Dear #LTHEchat colleagues and friends,

We would like to thank you for participating in the #LTHEchat 200 on the 17th of March 2021 and further individuals who completed the mini survey we shared during the event. 

This chat was really useful for us to gain some insights into the experience of all those participating in different ways. We invited responses to the following:

Task (T) Share a picture of an object, model, drawing, collage etc. with a caption that shows what the #LTHEchat means to you. Have you prepared this?

Q1 What motivates you to participate in the #lthechat and/or follow the hashtag? In what way Is  the Wakelet curation of tweets after the chat useful?

Q2 follows… What impact, if any, does the #lthechat have on your own professional development?

Q3 Is the #lthechat impacting on your practice? Briefly explain.

Q4 About the organisation and running of the #lthechat conversations. How does the rotating teams and mentors approach work for the community?

Q5 The organisation and running of #lthechat is supported by a rotating team and mentor approach. Does this work well for the community?

Q6 Ideas, ideas, ideas! Please share one thing you would either change or add to the #lthechat.

Q7 How about closing the #LTHEchat down this summer and forever? Share a word/image/gif to respond. 

Plus question shower, ask and respond to any question by participants. 

There were 966 tweets in total during this chat contributed by 129 individuals. We also received eight responses to our survey. 

The following were created: 

•    Martin Hawksey TAGS created and shared by Sarah Honeychurch based on the #LTHEchat 200 https://hawksey.info/tagsexplorer/?key=15OqDTKhscDJo8ZGggQmxYiCYQeJ-mOFNdjOzZB3tQ_o&gid=400689247

•    Wakelet #LTHEchat 200 https://wakelet.com/wake/9CHn85b1mis26Fau7_-6X?s=03

After participating in the chat and reading carefully all responses, we can see that the #LTHEchat has been a valuable professional development initiative for the vast majority of individuals participating. There are some critical voices which should not be ignored and we are exploring options. 

Overall, there doesn’t seem to be an appetite to stop the chat as the contributions during this chat show. Perhaps some of the interventions introduced during the last few years have helped keep the chat fresh, current and renew its energy. Many mention the people participating in the chat and the warmth of the conversations that are often diverse and challenge their own perceptions and viewpoints which is seen as valuable. Also some noted that the chat brings together diverse voices and everybody is heard regardless of their professional status or position. Some colleagues suggest that we can diversify even further and involve more students and industry but also consider taking some of the topics explored further and disseminating via an event and related publications. All good ideas and we are grateful for your thoughts.

The rotating organising teams, mentor support as well as the openness to collaborate with other organisations such as AdvanceHE and ALT for example, seem to have increased commitment, participation and have helped transform this initiative into a community for many. This whole initiative is based on volunteers giving their time to organise and facilitate the chats, for which we are very grateful. 

The visualisations shared (34 in total) as part of the task linked to what the #LTHEchat means to participants are currently being analysed to gain more specific insight into this aspect of the chat.

Going forward, we are considering the following for the #LTHEchat:

Organising teams and mentors: Move from three teams to two or one during each academic year and one mentor to provide a longer time frame for the team to familiarise themselves with the organisational side, shape the programme, related activities and outputs. 

Dissemination: Explore the possibility for organising an annual social event (combined with a streamlined approach linked to organising teams and mentors) and create opportunities for a special issue on what was explored during the year, edited and authored by #LTHEchat participants and further individuals. We are in conversation with an open access journal for this.

Diversify participation further: Identify opportunities to further develop links to student communities and industry to engage in the chat as participants, guests, organising team members and mentors.

Diversity and timing: Predominantly individuals from the United Kingdom engage on a regular basis in the chat. There is an opportunity to further diversity participation further through perhaps considering alternative or rotating timing of the chat, slow(er) or stretchy chats and consider chats in different languages also, something that has been trialled in the past and seemed to work.

Evaluation: Building evaluation into the programme, through reflective inquiry starting from 21/22. Please note, we will also make all data collected available as open data for anybody to  interrogate from different angles and share back findings with the community. 

Please respond to this post if you would like to comment on any aspect of the above.

Thank you all for your valuable thoughts and insights.

Chrissi (Nerantzi) and Sue (Beckingham)