboration into higher education, in meaningful ways, as practice and not in tokenistic ways, requires:design for cross-discipline and cross-institution learningalignment with assessment requirementsagreement around essential technologies for connection and collaboration, while also giving students choices and freedom to find alternative methodsupskilling academics in HyFlex learning focusing on asynchronous deliveryproviding support for finding partners and project implementation.We are negligent if we do not provide this opportunity to our students in higher education at least once a year as part of their programme or degree.Julie Lindsay is the senior education technology adviser at the University of Southern Queensland.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

How to make online global collaborative learning work

As higher education strives to ‘reset’ in the age of AI to become more flexible, interdisciplinary, open, focused on real-world learning and with authentic assessment, curriculum-embedded OGCL is a key path to future-ready graduates 

Beyond borders: how to make online global collaborative learning work

Uoffer Global, an award-winning education consultancy company, has funded new scholarships to attract the best and brightest Chinese students to Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, helping them reach their full potential as leaders and change-makers.The scholarship recipients will receive funding to study for an MBA at the school, allowing them to enhance their practical business skills and learn how to use business as a force for good. Two scholarships are available each academic year for an initial period of three years and are awarded on the basis of leadership potential and academic excellence.&nbsp;Uoffer Global has partnerships&nbsp;with&nbsp;over 100 prestigious universities, colleges and pathway providers worldwide.&nbsp;It is headquartered in China and the UK and has over 40 branches in the UK, China, South-east Asia and Africa. It has partnered with over 100 universities and all pathway providers around the world.&nbsp;Commenting on the new scholarship, the managing director of Uoffer Global, Christina Ke, said: “This collaboration promotes international partnership and development. We are excited to see the positive impact it will have on both students and society. We are deeply grateful to our students and every organisation that has supported Uoffer Global on this journey. Your trust and collaboration have been instrumental in making this initiative a reality. Together, we are creating opportunities that will shape the future of global education and cooperation.”The school hosted a delegation from Uoffer Global for a signing ceremony on 20 September 2024. The occasion offered a chance to celebrate the partnership and discuss how the initiative will provide opportunities to attract diverse global talent to Saïd Business School and nurture high-end talent who will return to China after their studies.&nbsp;Jonathan Reynolds, deputy dean for external relations at Oxford Saïd, commented: “The diversity of our MBA cohort at Oxford Saïd&nbsp;is a real strength and plays a big part in the positive experience of our students. Being among peers with vastly different educational backgrounds, from a range of industries and a wide array of geographies, exposes all our students to different perspectives. Uoffer Global’s generous gift will encourage talented Chinese students to choose Oxford Saïd&nbsp;and help enhance the experience of all our MBA students.”For institutions seeking to engage with active student communities, Uoffer Global stands as a reputable and trusted partner, especially within the Chinese and other Asian markets. Its commitment to personalised, localised services extends to students pursuing international education in the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Ireland and New Zealand. Its dedicated team of British Council certified advisors supports students, from application counselling and visa assistance to enhancing their academic experience.&nbsp;Uoffer Global plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of higher education by nurturing strong and reliable connections and actively engaging the global community of students, universities and industry partners. At its student support centres in the UK, Uoffer Global arranges face-to-face mentoring sessions with professionals from top universities and the wider UK higher education sector, equipping international students with in-depth knowledge about courses, university applications, academic success and career development.Find out more about the&nbsp;Oxford MBA and&nbsp;scholarship opportunities by&nbsp;Uoffer Global.

In a significant collaboration, Oxford Saïd and Uoffer Global have launched a new scholarship for MBA students to support future Chinese leaders

A new collaboration will see Oxford Saïd foster future Chinese leaders through MBA scholarships

Securing a spot in a top psychology graduate programme is an exciting yet challenging journey. The competition is fierce and institutions are looking for candidates who not only meet academic requirements but also demonstrate passion and commitment to the field. By focusing on certain crucial aspects, you can significantly improve your chances of success.&nbsp;Understanding the requirementsFamiliarise yourself with the requirements of the programmes you are interested in. Each institution may have different prerequisites, such as coursework, research experience or standardised test scores. Pay close attention to these details as they are pivotal in tailoring your application. For instance,&nbsp;choosing an online psychology program&nbsp;might offer more flexibility in meeting these criteria, especially if you have other commitments.Ensure that you understand the importance of GPA and relevant coursework. Many programmes have a minimum GPA requirement, often around 3.0 or higher. Taking advanced psychology courses can also bolster your application by showcasing your knowledge and preparedness for graduate-level work. Stay informed about changes in admission policies or new prerequisites by regularly checking programme websites or contacting admissions offices directly.It's also crucial to consider the specific focus areas or specialisations offered by each programme. Many psychology graduate programmes have distinct tracks or concentrations, such as clinical psychology, cognitive psychology or developmental psychology.Aligning your interests and experiences with these specialisations can make your application more compelling. Research the faculty members in each programme and identify those whose work resonates with your interests. Mentioning potential mentors or specific research projects in your application can demonstrate your commitment and fit for the programme.&nbsp;Emphasising your research experienceYour research experience is a critical component of your application. Graduate programmes seek candidates with hands-on research skills and the ability to contribute to ongoing projects. Start by engaging in research opportunities during your undergraduate studies or through internships. Working closely with faculty on their research projects not only provides practical experience but also helps build strong relationships for future letters of recommendation.In addition to practical experience, familiarise yourself with academic publications in your area of interest. Reading recent studies and understanding trends will help you articulate your research interests more clearly in your personal statement. Remember, research experience plays a significant role in shaping your application as it demonstrates your dedication and potential to succeed in graduate school.Consider presenting your research experience in a portfolio. This could include abstracts of projects you’ve worked on, posters from conferences you’ve attended or links to published papers if you have any. Creating a digital portfolio or research summary document can provide admissions committees with a comprehensive view of your research capabilities.Additionally, if you’ve participated in any&nbsp;psychology-related volunteer work or internships, highlight how these experiences have contributed to your research skills or understanding of psychological principles in practice.&nbsp;Crafting a compelling personal statementYour personal statement is an opportunity to showcase who you are beyond grades and test scores. It’s essential to convey your passion for psychology, your career aspirations and why you are drawn to specific programmes. Be genuine and reflective; admissions committees appreciate applicants who present a clear narrative of their journey and goals.Start by brainstorming significant experiences that have influenced your decision to pursue psychology. Highlight any challenges you’ve overcome and how they’ve shaped your perspective. Also, tailor each personal statement to align with the values and strengths of the programme you’re applying to, demonstrating that you’ve done thorough research into their offerings.&nbsp;Securing strong letters of recommendationLetters of recommendation are another vital aspect of your application. Choose recommenders who know you well and can speak to your academic abilities, research skills and character. Ideally, these should be faculty members or supervisors who have closely observed your work ethic and contributions.When requesting letters of recommendation, provide your recommenders with ample time and all the necessary information about the programmes you’re applying to. A detailed resume, a draft of your personal statement and any specific points you’d like them to address can help them write more compelling letters that highlight your strengths.By focusing on these key areas – understanding requirements, emphasising research experience, crafting a strong personal statement and securing strong recommendations – you can create a standout application for psychology graduate programmes. Keep in mind that preparation and attention to detail are crucial in making a lasting impression on admissions committees.

Applying to psychology graduate programmes is a competitive process. To stand out, it is essential to understand what makes a strong application

Boosting your application for psychology graduate programmes

Social work is a field that’s all about helping people overcome life’s challenges. It’s not just a job; it’s a vocation that requires compassion, dedication, and a genuine desire to improve the lives of others.To get started in this fulfilling career, education is key. Most social work positions require at least a bachelor’s degree in social work or a related field. However, if you’re serious about making a big impact, you might want to consider gaining a master’s degree.Master of Social Work Degrees (MSW degrees)&nbsp;are the gold standard in the field. They can open doors and lead to better job opportunities, higher salaries and a deeper understanding of social work theories and practices. This foundation is particularly important for tackling complex social issues effectively.&nbsp;Building a strong foundation: education and trainingWhen pursuing a career in social work, you should consider how to build a solid foundation for your future career.Choose the right programme: When looking for an MSW degree, make sure it’s accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. This ensures that you’re getting a quality education that meets industry standards. Look for programmes that offer both theoretical and practical learning experiencesGain practical experience: Academia is great, but hands-on experience is where the real learning happens. Look for internships, volunteer opportunities or part-time jobs in social service organisations. This will give you a taste of what social work is really like and help you build valuable connections in the fieldDevelop essential skills: Social work isn’t just about having a big heart; you’ll need to develop skills like active listening, problem-solving and cultural competence. These skills will be crucial in your day-to-day work with clients&nbsp;Navigating the job market: finding your nicheOnce you’ve got your degree and gained some work experience, it’s time to find your place in the vast world of social work.Explore different specialisations: Social work is a diverse field with tonnes of different areas you can specialise in, from child welfare to mental health and substance abuse. Take some time to explore different specialisations and see what resonates with youNetwork: In social work, who you know can be just as important as what you know. Attend conferences, join professional organisations like the National Association of Social Workers, and connect with other social workers on LinkedIn. You never know where your next job opportunity might come fromConsider licensure: Depending on where you live and what type of social work you want to do, you might need to get licensed. Look into the requirements in your state and start working towards licensure as soon as you canHere are some of the most common specialisations:Child welfare: Social workers in this specialisation focus on protecting children from abuse and neglect, working with families to ensure child safety and helping children find permanent homes through adoption or foster careMental health: These social workers provide counselling, therapy and support services to individuals, couples, families and groups dealing with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, trauma and substance abuseHealthcare: Social workers in healthcare focus on helping patients navigate the medical system, providing emotional support during difficult diagnoses or treatments, connecting them with resources for financial assistance or home care, and coordinating discharge plans from hospitals to homeSchool social work: A&nbsp;school social worker&nbsp;works within schools to help students succeed academically and socially, addressing issues such as bullying, truancy and behavioural problems, while also working closely with teachers, parents and school administratorsGerontology: Social workers in gerontology specialise in working with older adults, providing support for seniors and their families, helping them access resources for healthcare, housing and transportation, and advocating for their needs within the community&nbsp;Overcoming challenges and finding fulfilmentSocial work can be emotionally draining and sometimes downright frustrating. But it’s also incredibly rewarding. Here are some tips for staying motivated and finding fulfilment in your career:Practice self-care: You can’t pour from an empty cup. Make sure you’re taking care of yourself so you can be there for your clientsCelebrate small wins: Social change doesn’t happen overnight. Learn to appreciate the small victories and the positive impact you’re making, no matter how small it might seemKeep learning: The field of social work is always evolving. Stay curious and keep learning throughout your career. This will help you stay engaged and passionate about your workTaking that first step towards a career in social work can feel daunting, but it’s worth it. With the right education, experience and mindset, you can make a real difference in people’s lives. So go ahead, take that leap. The world needs more compassionate, dedicated social workers like you.

A career in social work can help you make a lasting impact. Find out everything you need to know to get started in this rewarding field

Embarking on a rewarding journey: social work as a career path

Online counselling degree programmes have become increasingly popular due to their flexibility and accessibility. If you are considering this educational path, it is essential to understand what these programmes offer and how they can fit into your life. This article will provide insights into the structure, benefits and potential career outcomes of pursuing an online counselling degree.&nbsp;The structure of online counselling degree programmesOnline counselling degrees offer a unique blend of theoretical knowledge and practical application. The curriculum typically includes core courses in psychology, human development and ethics, along with specialised courses tailored to various counselling approaches and techniques. You will likely engage in interactive lectures, discussion forums and virtual role-playing exercises designed to mirror real-world counselling scenarios.One of the most significant advantages of&nbsp;online counselling degrees&nbsp;is the ability to learn at your own pace. This flexibility allows you to manage your studies alongside personal and professional responsibilities. However, it is crucial to remain disciplined and self-motivated to keep up with the coursework and practical requirements.Accredited online counselling programmes often require a certain number of supervised clinical hours. These hours are essential for gaining hands-on experience and developing the skills needed for effective counselling practice. You may complete these hours through local placements or virtual simulations, depending on the programme’s structure.Many online counselling degree programmes also incorporate asynchronous learning components, allowing students to access course materials and complete assignments at their convenience. This format often includes pre-recorded lectures, interactive multimedia content and self-paced modules.While this flexibility is advantageous, it’s important to note that some programmes may also include synchronous elements such as live webinars or virtual group sessions to foster real-time interaction and collaborative learning experiences.&nbsp;The benefits of pursuing an online counselling degreeThe primary benefit of an online counselling degree is the accessibility it provides. Whether you live in a rural area or have a demanding job, an online programme can help you achieve your educational goals without the need for relocation or extensive commuting.Another advantage is the opportunity to connect with a diverse group of peers and professionals. Online platforms often facilitate networking through virtual meetups, discussion boards and collaborative projects. This exposure to different perspectives can enrich your learning experience and enhance your professional network.Pursuing an online counselling degree also allows you to develop strong time management and self-discipline skills. Balancing coursework with other commitments requires effective planning and prioritisation, which are valuable skills in any professional setting.Online counselling degrees often provide access to advanced digital tools and resources that are increasingly relevant in modern counselling practices. Students may gain experience with telehealth platforms, digital assessment tools and online therapy techniques.This exposure not only enhances the learning experience but also prepares graduates for the evolving landscape of mental health services, where remote counselling and digital interventions are becoming more prevalent.&nbsp;Career opportunities after completing an online counselling degreeEarning an online counselling degree opens up various career opportunities in mental health services, schools, private practice and community organisations. You can work as a licensed professional counsellor, school counsellor or even pursue specialised roles in substance abuse or family therapy.Many graduates find that their online education has adequately prepared them for licensure exams and professional certification requirements. Accredited programmes are structured to meet state licensure criteria, ensuring that you are well-equipped for the demands of your chosen career path.The demand for skilled counsellors continues to grow as more people seek mental health support. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,&nbsp;employment for mental health counsellors&nbsp;is projected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations over the next decade. This trend highlights the relevance and importance of obtaining a quality education in this field.&nbsp;Tips for succeeding in an online counselling degree programmeTo succeed in an online counselling degree programme, it is essential to stay organised and proactive. Create a study schedule that allows you to allocate sufficient time to coursework, assignments and self-care. Regularly participating in virtual classes and discussions will help you stay engaged and connected with your peers.Additionally, take advantage of the resources provided by your programme. Many institutions offer academic support services such as tutoring, writing centres and library access. Utilising these resources can enhance your learning experience and help you overcome any challenges you may encounter.Lastly, establish clear communication with your instructors and supervisors. Don’t hesitate to ask questions or seek feedback on your progress. Building a rapport with faculty members can provide valuable guidance and mentorship throughout your academic journey.

Pursuing an online counselling degree programme offers flexibility and accessibility, allowing you to balance your education with other commitments. Here’s what you need to know about what these programmes entail and how they can benefit your career

What to expect from an online counselling degree

The digital age has transformed many aspects of our lives, and education is no exception. Social media, often seen as a distraction, is now being used as a powerful tool for teaching. My research introduces a new framework, A Taxonomy of Social Media for Learning (TSML), to effectively integrate social media into class practice, increase student engagement and improve learning outcomes by aligning teaching with the demands of the digital age. Here, I’ll outline how TSML can change the learning landscape.The first step in learningThe journey begins with viewing, the foundational step of TSML. Here, students explore the course content on a social media page before formal learning begins. Lecturers share a variety of materials – readings, summaries, videos and more – on a group page, allowing students to familiarise themselves with the course. This initial exposure sets the stage for deeper learning, ensuring that students understand the basics before moving on.&nbsp;Engaging with contentOnce students are familiar with the course material, the next step is posting. This is where the actual teaching takes place. Lecturers post detailed explanations of topics, clarifications of concepts and additional resources such as relevant articles, videos and readings to enhance students’ understanding. For example, I posted some examples of previous years’ materials to demonstrate how to prepare, present and reflect on the criteria when creating and delivering materials.&nbsp;How to preserve academic credibility when engaging with social mediaThis stage is critical for deepening student understanding. By breaking down complex concepts and providing illustrative examples, lecturers ensure that students can fully grasp the material. Engaging students through a variety of techniques and interactive content helps maintain their interest and facilitates better learning.Communication and collaborationInteracting takes learning to an active level, encouraging students to engage with their peers and tutors. Through group discussions, often facilitated on the social media group page, students apply their knowledge in a practical setting. This allows for collaborative work and real-time feedback from peers and lecturers.&nbsp;This phase promotes critical thinking, teamwork and effective communication – skills essential for real-world problem solving. Sharing feedback and collaborating helps students deepen understanding and refine work.Deepening understandingIn the analysing phase, students delve deeper into material by breaking it down into smaller parts and understanding the connections between concepts. This helps separate fact and opinion, compare ideas and identify underlying structures. Analysing their own and other students’ work, students develop a nuanced understanding of the material, preparing them for innovative and informed projects.&nbsp;Improving quality&nbsp;Evaluating is a key component of TSML and focuses on improving the quality of student work through feedback. Students evaluate their own and their peers’ work against set criteria, while lecturers provide additional insight. This process helps students to identify strengths and areas for improvement, fostering a growth mindset.&nbsp;How to preserve academic credibility when engaging with social mediaSpotlight collection: how to make social media a friend, not a foeUsing knowledge graphs to integrate social media into curriculaAuthentic assessment methods, such as self- and peer-assessment, are particularly effective in this context. Social media platforms facilitate this by providing timely and constructive feedback that can significantly improve learning outcomes.Showcasing workThe final stage, curating, involves the presentation of revised and polished work on social media. This process adds value by allowing students to refine their work based on feedback from previous stages. Curating content on social media gives students the opportunity to showcase their innovative projects, learning experiences and engage with a wider audience. The use of hashtags and other interactive elements can further increase engagement and visibility. This stage not only promotes visual learning and critical thinking, but also gives students a sense of pride and achievement.Which platforms work best?Before diving into the magic of e-learning, decide on the most appropriate of these digital tools. Remember that social media trends can be as different between countries as night and day. In the UK, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat reign supreme. In Turkey, it’s all about Instagram and Facebook, with Snapchat on the sidelines. Identify your audience’s preferred platform, making social media learning easier.Reducing risksWhen using the TSML in the learning process, consider the risks and issues inherent in social media platforms. Some students may be reluctant to join social media platforms for educational purposes because of privacy concerns. To persuade these students and to protect their privacy, inform them how to adjust their privacy settings to protect their personal and sensitive information from third-party online users and those who wish to harass others. Also, to mitigate the risk of a non-university platform becoming unavailable, educators would need to select a platform that has a back-up process, allowing them to download the relevant posts.The TSML is a game changer in educational technology and digital pedagogy. Imagine social media transforming your teaching milieu into a vibrant, interactive learning hub! Harnessing the dynamic power of these platforms, TSML creates inclusive, accessible and fun learning experiences. This innovative approach has the potential to reshape the future of education, offering new insights and exciting opportunities for teaching and learning. For educators, it is like a magic wand, making it easier than ever to increase engagement and achieve outstanding learning outcomes in our digital age.&nbsp;Mehmet Demir is a research fellow at the University of Birmingham.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Transform digital pedagogy with social media

In order to ready the classroom for the digital age, integrate social media platforms into your teaching. Here’s how to do it

The role of a third space practitioner working in higher education transcends the dichotomy of traditional academic and professional services. The nature of such positions will typically mean that third space practitioners possess specialist knowledge, skills and insights related to teaching, learning, assessment and the student experience, distinct from those working in more traditional roles.So you’d think there would be a significant benefit in engaging third space practitioners when reviewing teaching and learning practices and designing curriculum. Despite this, it is my experience that many third space practitioners feel frustrated that they’re not included. Here, I’ll consider the different viewpoints that third space practitioners could offer in curriculum development discussions. I’ll reflect on how an institution might position its third space practitioners to better work in partnership with academic staff.Diverse viewpoints from across the third spaceThe higher education third space is not synonymous with a single field of practice. Within a university, third space practitioners will be based across different teams, each of which will have a slightly different angle on curriculum development.The learning development viewpoint: Learning development practitioners, often called academic skills tutors or advisers, will routinely work in partnership with students to help them gain the skills required for successful higher education study, such as academic writing, maths, presentation skills and independent learning strategies. Learning developers support students to understand unspoken conventions associated with studying at university, the so-called hidden curriculum. Through regularly working with students on a one-to-one basis, learning development practitioners will have particular insights into how students from across subject areas experience learning and teaching. Given that many students will seek their support while preparing assignments or when interpreting their feedback, they’ll also have a view on assessment design.Tips for moving from learning designer to educational leaderFor learning design projects, build the time to reflect on the past into your futureCrafting an inclusive curriculum: how to write programme learning outcomesThe library viewpoint: Librarians will be able to provide specialist guidance on how to support students to develop research and information literacy skills, such as literature searching and referencing. Subject specialist librarians may be particularly well placed to provide guidance in terms of corresponding curriculum development, as they will have experience of working directly with these student groups. Librarians will also be able to advise course teams on existing library collections and support the costing of bids for new resources. Given the recent and well-documented financial challenges experienced by many universities, this is particularly relevant.The careers and employability viewpoint: University careers consultants and advisers will be able to provide insights into employer needs and emerging industry trends. In the context of curriculum development, priority areas for input could potentially include graduate competencies, career preparedness and opportunities for students to engage in work-based learning (as per the Employability Strand of Bedfordshire’s curriculum framework). Careers teams may also be able to facilitate opportunities for course teams to consult directly with relevant employers on course design and content.The digital learning systems viewpoint: Digital learning specialists will be able to advise in relation to digital system functionalities, such as virtual learning environments, virtual classrooms, originality checking and lecture capture software. They can advise course teams about how existing and emergent technologies can best facilitate curriculum delivery, and given the speed of technological advancements, this is critical. Learning technologists may also be able to provide course teams with system usage data specific to their students, to support the evaluation of existing pedagogical approaches and inform future planning.The mental well-being viewpoint: Over the past five years, there have been increasing numbers of universities signing up to the University Mental Health Charter, as concerns about student mental well-being grow. The Charter “Learn” domain requires institutions to demonstrate how mental well-being is promoted through learning, teaching and assessment practices. Many colleagues working in student support roles will have valuable insights into students’ lived experiences and are therefore well positioned to provide guidance to course teams, pointing out ways the curriculum might best support student mental well-being.The academic development viewpoint: As academic developers are based in central learning and teaching units, they are perhaps more likely to be consulted during curriculum development than other third space stakeholders. Academic developers support course teams by sharing effective pedagogical practices and innovations. Typically, academic developers would also provide bespoke professional development opportunities aligned to academic staff needs, such as training with a focus on emergent priorities related to curriculum development.Further, there may be additional viewpoints from practitioners that border the third space (such as international student advisers, foundation year teams or English as a second language tutors).Get third space practitioners engaged in curriculum developmentAs noted, there are longstanding concerns among many members of the third space community about how much opportunity they have to engage in curriculum development. Because of this, institutions should consider how third space practitioners might be better positioned to work with course teams.For example, the University of Bedfordshire’s Curriculum Framework includes a dedicated co-creation strand, emphasising the necessity for course teams to routinely engage with learners, industry experts and teaching and learning practitioners (including those working in the third space).Similarly, universities should consider formalising a requirement for third space representatives to participate at different stages of curriculum review or new course development processes. This will encourage meaningful co-creation from the outset and help to mitigate the risk that third space colleagues are just asked to provide a stamp of approval for what may be already well-developed ideas.Take the step of formalising attendee requirements at dedicated development events. This will ensure that, where appropriate, third space teams are collectively involved in discussions rather than consulted in a piecemeal fashion.When we draw on diverse third space viewpoints, we help to ensure the curriculum best meets the needs of students. Teaching and learning leaders should make it a priority to facilitate curriculum co-creation opportunities for course teams and third space practitioners.Steve Briggs is director of learning and teaching excellence at the University of Bedfordshire.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Engaging third space practitioners in curriculum development

Third space practitioners are often overlooked in the curriculum development process, to everyone’s detriment. Here’s a look at the viewpoints they can offer and how to engage them better

The benefits of engaging third space practitioners in curriculum development

The silent lecture theatre is an all-too-familiar challenge. A question is asked, followed by…nothing. Or, perhaps more often, the same two or three students raise their hands, offer ideas and ask questions. But from the rest, there is silence.We know that in a learning environment where students feel a sense of belonging, we want them to be actively engaged. We want students to share their thoughts and challenges and be willing to have a go, even if what they say is “wrong”. How else are they, and we, meant to learn?&nbsp;But why do some students find speaking up in lectures so difficult, when for others it is so easy?What’s in a name? The importance of getting students’ names rightPractical advice: do you speak Gen Z or are you a noob?THE podcast: human connection and the student experienceA concept that can be useful here is that of psychological safety, defined by Harvard Business School professor of leadership and management Amy Edmonson as “the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes”, or in other words, a belief that the space is “safe for interpersonal risk taking”.What psychological safety acknowledges is that to speak up is to take a risk. Speaking up comes with consequences, sometimes positive, sometimes negative. It can be useful to consider the cost-benefit model here; whenever we have something to say, we may quickly, and even subconsciously, weigh up the potential costs and benefits of talking. Then we decide whether it’s worth the risk.This doesn’t just apply in lectures; we make these calculations all the time. Shall I say something – or not? Do I admit my mistake? Should I ask for help or try to figure it out for myself? Whether we perceive the benefit to outweigh the cost can depend on how secure we feel in that environment, how we’ve been responded to previously, and our levels of certainty around the norms of our situation.Barriers to students speaking up in classStudents might decide it’s just not worth the risk of speaking up for multiple reasons. Factors in this can include:Uncertainty around social norms: New students often struggle to navigate the implicit rules of participation in large lecture halls, unsure of when and how to contribute. Unclear as to whether they’re doing it right, they may opt to sit back and let others go first.The shock of transition: For students accustomed to smaller school settings where they feel known and confident, the leap to the size and anonymity of a university learning space can be overwhelming, stifling participation. For mature students who have been out of education for a while, the setting may feel similarly uncomfortable.&nbsp;Unfamiliarity with the lecturer: When students do not (yet) have a personal connection with the lecturer, they may feel more anxious and inhibited because they can’t predict how they will respond.Fear of embarrassment and humiliation: Many students fear making mistakes in front of their peers and lecturers. This is likely exacerbated if students are already questioning whether they belong in this space.Fear of ridicule: A slightly different dynamic can occur where students feel self-conscious actively engaging in front of their social group because appearing too keen might be perceived as nerdy or uncool. This is common in school environments, but it can persist in higher education, too.&nbsp;Given all these worries and uncertainties, students may conclude that the costs, or potential costs, of speaking up are too high to make it worth the risk.&nbsp;In my research interviewing undergraduate students about their experiences of the transition to university, all of the above came up as challenges they faced. The strangeness of the new learning environment, the lack of a relationship with their new teachers and the unfamiliar social norms all contributed to a fear of getting it wrong, and potentially being embarrassed or humiliated.So, what can we do about this? How do we create environments where students not only feel safe to speak up but want to?How to reduce the cost and increase the benefit of class participationReturning to our cost-benefit model, we want to reduce the cost of speaking up, while increasing the benefit. There many practical ways to approach this:Reduce the power gradient between lecturer and student: Using first names is a common difference between school and university, but it only works if students know that this is OK. When lecturers share a little of themselves and show an interest in their students, this can help.Agree and share expectations for participation: Are you expecting hands up or answers to be called out? How will you respond if students ask a “stupid” question? What should students do if they don’t understand? The clearer and more explicit you can be about these norms, the better.Thank students for participation: Even, and maybe especially, when they “get it wrong”, show that you appreciate their contribution and make it clear that you value a diversity of voices and perspectives.&nbsp;Normalise making and learning from mistakes: Share what you find challenging in your own work. Embrace it when you make a mistake, model being curious about why it happened, and frame errors as an opportunity for learning.&nbsp;Recognise that engagement doesn’t have to be verbal contributions: Consider mechanisms other than speaking in class for students to engage. Audience-participation methods such as polling and typing comments, especially if they allow for anonymity, can greatly decrease the perceived cost of speaking up.&nbsp;Discuss the benefits of speaking up:&nbsp;Why do you want students to speak up? What will they get from it? How will it help their learning?Most of all, remember that psychological safety is easy to destroy and takes time to build. For some students, it will take repeated reassurances, over time, that the space is safe for them to speak up in. Be patient and know that the work you put into building psychological safety will ultimately make it a better, more inclusive and engaging learning space.Jade Garratt is director of education at Psych Safety and a PhD researcher at the University of Nottingham.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

When the risk of putting their hand up and giving an answer is greater than the benefit, students will remain silent. Here are strategies to encourage them to participate in class

Why your students aren’t speaking up in lectures

What to do when students either dislike writing or feel it isn’t relevant for their future careers? What if they have low confidence in their ability to write well and little motivation to improve?&nbsp;These were issues for an Engineering Foundation Year (EFY), as well as a historic problem around engagement. Some academic skills sessions had low – and in some cases zero – attendance. Students often seemed interested only in their summative grades rather than using formative feedback to improve their work.As an academic skills officer, I worked with colleagues on a research project to test the efficacy of peer feedback in addressing these and related issues across several courses, including the EFY run at our Southampton campus. We ran the study during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years.&nbsp;Spotlight collection: back to the basics of pedagogyResources on how to encourage student self reflectionHow to manage assessment feedback in large classes? Get students involvedPeer feedback (or “peer review” as it is also known) is a well-researched method of teaching academic writing. As well as supporting students in the development of discipline-specific writing skills, it can also increase their feelings of agency and assist in their development as independent learners. However, as a teaching method, it is not widely used in the UK higher education sector.&nbsp;The results of the project were positive, and here are our tips and workarounds to help anyone else thinking of using peer feedback in their own practice.Use technology to anonymise feedbackTraditionally, peer feedback happens in person. However, the lead on the academic skills module in the EFY, Josh Robertson, and I were worried some students would find this too stressful. Instead, Josh suggested running the process via our virtual learning environment (VLE), Blackboard, using its PeerMark function. Students produced a piece of writing (the task) and uploaded it via Turnitin. PeerMark randomly assigned the task to another student for feedback. Guided by tutor-provided criteria (the rubric), students wrote and uploaded their feedback, ready for the original author to access later in the day. The rubrics changed from session to session, allowing for a variety of topics to be covered during the semester. Students did not know whose work they were looking at or who their reviewer was. Staff, however, did. At the end of the project, students remarked on how much they appreciated the anonymity. They particularly liked being able to try out new ideas and approaches without worrying what others thought of them.&nbsp;Focus on quality from the startProviding high-quality feedback is a skill in itself, so we knew students would need support while they learned how to do it. For the first three sessions, we checked their feedback before it was uploaded to the VLE. Although this is fairly labour-intensive, it only needs to be done a few times before students can be left safely to their own devices. We decided to view this initial input as an investment; once students know how to produce good feedback, they can tap into the skill at any point in the future. Students will also transfer their feedback skills into other contexts; ours reported using their new knowledge to feed back to peers on a group project and within an informal study group.Incentivise participationStudent buy-in is essential for the peer feedback project to work, so we attached marks to the process. Students had to both upload a task and provide a review in order to gain the points. We also based the tasks on a piece of work that would eventually be submitted for assessment. This allowed the students to create and refine their assignments over the course of the semester, incorporating the feedback they received along the way.Let students’ values outsmart AIApart from an expectation that the writing would be their own work, nothing was in place to stop the students from using generative AI. However, when we surveyed them, they were clear that they highly valued the reciprocity of the feedback process. In particular, they appreciated it when everyone took the time and effort to prepare their tasks properly and construct full and helpful feedback. We strongly suspect the use of peer feedback may therefore have mitigated against the use of GenAI tools such as ChatGPT. In any event, we hope it gave them confidence in their abilities as writers and thus removed some of the temptation to use AI in the future.How students felt about peer feedbackOverall, the students were enthusiastic about peer feedback. Of those surveyed, 69 per cent felt that it contributed to their receiving a better grade in their assessment, 51 per cent said they would have been happy to undertake the feedback process even if there had been no marks attached, and an overwhelming 87 per cent said that they would like to use it again in future, according to results for the 2023-24 academic year. We also improved attendance, averaging 79 per cent attendance across all the sessions. Further, students told us that they now felt confident editing and reviewing their own work.&nbsp;Peer feedback has its challenges, but this project was generally a success and we look forward to it becoming a fixed feature of the Engineering Foundation Year in the future.Alison Daniell is an academic skills officer in the enhancement team at the University of Southampton.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Peer feedback: a burden or route to better academic writing?

Asking students to give anonymous feedback on each other’s work can not only result in better writing skills but also offer them opportunities to try new approaches and refine assessment tasks

Peer feedback: a burden for students or route to better academic writing?

The traditional method of delivery in higher education is the teacher-centric approach of information dissemination. The teacher prepares and delivers a lecture, perhaps followed by a homework study task for reinforcement. Flipped learning inverts this process, so that the teacher follows the approach below:1. Instructional materials are prepared and shared ahead of class.2. Information-transmission teaching is done outside the classroom.3. Focus in class is on problem-solving, application and discussion.The overall goal is to provide more opportunities for active learning in-class. This has been an aim for educators for decades, ever since the idea that teaching should transition from a “sage on the stage” to a “guide on the side” approach to delivery was first posed.Teachers typically adopt flipped learning by creating online video lectures or reading tasks, but the success of this approach hinges on students completing the activities ahead of class. If students don’t engage, it can disturb the plans for the in-person session and disrupt the teacher’s planned progression into higher-order learning activities around application of the pre-class knowledge.Pitfalls of the typical approachI previously adopted flipped learning by incorporating a series of compulsory pre-class instructional videos. Over the course of one semester, there were a few telltale signs that the flipped approach wasn’t working in my favour:Most students were attending class ill-equipped to get started with the activitiesIt was necessary to repeat instructional content, eating up time for planned higher-order learning activitiesThere was no discernible difference between those who had or hadn’t completed the flipped activities.These observations paint a picture of resources that students either weren’t motivated to watch or weren’t engaged enough to retain the information, leaving question marks over the efficacy of this approach.Looking at the completion data was very revealing. Across the semester, only 33&nbsp;per cent of the cohort clicked to engage with the resources, and less than 10&nbsp;per cent reached the conclusion of each activity.The pandemic taught me the benefits of flipped homeworkHow to use YouTube videos in a flipped classroom systemShow students that the flipped classroom is much more than self-directed learningThere was also no evidence that students were present and attentive throughout. They could just as easily be making lunch or having a conversation while the video simply provided background noise.Why do students switch off?&nbsp;The common fault levelled at the traditional didactic lecture approach to teaching is that passive listening or observation is not the best way to promote learning. Using a video lecture as part of a flipped learning model could simply be moving passive observation from the classroom to online.&nbsp;It’s also worth considering that any learning activity designed for use outside of the classroom must compete for student attention with the external “noise” of everyday life.Activities that challenge students with participatory, problem-based and experiential activities have been found to enhance student engagement, experience and outcomes, so finding a way to incorporate these into online learning activities seems pertinent.How can I do flipped learning differently?Try including interactions and problem-based decisions in flipped learning activities. One way to achieve this is with branching scenarios by H5P. This allows a series of connected videos and tasks to challenge students on the scenario, topic or technique that is to be worked on in class. Branching interactions challenge students to decide what should happen next. Alternative scenarios play out, providing demonstration and feedback on their choice, before continuing towards the conclusion.Branching scenarios benefit from:Embedded problem-solvingAlternative scenarios playing out based on student decisionsA multimedia approach, incorporating video, audio and text-based tasksIncorporation of interactive moments through, for example, image hotspots and formative quizzes.As an approach to flipped learning, branching scenarios are very versatile and could provide an interactive alternative to online reading tasks, video lectures and more.&nbsp;Recognising the benefitsThe impact of switching to branching scenarios was immediately clear in my teaching. The following benefits were easily recognisable in class:Easy to identify those who had completed the task by their greater competency&nbsp;Those who had completed the task were able to guide those who hadn’tQuicker transition into higher-order learning tasks without repetition of instruction.The difference in student engagement was also clear. On average, 85&nbsp;per cent of the cohort accessed each resource, with 58&nbsp;per cent completing them in full. Additionally, the students reported a preference for the updated approach, mentioning:Enhanced preparation, prior knowledgeEnhanced knowledge and understanding in classA desire for more of these types of resource on other modules.Integrating problem-solving is the keyUnlike watching a video, decision-making and problem-solving are integral to the completion of a branching scenario task, and the avenue for passive listening is removed. Perhaps students are also more likely to reach the conclusion because the interactions enable resources to cut through the external noise of everyday life.&nbsp;Teachers don’t need to use branching scenarios specifically, but creating resources that incorporate problem-solving challenges – integral to reaching completion of the activity – will allow them to improve the efficacy of the flipped approach.&nbsp;John Warren is a teacher in exercise physiology at Loughborough University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Branch out to boost student engagement in flipped learning

When using a flipped learning method, it’s crucial that students engage with the pre-class content. Here’s how to make sure they do

Data used to be collected in the laboratory. Researchers would ask patients to fill out questionnaires or they would conduct clinical research. PhD theses were typically based on this kind of research. Unfortunately, in many cases, researchers were often less concerned about whether their research was beneficial to society than if it was easy to carry out.&nbsp;Today, information technology and data have changed how research is practised. I believe postgraduate education at universities should equip students with knowledge that can be used for the benefit of society in everyday life.&nbsp;What has also changed is that scientific results are produced much more quickly than ever before. Scientific activity has increased 25-fold since 1950. In 2000, a year would see 500,000 studies published compared with 2 million today. An enormous amount of data is available, but analysing it is not the big challenge. What is really important is that researchers ask the right questions.How practical education and talent management support medical studentsA case study in developing the next STEM generationHow to promote primary interest in basic medical education at the undergraduate levelIn modern postgraduate training, it is necessary to ask questions that are directly related to society or to a particular disease. Then, the available data should be examined to find out what answers can be obtained from them. This is what translational medicine, which includes all scientific activities that can directly benefit patients, helps us to do.Beneficial for students, society and universitiesAcquiring knowledge of translational medicine is beneficial not only for students, who gain tools that can be used in their everyday work, but also for society, as diseases can be treated more effectively. It is also good for universities because the research conducted by PhD students improves their scientific outcome.&nbsp;So far, only PhD students have been able to participate in translational medicine training at Semmelweis University. In the past three years, more than 260 from 21 countries have entered our programme, mostly from patient care. From the next semester, we will launch a one-year MSc course, which will have the same four pillars as the PhD training. The first pillar is clinical methodologies, which help students to access the latest scientific results. The second is biostatistics, which helps them understand results and decide how reliable they are. The third pillar includes soft skills such as time management, smart communication and crisis management. The students’ own projects are the fourth pillar. These four pillars make translational medicine training unique.Screening protocols for cystic fibrosis-related diabetesThe students participating in our training programme already have outstanding results. For example, we have PhD students researching cystic fibrosis at the Heim Pál National Pediatric Institute in Budapest. This congenital genetic disorder increases the risk of diabetes, which is typically discovered late, when complications such as deteriorating vision arise.&nbsp;However, if diabetes were detected earlier, before the onset of symptoms, treatment could be started before organ damage occurs. This is the reason why this hospital started screening children with cystic fibrosis for diabetes between the ages of three and four.The current guidelines only recommend diabetes screening at the age of 10, but research shows that this recommendation needs to be revised and updated. With earlier screening, diabetes can be detected in 30 per cent of children many years before symptoms appear. This could prevent complications of untreated diabetes.Finding the best surgical solution for cholesteatomaAt the Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Hospital in Budapest, otolaryngologists have launched research on cholesteatoma, a benign tumour of the middle ear that can only be treated by surgery. The background of this research was that doctors had observed that, despite surgery, the recurrence rate of this disease was high. They started searching for the best surgical method based on the results of the studies available.As a result, it was found that one type of surgery is much more effective than the others, and now this method is used for all patients. This has significantly reduced the risk of recurrence. A scientific paper on this achievement has been published in one of the most prestigious journals of otolaryngology. The greatest success of the learning-by-doing method is its speed, which in this case means that the research results could be applied in practice before the researcher has even defended their PhD.Antibiotic usage in pancreatitisPreviously, a PhD student investigated the use of antibiotics in pancreatitis at the Institute for Translational Medicine at the University of Pécs, and he achieved outstanding results. Even before the scientific paper on the subject was published, it was possible to reduce antibiotic usage in this disease to 40 per cent of cases from the previous 80 per cent.In the past, doctors used antibiotics much more frequently because they interpreted signs of inflammation as signs of infection, not knowing how to differentiate between the two problems. The methodology for this was highlighted by the PhD student’s research, also before he defended his PhD thesis. This method has since been used in university clinics in Hungary and in the hospital at Székesfehérvár, one of the largest cities in Hungary. Antibiotic usage has been significantly reduced everywhere. These results also show that scientific results with the right methodology can be quickly translated into everyday medical practice, making patient care much more effective.As our experience with the translational medicine programme is well established, we are happy to share it with other universities and welcome applications from students and supervisors from other institutions.Péter Hegyi is the deputy chair of clinical and veterinary science section at Academia Europaea, and a professor in the Centre for Translational Medicine at Semmelweis University, Budapest.&nbsp;If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

As doctors must apply the latest scientific results in daily practice as soon as possible, it follows that translation methodologies should be taught to medical students

Learning translational medicine can make doctors more effective

A cynic might think that Research Excellence Framework (REF) funding is pre-allocated to the “usual suspects” – the research intensive league leaders – while Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) funds go to the STEM lot and the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is a lifeline to “old polytechnics”. This view needs shredding, not least because the “old poly” quip was from someone within my own school.To break down the silos of research, teaching and knowledge transfer, we need to identify mechanisms that empower students to learn actively, share the results effectively and create data and innovations that underpin research value. So, what should the integration of research, teaching and knowledge exchange look like?Route mapsWe need to establish rules of engagement to harmonise our REF, TEF and KEF activities in ways that best suit staff, students and local communities within and beyond our institution. These activities should support students from freshers to graduate employment by engaging them with real people, real issues and real challenges throughout their education. Why wait for real value to be generated only after students graduate?“Live” projects, in which students work to address or resolve genuine societal or environmental needs beyond academia, can demonstrate key educational attributes that align with the REF, TEF and KEF.How the projects are framed, who they collaborate with and who they benefit can align them to any one or all three of these metrics.&nbsp;For our postgraduate architecture programme, I run several very different client-based live projects each year as part of students’ technical studies curriculum.&nbsp;Since 2009 we have delivered more than 100 projects harnessing over £160K to elaborate and deliver sustainable facilities for schools, social spaces for charities and community groups, community participation events for local authorities, socially beneficial work funded by the London Mayor, even a stroke rehabilitation area for King George’s Hospital in Ilford. The students’ work has won sustainability awards and nominations for the Earthshot Prize, Built by Nature and now Green Gown, and is annually featured in Dezeen.The mapping below, borrowing from the London Underground map, created by Harry Beck in 1933, allows us to speculate on what an “impact journey” should look like, and to consider how teaching and knowledge exchange can enrich that journey:
  
      
  
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The ‘live’ projectThe ambition behind sharing this model was to generate discussion within every department, research group or school to explore how live projects can support students to support communities, and as a consequence impact the metrics – in that order.Enhance your research through public engagement and collaborationHow 'service learning' can improve outcomes for students, educators and local communitiesTips for involving young people in research in meaningful waysSuch projects can be co-created with communities, collaboratively defining bespoke tactics to ensure positive communication, feedback and project delivery in a short time frame. My version is timed for the very start of the year. It brings students together who vote for the projects they want to participate in, creating groups of like minds who have never met before but who will work exclusively on delivering a project for a real stakeholder on time and on budget, each with a bespoke risk assessment. Coursework, not volunteering. This requires active community networks, links to research projects, and partnering with built environment or social practitioners to discuss projects, define where value can be generated and mapped on to learning outcomes.Sugarcrete®: a case study for impact&nbsp;Developing the bio-based construction material, Sugarcrete®, started in one of our architecture studios led by architecture lecturer Armor Gutierrez Rivas and architect Rosa Rogina working with a team of 18 students. Construction is 40 per cent of all global carbon emissions and must transition to low carbon. Asking students to identify local waste streams inspired novel material solutions and led some to knock on the door of the Tate &amp; Lyle sugar refinery near our campus.&nbsp;The potential of sugar bagasse – the fibrous 30 per cent of sugar cane left after extraction of the sap – started to create amazing numbers – 625 million tonnes, in 2023, of this strong, light fibre available per year globally, it sequesters carbon dioxide 50 times faster than timber and requires a fraction of the land forestry needs.&nbsp;Sugar is political and narratives between former colonies and their colonisers are acutely sensitive. Our students understand this. Instructions for the development of Sugarcrete® are freely available as open-source research, relying on co-design and collaboration with producers to collectively and ethically optimise the supply chain.The opportunity to construct our first Sugarcrete® building, after only two years of product development, came via a strong social media strategy for which students created visually arresting and articulate imagery. This sparked international interest and brought in credible and valuable partners with specific and challenging opportunities for innovation. In India, a consultancy within the sugar industry, Chemical Systems Technology, reached out and enabled us to upscale a pilot production facility and build a prototype school building. The built example supports knowledge dissemination among NGOs and communities to help them replace polluting and soil degrading coal-fired rural brickmaking with an efficient, insulating and low-carbon alternative.The value of impactParticipation in a team that delivers real change to real people is highly valued by all students. Making social responsibility intrinsic to education should not be theoretical. Student feedback tells us that they:value the camaraderie in bringing new students together for shared aimsunderstand the positive change their work createsvalue contact with external organisations and partnersconnect to sustainability in a direct, meaningful wayunderstand their university’s ethos as action not only words.Engaged teaching assignments like this can harness student enthusiasm for real issues affecting real communities. They can encompass the research interests of our staff and external collaborators to deliver projects that regularly make the cut for the REF; they clearly form valuable evidence for KEF metrics; and through the combination of these two, make a memorable and rewarding learning experience for our students, boosting the TEF.&nbsp;Alan Chandler is a reader in architecture, impact leader and associate of the Sustainability Research Institute at the University of East London.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

By getting students involved in real-world ‘live’ projects, academics can integrate research and knowledge exchange into teaching, resulting in positive impacts reaching far beyond the classroom, as Alan Chandler explains

How to bring teaching, research and knowledge exchange together

In recent years, the landscape of business education has undergone a significant transformation. With the rise of online programmes, you now have access to a variety of courses and degrees that can be completed from anywhere in the world. This shift is not only changing how you learn but also how business schools operate and evolve.&nbsp;The rise of online business programmesOne of the most important aspects of this transformation is the increasing availability of online business programmes. These programmes allow you to study at your own pace and on your own schedule, making it easier to balance work, family and education.Moreover, many institutions now offer specialised degrees such as an&nbsp;online doctorate in education, which can be completed entirely online. This flexibility is particularly valuable for working professionals who want to advance their careers without sacrificing their job responsibilities.Another factor driving the popularity of online business programmes is the quality of education they provide. Many top-ranked business schools have developed rigorous online curricula that are on par with their on-campus counterparts.This ensures that you receive a high-quality education that is recognised and respected by employers worldwide. Additionally, online programmes often incorporate cutting-edge technology and innovative teaching methods, enhancing your learning experience.The global reach of online business programmes is another significant advantage. These programmes often attract a diverse international student body, providing opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration and networking. This global perspective is invaluable in today’s interconnected business world, allowing you to gain insights into different markets and business practices.By participating in online programmes, you can build a global network of contacts that may prove beneficial throughout your career, opening doors to international opportunities and partnerships.&nbsp;Accessibility and inclusivity in business educationOnline programmes have made business education more accessible to a diverse range of students. Whether you live in a remote area or have mobility challenges, you can now access top-tier business courses from the comfort of your home.This increased accessibility also promotes inclusivity by allowing students from different backgrounds to participate in global classrooms. In many cases, these programmes feature interactive elements such as live discussions and group projects that foster a sense of community among students.The cost-effectiveness of online programmes cannot be overlooked. Traditional business degrees often come with high tuition fees and additional expenses like housing and transportation. By contrast, online courses typically have lower tuition costs and eliminate the need for commuting or relocating. This makes it easier for you to invest in your education without incurring significant debt.Online business programmes are also breaking down language barriers in education. Many courses now offer multilingual support, including subtitles and translated materials, making it possible for non-native English speakers to access high-quality business education.This linguistic inclusivity not only broadens the potential student base but also enriches the learning environment by bringing diverse perspectives into discussions. As a result, you can gain a more nuanced understanding of global business practices and cultural differences, which is crucial in today’s multinational business landscape.&nbsp;The role of technology in enhancing learningTechnological advancements play a pivotal role in the success of online business programmes. Tools such as video conferencing, learning management systems and virtual simulations enable you to engage with course material in dynamic ways.For instance, video lectures allow you to revisit complex topics at your own pace, while virtual simulations provide hands-on experience in real-world scenarios. These technologies not only make learning more interactive but also help you develop practical skills that are directly applicable to your career.Additionally, data analytics is becoming increasingly important in online education. Many platforms use analytics to track student progress and identify areas where additional support may be needed. This personalised approach ensures that you receive targeted feedback and resources to help you succeed in your studies.As technology continues to evolve, we can expect even more innovative tools to emerge, further enhancing the quality of online business education.&nbsp;The outlook for online business educationThe future of business education is undoubtedly being shaped by online programmes. As&nbsp;more institutions embrace digital learning, traditional barriers to accessing quality education are gradually being dismantled. This trend is expected to continue, with even greater emphasis on creating flexible, inclusive and technologically advanced learning environments.For students and professionals looking to enhance their skills and knowledge, staying informed about these changes is essential. By understanding how online programmes are changing business education, you can make more informed decisions about your educational journey and career path. The key is to remain adaptable and open to new opportunities that arise from this evolving landscape.

Online education programmes provide flexibility and accessibility, allowing more individuals to pursue advanced degrees. Understanding the impact of online learning on business education is crucial for students, educators and institutions alike

How online programmes are transforming the future of business education

Embarking on an engineering career is an exciting prospect, but the first step – choosing the right school – can be daunting. With countless programmes available, each offering unique opportunities and specialisations, it’s crucial to approach this decision strategically. Your choice of engineering school will significantly impact your future career path, so it’s worth taking the time to research and reflect on your options.&nbsp;Consider your career goalsBefore diving into school rankings and programme details, take a step back and consider your long-term career aspirations. Are you passionate about developing cutting-edge technology? Or perhaps you’re more interested in sustainable engineering solutions? Your career goals should be the guiding light in your search for the perfect engineering programme.When it comes to&nbsp;finding the right engineering degree, it’s essential to look beyond the general reputation of a school. Instead, focus on programmes that align closely with your interests and career objectives. This approach will ensure that you’re not just getting a good education, but one that’s tailored to your future success in the field.&nbsp;Evaluate academic reputation and accreditationWhile it’s important not to get too caught up in rankings, a school’s academic reputation can be a good indicator of the quality of education you’ll receive.Seek courses that are well-recognised within your field of interest. Also, ensure that recognised engineering bodies accredit the programme, as this can impact your future job prospects and eligibility for professional certifications.&nbsp;Learn from the best in the fieldThe faculty at your chosen school can play a crucial role in your education and future career opportunities.Look for programmes with professors who are actively engaged in research or industry projects that align with your interests. These connections can lead to valuable internships, research opportunities and even job offers after graduation.&nbsp;Bridging the gap between theory and practiceEngineering is a hands-on field, so it’s crucial to choose a programme that offers plenty of practical experience.Look for schools with well-equipped labs, makerspaces and opportunities for project-based learning. These experiences will not only enhance your understanding of engineering concepts but also make you more attractive to potential employers.&nbsp;Gaining real-world experienceMany top engineering schools have strong relationships with industry partners, offering students valuable internship opportunities. These experiences can give you a significant advantage when entering the job market, providing you with&nbsp;practical skills&nbsp;and professional connections.&nbsp;Setting yourself up for successA strong career services department and active alumni network can be invaluable resources as you transition from student to professional.Be sure to look for schools that offer comprehensive career support, including resume workshops, interview preparation and job fairs. An engaged alumni network can also provide mentorship opportunities and potential job leads.&nbsp;Factor in location and industry connectionsThe location of your chosen school can have a significant impact on your career prospects. Consider programmes in areas with a strong presence in your desired industry.For example, if you’re interested in aerospace engineering, a school near major aerospace companies might offer more networking and internship opportunities.&nbsp;Evaluate cost and financial aid optionsWhile it’s important not to let cost be the sole determining factor, it’s crucial to consider the financial implications of your choice.Research scholarship opportunities, financial aid packages and the potential return on investment for different programmes. Remember, a more expensive programme might be worth it if it offers superior career prospects and networking opportunities.&nbsp;Getting a feel for your future homeNothing beats firsthand experience when it comes to choosing a school. If possible, visit the campuses of your top choices and talk to current students and faculty. This will give you a better sense of the programme’s culture, facilities and overall fit with your personal and professional goals.Don’t be afraid to reach out to admissions offices, current students and alumni for more information. Their insights can be invaluable in helping you make your decision. And remember, while choosing the right school is important, your success ultimately depends on your dedication, passion and hard work.As you embark on this exciting journey, keep an open mind and be prepared for new experiences and challenges. The engineering field is constantly evolving, and your education should prepare you to adapt and thrive in this dynamic environment. With careful consideration and the right mindset, you’ll be well on your way to finding the perfect engineering school to launch your dream career.

From academic reputation to hands-on experience, there are a lot of factors to consider when choosing an engineering school that aligns with your career goals

Choosing your dream engineering school: a guide to success

Technicians are the unsung heroes of higher education, working behind the scenes to ensure that learning environments are operational, that equipment is maintained and that students and academics can work in a safe, well-supported setting. The role is vital to the day-to-day functioning of universities but is often under-appreciated.This position within the university structure comes with challenges but also opportunities, especially through initiatives such as the Technician Commitment, which aims to ensure visibility and career progression for technicians in higher education, and the UK&nbsp;Institute of Technical Skills and Strategy (UKITSS). For technicians, the opportunities that are being created and supported have only just begun. The Herschel Programme for Women in Technical Leadership, knowledge exchange initiatives and physics apprenticeship schemes are among many options for technical staff today.Take charge of your career as a technicianThe Technician Commitment, launched in 2017, represents a collective effort to change the perception of technicians within academia and to emphasise the critical contributions they make. More than 100 UK institutions have signed up for the commitment, including universities and research centres, signalling a shift in how technical work is perceived. It is not just a UK collective but a global one, with signatories in Australia and the&nbsp;US.Three strategies for building healthy student relationships onlineDIY learning analytics: using data to improve online teachingResource collection: ideas that shape digital universitiesTechnicians must make the most of these opportunities to pursue advancement hand in hand with the institutions they work for. One of the core pillars of the Technician Commitment is career development. While many institutions now offer more structured pathways, technicians must take charge of their own growth. Pursuing additional certifications, attending workshops and staying up to date with the latest technologies will not only increase your value within your institution but also give you the confidence to seek new opportunities. UKITSS, for instance, offers training resources that can help bridge skill gaps and prepare technicians for future demands.Technicians often work in silos, within either departments or specific areas of expertise, which can lead to feelings of isolation. Engaging with wider technical communities – both in your institution and through national organisations such as UKITSS – can provide valuable networking opportunities, knowledge exchange and mentorship. In many cases, connecting with peers can lead to collaborative solutions to shared challenges and can be a source of encouragement and support.Another issue for technicians has historically been the lack of visibility within institutions, although this is beginning to change. Whether through presenting at conferences, collaborating on research projects or simply communicating more frequently with academic and administrative colleagues, technicians must take an active role in promoting their contributions.Find a platform for collaboration and developmentUKITSS plays a critical role in elevating the profession of technicians within UK universities. It is dedicated to advancing technical careers, offering resources, training and community engagement to its members.After becoming a council member of the inaugural UKITSS technical council, I&nbsp;have had opportunities to speak to high-level bodies and governments while also having a voice on such important issues as the Research Excellence Framework 2029. UKITSS offers workshops, training sessions and certification programmes, and through these opportunities provides technicians with pathways to broaden their skills.UKITSS also offers a wealth of knowledge and best practices, from laboratory set-up and equipment maintenance to health and safety regulations. By engaging with UKITSS, technicians can learn from the experiences of others and avoid potential pitfalls in their own work. Furthermore, by contributing their expertise to UKITSS, technicians can help build a stronger collective knowledge base, benefiting the entire community.Key challenges in a career as a technician and how to overcome themTechnicians are often still seen as support staff rather than equal partners in higher education. The phrase “just a technician” is burned into the psyche of many technical staff. Changing this perception requires consistent effort to highlight the expertise and professionalism that technicians bring to the table. They should consider taking on high-profile projects and demonstrating leadership and continuously advocate for the role of technicians within academic and administrative circles.In many cases, the support and influence of vice-chancellors and senior managers can make a significant difference to how technical staff are viewed within an institution.Despite the increasing recognition and opportunities, technicians in higher education still face challenges. Budget constraints, limited career progression and the risk of being undervalued remain significant issues.For some technical staff, limited career progression in higher education means the community, at times, loses highly skilled colleagues. While the Technician Commitment has begun to address this issue, more work is needed to create clear career pathways. Technicians should actively seek out leadership opportunities, such as managing teams or leading technical projects. Engaging with institutional professional development programmes, or advocating for their creation, can help to bridge the gap between technical roles and academic career tracks.So…what next for higher education technicians?The evolving landscape of higher education presents both challenges and opportunities for technicians. With the introduction of initiatives such as the Technician Commitment and the support of organisations like UKITSS, technicians have the tools to advocate for themselves, grow professionally and gain the recognition they deserve. However, these opportunities must be actively pursued. Technicians must take charge of their own development, engage with the broader community, and continually push for greater visibility and recognition within their institutions. By doing so, they can ensure that their role in higher education is not only acknowledged but celebrated.Mark Dabee Saltmarsh is a technical demonstrator at Cardiff Metropolitan University. He has been shortlisted in the Outstanding Technician of the Year category in the 2024 THE&nbsp;Awards. A full list of nominees can be found here. The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Birmingham on 28&nbsp;November 2024.Academics and university leaders from across the UK and Ireland will come together on 27-28 November at THE Campus Live UK&amp;IE to talk about how higher education can build resilience for a sustainable future. Join us for this two-day event in Birmingham.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered directly to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Technicians need to advocate for themselves, network and seek leadership opportunities to gain the recognition they deserve, writes Mark Dabee Saltmarsh. Here, he offers career advice for the unsung heroes of higher education

Career development for technicians in higher education

Blended learning has increased accessibility to learning for K-12 and college students alike – notably with the sharp transition to remote learning in 2020. But what are the trade-offs?&nbsp;First, online learning competes with a multitude of distractions. While a computer and the internet allow students to access course material from anywhere, the environment around the screen can be way more tempting than an asynchronous lesson. An in-person setting makes group discussions and observation of others easier and more natural, while creating the pressure to always appear fully attentive.&nbsp;Second, moving between online and in-person learning is demanding. The expectation of constant attendance with a fully online option and adjusting behaviour between online and in-person classes as well as increased time online and task switching can lead to burnout.&nbsp;Read more: the post-pandemic university and how to serve the Covid generationMore resources on the digital transformation of universitiesTHE podcast: what constitutes good teaching in higher education?This method of course delivery is here to stay, so educators need ways to address engagement and stress to sustain student learning within a blended learning environment. They can use its modalities to increase content engagement, and use open communication to help their students manage the stress of moving between online and in-person learning.Using the advantage of each delivery method and open communication to reduce stress allows students to be more human. These solutions bring back socialising, collaboration and transparency to blended learning, which can feel isolating if not done correctly.Using technology to increase belonging and engagementStructuring activities in blended learning based on human nature’s urge to socialise and sustain interest creates more student engagement. Online tools such as real-time surveys (Slido, for example), group messaging and screen sharing can significantly increase participation. For instance, an interactive workshop with remote attendees can be a powerful tool. Screen-sharing makes the results visible to everyone, survey check-ins within lectures provide students with topics to focus on, and group messaging or in-person discussion supports their learning and social engagement with one another. With personal computers in the classroom and online, it’s much easier to have students directly share their work because the compatibility of technology in the classroom is already built in.&nbsp;On the instructor side, available technology on learning platforms (such as Canvas) also provides ease of information sharing. Educators can share assignment rubrics with the whole class with one upload, and group feedback can be shared with all the members (instead of providing one set to be split among the team or printing out multiple copies with backups in case the papers are lost). This technology puts all students and instructor(s) in the class on the same page, fostering a sense of unity and collaboration.How open communication helps students self-regulate and reduce stressSelf-regulation is the ability to pace oneself to complete tasks without external motivators, and it improves content understanding and assignments delivered. For a sophomore-level engineering studio, there is a noticeable correlation between a group’s ability to self-regulate – I observed how open their communication style was for the semester – and their satisfaction of team deliverables (seen through their peer evaluations). The teams that were more cohesive were also less stressed.Teaching students to thrive in a blended-learning environmentSo, how can students learn to pace themselves when phones, the environment and responsibilities are vying for their attention? Students may struggle to prioritise new tasks, and they will zone out if things are overwhelming.&nbsp;This is why they need the ability to prioritise tasks and assess their feasibility, and to factor in time to decompress.Educators can help build these skills. Split learning into shorter segments by adding activities to support new content or allow breaks to give students time to think. This makes content that has been recently discussed more approachable. It also allows students to draw their own conclusions about how relevant it is to other course topics without having to break down a new topic a few times themselves to help them get there.An example of a structured activity is to set time limits and decide a minimum quantitative goal. For students in a design engineering course, the task to “generate and sketch three to five ideas about the presented problem for the next 10 minutes” is achievable compared with “solve this problem with your teammates”. The framing provides a sense of urgency, relevance and importance for the class’ tasks compared with other possible tasks in their environment, like scrolling on their phones.&nbsp;Mixing up the intensity of activities also gives students the chance to practise prioritisation and avoid overwhelm. High-stress activities such as a performance score for testing prototypes in front of your classmates can be offset by a completion grade for individual reflections after the testing is over. The variety sets up students to autonomously apply learning because they are curious, without making them feel that every assignment is raising their heart rate. Ideally, this will offer brief guidance on balancing their workload through taking pressure off the returned grades and focusing on what they can learn within the given time.&nbsp;What’s next? The end?The increased sharing of information and avenues accommodates students’ schedules, letting them learn more individually. In addition, self-regulation based on a student’s learning style increases accountability and balance and is a useful professional and life skill.&nbsp;While blended learning appeared as a fast response to the pandemic, its technology has increased accessibility and brought essential learning and teaching skills to the fore.&nbsp;Nisha Detchprohm is a research engineer in the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC) at Georgia Tech.&nbsp;If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Blended learning: from short-term fix to long-term stay

Yes, the transition between online and in-person methods can make blended delivery challenging for students and educators alike, but keeping students engaged and sustaining their learning is worth the effort

Blended learning is the short-term fix that turned into a long-term stay

One of the most important arguments for embedding career development in the curriculum is equity. Extracurricular opportunities require time and resources that not all students can afford. Confident, proactive students are best placed to engage in them, meaning that those who would benefit most may find them least accessible.&nbsp;In contrast, curricular learning, particularly when part of mandatory assessment, includes every student. Context is also important. When career development learning is embedded into academic content and taught by discipline experts, it can have more value.&nbsp;Resource collection: Getting students workplace-readyTeach the skills required for a future we can’t yet imagineEngaging students with careers resources early and oftenThese are two key arguments underpinning current drives towards an embedded approach to careers-oriented learning, shifting from “bolt on” (co-curricular learning experiences) to “bolt in” (careers content added to curricula). Here, an academic and a careers professional at RMIT University draw on our experience and collaborative work to offer three key ideas towards deeper modes of embedding career development learning.Discipline-specific understanding can be career development understandingKate Daubney offers the term “extracted employability” to describe the outcome of&nbsp;“identifying elements that have innate employability value in a programme, subject or discipline”. This approach avoids unnecessary disruption to teaching or cramping of curricula. It focuses instead on making existing careers-oriented learning visible and declarative, both for the benefit of students and to demonstrate adherence to quality and compliance standards.&nbsp;It also ensures an authentically contextualised approach to careers-focused learning, emerging organically in discussions, research and explorations central to the study discipline.&nbsp;In our experience of collaborating to develop careers-focused content for RMIT’s Bachelor of International Studies, we found that many areas of the discipline offer considerable scope for extracted employability. From there, career development learning can be deeply embedded.Developing inclusive approaches and understanding different perspectives is crucial to International Studies. The subject prepares students for the ambiguities of the real world and underpins the work they’ll undertake in NGOs, government agencies and international businesses.Such considerations were part of International Studies curricula long before embedded career development learning was deemed best practice. They create opportunities to form deep, integrated, contextualised connections with the tasks of informed career planning, job market research and reflection on professional skills and values.Well-acquainted with holistic and critical perspectives, International Studies student cohorts are also equipped to engage with some of the complexities underlying popular approaches to career management.These include its tendency to gloss over significant issues of systemic inequity in the job market, focusing instead on strategies individuals could use to become more employable, implicitly rendering them responsible for their career outcomes.&nbsp;Meaningful connections can be formed between the challenges of the discipline and students’ planning of their own careers. Many students appreciate that these connections and ambiguities are addressed rather than left implicit or passed over without mention.&nbsp;Discipline-specific skills can be career development skillsThe transferable skills fostered by many disciplines are tools students can use to support and develop their own employability. For example, highly developed research skills are useful for understanding how industries work, gauging likely expectations of organisations and locating or creating interesting opportunities.&nbsp;Project management skills, taught as part of many disciplines, can also be usefully directed towards the job-seeking process –&nbsp;often a multifaceted undertaking in itself, featuring deadlines, prioritisation and goal setting. Clarity and persuasiveness of communication, developed throughout many degrees, are relevant here, in the design of job application documents and performance in interviews.In International Studies at RMIT, intercultural communication is a foundational subject, helping to build awareness of how diversity impacts the way messages are expressed and received by different people. Fostering an empathetic perspective in students helps them become aware of how communication must be crafted differently according to different audiences to be effective, a further key skill in navigating the job application process.&nbsp;Discipline-specific expertise can be career development expertiseMost disciplines in higher education engage in some form of forecasting, whether the focus is on developing technology or evolving political, social, economic or environmental situations. A natural area of focus for International Studies curricula is the methods used by futurists, which enable informed approaches to global issues through strategic analysis of trends and developments. This offers concrete perspectives and tools to contextualise subjective experiences of the world, and engaging in an array of high-quality research. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Well-honed future-casting techniques and strategies can also be turned to career planning and research, using the same principles of looking at current evidence to create informed predictions for the future. International Studies students become skilled in interpreting trends, consulting precedents and identifying reliable participants and research. When this expertise is developed as part of the curriculum, it is easily extended to the process of career planning and development.Anna Branford is a careers educator and Julian Lee is an academic and educator for International Studies, both at RMIT University.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;THE Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Three ways to embed career development learning more deeply 

Embedding career development learning into curricular learning can be invaluable for students. Here’s how to integrate it more meaningfully

Three ways to embed career development learning more deeply in your curriculum

As a learning designer, when I have conversations with university teaching staff about their courses, they always ask me “How do I redesign my assessments or redesign my course?” My first response, “What are your learning outcomes?”, often draws a blank stare. Traditionally, learning outcomes have been crafted based on specific knowledge students are expected to acquire. They provide clear expectations of what students are expected to know, understand and be able to do by the end of a course or programme.&nbsp;However, the workplace is being dramatically reshaped by innovation and technological developments. This creates a sense of uncertainty about what roles and competencies will be required in the workplace and challenges the static and standardised approach to crafting learning outcomes. Does this mean the traditional approach to crafting them is outdated?As educators, we find ourselves crystal-ball gazing, tasked with equipping students not only with subject-matter expertise, but also with the future-proof skills needed to help them thrive in an ever-changing world. If educators fail to keep pace with real-world demands, they risk becoming disconnected from the needs of both students and the workforce.Bloom’s and structure of the observed learning outcomes (SOLO) are two learning taxonomies used to categorise learning objectives and assess student understanding beyond mere knowledge acquisition.&nbsp;Bloom’s taxonomy focuses on cognitive processes in a hierarchical structure and provides a blueprint for crafting learning outcomes that push students beyond mere recall and towards higher-order thinking skills. Using verbs relating to knowledge acquisition, critical thinking and others, we can assess students’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviours and abilities. They include “list”, “recall”, “evaluate” and “analyse”, among others.SOLO taxonomy focuses on the complexity and assessment of a student’s understanding across five levels of comprehension: prestructural, unistructural, multicultural, relational and extended.I propose another model – multifaceted outlook on skills and abilities in the connected age (MOSAIC) – that can be used in conjunction with both Bloom’s and SOLO taxonomies to support educators in answering the question “What skills do I want students to take away from this course?” It aims to cultivate foundational and cognitive knowledge, adaptability, emotional intelligence and a growth mindset, balancing traditional academic skills with human skills such as ethical reasoning to prepare students for an evolving world in which artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an ever-increasing role.&nbsp;Resource collection: Back to the basics of pedagogyResource collection: What innovation needs to thrive in higher educationUsing fun and interactive micromodules to energise learningMOSAIC learning outcomes model&nbsp;“Ako” in Te ao Māori, one of New Zealand’s official languages, means both to teach and learn. It reflects the relationship between the student and the facilitator (teacher), acknowledging that each learns from the other and co-creates new knowledge. Student-centred Ako takes centre stage in this model, with the facilitator (teacher) interacting and guiding the student’s learning journey. The 10 green sections surrounding the centre stage are interconnected and reflect the diverse nature of the skills that educators should consider when crafting learning outcomes.
  
      
  
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To remain current, we should reconsider and update learning outcomes at the start of each semester. This requires the educator to remain adaptable, flexible and up to date with workplace trends and ensure they are relevant. Using the MOSAIC learning outcomes model, educators can first decide on what skills they want students to acquire from the course, then – using Bloom’s taxonomy – use an appropriate verb to craft the learning outcome. The following questions can guide the process:What is a student going to learn from my course that they can’t learn online?What is the point of difference in my course?What skills is the student going to acquire and what’s in it for them?Why should they learn from me?Let’s see how this works in practice by using a fictional course in year two:Course Title: Narratives in Colour – the art of storytelling through visual media.Course Description: In Narratives in Colour, students will explore the intricate relationship between visual art and storytelling across various media, including painting, graphic novels, digital art and film. This course examines how artists have used colour, composition and form to convey complex narratives and evoke emotional responses.The educator will use the MOSAIC learning model to brainstorm the skills they want students to obtain and may decide on the following three: interpersonal skills from the social-emotional intelligence section; creative thinking from the cognitive abilities section; and design thinking from the innovation and entrepreneurship section.&nbsp;Because the course is delivered in year two, the educator may decide to use measurable verbs from Bloom’s hierarchical structure that relate to “applying” and “analysing”. The learning outcomes may look like this.Interpersonal skills: students will&nbsp;apply effective communication strategies in groups to collaboratively discuss and refine each other’s visual narratives.Creative thinking: students will&nbsp;apply&nbsp;innovative techniques to develop unique visual narratives that challenge traditional storytelling methods.Design thinking: students will&nbsp;analyse&nbsp;user experiences and audience engagement in visual storytelling, applying design thinking principles to create compelling and accessible narratives that resonate with diverse viewers.Employers are increasingly seeking graduates who can think critically, collaborate across disciplines and apply knowledge in flexible, creative ways.&nbsp;Most of the pressing complex problems we face today, such as climate change and global health, do not align neatly with the boundaries of individual academic disciplines, forcing us to adopt a transdisciplinary approach to education. The MOSAIC learning outcome model allows us to use a transdisciplinary lens when crafting our learning outcomes, fostering the development of transferable competencies that transcend any single subject area.&nbsp;The time has come for a shift in our mindsets to reimagine, reinvent and prepare for the future.Kay Harrison is a learning designer at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

A new learning outcomes model to nurture future-proof skills

A new framework allows us to use a transdisciplinary lens when crafting learning outcomes to help students develop future-proof skills

Providing feedback is a key component of the teaching experience as it assists in monitoring, guiding, correcting and encouraging students’ work. However, for some educators it can be a time-consuming, frustrating job, with a lack of student engagement and little recognition of the work that goes into writing individual comments.&nbsp;Here, we explain a case study in which students were encouraged to actively give feedback to their peers and present an analysis of the type of feedback they gave. From reviewing the peer feedback, we found that this approach to evaluation can encourage student engagement and sense of belonging, and broaden the student experience.Tackling the online engagement issueAs part of an online programme management (OPM) course for students who do not have a marketing background, Customer Centric Marketing is a foundation subject that is delivered 100 per cent online. It gives content, reading links, videos, exercises and assessment-related tasks on the Canvas platform, allowing both students and facilitator to provide examples, ideas and comments.An issue for an online subject is how to get students engaged with the content and feel a sense of belonging. Undertaking an online course can be difficult for students, especially if it is on new subject matter or the student hasn’t studied for a long time. It can be isolating and lonely, resulting in students leaving the course.Guiding students to learn from each other through peer feedbackOpinion: If peer feedback was good enough for the Brontë sisters, it’s good enough for usAssessment and feedback as an active dialogue between tutors and studentsTo encourage engagement, the students are asked to not only write their answers in a series of discrete tasks but also provide peer feedback on what their fellow students write, including on their main assessments.While this was a relatively small class, with 18 students enrolled, peer evaluation provided a range of responses to the tasks, which greatly helped the facilitator in bonding with the students, the students when engaging with the content, and it supported bonding with each other.&nbsp;Our analysis reviewed students’ comments during the subject. It looked at why students interact and types of feedback offered.Reasons for student interactionThe aim of asking for peer feedback was to encourage engagement. We noted four main reasons why students were motivated to interact with each other online: altruism (students wanting to show care for others); networking (students being supportive of peers to find new friends or contacts); personal (students sharing personal opinion or professional experience); and to be seen (participating, knowing that they are being encouraged to engage by teaching staff).Peer feedback categoriesThe peer feedback was grouped into five categories:connecting with peerscheering peersasking questionspersonal touchattention seeking.&nbsp;The table below includes examples for each feedback type.Connecting with peersBased on&nbsp;name, pets, location or excitement: “Awesome Andrew*, nice meeting you :)”, “Love the name! I also go by Elly from some people. Go the Ellys! Nice meeting you :)”, “Hey Jane, So nice to meet you! Wow your work is interesting and also encouraging, I have often thought about moving to the country; it's good to know there are opportunities for marketing jobs in the country/regional areas”&nbsp;and “How is everyone going so far excited?&nbsp;😁”Cheering peersCheering each other on with encouragement: “Great analysis Elly!” and support – “Great insights about your company Mia!”Asking questionsThis was seen in clarifying questions: “Have other airlines responded to the pandemic? if so, why did you choose Qantas?” and questions prompting further discussion – “Do you have any insight on how the organisation plans to continue their growth and success post Covid?”Personal touchThis was presented several times, including personally relating to the assessment case: “Interesting analysis for this segment! This sounds like it's being targeted towards me haha...”, “Hopefully, these insights help me to make a purchase for running shoes in the future; I love how well explained you write. Thank you for sharing this!”, “I will definitely try this!”, and “I hadn't heard of a situation with mislabelling products, that's so interesting!”.Attention seekingSaying things to get noticed/talk about themselves: “I live running but I have always used Asics…”After one discussion that received several comments, even the subject facilitator was impressed, saying: “Why do I get the impression you're all having a bit too much fun with this exercise!?&nbsp;😄😄😄 Keep up the good work everyone.”Observations from the peer feedbackAfter analysing the comments, we noticed features of the style of writing when students feed back peer to peer:Use of names: Students often included the name of the person to whom they were responding&nbsp;in their response, which added a personal and intimate tone to the comments.Casual tone: There was a level of informality in the students’ writing style&nbsp;(frequent grammar and spelling mistakes), which added to the authenticity of their responses.Encouraging words: There was frequent use of positive words such as&nbsp;“interesting” and “great” by students when responding to each other, and use of emotive terms too (for example, “love”, “like”, “blown away” and “insightful”).Lessons for teaching staff&nbsp;Students with limited academic literacy levels or experience rarely participate in discussion boards with their peers, so they need more motivation to encourage confidence in responding online.The more active and engaged the online academic teacher, the more this attracts comments from students and a wider array of students to make public postings across the subject. So, online teaching staff should be regularly active with comments, ideas and messages of support.If the tone of the online academic’s communication is too formal, this reinforces a student-teacher dynamic and can reduce new student posts. Formal communication led to a limited number of students posting in response, so the teacher is encouraged to post and comment often and in a friendly, encouraging voice.The frequency of peer comments reduced over time&nbsp;(far more in Modules 1, 2 and 3 than in 4, 5 and 6), and the tone and nature of comments changed (less personal supportive, and more examples/experiences in later weeks as they worked through the content). Reflecting on the subject where we actively encouraged peer feedback, we found that the students liked to feel they belonged. Reading each other’s posts, learning from each other’s industry experiences and receiving compliments on their own posts helped reinforce the group bonds.The use of peer feedback was a success for this online subject, from our experience. While there was effort in making constant reminders to the students for comments and reviewing the student remarks, the students definitely appeared to enjoy the experience, which encouraged building an online learning community and a real sense of belonging.As one student said: “I am blown away by the answers and constructive feedback.”* Students’ names have been changed.David Waller&nbsp;is associate professor and former head of the marketing department in UTS Business School; Kaye Chan is a senior lecturer in marketing and associate head (education) in the marketing department; and Melissa Clarke is a casual academic in the Business School, all at University of Technology Sydney.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Using peer feedback to build engagement and belonging online

Giving feedback is a time-consuming and often frustrating part of teaching. What if educators handed the task to students? Here are the takeaways from an online business course

Use peer feedback to build engagement and belonging online

Providing detailed individual feedback adds to the already heavy teacher workload on English for academic purposes courses, which has led to a rise in the reliance on peer feedback. As well as alleviating pressure on staff, it stimulates interaction between students and enhances autonomy.&nbsp;However, giving feedback is cognitively demanding, and students might not have the confidence to criticise others’ work or know which aspects to focus on. The result is a tendency to provide vague comments such as “It looks good” or “Be more specific” or to simply point out spelling and grammar errors. To help students give higher-quality feedback, try the following strategies.Anonymous feedback forms that require detailed responses&nbsp;We need to refine our marking rubrics. If we offer binary options, students might be tempted to choose the easiest and least embarrassing one. So, instead of asking students to tick yes or no in response to whether they think their peers have fulfilled certain criteria, ask them to recall important information from the piece of work and write it down. For example, instead of asking students to tick yes or no about whether their peers use topic-related vocabulary and complex sentences, ask them to note down the topic-related vocabulary and conjunctions used.&nbsp; &nbsp;Making feedback anonymous can allay fears about criticising peers’ work. On the other hand, though, not knowing who marked their work may prevent students from being able to discuss their feedback with their peers. A reasonable compromise is to assign each piece of work a number rather than the student’s name so that their peers do not know whose work they are grading, but they know who marked theirs and can consult them later.&nbsp;Technology-based peer feedbackUsing technology to give feedback can make it more student-centred and enhance students’ motivation, argue Norina Jabar and Afiza Mohamad Ali in their paper Cultural Video Project Assignment (VPA) through the Eyes of Young ESL Learners: A Multi-Modal Vocabulary Learning Approach. Below are some platforms to try.Padlet: you can use this platform to engage learners in a variety of ways such as by enabling the comments button and choosing the appropriate reaction function. For example, during an in-class activity, you can ask students to share their personal experiences and feelings and allow them to use the “like” and “vote” functions or comment on them in a similar way to how users interact with content on WeChat Moments and Instagram.&nbsp;If you ask students to give peer feedback on each others’ formative assessments, they can use the “star” and “grade” functions. Students can give their peers a number of stars or specific grades based on the benchmarks you give. In my experience, students prefer to be graded by peers than teachers, and they enjoy the process of marking each others’ work using an interactive platform.&nbsp;

  
      
  
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A screenshot of Padlet’s functions

PeerEval: on this platform, teachers can manually input rubrics for students to focus on. They then need to download the app and log in to their accounts using an access code given by the teacher. Based on the marking criteria, students can score each other on a scale of one to five and add comments. PeerEval&nbsp;can allow teachers to easily scaffold the peer evaluation process for students from beginning to end and view their progress throughout.Resource collection: English as a second language in higher educationA new way of ensuring repeated EAP vocabulary exposureHow to start a language-teaching podcastGroup work over pair workIf a student is in a pair with another student whose English proficiency level is low or who isn’t willing to provide constructive feedback, they will suffer. Putting groups of students with different levels of proficiency together will allow them to hear a range of feedback.&nbsp;Ask each group to focus on one aspect of learning. For example, one group can focus on grammar accuracy and another group can look at sentence structure. This often leads to higher-quality feedback.&nbsp;Encouraging students to give each other feedback can help them develop useful skills and enhance their own and each others’ learning. Scaffold the process by creating anonymous checklists, using appropriate digital platforms and encouraging group work.Jingfei Zhang is associate language lecturer at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Ways to empower EAstudents to give high-quality feedback

Helping English for academic purposes students provide better quality feedback to their peers can give them more autonomy and free up teachers’ time

Ways to empower EAP students to give high-quality feedback

Do the UK’s National Teaching Fellowships (NTFs) deliver what they promise: reward for&nbsp;excellent higher education teachers?&nbsp;Teaching could be described as the Cinderella of higher education – often overlooked and underrated. A key reason for awarding fellowships is to elevate teaching in terms of esteem, and to redress the actuality or perception that the researchers get all the goodies. Although, if we follow the money, it is teaching (via student tuition fees), and not research, that provides the lion’s share of UK higher education institution (HEI) funding.&nbsp;Universities UK (the voice of 141 UK universities)&nbsp;figures back this up: “In 2021−22, the total reported income of UK higher education institutions was £44.1 billion. Just over half (£23.4 billion) of this income was sourced through tuition fees.”&nbsp;THE podcast: what constitutes good teaching in higher education?Why and how to incorporate reflective practice into your teaching and learningHow to harness the power of ‘I wonder’ in your teachingAn NTF, in the words of sponsor Advance HE, “recognises, rewards and celebrates individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession”. The scheme started in 2000, and there are now well over 600 fellowship recipients across the UK.Applications for fellowship are peer assessed by existing NTFs and judged against three criteria:&nbsp;evidencing individual excellence in enhancing and transforming student outcomes and/or the teaching profession&nbsp;demonstrating that applicants are raising the profile of excellence through supporting colleagues and influencing support for student learning and/or the teaching professionconvincing how they are developing excellence through continued professional development.But do these awards have an elevating effect?I surveyed 608 fellows via the NTF’s online platform in spring 2024. My research focused on whether, and to what extent, gaining an NTF generated reward for the individual. The survey sought responses on whether NTFs received institutional help with their submission (for example, mentoring by an NTF at their HEI), and whether their fellowship came with any money and, if so, how much and who from. Respondents were also asked if their NTF had generated indirect benefits, such as contributing to a promotion. And finally did – or would – a personal financial award encourage them to apply for a fellowship?I gained a response from 158 out of 608 teaching fellows (26 per cent). At just over one in four of all NTFs on the circulation list, the replies highlight patterns and trends.A key consideration is the money – or lack of it. Over time, we can see in financial terms just how (under)valued excellent university teaching is. In years 2000 to 2005, the Higher Education Academy (the predecessor to Advance HE) awarded £50,000 to NTFs to undertake teaching-related projects. From 2006 to 2015, individuals received £10,000 to spend on their continuing professional development. I was extremely lucky to have been one of these. In 2016-17, the individual payment dropped to £5,000 per head. And since 2018, NTFs have received nothing from Advance HE or the UK government.&nbsp;This intergenerational disparity seems unfair; if I was deemed worthy of a £10,000 reward in 2007, why is an NTF in 2024 not treated in the same way?So, have HEIs taken up the slack and rewarded their fellows? From my survey, only 12 universities (from more than 160 in the UK) offered a financial reward, which ranged from £1,000 to £5,000 per head. So, the message, in terms of immediate financial benefit, would seem to be: “We may offer you warm words of congratulation, but expect no accompanying financial gain.”However, some NTFs did believe that their fellowship – to a greater or lesser extent – contributed to a successful bid for promotion. Of 156 respondents, 28 (18 per cent) replied that they had received no indirect benefits from their award, while 14 prefaced an indirect gain with words such as “possible”, “potentially”, “may have contributed”, “probably contributed”, “I am not sure” or “perhaps”. The exact significance of a fellowship to promotion still needs to be pinned down through further, detailed, research.The survey also asked: “Did – or would – a personal financial award encourage you to apply for an NTF?” The result? Of 158, 84 respondents said that a personal financial award would or did encourage them to apply for an NTF.&nbsp;So, where does this leave NTFs?&nbsp;Survey responses offered me ideas for simple adjustments to recognise and celebrate individuals.&nbsp;First, as announcing successful NTFs in the middle of the summer break “is probably not great in terms of wider dissemination”, I suggest full fanfare in the dark days of January, as a new year boost.&nbsp;Second, new NTFs could be invited to give a learning and teaching public lecture, as new professors are often asked to deliver an inaugural lecture when they join an institution.There is also a need to learn from the minority of UK HEIs that reward their new NTFs with a cash payment – who are they? How much do they offer? And how does the payment work? The&nbsp;Association of National Teaching Fellows could undertake such a study.Furthermore, 37 respondents (23 per cent) reported that, in their experience, the NTF was misunderstood, disparaged, invisible or treated with indifference by colleagues and managers. This needs to change. Survey respondents urged Advance HE and NTF host institutions to make a greater “song and dance” about the awards; and HEIs should use their NTFs as a resource to contribute to changes that improve teaching and learning for students and staff.Returning to the focus of this article and whether NTFs deliver direct gain to excellent HE teachers, the answer would seem to be “somewhat” – but not immediately. The NTF accords with the Collins Dictionary definition of a “reward” (“something that you are given, for example because you have behaved well, worked hard, or provided a service to the community”) rather than an “award” (“money or a prize following an official decision”).James Derounian lectures on community governance. He is a National Teaching Fellow and a visiting professor at the University of Bolton, UK.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Everything you wanted to know about NTFs

The UK’s National Teaching Fellowships were established to recognise excellence in teaching and student learning. Fellow James Derounian asks if the scheme fulfils its goals

Everything you wanted to know about National Teaching Fellowships but were afraid to ask…

Assessment is a critical element of higher education that is directly connected to learning outcomes and activities and quality assurance. Its purposes are:To encourage students to learnTo certify and make judgements about learningTo ensure the attainment of learning outcomesTo evaluate academic programmes.Programmatic assessment evolved with competency-based education and is popular among healthcare educators. It involves viewing assessment as a programme: a continuous but formative activity. An assessment programme could look like a set of assessments of differing formats, such as end-of-unit quizzes, problem-based learning activities and others, taken throughout the year.&nbsp;The first step towards programmatic assessment is to identify the right learning outcomes. The learning outcomes for healthcare courses must align with skills students will need in their future professions. For example, the clinical courses of our bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery programme require students to learn how to take a patient history, how to examine and diagnose a patient and how to prescribe appropriate treatment. Once you know what the objectives are, you can decide on the best forms of assessment.&nbsp;In our medical courses at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, each year has three internal assessments including a multiple-choice question test. In addition, many teachers in undergraduate programmes conduct weekly or end-of-unit tests. Students must also maintain a logbook for every practical and clinical session which is then assessed.&nbsp;Formative assessmentsAn assessment programme generally tends to have formative and summative components. Formative assessments are set to facilitate learning and offer students more immediate feedback. Since marks for these assessments do not count towards final grades, they are seen as lower-stress tasks. It’s important to reinforce their purpose as being for learning, rather than for assessment, to encourage students to participate.&nbsp;Teachers can ask students to submit answers to weekly formative assignments such as problem-based questions on to their learning management systems. This could take the form of clinical vignette-based multiple-choice questions, concept maps about the pathophysiology of a clinical condition or even a reflective summary of an important clinical case that students observed over the previous week. &nbsp;Resource collection: The great assessment rethinkWorking with students to co-create their educationAI and assessment redesign: a four-step processSummative assessmentsSummative assessments, usually conducted at the end of a course or programme, assess whether students can progress to the next stage of learning. They should also ensure the attainment of specific learning outcomes. For example, in certain health professions programmes, students are tested for their ability to integrate basic medical science knowledge with clinical science knowledge through case-based questions, objective structured clinical examination, mini-clinical evaluation exercises and multiple-choice questions with clinical vignettes. At Manipal, we test students’ ability to diagnose and suggest appropriate treatment in real clinical settings or using standardised patients in our undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental programmes.&nbsp;Authentic assessmentProblem-based/case-based scenarios, project assessments, logbook evaluations, workplace-based assessments and portfolio evaluations are some of the methods used to assess the skills required for tackling real-world problems. At our university, all the healthcare programmes have laboratory-based or clinical examinations at the end of each year, during which examiners observe the students’ performance and conduct viva voce exams to assess whether they have attained the desired outcomes.&nbsp;Assessment rubrics&nbsp;Using robust assessment rubrics strengthens an assessment programme. One tried and tested approach involves using a checklist with numbered scales for assessing various activities. In a medical setting, the assessor watches students performing specific clinical procedures and grades the examinee on a scale from zero (not performed or fails) to five (performed excellently or performed above expectations). We use these rubrics to monitor progress with day-to-day activities recorded in students’ e-log book which is integrated into the learning management system and periodically assessed. This work can be made available during accreditation visits or academic audits. Students can also incorporate it into their portfolios.A robust assessment system produces competent graduates who can make positive impacts on the lives of their future patients.&nbsp;Sreejith G is a deputy registrar of evaluation at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

A blueprint for programmatic assessment in medical courses

A shift from traditional to outcome- or competency-based programmatic assessment began before the pandemic and has gained momentum since. Here are some ways to work towards it

A blueprint for programmatic assessment in healthcare courses

In the past decade, teaching and learning in higher education have been geared towards improving the student learning experience. There is also a growing interest in students as co-creators projects, in which teachers and students collaborate to improve curriculum design and teaching practices. Working with students as co-creators offers several benefits, including improving higher-order thinking skills and student engagement, as well as bringing inclusive perspectives to assessments and curriculum design.Higher education institutions are going through a digital transformation process, shaping teaching and learning practices and thus resulting in a blended learning approach. For that reason, Jisc produced a report on Beyond Blended Learning that explores a combination of four modes of teaching and learning, including on-campus, such as lectures and seminars; off-campus, eg, field trips; online, synchronous and asynchronous; and independent learning activities, after classes.&nbsp;Delivering blended learning to work for all students, everywhereTips for adopting the right technology for blended learningHow to help students get the best out of blended learningHere, we’ll look at the results from a students-as-co-creators project at the University of Westminster, by providing five tips to guide the design of blended learning courses.This students-as-co-creators team involved three second-year undergraduate students and two senior lecturers from the Westminster Business School. We used a mixed-methods approach to gain a deeper understanding of students’ preferences for blended learning modules. The research involved a survey questionnaire, of which second-year students were the most likely to respond and most participants (59 per cent) identified as female. We also held 10 semi-structured interviews. The key finding was that 78 per cent of students felt blended learning activities positively impact their engagement.Here are our tips:Combine blended learning activitiesAn effective blended learning module has a good range of learning activities, with a clear preference for on-campus activities (39 per cent), such as lectures, workshops and seminars; off-campus activities (26 per cent), such as field trips, exhibitions and visits to companies; online synchronous activities (17 per cent) and independent learning activities (18 per cent), such as completing tasks after reading case studies or watching videos. The interviewees confirmed these were the less popular activities, arguing that students can focus more during on-campus classes and enjoy having social interaction with their peers. The literature points out that on-campus classes are more engaging and interactive than asynchronous online sessions.&nbsp;Find a suitable space when attending online classesA well-organised study space helps prevent physical strain, improves contraction and enhances students’ attentiveness by minimising distractions. Consequently, the learning environment has the potential to boost students’ academic performance as well as their creativity and emotional intelligence. When designing a blended learning module, it is important to consider students’ most preferred location when attending online classes. In this study, the most popular location was home (88 per cent); less commonly chosen alternatives included university library (38 per cent) and empty lecture theatres and seminar rooms (25 per cent). Students reported greater satisfaction with online classes, largely due to the&nbsp;enhanced flexibility and comfort, which can be optimised in a home environment.Use digital toolsDigital tools should be used in all four teaching modes to develop interactive classes,&nbsp;help students understand&nbsp; complex concepts, and allow students to express knowledge in different forms, such as verbal, written and audio. In addition, digital tools facilitate the provision of ongoing feedback as part of formative assessment. The three most popular digital tools are quizzes and polls (26 per cent), such as Kahoot, Poll Everywhere and Mentimeter, Microsoft 365 tools for co-authoring documents (24 per cent), such as MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and short videos (23 per cent). While virtual or augmented reality is the least favourite technological tool (9 per cent), if students have the opportunity to use it more often, its preference rate could improve.&nbsp;Create a sense of belongingFostering a sense of belonging in blended learning modules can be challenging, as online interactions often&nbsp;feel impersonal and might not be well suited to every student. On the other hand, in crowded on-campus classes, it can be difficult to connect with like-minded peers. For that reason, blended learning modules should integrate online and offline activities. For example, interviewees pointed out that attending a field trip and rotating teams in classes allowed them to build rapport with their classmates.&nbsp;For online classes, a sense of belonging can be developed using digital tools, such as discussion boards and Padlets; peer feedback platforms, like Peergrade; and interactive quizzes and polls, like Kahoot. Incorporating these&nbsp;on- and off-campus activities throughout is crucial for nurturing a cohesive and engaged learning environment.Use different types of assessmentBlended learning modules should use a good range of assessment types, with the most popular ones being written assessments (23 per cent), such as reports and essays, online quizzes (15 per cent), and live presentations (15 per cent). Regarding the last, students prefer live rather than recorded presentations, as there may be technical issues during the recording and they prefer interacting face-to-face with their teammates during the presentation. However, preferences are changing in favour of non-traditional assessment types, especially using digital tools, including video presentations, e-portfolios, digital projects, posters, podcasts and simulation games. Meanwhile, the least popular assessment type is exams (0.3 per cent), which challenges the view that&nbsp;open-book exams and time-limited assignments are popular in blended learning.&nbsp;The development of blended learning modules has been increasing, especially since the pandemic, and there are good practices that educators can follow to improve the student learning experience. Educators should consider that blended learning goes beyond the combination of on-campus and online classes, exploring different spaces outside the classroom and using digital tools to decolonise learning in higher education. Developing the right balance between these four teaching modes varies according to discipline, and student-as-co-creator projects can serve as a valuable source to gather student voices and improve their learning experience.&nbsp;Gustavo R. Espinoza-Ramos and Setenay Dilek Fidler are senior lecturers at the School of Management and Marketing; Drilena Ukperaj and Mahima Singh are undergraduate students; all at the University of Westminster.If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Five tips for blended learning design 

Blended learning has become more prevalent in higher education in the past few years. But what do students think about it? A students-as-co-creators project found out

&nbsp;“What a fantastic university lecture I delivered! Why did nobody seem to be interested?”&nbsp;Every university lecturer must have had this experience during their teaching career. Now the digital revolution, with its easy access to large amounts of information and a change in students’ attitudes to learning, calls for further reform of teaching methods.&nbsp;Here, we share changes we have initiated to capture and sustain students’ interest and attention both inside and outside the classroom, using a course that has evolved over 20 years as a case study.Declining student interest at lectures despite staff effortsGnathology, a branch of dentistry that deals with the masticatory system, was introduced as a separate subject at Semmelweis University two decades ago. It was taught with an approach that suited the spirit of the times: one lecture and two practical credits per week.&nbsp;Read more: an inter-university and interdisciplinary approach to dental educationTHE podcast: human connection and the student experienceResource collection: back to the basics of pedagogyThe lectures have continuously changed since the beginning; at first, we developed our own curriculum, modelled on the curricula of foreign universities. When the lecturers wrote a university textbook, this helped shape and modernise the emerging curriculum. But even before the publication of this book, the syllabus was based on scientific papers by the course leaders.&nbsp;However, despite a competent and committed team of instructors, as well as topics and resources to address the demands of the 21st century, the number of students attending the lectures fell gradually. An important factor was that due to a change in university regulations, which was requested by students, attendance at lectures was no longer compulsory. When we returned after the Covid lockdown period, the average attendance rate dropped to 14 per cent in the first semester, and only 5.5 per cent of students later watched the recorded lectures online.&nbsp;Adding collaboration to practical educationOur seminars, on the other hand, have proved to be more successful. Continuous development of our toolkit – which includes facebows (which record the relation of maxilla to temporomandibular joint’s hinge axis), individual value articulators and digital motion analysers – has supported the design of practical courses. Post-pandemic collaborative work on exam topics, initially made necessary during distance learning, means each student works on two or three topics at home, then gives a presentation to the group and, after making the necessary corrections, makes them available to the others. Based on the teachers’ opinion, the students’ feedback and the results of the debriefs, this seems to be working, with great results.Seminars that resonate with student behaviourWe converted the lectures into seminars in the spring semester of the 2022/2023 academic year, in response to falling attendance in the department of prosthodontics.The ideal seminar size is about 20 students, but we did not have enough staff members to split the 80 to 85 students studying in Hungarian into four groups. So, we halved the number of face-to-face and contact hours and created the same number of self-paced online learning modules. This reduced the number of parallel seminars to two. Coupled with this was the equally significant task of developing seven new online learning materials.&nbsp;The seminars were not mandatory, but attendance rose to 58 per cent and access to the online resources increased to 50 per cent. The former represents a fourfold increase over the previous term, the latter a tenfold increase. Overall, the huge amount of work invested seems to be paying off, and this form of teaching has been expanded to all subjects taught in the clinic during the past academic year.What’s wrong with the traditional front-facing lecture?Universities are already seeing change in their centuries-old traditions.&nbsp;Knowledge is no longer primarily accumulated within the walls of the university. Seemingly limitless information is available from almost anywhere in the world via the internet, and the university lecturer is not the sole possessor of knowledge.&nbsp;Instead, they assist students in recognising sources and differentiating between those that are trustworthy and those that are illegitimate.The situation is made more difficult by the fact that there are fewer and fewer truly exceptional professors who deliver lectures in the conventional manner. Due to increasing specialisation and lack of time, a given subject’s lectures are shared among three or more lecturers. This means that the concept of a single lecturer over the course of the semester is lost. The routine of the experienced instructors who can emphasise the main points is often replaced by less focused, overly detailed presentations by young speakers.PowerPoint has become the dominant tool for frontal presentation, but the pre-made slides cannot convey the experience of an idea being born. The audience no longer sees the flow of ideas on a whiteboard – just as a tin of food cannot compete with a freshly prepared meal.&nbsp;On the student side, members of generations Z and Alpha are sceptical; they don’t believe in authority, not even in the omnipotence of the professor. They are extremely fast, but sometimes process information superficially. They prefer to go at their own pace, rather than follow the rigid timetable of a classroom. They can often learn much more effectively at the time of their choice.How can we adapt to our students’ changing habits?Our answer is a hybrid approach to teaching, combining a free-choice, individualised approach with a more structured form of attendance.&nbsp;In the former, we try to find and prepare the appropriate teaching materials for each type of student: we make extensive use of videos, recorded short presentations, images and text material. They are carefully selected and structured to provide information accessible to all.In the classroom, we include time for group work so we can apply what we have learned. We provide opportunities for two-way communication rather than one-way transfer of information. Emphasis is placed on teacher’s feedback: diagnostic, summative and developmental assessment, preferably in text form, with guidance for further learning, reinforcement and support.For us, the initial experience shows that it is worth changing, innovating, learning and using new tools and methods in higher education. But the most important thing is to start from the premise that today’s students are just as enthusiastic and ambitious as we were back then. If they remain unmotivated, we may not be teaching them in the right way.&nbsp;Máté Jász and Szandra Körmendi are senior lecturers, and Szilvia Ambrus is a clinical specialist, all in the department of prosthodontics; Péter Schmidt is vice-head of the department of prosthodontics; and Péter Hermann is vice-rector of education and head of the department of prosthodontics. All are at Semmelweis University, Budapest.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

From traditional lectures to seminar-based group work, the evolution over 20 years of a dentistry course shows how course design and pedagogy can adapt to students’ expectations and learning styles

How to capture the attention of new generations of dentistry students

A typical research trajectory involves five interrelated stages: conceptualisation, design, implementation, analysis and communication. The seed of every research project, conceptualisation, helps with its originality, rigour and significance. Without proper conceptualisation, research could lack a solid foundation and students may struggle to navigate the subsequent stages effectively. Worse still, poor conceptualisation means students may end up working on boring, dogmatic, formalistic and unsurprising topics.However, this stage is also one of the most challenging parts to teach those who are new to research. Here are several useful strategies that I have been using to help my undergraduate and postgraduate students kick-start their very first projects in my “introduction to research methodology” course.Exploring interests and passionsI always invite my students to start by reflecting on their interests and hobbies. This allows them to consider topics that genuinely intrigue them and that they feel curious about and motivated to explore further. A good exercise involves coming up with a list of keywords and phrases that capture the essence of each topic. For each topic, they can delve a bit deeper to identify some specific aspects that they find fascinating. The purpose of this is to have students generate a wide range of possibilities for enquiry.Reading extensively and deeply for inspirationThe more students read, the more insights they can acquire for their research. Given their limited amount of time, a good starting point is to skim through the introduction and conclusion of selected research articles and book chapters, which can offer a sense of the scope and contribution of the study as well as gaps and limitations.&nbsp;Another useful exercise is for students to consider some recently published meta-analyses and systematic and scoping reviews, which provide a comprehensive assessment of the current state of knowledge in the field. Students could also review their theoretical readings and course content from throughout their studies, which can reveal some burning questions to address.Resource collection: Research excellence: what is it and how can universities achieve it?A framework to teach library research skillsHow to successfully develop and run interdisciplinary research teamsProblematising and disrupting taken-for-granted mattersStudents need to wrestle with theories, explanations, assumptions and variables that people have begun to treat as “common sense”. They need to problematise the assumptions or findings emerging from the status quo. To help them, ask them to share the big theories and concepts that they have learned in class. Ask them to recall the underlying assumptions of these theories and concepts, or consider the research findings that build on these theories and concepts. Then ask them to think critically and reflectively about flaws and limitations in design and results, the biases and assumptions embedded in the research and the real-life observations that differ from these theoretical or empirical findings.It’s also a good idea to encourage students to consider how other disciplines might fit into their research. For example, if they are doing political science, they can consider research from fields such as the arts, business, law or science, to enrich their ideas.Thinking of the potential research impactsMy view is that any good piece of research should always reach beyond academia into the real world, so I always invite my students to frame their research’s impact on multiple dimensions. One of the frameworks I have introduced to them is the one proposed by Professor Mark Reed, which captures 10 types of impacts, namely understanding and awareness; attitudinal; economic; environmental; health and well-being policy; policy; decision-making and behaviour; cultural; social impacts and capacity or preparedness. To use this framework, I go through each of the impacts one by one, highlighting what each of them means and offering some guiding questions for each of them. Then I give some real-life examples and research studies that show the links between these impacts. After that, I ask them to think about their proposed questions and write several bullet points based on these.Proposing a list of sample discussion topicsFrom time to time, I like to share a list of “bad” sample research topics for class discussion. &nbsp;I label them as such because they are poorly articulated, broadly framed, technically unarguable and socially insignificant. My intention is to use authentic examples to initiate a discussion on how to better improve and refine these research topics. Students can actively share their perspectives, offer suggestions and, most crucially, learn from each other. I can also offer them timely feedback and constructive comments during the class.Thinking about framing questionsIn general, an ideal research question should remain balanced in focus and include a problem aspect shaped by what you want to know, a conceptual aspect of the theoretical notions that are addressed, a contextual aspect that specifies the participants and contexts of concern and a methodological aspect related to the research approach. I encourage students to break down their thinking into these four aspects when planning their research.Exploring criteria for strong research questionsAlthough the following criteria sound general, they are still crucial for students to self-evaluate their questions when they are brainstorming and planning:&nbsp;Focused on a single problem or issue&nbsp;Researchable using relevant and credible sourcesFeasible to answer within practical constraintsSpecific and well-defined to answer thoroughlyComplex and arguable for a sophisticated analysisRelevant and original with contribution.Students can use the criteria to cross-check their research questions and justify and refine them accordingly.&nbsp;Challenging student thinking with critiquesTo push students to think more deeply and critically about their research questions, I often use question words such as “how”, “why”, “what if” and “so what”. For “how”, students need to articulate the intricate and practical processes, mechanisms and methods. For “why”, students need to uncover the reasons and causes. For “what if”, students must engage in hypothetical thinking and consider alternative possibilities. For “so what”, students must consider the significance, relevance or implications. All these can allow them to delve deeper into their research questions.Poorly conceived or constructed research questions can easily lead to problems that affect all subsequent stages of a study. Therefore, it is important to employ strategies to help students learn how to conceptualise their research projects well.Adrian Man-Ho Lam is a course tutor in the department of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong.If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

How to help students conceptualise their research projects

Effective conceptualisation is key when beginning any research project. Help students get off to a good start using these strategies

Strategies to help students conceptualise their research projects

Many higher education institutions are transforming their assessment practices in response to a number of external influences. For example, universities have had to reconsider assessment design in the face of generative AI’s rapid advancements, both to strengthen academic integrity and to enable students to develop AI literacies needed for future employment.Similarly, many English institutions will have had to revisit components of assessment as part of their attainment strategy, due to Office for Students Access and Participation Plan requirements, which were brought in to close awarding gaps.Here, I provide 10 tips for instigating an assessment transformation programme within your institution.Start with curriculum and assessment priorities: Your university’s curriculum framework would provide the nucleus for identifying assessment priorities. By way of an example, at the University of Bedfordshire, five priorities are included in the assessment strand of our curriculum framework: authentic assessment, assessment choice and flexibility, assessment scheduling, assessment explanation and a feedback-rich environment. Similarly, the employability strand defines graduate competencies that should be embedded within courses, including assessments. These priorities need to be reflected in assessment transformation “beacon” priorities.AI as tutor and critic: using tech to personalise educationAssessments that maintain fairness and authenticity without AIHow to embed critical thinking from course design to assessmentAlign to wider institutional imperatives: Priorities for assessment transformation should also be informed by institutional education and student experience strategies, assessment and feedback policies, quality frameworks and regulations (such as Mental Health Charter or Race Equality Charter applications) that relate to assessment. Given that many university staff will have varying degrees of familiarity with such work, it is important to show how these are interconnected. Developing an assessment ethos statement can help to communicate how overarching imperatives (such as employability, equity of opportunity or well-being) have informed your institutional assessment transformation agenda.Seek to facilitate curriculum and infrastructure change together: Assessment transformation is best seen as two distinct areas of activity: curriculum and infrastructure. A curriculum strand relates to the progressive embedding of new assessment practices within courses, such as increasing student co-creation opportunities or reviewing language used in assessment briefs.In contrast, an infrastructure strand addresses assessment change projects – for example, updating a policy, establishing new processes or investing in systems. By developing an incremental multi-year assessment transformation action plan, any changes in pedagogy can be progressively introduced, as permitted by the infrastructure at that point in time. At the start of a new academic year, pedagogical principles can be updated to reflect the new opportunities provided by the completion of assessment infrastructure change projects.Consult with academic and professional services stakeholders… It’s critical that both academic and professional services stakeholders, either directly or indirectly involved in assessment, are meaningfully consulted. Identify key staff as soon as possible and encourage them to share feedback on priorities and proposed actions. This helps to ensure buy-in and to ensure that timelines for delivering changes are feasible. It also helps identify any areas where business cases may be needed for investment – for instance, the reconfiguration of student systems.…third space practitioners… Staff members in roles that transcend traditional academic and professional service positions (including learning developers and academic librarians), and who work directly with students, will have broad and in-depth (and often unheard) understanding of how students are experiencing assessment. These staff should be encouraged to share their insights to inform emergent assessment transformation priorities.…and students: An assessment change programme has an exceptional potential to act as a catalyst, providing increased opportunities for students to meaningfully work with academic staff to create assessment approaches together. This is particularly applicable when working to embed overarching assessment priorities in the context of a school or specific course. As such, I&nbsp;would strongly advocate for a students-as-partners focused priority to be included in any assessment transformation programme.Launch institutionally… Given the need to achieve buy-in for assessment transformation, a successful launch event is critical. A themed institutional event, such as a teaching and learning conference, provides an excellent opportunity to publicise the programme and reach a wide audience. A conference also provides the opportunity to invite specialist external and internal speakers to share previous experiences of delivering assessment change related to prioritised areas. Asking speakers to focus on providing practical examples will help to support attendees to consider how best to approach making changes to their practice.…and locally: Kick-off events should be planned for faculties and/or schools. They provide a dedicated opportunity to explore the implications of the transformation programme with more nuance, in terms of faculty/school preparedness. For instance, assessing the status of current courses in terms of alignment to the curriculum assessment priorities. Additionally, events like these can serve to identify future training needs for course teams. Such opportunities for exploration will support academic staff to integrate assessment transformation planning into course enhancement and school business plans.Provide bespoke support for course teams: Course teams will be in different positions when it comes to implementing assessment priorities. The best way forward is a bespoke approach to supporting course teams. This could involve curriculum consultancy, whereby a centralised teaching and learning unit works directly with course teams to address the developmental priorities identified by academic staff. This approach ensures that continuing professional development will be both highly relevant to course teams and scheduled at times when all can participate.Monitor and evaluate: As with any change programme, an evaluation and monitoring plan must be developed at the outset. Initial feedback could be collected through existing student voice channels (such as unit feedback exercises or via course representatives) – with perhaps a specific focus on assessment, if not already addressed. This could be supplemented with targeted research to evaluate the impact of specific actions. Longer-term, student outcome data and national surveys (such as NSS or PTES) results will illustrate the impact on learning and the student experience.A clear vision and long-term action plan are essential to deliver assessment transformation. It is my hope that these tips will help others who are embarking on their own assessment transformation journey.Steve Briggs is director of learning and teaching excellence at the University of Bedfordshire.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Ten tips when you’re transforming assessment

Higher education is facing pressure to reform assessment. But how to get started? Steve Briggs offers 10 tips

Ten tips when instigating an assessment transformation programme

As an educator bringing 17 years of secondary school experience to a higher education context, I have continued to develop my interest in pedagogy through my work on a postgraduate course in learning and teaching in higher education.&nbsp;Active learning, widely used in primary and secondary educational practice, has formed an important aspect of my teaching philosophy throughout my career. It requires students to be actively engaged in the learning process through their participation in a range of purposeful and meaningful learning activities, thus nurturing a more student-centred environment. Active learning generates more opportunities for students to interact with each other, as well as to practise and apply their knowledge, leading to the development of higher-order thinking skills and subsequently improved learning performance and outcomes, as evidenced in research by Allsop et al.&nbsp;Despite these striking benefits, why does a great deal of teaching in higher education still appear to be inactive? University lecturers have traditionally been seen as founts of knowledge, experts and subject specialists, delivering content through the transmission of information, which requires students to listen passively.&nbsp;Of course, there are clearly times where lecturer input is necessary, but for the most part, students should be actively engaged in learning tasks and dialogue. To allow for this, I now set myself a strict time limit for my own input, colour coding my presentation slides to aid this (I format activity slides in the same colour, making it visually clear how much of the session is active).&nbsp;Here are a few other simple strategies I use to embed active learning within my undergraduate teaching, some of which draw upon transferable secondary education practice which may be applicable to your teaching context:&nbsp;Plan wellConsider what you want your students to learn and how you will assess them.&nbsp;How might you then incorporate purposeful, interactive tasks and activities that support the delivery of your content and require students to become actively involved in the learning process? Certain types of learning activities are more conducive to active learning, such as problem-solving, small group collaboration, discussion and debate, discovery/investigative work, projects, games-based learning and role play.&nbsp;Link activities with real-world scenariosDoing this will ensure learning is meaningful for students and enhance motivation and engagement levels. For example, we give Level 6 students studying our BA special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) programme a selection of case studies reflecting a diverse range of children and young people they may encounter throughout their professional practice to choose from. This not only empowers students to take ownership of their learning but also promotes deeper learning by allowing them to apply their understanding of the material to real-world contexts.&nbsp;Partner with studentsProvide opportunities for students to make informed decisions about how and what they are learning. Acknowledge student interests and incorporate them into your activities where possible and regularly ask them for feedback. Ultimately, if the activities you set are intellectually stimulating and relevant to your students, they are more likely to be motivated and responsive.&nbsp;Resource collection: Back to the basics of pedagogyRelieve student boredom by ‘activating’ lecturesMaking group work work: how to enable successful student collaborationFlip the classroomTo maximise active learning time, consider a flipped classroom approach by setting pre-class activities between classes. Typical tasks include reading a journal article or book chapter, watching a video or listening to a podcast and answering questions ready to discuss and deepen understanding through practice and application during the session.&nbsp;It is likely you will be using your institution’s virtual learning environment as an extension of your classroom when using a flipped classroom approach. Therefore, ensure you are taking advantage of its full functionality to create an interactive learning space.&nbsp;Examples might include embedding questions alongside the learning material with places for students to record their responses, creating online discussion forums where students can contribute their thoughts and opinions on the material and using polls, surveys and quizzes.&nbsp;Use technologyApplications such as Padlet, Vevox and Mentimeter can help you make your presentations more interactive because you can pose questions on them that students can respond to via their own personal devices. You can display the results visually as a stimulus for discussions, thereby encouraging active contributions.&nbsp;I personally find the use of these types of applications helpful in breaking up content, providing moments for students to pause, reflect and engage with the subject material as well as a valuable opportunity to check students’ understanding.&nbsp;With technology constantly evolving, you may feel you need further training and development in this area. I contacted our institution’s learning technologists to develop my digital literacy, which was extremely useful.&nbsp;&nbsp;Go back to basicsUsing traditional, paper-based activities as an alternative to technology-based ones can be extremely effective in promoting active learning. During a recent peer observation, a colleague and I were amazed by how quickly and enthusiastically Level 5 students responded to a card-matching activity, allowing for real-world application of the content covered. The cards contained practical examples of teaching practice – for example, opportunities to learn from others through discussion and debate, which students then had to match to the correct theoretical underpinning, such as social constructivism. As the activity was completed in pairs, it facilitated thinking and sharing of ideas before a whole-class discussion. The tangible nature of the cards helped students connect with the activity immediately.&nbsp;I personally find a blended learning approach works best, incorporating a combination of pedagogic approaches that include both in-person activities (technology and paper-based) as well as online digital tools/resources to deliver the best possible learning experience for my students.As Allsop et al. rightly conclude, the rich benefits associated with active learning are so much greater than traditional lectures.&nbsp;Surely, then, we should all be reflecting upon our daily practice to examine where we can add value to our sessions by incorporating active learning approaches that motivate, inspire and engage our students to actively learn.&nbsp;Sarah Shaw is a senior lecturer at the School of Education, the University of Chester.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Active learning: what can we learn from secondary teaching? 

A great deal of teaching in higher education appears to be inactive, despite the proven benefits of active learning. Here are some practical active learning strategies

Many students see chemistry as a mass of procedures and symbols. It can seem unemotional and impersonal. Chemistry’s specific skills and its need for logical thinking can also create hierarchies of attainment and barriers to student engagement and their sense of belonging.&nbsp;Storytelling can bridge this gap. It offers students an&nbsp;active and discovery-based learning approach and educators an inclusive teaching tool and means of assessment. Not only that, but storytelling can also engage the whole student body, including the increasing neurodivergent cohort, in building their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) identities and developing scientific ways of thinking. Integrating contextualised storytelling in general chemistryAs a chemistry laboratory instructor and coordinator in higher education for more than a decade, I aim to find ways to support students in becoming competent practitioners. The idea&nbsp;that authentic assessment – and&nbsp;story-telling-based assessment, in particular – can help students feel that they are an integral part of a classroom environment intrigues me. This is particularly important for first-year university students as they begin to feel belonging and develop their science identities. In search of a solution, I contacted Carl Sherwood of the University of Queensland. I learned how he implemented contextualised learning of economics via authentic reflection (CLEAR) in his economics course.&nbsp;Seven questions about storytelling in the classroomHow storytelling boosts environmental impact and engagementUsing the art of storytelling to help students build resilience when learning onlineStorytelling uses everyday language to convey ideas and explain technical concepts. Building upon Sherwood’s framework, I integrated the structure into my introductory general chemistry course (chemistry learning via experiential academic reflection) with an adapted name. Later, we collaborated on a&nbsp;study to explore how students’ contextualised storytelling widens university participation, switching it from the discipline of economics to chemistry.&nbsp;Value of storytelling to chemistry lab skillsThe general chemistry course has used storytelling to assess how students achieve the curriculum expectations over the 2023-24 semesters. Each student is tasked to write four contextualised stories using the CLEAR format across a semester. Each CLEAR requires students to write 400 to 500 words using chemistry concepts from specific pairs of laboratory lessons. Students chose a context based on their lived experience to make sense of their learning.&nbsp;The exercise can positively contribute to students’ learning and cultivate their chemistry identities. This is reflected in students’ attendance rates and course grades. Furthermore, I observed the class climate build a sense of team cohesion. Students organically and actively engage in storytelling because it mirrors real-world development experiences.Based on students’ feedback, these are the benefits of CLEAR:&nbsp;Students see the connection with and relevance of course concepts to their livesStorytelling helps students connect course concepts learned in the classroom to aspects of their everyday lives, such as preparing food, participating in hobbies and observing others. Students actively position themselves as chemists to gain scientific knowledge.&nbsp;Students recognise the importance of self-directed learning while writing their stories&nbsp;According to Malcolm Knowles, self-directed learning is a process in which individuals diagnose their learning needs in order to generate ideas, formulating their learning goals, gathering information and organising their ideas through drafting, editing and proofreading. Storytelling can build students’ self-awareness around how they interact within and outside the classroom to shape their chemist identities.&nbsp;Students are more motivated to discuss concepts they learned in class with family and friends&nbsp;The personal and non-technical language used in storytelling supported students’ understanding of course concepts. Students developed a deeper understanding and this had a positive effect on the ideas; they were more willing to share their science perspective with family, friends and the broader community.Strengths and shortcomings of the CLEAR approachStorytelling, used as both a teaching tool and an assessment, helps students create a sense of inclusion while they reflect on and demonstrate their academic knowledge. Non-traditional writing exercises allow students to use and search for relevant information at any given time, with their progress based on their previous experiences, lessons or assignments. Further, students can communicate complex ideas in a simplified way and in different contexts.&nbsp;The disadvantage of storytelling is that students might be relatively new to it as an instructional tool and assessment in higher education. This might influence some students in terms of how much they engage with the exercises, despite the potential learning benefits of storytelling.Getting students started with storytellingIf instructors use storytelling in a class setting, here are some considerations:Students new to storytelling need help with how to demonstrate critical thinking in their creative writing. Instructors could, for example, facilitate a workshop at the beginning of the semester that introduces students to storytelling and explains the benefits of writing contextualised stories and how to translate technical terms into everyday language.&nbsp;Instructors need to provide feedback for students to improve their stories. This could guide students through the stages of writing and help them use the appropriate vocabulary to express and re-express themselves competently while creating their stories.&nbsp;A sense of belonging is vital for university students because they must connect to disciplinary identities, attributes and characteristics within their learning communities. Storytelling assessment allows students to express their understanding of scientific concepts through creative work. My experience with CLEAR shows that storytelling helps students develop the necessary skills to feel comfortable in their new environments, including communication, collaboration and literacy skills. Thus, implementing storytelling provides an assessment task for learning that can widen participation, encourage students to strive for their best individually and enrich their learning experiences. Karen Ho is a senior laboratory instructor in the department of chemistry and physics at&nbsp;Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada.If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

How storytelling engages chemistry students in learning

Storytelling can bridge the gap between complex STEM content and student engagement – it gives learners a discovery-based approach and educators an inclusive teaching tool and means of assessment 

Lessons in chemistry: widening university students’ participation through storytelling

Student attendance is one of the most important factors in academic achievement. Regular attendance has been linked to improved grades, a deeper comprehension of the subject matter and a more satisfying college experience, studies show.&nbsp;Here, we look at the many approaches academics can use to raise student attendance.1. Active teaching methodsEngaging teaching techniques can improve class attendance levels. When teachers use creative and interactive teaching techniques in their classrooms, students are more likely to absorb the lessons.Examples:Group discussions: Set your students a group project in which they work together to solve a case scenario or prepare an assignment. Self-directed learning: Hold self-directed sessions. Students like to show off their skills, share in the teaching process and feel that they are actively participating in their learning process. And their work gets instant feedback.Team-based learning: Students enjoy this technique and their attendance is always high. Team-based learning (TBL) consists of three components: a pre-session quiz, a group discussion and a post-session quiz. The session begins with students completing a pre-session quiz to assess their initial understanding. After this, a case scenario is presented for an open class discussion, during which both students and the tutor collaboratively analyse the case. Through this interactive discussion, students naturally achieve the learning outcomes of the lesson. The session concludes with a post-session quiz, allowing for an assessment of their understanding of the topic after the discussion.Flipped classroom: The flipped classroom model – in which students participate in activities during class and study lecture content at home – improves attendance and engagement. Peer evaluation: Integrate peer evaluation when assessing student assignments. When students are involved in the assessment process and have an active role in the session’s delivery, they’re more likely to attend sessions.Problem-based learning: Another engaging teaching strategy is problem-based learning (PBL), which has brainstorming and debriefing sessions.Gamification of medical education:&nbsp;Gamification is a key component of our teaching approach, regularly incorporating activities such as crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, card games, matching games, role-playing and clue hunts (where students read clues placed on tables and search for corresponding answers hidden around the classroom). These games are integrated into our tutorials to enhance student comprehension in a fun and engaging manner. This approach has been shown to significantly improve student attendance, engagement and focus during class. I typically include one to three games per tutorial session, as the session lasts for two hours, ensuring that time is used to reinforce learning outcomes enjoyably. As a result, students feel more positive and motivated, and the information is communicated to them more clearly and effectively.2. Rewards for presenceThe application of rewards to promote attendance is one of the most effective strategies to encourage student attendance. Examples:Extra credit:&nbsp;Offering additional credit for attendance dramatically improves student involvement.Participation points: Student attendance is greatly increased when participation points are added to the grading system.Tangible rewards: Material prizes, such as gift cards, can really motivate students to attend classes. Consider carefully what kind of reward to offer and its perceived value among your students.3. Technology integration in session deliveryIntegrating technology, multimedia and interactive software into your lessons leads to increased attendance. Members of Generation Z are big fans of technology and are more likely to attend lessons in person if they know it will be used.Resource collection: back to the basics of pedagogyHarness the power of the cliffhanger to hook Gen Z’s scrolling mindsDevelop and nurture teaching presence in a learning community4. Institutional guidelines and assistanceSupport networks and institutional policies are also very important in encouraging attendance. Examples:Mandatory attendance policies: When mandated attendance regulations are applied consistently and with clarity, there is an increase in attendance rates. A specific minimum attendance rate is requested for the student to be able to attend the exam. Strict rules and policies make students’ attendance much more certain.Attendance tracking systems:&nbsp;Students can use digital attendance monitoring systems to notify teachers in advance of attendance problems.Support services: Academic advising and counselling, as well as other support services, can address any underlying difficulties the student might be having that affect their attendance.Student affairs committee efforts:&nbsp;A professional student affairs committee is following up on each student’s attendance rates. It sends alerts to any student with potentially low rates of attendance to notify them to take care of their attendance and try to improve it before it gets too late. This approach is helping students to be more aware and has increased their attendance.5. Artificial-intelligence-powered attendance systemsAI-based systems can automate and streamline attendance, which improves accuracy and saves time.Examples:Facial recognition:&nbsp;Identify and authenticate students as they enter classrooms using AI-based systems.Real-time processing:&nbsp;These technologies instantaneously register the attendance of identified pupils by processing collected photos in real time. Integration with databases: Attendance records are accurate since the system is integrated with the school’s student database.Automated notifications:&nbsp;The system can create thorough attendance records for teachers and administrators, as well as automatic messages to the students concerning their attendance. 6. Foster a connection with your studentsDeveloping a solid peer and instructor connection is essential for increasing student attendance. Teachers should promote connections by learning their students’ names, always showing up and creating a positive and engaging learning atmosphere.Improving student attendance requires incentives, engaging teaching methods, supportive institutional policies and innovative technologies such as AI-based systems and gamification. But, above all, building strong relationships with your students will motivate to them to show up and learn.&nbsp;Maha Ayman is a lecturer on biomedical sciences, and Hananeh Ali is an undergraduate medical student, both at Dubai Medical College for Girls.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Six strategies for boosting student attendance

Make your classroom a welcoming, engaging space for in-person learning once again. Here are six ideas to improve student attendance 

For many years, student satisfaction has been – and still is – an area of concern in the context of higher education. This is because students’ satisfaction can be seen as a proxy for motivation and academic achievements, and higher levels can help with&nbsp;retention and serve as indicators of the quality of education and services provided to students.However, student satisfaction can drive grade inflation; a growing number of students now expect high grades despite reporting less time spent studying. Meanwhile,&nbsp;difficult academic modules and low grades decrease satisfaction. That is why, despite the importance placed on developing students’ higher-order thinking skills, instructors are more inclined to use activities and materials targeted at students’ lower-order thinking skills. This is especially true for faculty on the tenure track who need to devote more time and effort to research as well as those in the process of constant contract renewal, as they may be wary of overloading students and receiving negative feedback that&nbsp;might affect their promotion. &nbsp;Should we activate students’ higher-order thinking skills?Activating students’ higher-order thinking skills can lead to higher student satisfaction with the academic experience, as evidenced by a recent study&nbsp;I conducted with a team of researchers&nbsp;on a sample of more than 14,000 US students. Intellectual challenge increases student satisfaction, while simple recall of information fails to maximise the potential for learning and therefore leads to an unsatisfying educational experience. Students are likely to appreciate challenging courses that stimulate independent thinking, even if the learning experience may be difficult. Therefore, it is vital to challenge them intellectually to foster a deeper understanding of the material and to promote the development of higher-order thinking skills.Resource collection: Back to the basics of pedagogyMaking group work work: how to enable successful student collaborationWhy interactive and game-based instruction beats lecturing every timeHow can we challenge students?Multiple choice quizzes, which mainly rely on remembering, lead to less satisfaction compared to, for instance, debates, which require students to synthesise information they previously have learned as well as consider the opposition’s viewpoints and anticipate others’ positions, it has been shown. Besides skills such as synthesis and analysis, debate activities teach students to follow the following rules of effective communication:&nbsp;•&nbsp;Be respectful• Use appropriate language&nbsp;• Don’t interrupt others• Keep within your time frame• Speak only when it is your turn.Critical self-reflection&nbsp;plays an important role in developing critical thinking. It helps make meaning of important experiences, addressing not only what was learned (content reflection) but also how the learning occurred (process reflection), coupled with an evaluation of the learning (premise reflection). The process of rewriting personal narratives to make sense of experiences becomes key to the transformation process, and technology helps make this process more creative and innovative. For example, for one of my assignments, I often ask students to work in groups and share their experiences of studying at the university using an online collaborative platform such as the e-Portfolio connect&nbsp;system, a social networking system whereby students can record evidence of their learning in various media formats such as videos, text and images.Incorporating educational videos&nbsp;can encourage students’ reflection and critical thinking, as well as serve as an interesting bridge-in activity (also sometimes referred to as an icebreaker) that helps with motivation. For example, at the beginning of the first class of my module “the student experience in global education”, that aims to develop students’ understanding of the impact of globalisation on the student experience and the complexity of managing the student experience in the international university, I usually play some parts from the movie Mona Lisa Smile (2003). &nbsp;This film highlights the importance of education and encourages students to think and question the purpose of education years ago and today. Before watching some relevant parts of the movie I usually ask students two questions to reflect on:&nbsp;1) What was the purpose of higher education decades ago?2) What is the purpose of higher education today?After watching, we discuss these questions together. The right video content can help you gain learners’ attention, build motivation and stimulate their critical thinking.&nbsp;On the back of evidence that challenging activities boost student satisfaction, educators must design activities that promote higher-order thinking. Even if students feel concerned or frustrated by&nbsp;them at the beginning, they are more likely to appreciate and benefit from these learning experiences.Irina Shcheglova is an assistant professor of the Academy of Future Education at Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;THE Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Activate students’ higher-order thinking skills

Activating students’ higher-order thinking skills enhances student satisfaction, research shows. Here are some examples of ways to do it

Want to increase student satisfaction? Activate higher-order thinking skills

Much of the focus in higher education on generative AI has been the existential threat it raises with respect to assessment. However, large language models (LLMs) also have constructive applications. At the law school at King’s College London, we wanted to focus on the learning potential, specifically using AI “as tutor” and for feedback. We used as our starting point a 2023 paper by Ethan R. Mollick and Lilach Mollick of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania that sets out seven approaches for using LLM tools for learning.The experience highlighted benefits (such as time management) and limitations (hallucinations) of artificial intelligence in education, and it left us with a list of suggestions for instructors using AI to personalise learning.AI as tutorWe run a postgraduate course that trains lawyers for practice. In our commercial law module, the first week’s task is to learn about the meaning of, and to draft, the most ubiquitous commercial document: a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).THE podcast: how to use generative AI in your teaching and researchResources and advice for using GenAI in higher educationHow to make ChatGPT work as a teaching assistant: a case study in lawOur instructions to the students were to use any LLM with an “as tutor” prompt to learn about NDAs. They then use the same LLM and deploy their own prompting skills to draft an NDA for a fictional client. In class, we compared their draft documents with a standard precedent NDA taken from a curated database used by practising lawyers.Prompting tipsWe gave our students a detailed prompt to assist with the task based on the Wharton article. As part of the teaching session, we discussed with students the core technique for effective AI prompting:Instruction: a clear directive telling the LLM exactly what action to take or task to performConstraint: specify any limitations or conditions that must be adhered to while following the instruction (for example: “Do not provide immediate answers to problems but help students generate their own answers by asking leading questions.”)Context: provide the background and reason for the instruction, helping the LLM to understand the relevance and focus of the task (“You are an upbeat, encouraging tutor who helps students understand concepts by explaining ideas and asking students questions.”).A richer learning experienceOverall, this was a positive exercise. Students really valued the real-tutor plenary discourse comparing their LLM drafts with the critical comparator. We were able to address in class hallucination issues in the LLM drafts (hallucinations in law are a big issue) and where the LLM drafts did not adequately address legal risks when compared with the curated NDA.But the learning exercise was much richer than if the tutor had lectured on how to draft NDAs or set a problem exercise to draft. Students experimented with guided prompting and experienced the innate satisfaction of drafting their first commercial document. They learned about both the benefits and the limitations of LLMs while completing the underlying tasks within the subject domain.AI for feedbackStudents always ask for more feedback at an individual level on their written work. The constraint is tutor time. In our first experiment, we looked at feedback on a formative assessment for our Land Law module, which is a compulsory subject, heavy in content, that some students find challenging.We uploaded a Land Law problem formative question, a student’s answer and marking guidance (as written by the tutor) to GPT-4. We used a prompt to ask both where the student’s answer met the marking guidance and where their answer could be improved.The feedback from GPT-4 was very similar to the feedback given to the student by the tutor herself.However, this approach to using an LLM for feedback is not appropriate for two reasons. First, from a pedagogy point of view, releasing “model answers” or detailed marking guidance carries with it the very real risk that students replicate these answers in future assessments, even in completely different contexts. Second, we want to avoid a digital gap between those with access to subscription-based models and those without (acknowledging that the free latest version allows a limited amount of uploading of documents).To meet best pedagogy, it is possible to use an LLM but keep the model answer “hidden”. This requires using the OpenAI API. The API contains the LLM that interrogates the student’s answer against the model form answer, which is not accessible by the student. We are working with a developer to ensure that this interface works within our student platform – this is not complex.Advice for using AI to personalised learningLLMs should be used as an effective aid to personalise learning. They give students wider opportunities to learn in different ways alongside in-person teaching. You should:Consider which classes lend themselves to the use of an LLM for the task assigned, which can be used as a comparator for the in-person teaching sessionProvide detailed prompts to students as part of their materials and explore the specific hallucination issues in classEngage developer resources to design feedback using an LLM API that keeps model answers hidden. Studies show that students have an even preference for AI-generated or human-generated feedback.Michael Butler is director of the Professional Law Institute of the Dickson Poon School of Law at King’s College London.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Artificial intelligence can have practical applications for assessment in higher education, despite the focus on the threats it poses. Here are considerations when using AI to support teaching and generate feedback

AI as tutor and critic: using tech to personalise education

Two academics with experience in delivering and researching teaching in varied educational contexts discuss the complexities of effective instruction

THE podcast: what constitutes good teaching in higher education?

The widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) raises concerns about equity and fairness in assessment and adds complications for how educators measure students’ understanding and effort. If students increasingly rely on AI tools to complete assignments,&nbsp;this could undermine the integrity of assessments, making it challenging for instructors to accurately evaluate individual capabilities and achievements.&nbsp;Thus, instructors more than ever need to carefully consider how to design assessments that maintain fairness and authenticity in light of advancing technological capabilities. Here are eight assessment methods that instructors can use to address these challenges.Campus webinar: artificial intelligence and academic integrityOpinion: why I ban AI use for writing assignmentsTHE podcast: the AI university is comingIn-person written assessmentsIn-person written assessments minimise the likelihood of AI assistance and allow for direct observation and interaction. They are among the most effective methods with which to evaluate students’ genuine understanding and skills, but they also require careful planning and resources to administer effectively, including ensuring a controlled environment and providing adequate supervision. Moreover, these assessments might not always fully reflect practical or real-world skills, which could be more accurately evaluated through other methods such as practical exams&nbsp;Oral presentations and Q&amp;As&nbsp;Presentations provide instructors with an opportunity to evaluate students’ communication skills in real time, including their ability to articulate ideas clearly, engage with the audience and respond to questions effectively.Complex problem-solving tasks&nbsp;Tasks that require students to tackle real-world scenarios or issues involve multiple variables and uncertainties and require innovative solutions. For instance, in the field of economics, students might be asked to develop a policy to address unemployment in a struggling economy. This would involve analysing labour market trends, assessing the effectiveness of unemployment policies, suggesting new initiatives and considering the socio-economic and political implications of their proposed solutions.&nbsp;Reflection essays&nbsp;In this type of personal essay, the writer explores a topic from their own perspective and experiences, often examining their thoughts, feelings and learning processes related to the subject. Reflective essays involve critical analysis of personal growth and the insights gained. For example, students might be assigned a task to write a reflective essay on their experience attending an economics seminar or conference. They would reflect on the keynote speeches, panel discussions and interactions with industry experts, discussing how these experiences have deepened their understanding of economic theories and current issues.&nbsp;Reflective essays can be time-consuming for instructors to mark. However, to manage marking effectively, instructors should develop clear rubrics, limit essay length, provide selective feedback, use technology tools and incorporate self and peer assessments. Clear rubrics that evaluate criteria such as depth of reflection, connection to course content, critical thinking, clarity and organisation, and evidence of personal growth will help instructors to grade personal reflection effectively. This approach ensures consistency and fairness, allows for meaningful feedback and focuses on the reflective process rather than just the content of the reflection.Debates and discussions&nbsp;Structured forms of communication such as debates and discussion require individuals or groups to present arguments, counter-arguments and rebuttals on specific topics or issues. For example, students might be assigned to participate in a debate or discussion on the ethical implications of AI in society as part of their assessments.&nbsp;Project-based assessments&nbsp;Project-based activities or tasks assess students’ knowledge, skills and competencies from start to completion. Students might be tasked with creating a business plan for a start-up company, which includes conducting market research, developing financial projections and formulating effective marketing strategies. In such assessments, AI detection software should be used alongside designing unique and context-specific assignments to ensure authenticity.Case studies&nbsp;Detailed and in-depth examinations of a particular event, project or phenomenon within its real-life context assess students’ ability to critically analyse complex issues, apply theoretical knowledge to practical situations and derive evidence-based insights. For example, students might study the integration experiences of international students at a local university, examining cultural adjustment challenges, social interactions with domestic students and access to support services. In the example, AI might struggle to analyse qualitative data such as personal experiences and social interactions, because it lacks the subjective judgement and detailed understanding required to interpret these complex, context-specific situations accurately.Progressive assessments and defence&nbsp;Assessing students’ progress over time ensures a comprehensive evaluation of their understanding and application of course material as these develop. Instead of focusing solely on the final product, this method drops in at regular checkpoints, where students must submit portions of their work and defend their understanding and decisions. This ongoing engagement helps maintain academic integrity, even if students use AI tools, as it requires students to regularly demonstrate their understanding and involvement through stages of the assignment. This process makes it clear that the final submission reflects their own work and insights rather than being solely based on AI-generated content.Keep the focus on learningIn summary, these assessment methods can significantly reduce AI’s usefulness and therefore students’ likelihood of seeking its assistance. They support a more authentic evaluation of students’ abilities and understanding and promote a fairer and more equitable academic environment.Having said that, the primary focus of any assessment method should not solely concentrate on evaluating how students complete tasks without the aid of AI. Instead, it should focus on measuring student learning by evaluating whether they have achieved the outcomes and objectives of a course or programme. It would be optimal to combine both objectives. After all, an assessment that does not focus on measuring student learning is pointless, even if it is designed to prevent students from using AI.&nbsp;Temesgen Kifle is a lecturer in the School of Economics at the University of Queensland.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

In-person, reflective and analytical tasks require students to apply their learning in real-world ways that AI can’t easily replicate. Here are eight ways to tailor AI-resistant assessment

Assessments that maintain fairness and authenticity without AI

“So, what is academic integrity?” I might ask my students when beginning a lecture on this subject. “Who has come across this term before?” Every year, the silence in the lecture hall (or indeed the online meeting room) signals to me that nobody has heard this term before, and the thought of having to explain a way of thinking from scratch is extremely daunting.I teach a cohort of 340 postgraduate students, almost all of whom are international students from China. I started specialising in academic integrity a couple of years ago, and I’ve found that introducing the subject to my students does little to decrease the number of student assignments being referred to the academic integrity department for investigation.As an academic integrity officer, I also investigate cases and meet with students who have been reported as having breached academic integrity, whether in research conduct, coursework or assignments. I’ve noticed that many students lack an understanding of topics such as intellectual property, copyright and ethics, ideas that I had previously thought were close to universal. Mаny of the cases I have investigated weren’t slip-ups, where the student made a genuine mistake. These were more difficult conversations with students who seemed not to have the same baseline understanding of these ideas as I did. It felt as though their academic misconduct was intentional, although I didn’t believe this was the case.Advice for using English as a second language in higher educationRead more: understanding and protecting academic integrityTargeted teaching: meeting students where they areSo, I set out to discover whether the gap was in my understanding of their perspective and, if so, where I could improve my practice. I put together a short write-up of my research to help organise my thoughts and make sense of my findings. Papers by other academics, particularly those writing about higher education abroad, confirmed my suspicion that there are other perspectives on this subject than the one I’m used to, having studied for my higher education qualifications in the UK.How previous experience affects understanding of academic integrityAcademic integrity is closely linked with ethics and morality, according to Guy Curtis, of the University of Western Australia, which touch on wider cultural upbringing, and these are understood differently in China from how they are treated in many Western societies. A variety of conditions within the higher education system in China have caused what we would consider to be academic misconduct to flourish nationally, writes Tracey Bretag of the University of South Australia in her 2016 Handbook of Academic Integrity. Although, as the Chinese culture has an entirely different understanding of intellectual property and academic integrity, they would not consider it so.Harmony is one of the qualities of Chinese society that strongly underpin the belief that all parts of a community may be used by its members for a greater benefit, and this includes individual intellectual property in the form of ideas. In a place where community is of much greater importance than the individual, it would be odd for an individual from this society to try to credit an idea to themselves. In applying this understanding to an academic classroom setting, it is clear where a cultural misunderstanding may arise, wrote lawyer and former Yale-China teaching fellow Peter Friedman in Forbes in 2010.Let’s talk academic theory: learning incomes and social constructivism Making a connection with the broader context from which students may have come is what Phil Race of the University of Plymouth refers to as learning incomes in his fifth-edition book, The Lecturer’s Toolkit. He suggests that the more we know about where students have already been, “the better we can help them to learn”. Practically, this means that engaging with your students to understand what they already know about a topic before giving the lecture is important preparatory work to do.The social constructivism approach, where learning is largely based on students’ existing knowledge and previous experiences, wrote Richard Bale, of Imperial College London, and Mary Seabrook, of King’s College London, in 2021, is what helps educators engage in scaffolding. This then helps in pitching the learning at the right level for most students. In this way, you contextualise your teaching correctly for the students in front of you, rather than presenting a more general lecture that could be directed at anyone.Peter Scales has also discussed Schramm’s model in relation to this. This model (see below) shows areas of knowledge of the lecturer (A) and the student (B) and where they intersect (ab). The model suggests that learning should be aimed at increasing the shared area (ab). From experience, the first step to move to the (ab) area should be made by the educator. It is our job to try to understand what the students already know and where there is a gap in knowledge or understanding and address it.

  
      
  
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A = areas of knowledge of the lecturer B = areas of knowledge of the studentSchramm’s model of communication (1973)

&nbsp;Meet the students where they areWith consideration of the above observations, I made several improvements to delivering my session on academic integrity to my cohort of Chinese students.In preparation for my improved lecture, I discovered that in Chinese, two words correspond to academic integrity. Xueshuchengxin is the positive framing to indicate desirable academic values of honesty and reliability. The negative framing symbolising academic misconduct in Chinese is Xueshubuduan. Having introduced these words to align concepts via a more familiar route, I opened the lecture with anecdotes and scenarios that students could relate to, to make the topic easier for them to interpret. I then asked the students to reflect on their own experiences to involve their cultural backgrounds before introducing new concepts. This acknowledges that expectations around academic integrity in the UK may be different from what they have previously been exposed to.With these and other improvements, such as the addition of peer-to-peer discussions (or breakout rooms, if hosting online) during the lecture, a clear explanation of the expectations of our university more widely and how this translates to assignments students may be working on, as well as a directory of links at the end to encourage further learning, I notice a better understanding of the topic across the cohort.However, I don’t believe this to be the biggest takeaway. My biggest lesson learned was the importance of tailoring your content to your particular cohort and your students’ needs, whether these are cultural or of a different kind, such as language support or accessibility. I therefore find it useful to reflect more widely on the fact that what may be considered a well-prepared lecture on its own, out of context, may need significant modifications based on the cohort in front of you.Julija Jones is a teaching fellow on the MA in global advertising and branding and a faculty academic integrity officer at the University of Southampton.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Cultural misunderstandings can lead to international students being referred for academic misconduct. An answer for university educators can be to tailor course content to bridge gaps in your students‘ understanding

Teaching international students about academic integrity 

How can we enrich education using immersive field studies? Our MSc course “Identity, transnationalism and the media” demonstrated the power of experiential learning. This course explored the interplay between identity and media in the context of migration and transnationalism, focusing on how identities are formed in a world of fluid borders and digital ubiquity. It examined the impact of digital technologies, such as smartphones and AI, on transnational mobility and identity.The MC420 Creative Project immersed students in east London’s urban landscape, specifically in Whitechapel, Brick Lane and Shoreditch. This non-assessed field study engaged students with the area’s rich history of migration, urban development and digitisation. They reflected on how identities shape and are shaped by places, delving into the politics of place as conceptualised by Doreen Massey in her book For Space, and considered the clashing trajectories of a capitalist city amassing wealth vis-à-vis the histories of working-class and migrant communities.&nbsp;Spark creativity in your students – and boost their employabilityUsing experiential learning to teach international relationsDeveloping virtual experiential learning: key takeawaysThe final output addressed the question: How do identities shape and/or are being shaped by the identity of a place, a place itself constituted through migration, racism, urban development and digitisation?&nbsp;The project encouraged students to creatively connect their observations to the concepts of identities and spaces. By engaging with the urban environment, its historical context and current trends, students produced outputs such as photographic compositions, vlogs and webpages. These were shared for seminar discussions, but remained student-owned. The project fostered a reflexive relationship with the city and the course material.What we learnedReflecting on the MC420 Creative Project, here are five ways immersive field studies can transform your teaching:1. Bridge theory and practice: the project provided a platform for students to put their research hat on and apply theoretical knowledge in a practical context, offering an interactive opportunity that made the learning process meaningful2. Immerse students in culture: students valued the chance to explore London as researchers, not just as tourists. This allowed them to familiarise themselves with parts of the city, deepening their understanding of the city’s multifaceted identity. The guided walk, supported by a document of optional stops alongside historical and contextual resources, turned their learning experience into an active exploration3. Embed collaborative learning: the project highlighted the importance of group work, where students could engage with each other and learn from one another. Group work emerged as an important component, as it gave students the opportunity to connect their individual observations in their research outputs4. Inspire researcher reflexivity: the project encouraged students to observe their positionality as researchers, leading to a deeper understanding of identity and its relation to space in the global city. They were briefed to be mindful of their descriptions, making sure that they didn't simply reproduce stereotypes of a lower-income, working-class and racialised urban area5. Spark students’ creativity: students’ creative outputs captured the multiple interfaces of the urban environment and its communicative constitution in non-prescriptive ways. Initiated through a loosely guided group tour, the exercise inspired different readings of the city.&nbsp;Many students visually captured the rich cultural tapestry of the city, including shop signs and street art. Others delved into the auditory dimension of identity recorded in urban soundscapes. The webpages the students created explored themes of gentrification and displacement. Students also considered the impact of capitalism on local culture through sensory experiences. Others explored how evolution of fashion is tied to diasporic histories and how street signs become communicative vehicles of migrant identities, often marginalised. Across the projects were students’ passionate attempts to creatively make sense of urban change, conflict and joy in the city.The next step: GenAI&nbsp;The fieldwork provides a hands-on experience in observing and analysing power structures in London, especially for international students.&nbsp;Inspired by Erica Pani’s practices in the London School of Economics and Political Science’s department of geography, future field studies could be supported with AI-powered applications. These tools would provide real-time data and insights for self-guided tours, benefiting students unable to participate in field trips. The AI could also simulate hypothetical scenarios or historical changes, allowing students to visualise transformations over time or predict future developments based on current trends.Incorporating ethnographic methods to explore the role of the media in the global city, social inequality and urban development is vital to teaching. It has the potential to revolutionise the educational landscape by bringing the curriculum to life, making education a more active, inclusive and impactful journey – a journey led by students. This project has demonstrated the value of such an approach, and we look forward to exploring its possibilities further.Afroditi Koulaxi is an LSE100 Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science; Myria Georgiou is a professor of media and communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;THE Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

The transformative power of immersive field studies

Embracing experience in teaching can bring the curriculum to life and help students forge their own learning journey. Here are five benefits it offers

“Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one’s actions so as to engage in a process of continuous learning,” according to American philosopher and professor Donald Schön. It is used in occupations such as medicine and teaching to recall actions taken over a period and their possible or real impact on their patients/students and to identify areas for improvement.In addition to helping you improve your teaching, engaging in reflective practice can also demonstrate your commitment to continuous skills enhancement for the benefit of both your students and your university.Reflective practice will look different to everyone. Some might prefer keeping a journal, while others might use electronic spreadsheets or one of the many teaching checklists available online or through your university’s centre for teaching and learning.The more detailed you are in your reflection, the more improvements you can make. If you can also quantify the impact of your changes (for example, by demonstrating that your new methods resulted in a 40 per cent increase in lecture attendance) it can not only boost confidence, but also serve as a valuable piece of evidence that could work in your favour for contract renewal or promotion.&nbsp;Strategies for enhancing your reflective practiceAsk your students: seek your students’ opinions on your teaching and learning strategies during lectures, labs and so on, then implement their feedback for future course iterations.I have used the “stop, start, continue” method with mine around the third week of teaching. This involves asking them what they think I should stop and start doing and what I should continue to do to improve their experience. The responses you get during this exercise might surprise you, because they could highlight issues you won’t have been aware of, such as lack of access to learning materials. They might also absolutely love what you’re doing so far and tell you so!&nbsp;Another method of gathering feedback is through the course reviews. These end-of-semester surveys can be disseminated to students through your university’s student experience team and encourage students to share their thoughts on course design, teaching and learning activities and assessments. If you decide to use this method, you might benefit from additional analytics prepared for you, such as charts and graphs, that offer a visual representation of your results.&nbsp;Do not be overly hard on yourself if you receive less-than-pleasing reviews from some students. Try to remember that they want the best experience for themselves and others who might come after, and their feedback is intended to help you improve.&nbsp;Resource collection: Teaching strategies to enhance learningAssessing your assessment: creating inclusive and meaningful assignmentsDesign a student-centred curriculum for dynamic learningAsk your peers: asking your fellow lecturers’ thoughts on your teaching practices can enhance your reflective practice further. You can do this by organising reciprocal classroom observation visits where you can be each other’s student for a day. You don’t necessarily have to stick to staff in your faculty or department – you can learn other ways to engage students from staff outside your discipline.Decide beforehand what you’d like your peer to focus on during your teaching session and then ask them to record how they thought you did and offer objective suggestions for improvement. You may or may not wish to score each other at the end. Applying this method helps to increase peer support and collegiality, which is vital in university teaching and learning environments.Ask yourself: self-reflection is the final step in creating a robust reflective practice. You can do this by reviewing your teaching philosophy statement and editing it if appropriate, asking yourself questions such as “How have I changed or grown as a lecturer between when I wrote this previous version and now?” You can try to do this on an annual basis for maximum effect.You can also complete a self-review checklist looking at aspects of your teaching such as the use of educational technology, knowledge of current trends and online resources for your subject, and authentic assessment design.&nbsp;Reflective practice should be one of the cornerstones of your teaching, especially at the tertiary level of education. Seeking constructive input from those around you, such as students and peers, and engaging in self-reflection will keep your pedagogical skills sharp and your teaching engaging and effective.Natalie K.D. Seedan is a sports sciences laboratory technician and part-time lecturer at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Reflective practice 101

Why and how to incorporate reflective practice into your teaching and learning

As educators, we often focus on what we need to cover in the course so that students’ learning can be measured through course learning outcomes (CLOs). This is normally the approach many, if not all, universities take around the globe. While the measurement appears to be two-dimensional –&nbsp;we teach, students learn – there is a third dimension that could also be factored in. We must consider how students learn through their own experiences, particularly those that appeal to them.&nbsp;Spark creativity in your students – and boost their employabilityIt’s all in the presentation: how to engage international students during lecturesRelieve student boredom by ‘activating’ lecturesAppealing to students’ daily experiences allows them to reflect on what they are learning and how to apply it outside the classroom. They’re often already doing this tacitly, and realising that is often a lightbulb moment for them in my management and organisational behaviour classes.&nbsp;Leveraging experiences of cultural context and diversityEncouraging students to share their family backgrounds can contribute to the richness and diversity of classroom discussion. When students can bring up their family traditions and cultural practices during discussions on business strategies, it helps the class as a whole appreciate the power of cultural context – which can influence business decisions and leadership styles.For instance, when I applied this technique, a student from India explained how their family’s approach to conflict resolution, grounded in the principles of consensus-building, aligned with techniques used in Japanese corporate culture. Another student from Italy described how their family’s communal dining practices fostered a sense of teamwork and community, similar to collaborative work environments in global organisations. These student engagements allow me to introduce them to cross-cultural models, helping them to understand their family experiences within different cultural contexts and fostering community and peer learning.Asking students to make presentations about their families’ cultural practices as part of the course can help foster cultural awareness and appreciation. This helps students to develop their business acumen, broadens their understanding of diverse cultural influences and embeds in them the cultural intelligence needed to navigate complex international landscapes.Learning through understanding support systems and resilienceFor most students, their families are their primary support systems. They provide the emotional, financial and practical support the students need for their academic journeys. To help our students understand the importance of resilience and teamwork in the workplace, analysing the support structures within their families can be a great place to start.&nbsp;For example, exploring how a family divides up household responsibilities can give insight into team collaboration in the workplace. Sharing chores and coordinating schedules demonstrates time-management and delegation skills. In addition, this encourages developing effective and collaborative communication skills.Develop case studies that draw parallels between family support systems and organisational structures. This can help students reflect on how their families have helped them develop key skills for their future careers, such as resilience, problem-solving and adaptability, and this awareness can show them how to leverage personal experiences to navigate challenges both in academia and in the working world.Family members as role models and inspiration&nbsp;Students often look to their family members as role models. They can greatly influence students’ aspirations and career choices. I set an assignment asking students to interview a family member who had had a significant impact on their career aspirations, which provided valuable insights into my students’ motivations.One student interviewed their entrepreneur parent, gaining insight into the challenges and rewards of starting their own business. Another talked about a family member who was a healthcare professional and what this had taught them about the dedication and compassion required in that field.When students interview their families and present their findings, they analyse the influence their family members have had on their academic and career paths. By understanding their aspirations more deeply and acknowledging the personal and cultural factors that have shaped their goals, students are given a better view of how they can make more informed decisions about their professional trajectories. After all, they have first-hand experience of witnessing their parents’ actions and how these actions influenced the family environment.Developing emotional and social skills The way we interact with our family members defines our emotional and social skills. Students’ emotional intelligence and conflict-resolution abilities can be developed by reflecting on family conflicts. Techniques such as active listening as part of family discussions can help students involved in group projects to resolve disagreements. Mediating sibling disputes can also translate into negotiation skills in the workplace.&nbsp;On a more meta level, it provides insight into others’ views of themselves. Hold workshops on conflict resolution and emotional intelligence, and encourage students to share relevant family experiences. This can greatly improve their interpersonal skills. But make sure students feel safe and respected when they’re sharing personal stories –&nbsp;emphasise that sharing is voluntary and don’t pressurise any student to participate.&nbsp;In an environment of active listening and reflection, students can explore their experiences while maintaining boundaries and confidentiality. They can also reflect on their own stories by listening to those of the people around them – not just other students, but educators too. This cultivates self-awareness and social-emotional skills and creates a supportive learning culture that marries personal growth with personal development.&nbsp;Intersecting family and academic life enriches the educational experience. Prepare your students for personal and professional success by valuing and integrating their family experiences.Ankit Agarwal is course coordinator and lecturer in management at the Adelaide Business School.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Four ways to tap into students’ family experiences 

Using students’ family experiences as a jumping-off point for learning can help engage them and prepare them for the workforce. Here’s how to do it

Four ways to tap into students’ family experiences for better learning

Best practice pedagogy for online and in-person teaching: academics from universities around the world share their advice, insights and experience

Teaching and learning

Best practice pedagogy for online and in-person teaching: academics from universities around the world share their advice, insights and experience

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