Led by guests from the network: Prof Emmajane Milton @EmmajaneMilton1, Prof Hannah Cobb @ArchaeoCobb, Earle Abrahamson @earleabrahamso2, Prof Julie Hulme @JulieH_Psyc & Heather Pennington @PenningtonPGCE

Are you in a learning and teaching focused role? Do you have an unconventional background, perhaps coming from industry or professional practice? Maybe you are an educational or academic developer or maybe you just feel like a lone voice in a seemingly research-dominated context?   

Have you ever felt like you are different from colleagues in your institution and wondered, ‘Am I supposed to be here? Do I fit?’. We have too!  

At Advance HE’s 2022 and 2023 EDI conferences we ran sessions to explore this. These examined how learning and teaching focused colleagues, who can feel like they are different and are often in the minority, actually bring richness to the academy and the institutions they work for. They can often feel misunderstood and are typically underrepresented in senior roles within UK HE. We are not alone in these observations; Smith and Walker (2021, 2022), for example, have highlighted how a confused sectoral understanding of scholarship can work to exclude teaching focused colleagues from overarching (research-driven) institutional narratives and pathways to reward and recognition. Others have highlighted broader trends in issues around promotion that arise from the diversity of learning and teaching focused colleagues (Bennett et al. 2018).

For us, what started as a few learning and teaching focused individuals expressing feelings of ‘not fitting’ has snowballed into a national conversation, and from this, we have established a Learning and Teaching Focused Network.

For LTHEchat #271, members of the network invite you to join us to celebrate the diversity of learning and teaching focused colleagues, but also to explore the challenges and misconceptions and to examine positive strategies for addressing these and bringing about change in the sector.

A National Network

Beyond the chat, we invite you to join us in our network which aims to develop inclusive ways of working to help learning and teaching focused colleagues flourish.  

The network aims to have:  

• Reach – we are inclusive of all colleagues in learning and teaching focused roles, whilst not excluding any colleagues who are interested in engaging with the network’s work.  
• Value – we will raise the visibility of the diversity* of colleagues in learning and teaching focused roles, valuing the expertise they bring to HE and the breadth in nature of their roles.  
• Impact – we will enable the diversity of colleagues in learning and teaching focused roles to be recognised, feel valued, have a sense of belonging, voice and agency to flourish in HE.  

(*Diversity in this context means background, professional roles and expertise, career path, career levels and status as well as protected characteristics from the Equality Act.)  

The network also works to enable colleagues to share good practices, helpful tips, and information about promotion, publications, webinars, conferences, and more. Providing a space to:   

• highlight perspectives, experiences, and understandings related to learning and teaching focused roles,  
• identify successes and barriers for learning and teaching focused colleagues and,
• help inform the development of these roles across our sector.  

At the moment the network exists as an email discussion list which you can join here, and through a variety of online events. Our next event is entitled “Developing Scholarship in your context” and will take place online on Friday 17^th November 10.30-12.30 GMT. You can sign up to this free event here. 

References

Bennett, D., Roberts, L., Ananthram, S. et al. (2018) What is required to develop career pathways for teaching academics?. Higher Education 75, 271–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0138-9

Smith, S. & Walker, D. (2021) Scholarship and academic capitals: the boundaried nature of education-focused career tracks, Teaching in Higher Education, 1-15, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2021.1965570

Susan Smith & David Walker (2022) Scholarship and teaching focused roles: An exploratory study of academics’ experiences and perceptions of support, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 1-12, DOI: 10.1080/14703297.2022.2132981

Guest biographies

Who is in the National Network?

The National Network is a growing network of colleagues – check out bios of the members (and if you join the network feel free to add your own bio!).

The network arose from conversations amongst colleagues from eight UK HEIs (Birmingham City University, Cardiff University, Leeds University, University of Manchester, Nottingham Trent University, University of East Anglia, University of Hertfordshire, and the University of Kent) and has since then grown to include a much wider group of UK HEIs.

The main people from the network who will contribute to LTHEChat #271 are: Emmajane Milton, Hannah Cobb, Earle Abrahamson, Julie Hulme, and Heather Pennington. 

On Wednesday 30th August at 8pm LTHEchat will host a summer special chat led by #altc23 Conference Chairs Santanu Vasant and Lawrie Phipps. Dual hashtags will be used #altc23 and #LTHEchat.

This special summer special takes a look back at 30 years of educational technology as the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) celebrates 30 years, as do Jisc, and the Staff and Educational Developers Association (SEDA). 

Educational or Learning Technologies have shaped higher education, especially in recent years during the pandemic, but the history of educational technology goes way back. 

In this LTHEchat, we ask you to remember your first experiences of learning technology in a work setting, what learning technology might be, if we had unlimited financial resources, what new ‘next big things’ didn’t take off and what do you remember from previous ALT Conferences?

If this is making you nostalgic, then don’t forget to register for the 30th Anniversary ALT Conference – 5 – 7 September at the University of Warwick. We have a great programme including 2 great keynotes for anyone interested in educational / learning technology! 

Register Today

Santanu Vasant is the Head of Educational Development and Digital Education at London Metropolitan University with over 16 years of experience in higher education including 4 years in senior management roles. He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a trained Agile Project Management Practitioner. Santanu is also the driving force behind the “Talking HE podcast” providing insights from a range of roles across the higher education sector. @santanuvasant

Lawrie Phipps is the Senior Research Lead at Jisc and a Professor of Digital Education and Leadership at Keele university. His portfolio includes research into institutional digital practices, digital leadership, and issues impacting digital experiences in education and digital transformation. Lawrie is a qualified executive coach who has worked with various individuals and teams to support change initiatives in universities for over 25 years. @lawrie

About the conference

The ALT Annual Conference is back and it’s bigger and better than ever! Join us and over 500 learning technologists for our first fully-fledged Annual Conference since 2019. This year, our Annual Conference will be held from 5-7 September 2023 at the University of Warwick.

The ALT Annual Conference is the UK’s foremost conference for Learning Technologists and one of the largest conferences of its kind, attracting around 500 participants each year. This year, we are celebrating three decades since ALT was established in 1993 with our 30th annual conference.

This year’s conference theme, “Looking through the digital lens: 30 years of Leading People, Digital and Culture”, will celebrate our 30th anniversary and the phenomenal changes in the sector over this time.

The conference will critically examine the organisations and practices we work in through a digital lens, fostering a community of future leaders and innovators in the digital space, who come together to exchange ideas, collaborate, and drive change.

Community in this context also means thinking about what expertise is needed – well beyond the educational technology and technical expertise: organisational change leadership and management, business analysis, and the student voice.

This year’s conference themes:

• Leading People in a time of complexity: How have individuals and teams driven change to solve complex and difficult problems?  How have individuals and teams been rewarded and recognised in their institutions for being experts and leaders in digital learning?
• Diversity and Inclusion: How are the most precarious and disadvantaged people being supported and empowered through technology? What future exclusions must we fight? 
• Sustainability and Social Justice: How green is your educational technology? How will we model green and sustainable practices in the field of educational technology and what does it mean for institutions? How do you make decisions about tech that proactively care for the most vulnerable people among us?  How should we model practices that account more for the health and well-being of people than that of businesses trying to sell technology to the education sector?  
• Emerging technologies and behaviours: How are emerging technologies, or new uses for existing technologies changing behaviours and practices? What do emerging technologies mean for learning, teaching and assessment? How do we prepare students and staff to critically face the hype cycles around tools such as Machine Learning, and teach them to sift through what companies are claiming, to find the truth?

You can meet the full 2023 Conference Committee here

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/

The Wakelet for this chat is available via this link: https://wakelet.com/wake/17jCLxOgni9l1KSTOpvcZ

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.