Sketchnoting – Ideas, not art!

In this upcoming #LTHEchat, we will explore sketchnoting. This may also be referred to as visual note taking or graphic recording. Whatever term you chose to use, it is frequently described as a non-linear visual representation of ideas and concepts using a mixture of text, visuals, shapes, and arrows (Rohde, 2013). Mike Rohde coined the term sketchnoting around 2007 after becoming frustrated by the arduous task of note taking.

Contrary to many people’s beliefs, you do not have to be ‘good’ at drawing to produce a sketchnote. When you stop to consider that the aim of sketchnoting is to convey ‘ideas, not art’ (Rohde, 2013) this can help to relieve some of the pressure you may feel committing pen to paper! If you can draw lines, arrows, squares, triangles and circles you have the basic skill set required for sketchnoting. This point is nicely illustrated in figure 1 below where the images of the house, laptop and alarm clock have all been constructed using simple shapes.

Why sketchnote?

Sketchnoting is reported to improve recall and promotes active learning through a process of dual coding, as outlined by Paivio (1986). Dual coding is when words and images are combined effectively to facilitate learning, with an additive effect. That is, when information is conveyed verbally and visually students are more likely to be able to retain and recall that information more effectively. Using both modes, verbal and visual, helps to create a visual map in your mind. To enable this, visual images should be simple and clear with little background information.

The six benefits of dual coding to students’ learning, outlined by Clark and Lyons (2004) are:

1. Direct attention.
2. Trigger prior knowledge.
3. Manage cognitive load.
4. Build schema.
5. Transfer to working memory.
6. Motivate.

Sketchnotes can be created in real-time, during lectures (to produce more useful, interesting notes), in a conference setting, or to capture important points in meetings. Tidy et al (2022) explored the use of sketchnoting as a revision aid in higher education and reported a marked increase in the lower grade boundaries of those students who participated in the sketchnote exercise.

The sketchnote illustrated in figure 2 below was created in real time capturing information in relation to the elements identified as those that make a good thesis research proposal. Sketchnotes created in real time requires the person sketching to actively listen to the auditory information, to synthesise the information identifying the key points and then capture those visually, to listen, think and draw. This requires high levels of concentration as such, results in active engagement with the lecture content. Like any practical skill, this becomes easier with practice.

With experience, those who sketchnote frequently soon build up a visual library in their head of icons, shapes, images, and arrows which helps to speed up the sketchnoting process.

Sketchnotes can be undertaken digitally, using a tablet and pen, or by analogue means with pen and paper.

In the upcoming #LTHEchat, the aim is to explore the use of sketchnoting in education and to provide you with the option to practice and develop some basic skills, should you want to participate.

You do not need any fancy equipment to participate. Paper, some pens and a phone to capture and share your images/sketchnotes is recommended.

References:

Clark, R. and Lyons, C. (2010) Graphics for Learning. 2nd edn. Wiley. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/1014609/graphics-for-learning-proven-guidelines-for-planning-designing-and-evaluating-visuals-in-training-materials-pdf (Accessed: 14 October 2022).

Paivio, A. (1986) Mental Representations: A Dual Coding Approach. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.

Rohde, M.(2013). The Sketchnote Handbook. Peachpit Press.

Tidy, H., Burnham,R., Elkington, S. (2022) Using Sketchnoting as a revision aid with forensics students. Science & Justice. 62, pp. 822-826.

BIO

Suzanne Faulkner is teaching fellow in Prosthetics and Orthotics, within the department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, she has been nominated for several teaching excellence awards and was recently awarded SFHEA.

With 16 years teaching experience at the National Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics, Suzanne is passionate about enhancing the student experience by focusing on improving student engagement. With an increasing international cohort of students, she has employed various techniques to enhance communication and engagement with all students. These include using Snapchat as a tutorial tool, utilising social media in learning and teaching and playful learning. Suzanne is a facilitator qualified in the Lego Serious Play (LSP) methodology; she is currently undertaking an EdD where she is exploring the use of LSP to enhance participation of students with English as a second language in group work activities. During her taught EdD elements Suzanne has been using sketchnotes to document her learning. Suzanne participates regulatory in the #LTHEchats, loves anything and everything to do with the amazing #SocMedHE community, . . . . and probably uses Bitmoji’s too much! She can be found on Twitter as @SFaulknerPandO  

Twitter: @SFaulknerPandO LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-faulkner-2b29aa15/

Professionals Teaching Professionals

In this #LTHEchat, we want to explore the ways in which previous (or, indeed, concurrent) professional experience impacts on learning, teaching and/or scholarship in Higher Education. Whether that experience is as a barrister, fashion designer, police officer or purveyor of antiques and curiosities(!), professionals moving into HE have a huge amount to offer to the student learning experience, academic culture and the scholarship of teaching and learning.   

Our interest is partly based on the fact that we all currently work together in an institution that is wholly focused on ‘professionals teaching professionals’. But our collective experience in public universities also tells us that the relationship between HE and the professions has become increasingly intimate as higher education institutions seek to improve employability outcomes, increase ‘educational gain’ by aligning academic qualifications with professional recognition and qualifications, deliver effective apprenticeship and/or degree programmes, and prepare professionals of the future. 

In response to aligning academic qualifications with professional recognition and preparation, many universities employ ‘dual professionals’ (also called practitioner-academics, pracademics, and a range of other terms – see “What’s in a name? The rise of the practitioner academic and time to reconsider standardised induction support” for more on this). Nevertheless, our understanding of the range of potential benefits that these professionals bring to HE, and the challenges that they face as they move into academia from other contexts remains relatively limited, despite the argument that “career academics and pracademics need to perceive each other as equals to fully benefit from their shared skills, experience and knowledge pools” (Willis 2016, cited by Dickinson et al., 2020). Much of the literature on dual professionals has tended to focus on the experience of staff within specific professional fields such as policing (Willis, 2016), nursing and healthcare (Duffy, 2013 and Boyd and Smith 2016), accountancy (Lindsay, 2020) or management (Simendinger, 2000), although more recent work also starts to explore the range of potential benefits that dual professionals think they bring to their academic roles (Dickinson, 2020).

In our #LTHEChat we aim to build on Dickinson’s work and invite participants to consider how previous professional experience can be harnessed to positively impact HE contexts. We hope that the chat will give participants an opportunity to reflect on their own journey into and through HE, and a chance to consider how experience in other professional contexts can/should impact on learning, teaching, and scholarship. 

Following the chat, if you want to connect with a network of colleagues who are interested in supporting professionals who move in to HE, join the Supporting Professionals in(to)HE Network (SPiHE) by contacting Claire on Twitter (@DrClaireStocks) or at ClaireStocks@bpp.com. 

References and recommended reading

Boyd, P. & C. Smith (2016) “The contemporary academic: orientation towards research work and researcher identity of higher education lecturers in the health professions”, Studies in Higher Education, 41:4, 678-695.

Dickinson, J., A. Fowler and T. Griffiths (2020) “Pracademics? Exploring transitions and professional identities in higher education” Available from Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/25992/ (Accessed 12^th May 2022)

Duffy, R. (2013) “Nurse to educator? Academic roles and the formation of personal academic identities” Nurse Education Today, 33:6, 620-4.

Kitchener, M. (2021) “What’s in a name? The rise of the practitioner academic and time to reconsider standardised induction support” BERA Blog. https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/whats-in-a-name-the-rise-of-the-practitioner-academic-and-time-to-reconsider-standardised-induction-support  (Accessed 12^th May 2022)

Lindsay, H. (2020) “From fledgling to fledged: how accountants in academia develop their research capabilities”, Accounting Education, 29:4, 409-430.

Simendinger, E., Puia, G.M., Kraft, K. and Jasperson, M. (2000), “The career transition from practitioner to academic”, Career Development International, 5:2, 106-111.

Willis, James J. (2016) “The Romance of Police Pracademics”. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice 10:3, 315-321

BIO

Dr. Claire Stocks is an Associate Professor of Educational Practice at BPP University. 

Claire’s background is in English and American Literature, and she has been an academic developer since finishing her PhD in 2005. She has presented and published work on American Literature and in relation to academic development, and she has worked in a range of universities including research-intensives, teaching-focused and currently in a private provider. She is particularly interested in how to support novice academics to become successful HE professionals, and in the pedagogy of professional Higher Education. She leads BPP University’s Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching, and the Headway CPD scheme. 

Claire has been a Senior Fellow of the HEA since 2016, and has recently convened a network for colleagues who are interested in supporting professionals who move into Higher Education.

Twitter: @DrClaireStocks LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/claire-stocks-a5230227

Dr. Peter Alston is an Associate Professor of Educational Practice and the Interim Dean of Education Services at BPP University. 

Peter has a background in information systems and web development/programming, and a PhD in eResearch & Technology Enhanced Learning. Previously, he was Director of Learning Solutions at Laureate Online Education with responsibility for cultivating relationships with partner institutions, and providing strategic vision and oversight for the design and development of academic programs. Prior to joining Laureate, Pete was a Lecturer (Learning Technology) in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Liverpool where he worked on the development of new ways of using learning technologies, social media and other web-based technologies within education. He also held a Senior Lecturer position in the Department of Computing at Edge Hill University, contributing to the teaching and project supervision on the Web Systems Development pathway, and serving as a Senior SOLSTICE Fellow, leading the development and impact of technology enhanced learning across the University.

Twitter: @DrPeteAlston LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/alstonp

Dawne Irving-Bell, PhD, is a Professor of Learning and Teaching at BPP University. 

Dawne established The National Teaching Repository, a platform where colleagues can share interventions that lead to real improvements in teaching and learning in a way that secures recognition for their practice, making it citable, sharable, and discoverable. 

Dawne enjoys lecturing on visual thinking and advocates for technology and design education, for which she received a National Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to re-shaping Teacher Education. 

Dawne is a National Teaching Fellow (NTF), Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and proud recipient of a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE).

Twitter: @belld17 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawne-irving-bell/

The Wakelet is available here: https://wakelet.com/wake/wgOcUn6tO8VRNXqSF_d-Z

Assessment of student learning is a key aspect of all forms of education that lead to a qualification or other recognition of achievement. It can be a complex and fraught topic, associated with anxiety and pressure for both teachers and students. Boud (1995) considers the ways in which assessment is used as a control mechanism in assessment; while he focuses on the control of student behaviours, it also has a powerful effect on teachers. The current marketing and assessment boycott in the UK, and universities’ responses to it, expose the challenges of managing fairness, reliability and validity and maintaining expertise and confidence in the assessment process.  

For the individual involved with assessment, confident assessment starts with understanding enough about assessment processes to know that it is impossible to be 100% sure, or confident, about any part of them. This sounds counterintuitive, but fully understanding your own limits can be strangely liberating. A confident assessor understands that there is no perfect way to assess: there should be a good way for the context at hand, which is worth finding, but there is no magic formula.  

You don’t have to be actually managing the assessment to contribute to it: successful assessment needs the contribution of many university colleagues, as well as students’ active participation. The Assessment Lifecycle (adapted from Forsyth et al, 2015) shows the different stages of an assessment, and it requires many colleagues in departments and professional services to contribute for everything to work. 

And yet traditionally, it is often considered as a solitary pursuit both for students and for their tutors. Students are mostly set individual assignments by which teachers judge their personal performance; talking to peers about these assignments is a sensible thing to do, in terms of personal and professional development, but there may be hint of collusion if this discussion becomes public. In some cases, there may be a competitive edge to the assessment which precludes sharing ideas with others. Or perhaps the assessment is being completed at the last minute, under pressure, and the student feels alone in this challenge.  

Once students have done their part and completed their assigned work, marking (grading) of assignments is largely done by individual tutors working alone. There are exceptions, such as when marking event-based activities such as presentations, performances, or exhibitions, but reviewing students’ work may be seen as something one locks oneself away to complete. It may also be presented by tutors as a difficult and unpleasant chore to be completed before other, more engaging, activities may ensue. This image of assessment as a practice which is carried out behind closed doors and endured by all parties is at odds with modern ideas of inclusive curriculum design, digital collaboration, transparency, authenticity, and professional practice.  

In this chat, we will try to gently explore some apparently fixed ideas about assessment and what it might take to aspire to feeling confident and creative enough to break out of some of the fixed ideas about assessment. A good place to start is to think about purpose: why is this assignment being set? This will help you to decide what elements of the assignment are most important, how to manage grading, and how to ensure that feedback is fit for purpose. Of course, any assignment may have multiple purposes, and some may be unintended: it is a good idea to think about which ones you value. Here are some possible purposes; maybe you can think of more: 

References and recommended reading

Boud, D. (1995). Assessment and Learning: contradictory or complementary? In P. Knight (Ed.), Assessment for Learning in Higher Education (pp. 35–48). Kogan Page. available at  http://www.education.uts.edu.au/ostaff/staff/publications/db_9_boud_seda_95.pdf  

Campbell, P. I. (2022). ‘Pray(ing) the person marking your work isn’t racist’: racialised inequities in HE assessment practice. Teaching in Higher Education, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2022.2119075  

Forsyth, R., Cullen, R., Ringan, N., & Stubbs, M. (2015). Supporting the development of assessment literacy of staff through institutional process change. London Review of Education, 13(34-41). 

Forsyth, R. (2022). Confident Assessment in Higher Education. SAGE. (Sorry – terrible self-promotion. For a discount: Go to the publisher’s site, add your book(s) to shopping basket, wnter discount code: UK23AUTHOR at checkout) 

Nieminen, J. H. (2022). Assessment for Inclusion: rethinking inclusive assessment in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.2021395 

O’Donovan, B. M., den Outer, B., Price, M., & Lloyd, A. (2021). What makes good feedback good? Studies in Higher Education, 46(2), 318-329. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1630812   

Race, P. (2019). The lecturer’s toolkit: a practical guide to assessment, learning and teaching (5th ed.). Routledge.  

Simper, N., Mårtensson, K., Berry, A., & Maynard, N. (2021). Assessment cultures in higher education: reducing barriers and enabling change. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2021.1983770   

Tai, J., Ajjawi, R., & Umarova, A. (2021). How do students experience inclusive assessment? A critical review of contemporary literature. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2021.2011441 

Bio

Rachel Forsyth is an educational developer who works at Lund University in Sweden as a project manager, reviewing the pedagogic aspects of digital education development and the University’s framework for appointments and promotions of academic staff. Her recent book, Confident Assessment in Higher Education, is intended as a practical, theory-informed resource for anyone in the higher education sector. She is a Principal Fellow of the HEA and has taught on postgraduate programmes for teaching in higher education for twenty years, including leading a specialist module on assessment. She is a member of the Degree Standards Project team which has explored sector-owned processes for professional development of external examiners in the UK since 2017. As Editor-in-Chief of the Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal since 2017, she is an active member of the Researching, Advancing, Inspiring Student Engagement (RAISE) network.

Missed the chat?

No problem, here’s a curated collection of the tweets so you can review and participate at a time that suits you.

How do we harness the phenomenal?

We are working on a project exploring the possibilities of using Phenomenon-based learning in higher education (PHBL). In PHBL, learning is provoked and guided by given events or occurrence. The selected phenomenon is a constant for the students as they progress through a cyclical enquiry process of engage, explore, expand and execute. The phenomenon plants itself within all learning activities providing a place and justification for discipline knowledge.

As a team we have experienced many a furrowed brow trying to conceptualise this approach to learning, how it might be differentiated with other more well-known approaches and what it might look like to different students and different educators. How might it positively disrupt module constraints? How could it be effectively employed to offer impactful interdisciplinary learning? What is the place of content/ knowledge? Is it best for a student to engage with content and theory before, during or after the applied context? So, it isn’t without irony when we say that our PHBL project has mirrored inquiry-based learning by producing more questions than answers! But what we have been struck with is how PHBL has triggered students to appreciate and apply their discipline knowledge to real world issues. 

During 6 workshops students from a variety of discipline backgrounds, different stages in their study and at 2 contrasting universities gave us their take on PHBL. As part of the testing of PHBL, our students interacted with phenomenon such as AI in Healthcare, Food Sustainability and High-Speed Rail developments. All of these phenomenon were introduced with a “What if” proposition….

• What if your next GP appointment was led by a robot? 
• What if all food consumed had to be produced within a 500-mile radius?
• What if a community had to be relocated as part of the HS2 development?

You can imagine that a multidisciplinary group engaged with these phenomena in very diverse ways. The students generated their own lines of enquiry which represented their course experience and learning needs. Importantly though these lines of enquiry built up into a meta exploration of a phenomenon, where discipline boundaries were challenged, and discipline knowledge was contextualised. 

We are looking forward to hearing from the LTHEchat community about their experiences of using phenomena to trigger learning experiences.

Guest bios

Dr Kate Cuthbert – Pedagogic Projects Development Manager in the Staffordshire Centre for Learning and Pedagogic Practice

Sue Lee – Senior Research Fellow in the Staffordshire Centre for Learning and Pedagogic Practice

Emily Chapman Waterhouse – Associate Head of Department (Veterinary Nursing) Harper Adams

Missed the chat? No worries, here is a link to the wakelet for #LTHEChat 262

For anyone involved in teaching and learning in Higher Education, you won’t fail to have witnessed the proliferation of research advocating the value of “active learning”. Not only has it been held responsible for eliminating gender achievement gaps in some subjects (e.g. Theobald et al., 2020) and helping students to feel more engaged with their studies (Chiu and Cheng, 2017) but it has also been considered instrumental in reducing mental health issues associated with university level study such as anxiety (Adkins-Jablonsky et al., 2021) as well as reducing stress around assessments (e.g. Khan and Madden, 2018).

Wendy’s personal journey with active learning

One of the positive consequences of this focus on active learning has been the increasing development and availability of new tools to aid learning. The Global Festival of Active Learning for example, is due to have its 3rd annual run later this month with an international collection of contributions showcasing active learning methodology. I won’t hesitate to say that I am always keen to explore new methods and ideas to engage my learners. 

However, given the expansion of this field, it is thought-provoking to see that we still lack a clear definition of what active learning actually is. Is it synonymous with playfulness? When we try to identify what active learning might look like in practice, it becomes even more challenging. In many cases, we completely overlook the important question of whether there is a synergy between our assumptions about active learning and the experience of our students.  Our questions on #LTHEchat this week will explore some of these issues, stemming from a recent SEDA Focus book exploring the theoretical aspects of this pedagogical approach (Garnham and Gowers, 2023). 

Mary’s personal journey with active learning

I’ve long been an advocate, but have noticed that different people often have very different conceptions of what active learning actually is. I have been inspired by the Active Learning Network. When the pandemic began, I wanted to support our teaching staff in using active learning online, so I designed a training session drawing upon seminal work such as Bonwell & Eison (1991), Michelline Chi’s ICAP model (2009), and the online student engagement framework (Redmond, et al, 2018). In considering such sources, my own conception of active learning came into clear focus as Active Cognitive Tasks (ACTs). This became the basis for my contribution to the SEDA Focus book. Here is an outline of what I mean by ACTs:

References

Adkins-Jablonsky, S. J., Shaffer, J. F., Morris, J. J., England, B., & Raut, S. (2021). A tale of two institutions: analyzing the impact of gamified student response systems on student anxiety in two different introductory biology courses. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 20(2), ar19.

Bonwell, C. C., & Eison, J. A. (1991). Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom. Washington, DC: School of Education and Human Development, George Washington University

Bjork, R. A. (1994). ‘Memory and metamemory considerations in the training of human beings,’ Metacognition: Knowing about knowing, edited by Janet Metcalfe and Arthur Shimamura, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 185–205.

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., and McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: the science of successful learning, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.  

Chi, M. T. H. (2009). Active-Constructive-Interactive: A Conceptual Framework for Differentiating Learning Activities. Topics in Cognitive Science, 1, 1, 73-105. 

Chiu, P. H. P., & Cheng, S. H. (2017). Effects of active learning classrooms on student learning: a two-year empirical investigation on student perceptions and academic performance. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(2), 269-279.

Garnham, W. A., & Gowers, I. R. (Eds.). (2023). Active Learning in Higher Education: Theoretical Considerations and Perspectives. Taylor & Francis.

Khan, A., & Madden, J. (2018). Active learning: a new assessment model that boost confidence and learning while reducing test anxiety. International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science, 10(12), 1.

Redmond, P., Heffernan, A., Abawi, L., Brown, A., & Henderson, R. (2018). An Online Engagement Framework for Higher Education. Online Learning, 22(1), 183–204.  

Theobald, E. J., Hill, M. J., Tran, E., Agrawal, S., Arroyo, E. N., Behling, S., … & Freeman, S. (2020). Active learning narrows achievement gaps for underrepresented students in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(12), 6476-6483.

Bios

Wendy Garnham is a Reader in Psychology at University of Sussex. She is a National Teaching Fellow and co-founder of the Active Learning Network. Wendy is a Fellow of SEDA and co-hosts both a Community of Practice for both Transitions and more recently, Outdoor Learning. Wendy is currently Acting Head and Director of Student Experience for the Central Foundation Year programmes at Sussex.

Mary Jacob is a Lecturer of Learning and Teaching at Aberystwyth University. She is based in the Learning & Teaching Enhancement Unit where she runs the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PGCTHE) scheme. She holds SFHEA and CMALT, and is a member of the Active Learning Network. Mary contributes to the broader community of practice through curating the Weekly Resource Roundup, presenting webinars at events such as the #DigiEduWebinars series, and participating on Twitter as @MaryJacobTEL1

Missed the chat? No problem! Here’s a link to the Wakelet of curated tweets for you to catch up with the chat.

Simulation has become increasingly common as an approach to teaching and learning; particularly in the vocational or practice based disciplines. Indeed for some vocational professions, engaging in simulation can be used instead of practice in real world environments; however whether this simulated experience can ever truly replace practice experience remains unclear. Generally, simulation for learning tends to take place away from work based or practice areas; rather it takes place in specifically designed laboratories or skills room facilities, or simulation suites, facilitated by teachers that are situated largely within the university setting. This Tweet chat seeks to explore whether simulation is taking place in the workplace, and if so, what form is that simulation taking and what is the impact of this on learning? And, perhaps more importantly, what preparation do individuals require to facilitate such learning in the workplace? Finally the Tweet chat is looking for examples of collaboration between higher education and workplaces where simulation is being used to good effect; or could be used even more.

Please join us for this conversation to share your examples of simulation in the workplace and to discuss the impact of simulation on practice.

Professor Debbie Roberts has expertise in nurse education, with over 30 years’ experience as a Registered Nurse, and 20 years as a nurse academic, working for universities in both Wales and England.  Debbie is a Principal Fellow of the HEA/Advance HE, her areas of teaching and research expertise includes practice learning, immersive learning, simulation and workforce development. She has a particular interest in linking research, teaching and innovation; ensuring that evidence-based teaching is used within nurse education and embedding relevant research into the curriculum.  Debbie supports PhD students and has examined several PhD candidates. Widely published in the field of nurse education, Prof Roberts has contributed to textbooks, used internationally as core texts in nurse education programmes. She also has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers for international journals with her work often cited by others, indicating the impact of her ideas on teaching and learning internationally.   Prof Roberts has established a wide range of national and international links through her work as an external examiner and in 2019, she was nominated as one of the top 100 women in Wales in the inaugural Welsh Women’s Awards, which celebrate those women who continue to thrive and excel at the forefront of their professions and make meaningful contributions to the country. 

Link to the #LTHE chat Wednesday 8th March