Dear colleagues,

Dr Rachel Forsyth

Dr Rachel Forsyth, Deputy Head of the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Manchester Metropolitan University will be with us for the next #LTHEchat to discuss Progression. In Rachel’s own words:

“So, this week I am determined to get home in time to participate properly in #lthechat. I often catch the end, and almost always scroll through the hashtag or storify afterwards, but I feel an extra sense of responsibility this week.

What is the role of learning and teaching in supporting progression? Is it just about making sure that everyone passes the year? What can we learn from the extensive literature on student retention and student success which we can apply to our own teaching and assessment? Is it someone else’s problem: student services, librarians, counsellors, personal tutors or halls of residence staff? Or is it something we can address in the curriculum?”

Recommended reading by Rachel:

Crosling, G., et al., Eds. (2008). Improving Student Retention in Higher Education. Abingdon, Routledge.

Thomas, L. (2012) Building student engagement and belonging in higher education at a time of change: final report from the What works? Student retention & success programme  https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/node/2932

Tinto, V. (2012). Completing college: Rethinking institutional action, University of Chicago Press. – more about institutional policy than individual actions, but still interesting.

Wilcox, P., et al. (2005). “”It was nothing to do with the university, it was just the people”: the role of social support in the first-year experience of higher education.” Studies in Higher Education 30(6): 707 – 722. http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/03075070500340036 – thoughtful analysis of the reasons students gave for leaving university early.

Yorke, M. and Longden, B. (2007). The first-year experience in higher education in the UK, Higher Education Academy.  https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/resources/detail/publications/fye_final_report – this report contains important and convincing analysis of first year experiences. The data is now getting on for ten years old – it would be good to know what’s changed!

Alongside Rachel, Sue Beckingham from the LTHEchat team will be facilitating the chat.

The Storify is available here: https://storify.com/LTHEchat/lthechat-14-learning-and-teaching-in-higher-ed-ch

If you are reflecting on this specific #LTHEchat please share your post with us so that we can reblog. A Google presentation has been set-up to share your thoughts there as well.

image source: here

We will be collaborating more with students and introduce dedicated #LTHEchat s led by the student community. These will be called: “Questions we always wanted to ask you” which will be a great opportunity to bring educators and students closer together.  The student guest  will represent questions from the student community. Questions he will share will include some of his own but also those from his peers.

If you have other suggestions on how we could make the #LTHEchat more valuable for you, please let us know.

See you Wednesday, same time, same place 😉 – 8-9PM GMT #LTHEchat

The LTHEchat team