LTHE Chat 342: Digital Leadership for Inclusive and Strategic Change

Posted on November 3, 2025 by Gustavo Espinoza

Join us on Bluesky with guest Alison Purvis (@dralison.bsky.social) and Beth Fielding-Lloyd (@bethflloyd.bsky.social) on Wednesday, 5th November 2025 at 20:00 GMT

Digital leadership in higher education is evolving rapidly. It’s no longer just about managing technology; it’s about shaping culture, taking a human-centred approach, and ensuring inclusive practice. In our work, we’ve explored the perceptions and characteristics of digital leadership in higher education.

Our research highlights that buy-in, role modelling, and advocacy by leaders are significant enablers of digital transformation (McCarthy et al., 2023). Yet leaders are increasingly challenged to take ownership of change while also improving perceptions of value and quality. This calls for a shift in leadership competencies towards human-centred approaches that prioritise empathy, adaptability, and strategic foresight (Lopez-Figueroa et al., 2025).

Despite growing interest, less is known about the perspectives of digital leaders themselves. What does it mean to lead digital change in a university setting? How do leaders navigate uncertainty, embrace innovation, and model their own digital development – even when they are not technical experts?

In participatory workshops, we asked leaders from across academic, administrative, and student domains for their perspectives on digital leadership (Mercer-Mapstone et al., 2017). We recognised that digital leadership is distributed. It is not confined to formal hierarchies or job titles. It is enacted across the university community into teaching, professional services, research, student support, and many other roles.

From our research, we have the following recommendations for effective digital leadership:

  1. Prioritise CPD for staff currency and agility in digital practices
  2. Make digital literacy and development a leadership expectation (not digital expertise)
  3. Value expertise without needing to be the expert
  4. Build confidence through robust training, support, and time to talk about digital in teaching and learning
  5. Develop strategic understanding of technology
  6. Centre the student experience in digital strategy
  7. Embrace change, vulnerability, and lead with vision and compassion

If you are interested in bringing our digital leadership workshop to your team or institution, please let us know!

References

Lopez-Fugueroa, J.C., Ochoa-Jimenez, S., Palafox-Soto, M.O. & Sujey Hernandez Munoz, D. (2025). Digital leadership: A systematic literature review. Administrative Sciences, 15, 4, 129 

McCarthy, A. M., Maor, D., McConney, A., & Cavanaugh, C. (2023). Digital transformation in education: Critical components for leaders of system change. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 8(1), https://doi.org/100479. 10.1016/j.ssaho.2023.100479

Mercer-Mapstone, L., Dvorakova, S. L., Matthews, K. E., Abbot, S., Cheng, B., Felten, P., Knorr, K., Marquis, E., Shammas, R., & Swaim, K. (2017). A Systematic Literature Review of Students as Partners in Higher Education. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1). DOI:  https://doi.org/10.15173/ijsap.v1i1.3119

Guests’ Biographies

Alison Purvis is Associate Dean and a sector leader in digital education and open access publishing. She was named in the AI 100 UK List in 2025 for her contributions to ethical and transparent AI use in higher education. Alison was also a finalist for the ALT Awards for Leadership in Digital Education, recognising her strategic work with Jisc, the Office for Students, and Sheffield Hallam University. Her research and leadership span digital transformation, inclusive pedagogy, and third space roles, with a strong focus on compassionate and critically informed practice.

Beth Fielding-Lloyd is the Deputy Dean for Quality and Apprenticeships at University College Birmingham. She has a track record in the delivery of transformational projects and specialises in enhancing the student experience through the advancement of digital capabilities, inclusive pedagogies, and assessment for learning strategies. Beth’s current research focuses on students’ perceptions and articulation of digital competencies, exploring how these insights inform curriculum design and pedagogical development.

Questions and chat

Q1 –  What is digital leadership in education? Is it different to other contexts of leadership?

Q2 –  Do you recognise your own role as a digital leader in education? What does it look or feel like?

Q3 – How can digital leaders support equity and inclusion?. What are the challenges and opportunities?

Q4 – What tools, frameworks, or connections have helped you develop your digital leadership?

Q5 – How does culture shape digital leadership, and how do you influence that culture in your role?

Q6 – If you could change one thing about how digital leadership is understood or enacted in education, what would it be?

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LTHE Chat 341: Superpowers for Level 7 Learning

Posted on October 24, 2025 by Gustavo Espinoza

Join us on Bluesky with guest Professor David T Evans @david-t-evans.bsky.social on Wednesday 29th October 2025 at 20:00 GMT

Superpowers?  I understand not everyone in Higher Education appreciates the notion of ‘superpowers’ in relation to academia.  I adapt it, playing on a term proposed by Emilee Wapnick (2019; 2021), regarding the superpowers of multipotentialities.

Transitioning students

My novel session focused on Superpowers for Level 7 Learning. The audience, healthcare students transitioning into post graduate studies or returning for subsequent years.  I used the term ‘superpowers’ to ignite their curiosity, combat the oft-present ‘imposter syndrome’ and, hopefully, inspire them into a love of curiosity (enquiry) in learning.

Level 7 is ‘hard’

At the start of each academic year, I ask students two questions.  “What do you understand by level 7?” and “how do these studies differ from what you did at level 6?”  The typical answer is “level 7 is just harder!” That begs the question: how harder?  What do they mean by ‘hard’ and ‘harder’?  They reply “Well, deeper; more analytical; you’ve got to read more; sleep less; long words; my boss sent me; it’s just harder!”

To be fair, no one can blame them.  How often do teachers explore intricacies of academic descriptors with students?  We embed descriptors into learning outcomes, but how often do we spend time clarifying what the descriptors mean or how to achieve and demonstrate them?  Confusingly, several descriptors span levels 6, 7, 8 but with additional and weightier meanings.  For example, we talk in terms of critical / analysis, synthesis, reflection, evaluation, complexity. So how would a new post graduate student know how hard is hard, in relation to those descriptors from levels 6, through 7, to 8?

The three superpowers

Like other professional post-grad students, ours on health programmes are already working in advanced and ever-increasing roles of seniority, collaborating multi-professionally, often with leadership decision-making responsibilities.  So, exploring superpowers, I wanted to elaborate on three I consider most important, running throughout their learning.  I encourage students to unpack, embrace and develop these skills further, as key aids to maximising learning potential and increasing academic outputs.  The superpowers are criticality in learning, reflexivity and academic citizenship. Of course, there are more, but I postulate that these three underpin so many others, the ‘mastery’ of which is essential for their post graduate learning and success.

Unpacking superpowers

The Adobe Express resource accompanying this blog contains the video of my on-line session.  The presentation was on an Induction Day for post grad students in health.  My session followed an excellent presentation, delivered by an Academic Skills Tutor, demonstrating a wide range of skills and resources for learning.  Keen not for my delivery to be a repeat of that person’s work, I honed in exclusively on qualities of these learning superpowers, exploring how they underpin studying at level 7, forming its essence, the under-utilisation of which would be detrimental for further learning potential.

The three superpowers, I suggest, work best in synergy one with the other.  To elaborate further:

Criticality in thinking:  Like Thomson (2025), I clarify why I use the term “criticality”, not the more traditional “critical”.  One reason is that many students often associate “critical” with making a criticism or judgment on something, which often implies negativity.  Then I examine three core aspects of criticality in thinking, for the learners’ use.  1) At the heart of it all: enhancing decision-making.  2) As a higher-level cognitive skill: improving problem-solving, and 3), for greater ideas synthesis, sharpening analytical abilities.  

Reflexivity: Health Care Professionals (HCPs) are expected to be experts in critical reflection, especially, as Donald Schön promoted (1983, cited in Holton, Robinson and Caraccioli, 2025), in practice as well as on practice.  But the notion of reflexivity is often new to many HCPs.  At level 7, reflexivity situates them in the wider or meta-domains of their clinical, professional, personal, academic and leadership roles, all informed by research, with an imperative to disseminate.

Boosting (wider / associated) Academic Citizenship. Traditional academic citizenship in Higher Education includes university engagement, peer review, fellowships and research / outputs. For students, studying but not working in HE, the wider or associated notions involve further collaboration and networking across their professional arenas.  For example, students share their higher-level cognitive skills for advancement of (work / professional) fields of practice.  Essentially, they share such advancements through collegiality, bridging the gap between academic and multi-professional peers, especially through publishing, promoting (e.g. via social media) and performing their studies to wider strategic audiences.

How might talking in terms of academic superpowers aide students in their studies?

This blog has outlined a personal view on promoting the notion of “superpowers” for academic learning at level 7.  Clarifying three core superpower skills that underpin post graduate learning, I have opened up the skills for scrutiny, demonstrating their relevance to ignite learner curiosity, combat ‘imposter syndrome’ and, hopefully, inspire students into a love of curiosity (enquiry) in their learning. This light-hearted play on ‘superpowers’ has serious overtones, to empower students through their studies and advance their further professionality.

Resources

Superpowers for Level 7 Learning – in health care and advanced practice, full Adobe Express page, with video:  https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/fhJz7cgNuC1M6 Prezi only version:https://prezi.com/view/wLToiyDTiderlxeCpvhI/?referral_token=JlSMvPlnB3FN

Bibliography

Evans, D.T. (2025) AI: Avoiding Academic Cheating and Mistakes, cited at: AI: Academic cheating and mistakes – Vivat Academia! Vivant Professores! cited on 03/10/2025

Evans, D.T. (2021) Boosting TEL Capabilities – AdvanceHE Torch Bearers’ ‘Elevator Pitch’, cited at: https://express.adobe.com/page/2xaKUsgTCAq6S cited on 03/10/2025

Evans, D.T. (2021) Don’t just think outside the box … exploring e-learning ~ologies in light of Covid-19 cited at https://express.adobe.com/page/HJXwxytPOXUYH cited on 04/10/2025

Hayes, C. (2019) The Art of Critical Thinking, Texas, M & M Limitless Online Inc.

Houlton, E.F., Robinson, P., Caraccioli, C. (eds) (2025) Andragogy in Practice, New York, Routledge

Thomson, P. (2025) What is criticality? Patter: research education, academic writing, public engagement, funding, other eccentricities, cited at:  https://patthomson.net/2025/09/12/what-is-criticality/ cited on: 13/09/2025

Wapkik, E. (2019) Why some of us don’t have one true calling, cited at: https://www.ted.com/talks/emilie_wapnick_why_some_of_us_don_t_have_one_true_calling cited on 15/09/2025

Wapnik, E. (2021) The ‘7’ Multipotentialite Super Powers. The Knox School of Santa Barbara, cited at: https://www.knoxschoolsb.org/post/the-7-multipotentialite-super-powers cited on 04/09/20254

Guest Biography

David Evans has been interested in the notion of ‘superpowers’ since he first realised he was as multipotentialite, on watching Emilee Wapnik’s TEDtalk, in 2019!  His career trajectories include nursing, the Roman Catholic priesthood, then teaching nurses and allied health professionals, especially on matters of sexual health and well-being, for almost 36 years. He is passionate about life-long learner development, especially – in the case of health care professionals – how transformative learning enables them to ask of themselves “What difference can I make?” 

David became a National Teaching Fellow in 2014; appointed an OBE “for services to nursing and sexual health education” in 2017; PFHEA and Professor in Sexualities and Genders: Health and Well-being, 2018; a Queen’s Nurse in 2022, and Fellow of the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland ad eundem in 2023.  David was a finalist in the ‘University Educator of the Year’ category, Student Nursing Times Awards 2025 #SNTA25; he is a professor at the University of Greenwich, in the School of Health Sciences.   

Questions and chat

Q1 –  How might the use of creative metaphors, such as “superpowers,” reframe students’ perceptions of their academic capabilities and ease imposter syndrome in postgraduate learning?

Q2 –   To what extent do educators explicitly teach the meaning and progression of academic descriptors (e.g., criticality, synthesis, evaluation, complexity) rather than assuming students understand them?

Q3 –  How can “criticality” be differentiated pedagogically from “critical thinking”, encouraging students to engage in deeper andragogical enquiry rather than surface-level critique?

Q4 – In which ways can reflexivity be embedded across curricula to help postgraduate learners navigate and integrate their professional and academic identities?

Q5 – How can higher education institutions better cultivate “academic citizenship” among professional postgraduate learners whose roles extend beyond traditional academic spaces?

Q6 – What evidence or feedback mechanisms might be used to evaluate the impact of innovative teaching conceptualisations – such as “superpowers” – on learner confidence, engagement, and academic output?

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LTHE Chat 340: Embedding Academic Skills in UK Higher Education: Why It Matters

Posted on October 20, 2025 by Gustavo Espinoza

Join us on Bluesky with guest Dr Chris Martin @drchrism.bsky.social on Wednesday 22nd October 2025 at 20:00 BST

When engaging in conversations with academic colleagues, the term ‘embedding academic skills’ is heard often. But what does this actually mean? In simple terms, it is about making sure that the skills needed by students – academic writing, referencing, critical thinking, research skills, time and organisation management – are taught within the chosen programmes rather than extra-curricular. When academic skills are fully embedded into the curriculum and contextualised to coursework and assessment, students tend to see greater relevance and value in developing them and are more likely to use them (Oxford Centre for Teaching and Learning, 2024; Wigfield & Eccles, 2000).

From “study skills” to “academic literacies”

Many universities offer ‘study skills’ workshops open to all students regardless of discipline. However, what counts as ‘good writing’ in Engineering may look vastly different in an arts or social science subject. Lea and Street (2006) posit that academic literacies are shaped by subject discipline, identity and power, not just by a surface-level technique. This is why the conversation about embedding skills into the curriculum is gaining traction, so students learn the ways of writing and thinking that their discipline values.

Linking to employability

Embedding academic skills is not only about getting through assignments. It is also about preparing students for the workplace after they graduate. Yorke and Knight (2006) elucidate that employability improves when skills such as reflection, teamwork and problem-solving are deliberately embedded into the curriculum in a way that makes it structurally unavoidable.

The challenges

Of course, it is not straightforward. There are some common sticking points:

  • Fragmentation: Academic Skills teams and departments often work separately, meaning students are caught between them (Wingate, 2006).
  • Visibility: Generic academic skills workshops can feel and are often optional. Embedding academic skills into the curriculum, making them structurally unavoidable, helps students to retain them (Bennett, Dunne & Carre, 2000).
  • Staff workload: Embedding academic skills effectively requires thoughtful and collaborative curriculum design, but this is a significant task that is not always recognised or rewarded (Oxford Centre for Teaching and Learning, 2024).
  • Equity: Diverse student cohorts with varying academic, cultural and economic backgrounds mean that one-size-fits-all approaches rarely work (Bennett, Dunne & Carre, 2000).
  • Technological shifts: With Artificial Intelligence tools now ubiquitous, universities are under significant pressure to embed digital and AI literacies, teaching students both how and when to use these tools in an ethical way. Many employers are also seeking these new skills when recruiting (QMUL, 2025).

What works?

Despite the challenges, there are some well-tested strategies for making embedding work:

  • Authenticity: Make use of life-relevant disciplinary assessments such as literature reviews, lab reports, reflective logs to teach skills in context (Bennett, Dunne & Carre, 2000).
  • Make the implicit explicit: Share with students how the skills link to learning outcomes and assessments so they understand why they matter (QAA, 2009). Also make the transferability visible to students.
  • Keep it low-stakes: Build in short, formative opportunities to practise academic skills without the pressure of grades (Oxford Centre for Teaching and Learning, 2024).
  • Work together: Academic staff, librarians, careers services and educational developers all bring a wealth of expertise and experience. Collaboration reduces the possibility of duplication and confusion (Wingate, 2006).
  • Name the identity piece: Support students to see that learning academic literacies is about joining a scholarly conversation in their discipline, not just following rules (Lea & Street, 2006).
  • Embrace AI literacy: Teach students how to navigate digital and AI tools ethically and responsibly, preparing them for both university and the workplace (QMUL, 2025).

Final thought

Embedding academic skills should not be seen as a tick-box exercise in the curriculum. It is about making academic skills part of the journey itself, making them structurally unavoidable, so students not only succeed in their academic studies but also leave prepared for the workplace. As universities face multiple challenges – from widening participation to the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence – the push to embed academic skills feels more relevant than ever.

References

Bennett, N., Dunne, E. and Carre, C. (2000) Skills development in higher education and employment. Buckingham: SRHE/Open University Press.

Lea, M.R. and Street, B.V. (2006) ‘The “academic literacies” model: Theory and applications’, Theory into Practice, 45(4), pp. 368–377. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4504_11

Oxford Centre for Teaching and Learning (2024) Academic skills literature review. Oxford: University of Oxford. Available at: https://www.ctl.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/ctl/documents/media/academic_skills_literature_review.pdf [Accessed on 13 October 2025)

QAA (2009) Personal development planning: guidance for institutional policy and practice in higher education. Available at: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaas/enhancement-and-development/pdp-guidance-for-institutional-policy-and-practice.pdf?sfvrsn=4145f581_8 [Accessed on 13 October 2025]

QMUL (2025) Integrating AI in Curriculum: Simplifying Complexity for Broader Adoption. Queen Mary University of London. Available at: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/queenmaryacademy/educators/innovation-and-scholarship/innovative-pedagogies/centre-for-excellence-in-ai-in-education/blog/items/integrating-ai-in-curriculum-simplifying-complexity-for-broader-adoption.html [Accessed on 13 October 2025]

Wigfield, A. and Eccles, J.S. (2000) Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), pp.68-81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1015

Wingate, U. (2006) ‘Doing away with “study skills”’, Teaching in Higher Education, 11(4), pp. 457–469. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510600874268

Yorke, M. and Knight, P.T. (2006) Embedding employability into the curriculum. York: Higher Education Academy. Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/embedding-employability-curriculum [Accessed on 13 October 2025]

Guest Biography

Dr Chris Martin (EdD, SFHEA, CPsychol) is a Senior Learner Developer within the Education Development Service (EDS) at Birmingham City University (BCU).

Chris has 17 years’ experience in both secondary and higher education, and his academic background is in applied linguistics and learner psychology in language learning. He has taught modern foreign languages (French, German and Spanish) in secondary schools across the Midlands, and he started his career in higher education as a Teaching Fellow in English for Academic Purposes. After completing his Doctorate in Education, Chris chose to pursue a full-time career within higher education and more specifically, academic and learner development. His key areas of expertise are in learner psychology (motivation, engagement, positive psychology), secondary education, student transition, authentic assessment, and academic literacy. He is also a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Questions and chat

Q1 –  How do your departments embed academic skills into the curriculum rather than signposting to generic “study skills” workshops?

Q2 –   What strategies have you seen that make embedded skills visible and meaningful to students in assessments?

Q3 –  How do you balance the pressure of staff workload with the need to design skill-rich, contextualised learning tasks?

Q4 –  In your institution, how are digital and AI literacies being integrated into core course teaching?

Q5 – What models of collaboration (academic staff, librarians, careers, learning developers) work best in embedding skills?

Q6 – How do your institutions ensure that embedded skills approaches work equitably across diverse student cohorts?

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LTHE Chat 339: Game Frameworks – Teaching Tools for Game Design and Beyond

Posted on October 13, 2025 by Teach

Join us on Bluesky with guest David James @dwjames.bsky.social on Wednesday 15th October 2025 at 20:00 BST

Games Development as a university subject has grown significantly in popularity over the last 20 years, with over 130 universities offering games-specific courses (UKIE, 2025). This growth has matched the rapid expansion of the games industry itself, with UK consumers spending £7.6 billion on video games and employment in the sector growing on average 9.5 % per year between December 2014 and May 2024 (TIGA, 2025).

This growth in interest has resulted in a diverse student population studying games: some may have programming experience, some may be excellent at visual design, and others may be passionate about games as a medium but have never touched code. This diversity presents a significant pedagogical challenge when it comes to teaching games design.

Games design is both a creative and technical subject. How are we to teach everyone the fundamentals without overwhelming some or holding back others?

A technique applied across the Games Design team at Staffordshire University is that of Game Frameworks – partially complete game scaffolds intended to best support a diverse range of learners.

Why Frameworks?

In traditional “technical” modules, students are often required to build or code “under-the-hood” systems such as input controls, physics, collisions, artificial intelligence, sounds, and user interfaces. Whilst this process is important, it can take significant time to implement these systems before a student can even begin designing enjoyable gameplay.

In the games industry, graduates would rarely be expected to create all these systems from scratch. More often, they are expected to build gameplay upon or within existing systems.

By abstracting away these base elements, frameworks allow students to start playing sooner, making design decisions, iterating, and ultimately learning about games design through doing. Students with greater technical ability gain valuable experience designing gameplay within the constraints of a framework – a key skill for any designer.

What Is a Framework?

A framework is a partial, playable game that provides core functionality such as a controllable character (with keyboard and mouse inputs) and a working camera setup. The camera is important, as its position and behaviour strongly influence the type of game being made – a side-on camera like that in Super Mario Bros or Sonic the Hedgehog supports “platformer” gameplay, while a first-person camera attached to the player character’s head creates a 3D, immersive experience.

Importantly, a game framework contains deliberate gaps in its functionality. Lesson content focuses on teaching students how to “fill” these gaps. For example, the framework’s player character might be able to move left and right but not jump. This creates a teaching opportunity to show how to launch the character upward when the player presses the jump key — and how to bring them back down again. Alongside the technical aspects, students discuss design considerations: how high should the jump be? How would a higher or lower jump affect level design?

Each week, new concepts are introduced, and students complete micro-assessments based on implementing these within the framework. This provides supported, scaffolded learning and visible progress each session.

Why Frameworks Matter

Frameworks bridge the gap between academic learning and industry practice:

  • They allow creative exploration early in the course.
  • They support mixed-ability cohorts.
  • They mirror real development workflows.

Across a student’s degree, frameworks evolve to include bigger “gaps” and less scaffolding — giving students greater opportunity to apply their learning and extend their technical and design skills.

As our students’ experience diversifies, frameworks offer a flexible, inclusive, and industry-aligned way to teach games design through doing.

References

UKIE (2025) UK games industry continues to grow as consumer spend reaches £7.6 billion. 4 April. The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE). [Online]. Available at: https://ukie.org.uk/press-releases/ukie-urges-government-to-back-uk-games-industry-or-miss-out-on-500m-opportunity [Accessed 8 October 2025].

TIGA (2025) Weathering the storm: TIGA research reveals UK games dev sector continues to grow despite global sector downturn. 23 May. The Independent Game Developers’ Association (TIGA). [Online]. Available at: https://tiga.org/news/weathering-the-storm-tiga-research-reveals-uk-games-dev-sector-continues-to-grow-despite-global-sector-downturn [Accessed 8 October 2025].

Guest Biography:

David James is a National Teaching Fellow (2025) and Course Director for the Games Design area at University of Staffordshire. He creates award-winning, game-based teaching tools and empowers students through engaging, industry-led pedagogy. A national and international speaker on games design education, David is also a mentor and leader, dedicated to inspiring students and supporting the development of colleagues.

Questions and chat

Q1 –  Game frameworks are a game-specific type of scaffolding.

Q2 –  When working with mixed-ability groups (especially in the first year), how do you ensure less-experienced stay engaged without holding back those with more experience?

Q3 – What would an ideal framework look like for your discipline or institution? What features of flexibility would it need?

Q4 –  How can we design creative play without sacrificing technical rigour?

Q5 – Have you experimented with studio-based or project-based models in your #HE work? How did they impact student engagement and attainment?

Q6 – Do scaffolds such as frameworks make learning more #inclusive – or can they risk limiting originality? Where is the balance?

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LTHEChat 338 Embedding Mental Wellbeing

Posted on October 3, 2025 by Teach

Join us on Bluesky with guest Professor Zoë Allman @zoe-a-z.bsky.social on Wednesday 8th October 2025 at 20:00 BST

Mental health and wellbeing are important topics that are increasingly discussed in Higher Education (HE) and society generally.  This Friday, 10 October marks World Mental Health Day, and acts as a timely reminder for those of us in HE to consider the educational experiences of our students through the lens of mental health and wellbeing.

Such topics are increasingly considered in the design and development of academic programmes of study, support activity, and throughout the student journey.  External bodies and charter awards provide support for providers wanting to develop and demonstrate their activity in this space, ultimately to better support the individual student experience.

Embedding Mental Wellbeing: Methods and Benefits

In 2021-22, I led a Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Collaborative Enhancement Project entitled ‘Embedding mental wellbeing: Methods and benefits’.  The project explored how mental wellbeing could be embedded across various aspects of HE activity to enhance the student experience. The aim was to collate and develop a suite of best practice examples, shared for the sector to consider and use through being made available as Open Education Resources (OERs).  The resources share examples from across the sector to support the embedding of mental wellbeing within the curriculum, for inspiration, re-use and re-purposing. There are examples of:

Additionally, the team sought to identify definitions for mental wellbeing and embedding mental wellbeing to facilitate use of the resources provided. 

The project was truly collaborative, including academics, professional services, senior leaders and students’ union representatives from seven original project partners: De Montfort University (Lead), De Montfort Students’ Union, London South Bank University, Open University, University of Bristol, University of East Anglia, University of Greenwich, and University of Reading. All groups members we passionate about the aims to provide definitions for mental wellbeing and embedding mental wellbeing, to share examples from collaborative partner providers, and to identify the benefits of embedding mental wellbeing to support colleagues across the sector who may wish to replicate similar activity in their own settings.  For those interested in the project and research behind it please take a look at our accompanying journal article (Lister & Allman, 2024).

The OERs were originally launched at a QAA online event on 17 January 2022, followed by QAA events and blogs (Allman, 2022; 2024) to provide timely reminders of the availability of these resources.  There has been, and there remains, extensive interest in the topic from academics, professional services, learning developers, students’ unions and senior leaders.

What to expect during the LTHEChat

The LTHE Chat on Wednesday 8 October 2025 invites discussion about what mental wellbeing means for us, as individuals in our unique HE contexts, and what students may expect in terms of support for, and the addressing of, mental wellbeing in the curriculum; welcomes ideas sharing about methods we have tried when embedding mental wellbeing in the curriculum; and asks what support we need to make it happen.  The Chat also invites creative input, inviting the sharing of images that resonate in relation to the topic of mental wellbeing, and concludes by asking what one thing we will now try to (further) embed mental wellbeing going forward.

References

Allman, Z. 2022. Embedding Mental Wellbeing. 10 October.  The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). [Online]. Available at: https://www.qaa.ac.uk//en/news-events/blog/embedding-mental-wellbeing

Allman, Z. 2024. Embedding mental wellbeing, methods and benefits. The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). Available at: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/news-events/blog/embedding-mental-wellbeing-methods-and-benefits

Lister, K. and Allman, Z. 2024. Embedding mental wellbeing in the curriculum: a collaborative definition and suite of examples in practice. Frontiers in Education. 8:1157614. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2023.1157614

Guest Biography

Professor Zoë Allman is an academic leader passionate about enhancing opportunities for all and developing sector approaches to embedding mental wellbeing.  Zoë is Associate Dean Education at De Montfort University, and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA 2018), National Teaching Fellow (NTF 2020), and Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence winner (CATE 2022). 

Zoë is a member of the Committee of the Association of National Teaching Fellows, bringing her background in media production and creative technologies to the role of Communications Officer.  Additionally, she is a member of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) Higher Education Advisory Panel, and an Expert Reader for The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), Quality Code Advice and Guidance writing groups, Expert Reader for Principle 12 – Operating concerns, complaints, and appeals processes.

Questions and chat

Q1 –  What comes to mind when you think about mental wellbeing in the HE curriculum?

Q2 –  What do you believe are student expectations of mental wellbeing being supported or addressed in the curriculum?

Q3 –  What methods have you tried to embed mental wellbeing in the HE curriculum?

Q4 –  As teachers/tutors/facilitators, what support do we need to develop mental wellbeing in the curriculum?

Q5 – “A picture speaks a thousand words”, images can transcend boundaries and are open to individual interpretation. What image(s) could you use to enhance mental wellbeing? And how?

Q6 – Following this evening’s #LTHEChat, what one thing will you try to (further) embed mental wellbeing in the curriculum?

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LTHEChat 337 Dialogic learning in the Age of Generative AI

Posted on September 29, 2025 by Teach

Join us on Bluesky on Wednesday 1st October 2025 at 20:00 BST

What does it truly mean to learn with a machine, and are machines capable of engaging in dialogic learning? Generative AI models—capable of producing text, images, or other content in response to prompts—are rapidly reshaping educational discourse by introducing ‘scalable’ forms of personalised learning, while also raising challenges around academic integrity and the need to redefine what critical thinking entails in the context of learning with AI. More recently, features within popular Generative AI models like ChatGPT’s  “Study and Learn mode” (which guides learners with questions instead of just giving answers) and Google Gemini’s ‘‘Learn Your Way’’ (which transforms textbooks into interactive, AI-driven study guides) are being marketised on the promise of more conversational, personalised learning experiences that are fine tuned for learning based on education research and principles. Within higher education, the growing presence of these systems demands deeper exploration. Are they genuinely expanding the possibilities for dialogue and feedback, or quietly reshaping the conditions of academic exchange? As practitioners, we must ask not only how these systems work, but also why they are used—and for whom? Do they stimulate enquiry, or do they replace the productive discomfort of genuine dialogue with frictionless interactions that risk remaining superficial (Tang et al, 2024; Wu et al., 2025)?

What is dialogic learning?

Dialogic learning, shaped by educational theorists like Bakhtin (1986), Freire (1970), and  Pask (1976) remind us that learning is inherently dialogic – it happens through dialogue, not one-way transmission. Freire (1970) argued that human nature is dialogic: we continuously create and re-create knowledge through communication and questioning. In Freire’s liberatory pedagogy, tutor and students join in conversation as co-learners, rather than the teacher “depositing” knowledge into passive students. Bakhtin’s dialogism similarly insists that an individual’s understanding cannot exist in isolation – meaning emerges only through interaction with others. For Bakhtin, every voice needs an “other” voice; learning is essentially a chain of responses and reflections that prevents any single viewpoint from being final or absolute. Cybernetician Gordon Pask added a systems perspective with his Conversation Theory. Pask maintained that all effective learning can be seen as a conversation between a tutor and learner, where each asks questions, gives explanations, and adjusts understanding based on feedback. In other words, the fundamental unit of learning is not a lecture or a textbook, but an interactive exchange – a back-and-forth process of asking, answering, challenging, and clarifying. Dialogic learning values this plurality of voices and the co-construction of meaning over any one authoritative voice. Unlike transmission models of teaching, dialogic learning values plurality, contestation and the co-construction of meaning (Costa & Murphy, 2025; Tang et al., 2024). The benefits of this approach are widely recognised. It fosters critical thinking by encouraging learners to question assumptions and synthesise diverse perspectives (Corbin et al., 2025). It supports epistemic agency by giving students responsibility for their intellectual choices (Costa & Murphy, 2025). It contributes to identity formation as learners develop voice, confidence and a sense of belonging within academic communities (Lee & Moore, 2024). It also develops feedback literacy through cycles of exchange and revision, in which students learn to interpret, negotiate and act upon comments (Jensen et al., 2025; Guo et al., 2024).

Can Generative AI models elicit dialogic learning?

Advancing interactive features in Generative AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity may appear to support dialogic learning by posing questions, scaffolding reasoning, and personalising feedback—simulating tutor-like experiences through guided prompts.

What does this may look like in a seminar?

For instance, in one of my modules during the last academic year, students used (under my instruction) Google’s NotebookLM to convert an assignment brief into a podcast to better grasp the nuanced expectations of their task. Research suggests that Generative AI tools used in such ways can foster metacognitive awareness and iterative improvement in coursework preparation (Lee & Moore, 2024; Wu et al., 2025). Listening to content in audio form or visualising summary highlights from an article using a mind map produced with the help of multimodal features within Generative AI tools may support accessibility and flexible engagement, particularly for students managing competing demands. However passive consumption of AI-generated content in their various forms, risks flattening complexity if not embedded within reflective and dialogic learning design. Dialogic learning is not reducible to interaction alone. Its value lies in unpredictability, relationality, and openness—qualities that emerge when tutors and students negotiate meaning, clarify ambiguity, or explore for example in a seminar, what part of learning consolidation an assessment truly aims to assess. Designed to optimise helpfulness and coherence, current Generative AI tools struggle to replicate the conditions for negotiated learning that dialogic learning encapsulates, since they often smooth over disagreement and avoid the intellectual discomfort or contestation that can spark transformative learning (Costa & Murphy, 2025).

Provocations for a critical dialogue

The difference between human versus machine simulated dialogic learning is subtle in the moment and significant over time. In a human dialogue, the pauses matter. For example, to help students explore the nature and limitations of Generative AI—without using AI—I recently designed a workshop built around the use of everyday craftwork as metaphorical training data. This session aimed not to demonstrate the outputs of AI, but to enable students to think critically about how Generative AI models are trained, how they respond to prompts, and where bias might reside in seemingly neutral systems. In the activity, students were presented with a set of curated craftworks—patchworks, collages, weaves, and prints – described as their “training data” if they were preparing an AI model. Then, they were handed a second, unrelated set of crafted items, this time framed as “prompts.” Students had to match, infer, or “generate” a response using only the original resources. Of course, the results were often mismatched or superficial. This opened a rich and meaningful dialogue where students co-constructed knowledge by exchanging critical dialogues about how a model built on curated examples will struggle with novelty, difference, or contradiction. More importantly, they recognised how bias can be baked into the very foundation of what counts as valid information. The activity never used a single Generative AI tool. Yet it illuminated key dynamics: how training data constrains response, how prompts channel expectation, how patterns are privileged over anomalies, and how meaning is not generated but always interpreted. Through dialogue grounded in tactile, visual artefacts, students explored the tensions between creation and curation, automation and authorship. They began to articulate a shared understanding of the human dimension of machine learning. This workshop re-centred human interpretation and judgement. The craft objects were static, but they became catalysts for expansive, situated thinking. Dialogue emerged from human interaction mediated by metaphor and material and not by algorithm on this occasion. It was a gentle reminder that the deepest conversations are not sparked by convenience but by complexity. A student reformulates an idea; a tutor waits; someone else steps in with a doubt that sends the group back to the text. However, in an exchange with Generative AI, the tempo is brisk, the turns are clean, the answers are read which may replace friction with fluency. While fluency has its place—accessibility, confidence, momentum—it can quietly erode the conditions that help students develop judgement: hesitation, contest, and the courage to revise a claim in their own words.

Does this mean Generative AI tools are an ‘illusion’ rather than an extension for ‘dialogic learning?

This is not an argument against the tools. In fact, they can extend dialogic practice when used with intent. Where things tend to go awry is when mode-switching and feature-swapping become novelty rather than purpose when using Generative AI tools. The availability of text, audio, visuals, and quizzes can fragment attention if there isn’t a reason to move between them. The question to keep asking is simple: Why this mode for this idea, at this moment, for this group? When the answer is clear—accessibility, comparison, perspective-taking—multimodality serves dialogue. When it isn’t, it becomes decoration. There is also a collective responsibility here. If we want to intentionally design dialogic learning with machines, we design for encounter: tasks where students interrogate Generative AI outputs critically and reflectively. We deliberately design learning activities that restore pace and pause; prompts that invite disagreement rather than tidy agreement. We protect the moments of uncertainty in which students decide what they think—and why.

Towards authentic dialogic learning

GenAI offers genuine opportunities to scaffold dialogue and expand access to feedback, but its danger lies in replacing the friction that drives authentic learning with seamless interaction. If GenAI is to support authentic dialogue, higher education must approach its integration critically and deliberately. Designing AI-mediated dialogue to invite critique rather than compliance is essential, ensuring that systems provoke questioning and exploration rather than scripted agreement. Learners must be empowered to direct enquiry and challenge system-driven prompts so that they remain active participants rather than passive recipients. Institutions must also safeguard plurality and equity, ensuring transparency, fair access and the inclusion of diverse perspectives in AI-mediated dialogue.

Guest Biography:

Nurun Nahar is an Assistant Teaching Professor based at the Greater Manchester Business School, University of Greater Manchester. Nurun’s responsibilities include overseeing and advising on Generative AI and technology-enhanced learning initiatives to enhance pedagogical practices within her department. Nurun is a published scholar and has presented her research work widely at several international conferences alongside invited guest talks on the topics of digital literacy, pedagogical partnerships, use of generative AI and technology-enhanced learning in Higher Education. Nurun led a whole institution collaborative project supporting the design and development of an AI literacy framework and supporting online tutorials for the University of Greater Manchester, which is embedded within the central academic skills development programme for all students including pre-arrival students.

Questions and chat

Q1 –  What does dialogic learning mean in your context and practice?

Q2 –  Where do you see the main benefits or limits of using generative AI for dialogic learning?

Q3 – What strategies can help educators and students maintain agency and voice when using Generative AI within human-AI dialogic learning collaboration?

Q4 – How have you used generative AI—personally or professionally—to support your own dialogic learning, and what did you notice?

Q5 – What activities might be used to support authentic dialogic learning with or without generative AI?

Q6 – Which part of a module/unit/delivery approach would you deliberately design for friction (slow thinking for dialogue) instead of fluency (quick completion), and why?

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LTHEchat 336 Effective Note Making Systems from Paper to AI

Posted on September 19, 2025 by Sue Beckingham

Join us on Bluesky on Wednesday 24th September 2025 at 20:00 BST

At the University of Glasgow we are in our first teaching week, the topic of note making, and its related systems seems appropriate, to set ourselves and our learners up for the new academic year.

Notemaking

I am not going deeply into the differentiation between note-taking versus note-making, but I will leave some references in the footnote1 for your further perusal. To summarise the main differences:

Note-taking, is in situation, mainly focusing on taking down information, key points, questions, they are often a raw record, and if we don’t have well developed note taking skills, we might not remember what our notes mean a week later. This is where note-making comes in.

Note-making, is usually notes prepared after note-taking, or during research, reading, studying. This is a more deliberate process and helps us to understand, organise, think through the topics we are engaging in.

You probably noticed the issue with the strict differentiation here. If you are someone who takes sketch notes or doodle notes you are likely already in the note-making process while taking notes. If you are using other systems such as Cornell2 you are likely in the cross-over between note-taking and note-making. So it is not a very clear cut issue in my opinion.

However, for the purpose of this #LTHEchat we are predominantly exploring systems, and methods for note-making. That might help you or your learners this academic year.

Handwritten versus typed notes

There is a body of evidence on the benefits of taking notes by hand (if you are able to), which I have briefly written about before, versus typing notes on a device. Some authors state that handwriting encrypts embodied cognition3, and a meta-analysis in 20244 has identified that:

“handwritten notes are more useful for studying and committing to memory than typed notes, ultimately contributing to higher achievement for college students.” (Flanigan, et al., 2024, p.77).

If you want to find out more about this particular topic, maybe the references below will give you a good starting point.

Notemaking systems

From scribbling in the margins of an article to highlighting 70 percent of a textbook page. What note-making is actually effective?

Here I appreciate Pat Thomson’s point5 that you are writing for two people, both of which are yourself. Your current self and how you understand the notes at the moment, and your future self who might have forgotten some of the context of the notes when you revisit these.

Example: Years ago a group of students had shared with me, there is this one lecturer, who is so good in explaining, that it makes all total sense in the moment, and they then don’t take notes, because everything was so clear during the lecture. But once they wanted to revise, they noticed that they had forgotten how this sense making happened, and didn’t have the notes to fall back on.

We might be able to help our learners by emphasising the points that are important. Clearly telling them, this connection, or logical consequence is important to remember for understanding that process. So the learners know that this might be important information to take a note off.

Handwritten notemaking

The actual process of making notes, is what helps us process information, and remember. It is useful here to categorise and sort information, to highlight connections, processes, and note questions.

How you or your learners do this. I think is very much a matter of preference. However, there is science behind it, if you want to dig deeper without having to read neuro-science papers, you might want to explore the blogs and resources at the learning scientist6.

This is a list of note-taking and note-making techniques that can be effective. Some of which may have more limited advantages such as mind-mapping.

  • Sketchnotes7
  • Doodle8
  • Mindmaps9
  • Atomic notes10
  • Bullet Journalling11
  • Cornel Technique
  • Outline method12
  • Boxing method13

Digital Notes

While I have piles of journals dotted about the place, I also make notes digitally. Despite the strong evidence of the benefits of handwritten notes, digital notes have important use as well, such as speed, legibility, searchability, and foremost accessiblity14 . You can add meta-data, take multimedia notes, use a screen reader, change background colours, fonts and font sizes, it is easier to organise in a Zettelkasten system, and you can share notes easier.

There are fantastic digital note-making systems: Notion, Notesnook, Obsidian, Research Rabbit all of these have varying degrees of privacy, and clarity about data handling. If you are strongly concerned about this than Notesnook might be your choice over Notion. If you are more concerned about functionality and aesthics then Notion on the other hand allows you to install plugins such as Notero which automatically imports your Zotero bookmarks into a table in which you then can add notes, and keywords.

Enter AI

My main issue with digital note-making is that I loose track of what resources have I saved, where are certain notes (despite meta data), and keeping an overall idea of learning and research over the last years. The way my brain functions the physical representation of my journals helps me to remember things much better. So here AI is useful to help sort through a significant amount of data and pick out and categorise the learning from across a long timespan. I shared my learning from this exercise in a blog post15 .

If you or your learners, like me, are information hogs, who constantly need to create, write, produce, collect, and need to manage large amounts of information. AI can help you get on top of the mess, and digitally declutter, sort, and organise.

Where we need to be careful is if we solely rely on AI to produce notes, there are not only issues in terms of environmental impact, veracity, and fake resources, but fundamentally we shortcut and deprive ourselves of the actual learning. Of the engaging with the material and thinking through ideas, research, concepts. We would Reader’s Digest our whole learning experience.

I have found that AI helps me manage my ADHD brain when it comes to notes. For instance, last weekend I went into hyperfocus and read 13 papers in an afternoon, I was so engrossed I had forgotten to take notes. I asked AI to help me backtrack which bit of information came from which paper. As my brain had made all of this into one big story.

I am looking forward to our chat on Wednesday the 23rd of September! And hope you will enjoy at least some of the questions and provocations.

Note:

We must not use AI uncritically and be aware of the resource implications, even if they are at the moment, far away from our selves.

Guest Biography

Dr Nathalie Tasler is an award winning Principal Academic and Digital Development Adviser (senior lecturer) at the University of Glasgow. She is internationally recognised and drives innovation in learning, teaching, and scholarship, championing inclusive and creative pedagogies. Recognised for extensive collaborations and impactful digital scholarship, Nathalie leads significant academic development initiatives. She also fosters ethical research environments and actively mentors and coaches colleagues.

Links

  1. https://www.dsebastien.net/2022-11-28-note-taking-vs-note-making/
    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9940558/
    https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article/77/1/42/6628705?lo.gin=false
    https://www.southampton.ac.uk/assets/imported/transforms/content-block/UsefulDownloads_Download/21870759DB904943811008DAD6C91051/Notetaking%20and%20notemaking%202014%20%20.pdf
  2. https://www.goodnotes.com/blog/cornell-notes
  3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/worklife/article/20200910-the-benefits-of-note-taking-by-hand
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.156
  4. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-024-09914-w
  5. https://patthomson.net/2022/10/24/one-key-thing-about-making-notes/
  6. https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/8/28-1
  7. https://yourvisualjournal.com/how-to-sketchnote/
  8. https://www.mathgiraffe.com/blog/sketch-notes-vs-doodle-notes
    9.https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/note-taking/mind-map
  9. https://medium.com/@jeffreywebber_/atomic-notes-are-we-obsessed-e9e0937dcf51
  10. https://bulletjournal.com/blogs/faq/what-is-the-bullet-journal-method?srsltid=AfmBOopb2F9pUkIjxSk5D2XmKDyihzbtMpkvuhu1qPVlVcl3wms-Fo5W
  11. https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/note-taking/outline
  12. https://methods.remarkable.com/resources/boxing-method-template
  13. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4812780/
  14. https://nathalietasler.blog/2025/09/14/one-and-a-half-decades-on-google-keep/

Questions and chat

Q1 – Warm-up question: what are your personal note-making conventions? For instance (but not exclusive to) systems you might use, quirks, structures, processes, abbreviations?

Q2 – How could multi-media notes, digital and analogue, be useful for both educators and learners as we enter the new academic year?

Q3 – What are your top tips for making or taking notes?

Q4 – Let’s talk about aesthetics and note-making/note-taking. What role does the aesthetic of your tools play?

Q5 – Imagine we had ethical AI; how would it help educators or learners with their note-taking or note-making?

Q6 – Pick any of these to answer, or add your own: notes as reflection, notes as art, notes as therapy–how do you think this manifests?

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#LTHEChat 335 Rethinking Research Culture in Higher Education

Posted on June 20, 2025 by gilesmartin

Join us on Bluesky on Wednesday 25th June 2025 at 2000 BST

Led by Dr Maisha Islam, Research Culture Lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Southampton’s Doctoral College, @maishaislam.bsky.social

four people around a table having an informal looking meeting, two sat and two standing casually.

“So, what is it that you actually do?’

That was the question posed to me when I introduced myself as a Research Culture Lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. While it might have come across as slightly patronising, I’ve come to see it as a well-intentioned query – and one that highlights a broader issue: the term ‘research culture’ still feels like a bit of a fuzzword. Despite growing attention across the sector, and with institutions preparing for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2029 – where ‘People, Culture and Environment’ (PCE) will sit alongside outputs and impact – the concept remains elusive to many.

Despite some ‘fuzziness’ to the term ‘research culture’, The Royal Society definition offers a useful (and widely referenced) starting point:

“Research culture encompasses the behaviours, values, expectations, attitudes and norms of our research communities.”

As a social justice researcher, I approach research culture through an equity lens. That perspective shapes how I understand what research culture is — and what it could be. In that context, I found Dr Natalie Marchant’s framing of research culture particularly valuable. Her approach offers a more grounded and actionable vision of what a positive research culture looks like and how it functions:

  • Actively promote collaboration, transparency, and open communication in research practices.
  • Recognise and celebrate diverse contributions to research, including those from research support staff and underrepresented groups.
  • Engage in ongoing dialogue with colleagues to identify and address systemic barriers to inclusion.
  • Support initiatives that prioritise the well-being and professional development of researchers at all career stages, especially those early in their career.
  • Invest in yourself and the people around you by taking advantage of training opportunities and engaging in two-way feedback.

Research Culture spotlight – Postgraduate Research (PGR) students

In answer to the question which opened this blog, I have the privilege of working to ensure that the research culture for current (and prospective) PGR students, at the University of Southampton’s Doctoral College, is one that is accessible, diverse, inclusive and collaborative. This has included:

  1. Introducing an award-winning PGR Student Partners scheme – a paid, partnership opportunity for our PhD students to work collaboratively with us on our projects with an equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) focus. This has resulted in several co-authored research and outputs including an investigation of Black and Asian PGR student experience, and broader understandings of PGR research culture.
  1. Developing a suite of activity to ‘demystify the PhD’ and support underrepresented students’ decision making related to PGR. This includes providing information workshops, an online module, and ‘Progress to PhD’ peer-mentoring scheme with the aim of widening access into postgraduate research.

The increased focus on research culture is often accompanied by a rhetoric of organisations increasing their profitability and holding a competitive edge. Whilst it is true that there is a link between inclusivity, innovation and income, it would be remiss to make the case for developing inclusive and positive research cultures on this basis or even as the driving motivation to doing so. The reality is that deep-rooted inequities persist across our research and academic environments. Addressing them shouldn’t require a business case. It’s simply the right thing to do.

As a minoritised researcher, it is not surprising that nearly two-thirds of researchers report witnessing bullying or harassment, and 43% experience it themselves. This may explain why PGR satisfaction scores around research culture and community have remained strikingly low over the past five years. Therefore, for those early on in their careers, occupying marginalised identity markers, and/or are working in precarious conditions, our research culture seems stuck in peer review stage – eternally in a ‘revise and resubmit’ cycle.

So, with all this talk about “changing research culture” – making it more inclusive, more supportive, more sustainable – how do we actually do that? Who gets to decide what the culture should be? How might these ideas apply to technologists/technicians, librarians, academic developers? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Join me on 25th June 2025 for #LTHEchat to talk all things ‘research culture’!

Guest Biography

Bio:

Dr Maisha Islam profile picture

Dr Maisha Islam is the Research Culture Lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Southampton’s Doctoral College. Her research areas of interest and expertise centre student engagement, and racial and religious equity in higher education. She is a co-editor of the recently published book ‘Uncovering Islamophobia in Higher Education: Supporting the success of Muslim students and staff’, and co-Chair of a Research England/Office for Students Steering Group seeking to improve access and participation of racially minoritised students in postgraduate research.

@maishaislam.bsky.social

Questions and chat

  • Q1 How would you define “research culture” in your context? Is it something you feel part of?
  • Q2 In your opinion, what stakeholder groups are neglected in research culture-related activity?
  • Q3 In an ever-evolving and turbulent HE sector, what do you believe to be the biggest threat(s) to enabling an inclusive research culture?
  • Q4 Can you give any examples within or outside your university/context which resulted in positive changes in research culture recently?
  • Q5 As the People, Culture and Environment (PCE) element of REF 2029 is being piloted, what key indicators do you think should be used to assess and evaluate research culture?
  • Q6 If you could change one thing about research culture in HE, what would it be — and why?
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#LTHEChat 334 The Artistry of Teaching

Posted on June 13, 2025 by gilesmartin

Join us on Bluesky on Wednesday 18th June 2025 at 2000 BST

Chat led by

Blog by Shaun Mudd with contribution from Helen King

Coloured soft balls

When I mention “Artistry of Teaching” to a room full of new colleagues, there’s typically a long silence.  

I’ve taught about expertise in HE teaching on UK PGCerts (initial professional development programmes largely intended for new lecturers) for about seven years.  It’s the model proposed by Helen King at a Symposium on this theme in 2020, and published in 2022, but I had a sneak peek having shared an office with Helen and seen early drafts pinned to the wall.  The model comprises three elements which describe the HE teacher who takes an expertise-based approach.  The scenario usually goes like this…

The first element I introduce is “Professional Learning”.  I might ask someone to define this; other times it’s irrelevant as the session is focused on this topic.  Either way, it’s obvious for colleagues engaged in a PGCert: a type of professional learning which usually dwells repeatedly on this topic.  

Next, I turn to “Pedagogic Content Knowledge” (PCK).  Sometimes there’s a probationary Lecturer in Education who can define this precisely.  Other times there’s a slight hesitation and the group then start to pick it apart.  Some Socratic Questioning can usually get them to the point where they understand it as a teacher’s knowledge both of pedagogy and of their discipline, and the interlacing of both.

We’re then on to the “Artistry of Teaching”.  I ask if anyone knows what this refers to, and almost every time there’s a lengthy pause before someone hesitantly responds.

What is the Artistry of Teaching?

A participant in a PGCert session once provided a useful analogy.  They suggested we could apply this model to stand-up comedy.  Someone could learn the foundational knowledge and skills of standup comedy (akin to PCK) and work on honing their craft through development and reflection (akin to professional learning).  The artistry element would encompass the difference between a successful professional comedian who can read the room and adapt their set to enthral the audience, compared with me doing the same set.  (I try not to be offended.)

Artistry is notoriously difficult to define (King et al. 2024, pp.4-6).  But as a starter, effective artistry of teaching in HE can involve:

  • Adaption (adaptive expertise), flexibility and improvisation in the moment to changing circumstances
  • Rapid problem-solving and almost-instantaneous reflection-in-action (Schön 1982) 
  • The personal and emotional elements of teaching, including empathy and care, and the ability to build a learning community
  • Authenticity in teaching, recognising our own limitations, and drawing upon the expertise of others
  • The practical and performative elements of teaching, such as vocal skills and body language

This list is far from exhaustive.  By its very nature it varies according to context and inevitably will evolve and change over time.

Why Should we Focus on Artistry?

Artistry is frequently appreciated as a core element of successful HE teaching.  It is also an area where colleagues appreciate development opportunities.  Anxieties raised by colleagues new to teaching in HE frequently surround topics such as preparation and rehearsal, communication and expression, and confidence and identity (Bale 2020, pp.22-23).  Yet artistry is rarely an explicit and sustained focus of HE professional learning (e.g. Petrova and Mudd 2024, King et al. 2024 p.5, Bale 2020 pp1-2, King 2022 p.9).  The sector’s interventions instead have traditionally focused more on reflective practice, pedagogy and situating this in one’s own practice and discipline – principally aligning to PCK and professional learning.  It is interesting to note that the dimensions of the Professional Standards Framework (2023) include explicit focus on professional learning (V3 and A5) and PCK (K1 and K2).  Artistry is less explicitly a focus of descriptions and dimensions (though Advance HE’s Guides to each Dimension do include guidance prompting applicants to include evidence aligning to artistry).

I believe it is essential to support colleagues through explicit and sustained focus on the artistry of teaching in initial and continuous professional learning.  If we omit to do this, we’re setting up (at least some) colleagues to fail by neglecting a significant part of what it means to take an expertise-based approach to teaching in HE.  My suggestion therefore is for us to reflect on the support we already offer which aligns to artistry and consider how this could be enhanced further.  We could usefully think about our own and other colleagues’ professional learning, double checking how prominent artistry is in:

  • Professional learning programmes such as PGCerts, wider workshops and formal interventions
  • The inductions of new colleagues
  • Mentoring, coaching and supporting ongoing professional learning
  • Communities of practice, conferences, networking

More on Expertise and Artistry

  • For examples of interventions on the artistry of teaching, see Petrova and Mudd 2024, and Bale 2020.
  • Videos from the 2020 Symposium on “Exploring Expertise in Teaching in Higher Education” and the 2022 Symposium on “The Artistry of Teaching” can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@academicpracticeuwe7888/playlists
  • A third Expertise Symposium will be hosted as an “unconference” by the University of Queensland, Australia in October this year. This in-person event will be supplemented with a separate online element to engage an international audience. More details coming soon!

References

Bale, R. (2020) Teaching with Confidence in Higher Education: Applying Strategies from the Performing Arts. Routledge: London. 

King, H. (2022) Developing Expertise for Teaching in Higher Education. Routledge: London.

King, H. R. Bale, E. Corradini, P. Fossey, D. Gannaway, L. Morantes-Africano, S. Mudd and J. Potter (2024) The Artistry of Teaching in Higher Education: Practical Ideas for Developing Creative Academic Practice. Routledge: London.

Petrova, P., S. Mudd, I. Palmer and S. Brown (2024) ‘Developing the Artistry of Teaching and Approaches to Learning: What we can Learn from those Teaching Theatre Improvisation’, in: H. King, R. Bale, E. Corradini, P. Fossey, D. Gannaway, L. Morantes-Africano, S. Mudd and J. Potter eds. (2024) The Artistry of Teaching in Higher Education: Practical Ideas for Developing Creative Academic Practice. 163-177. Routledge: London. Schön, D. (1982) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Routledge: Abingdon.

Guest Biographies

Shaun Mudd profile picture

Dr Shaun Mudd is Head of Teaching Expertise Development at Bath Spa University.  This team facilitates professional learning for all staff who teach and support learning at Bath Spa, particularly in relation to pedagogy, professional learning and curriculum design/enhancement. Immediately before joining Bath Spa University, Shaun was Senior Lecturer in Academic Practice at the University of the West of England, and Programme Leader of their Academic Professional Programme (including the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Professional Practice, and Academic Professional Apprenticeship). Shaun is co-editor of The Artistry of Teaching in Higher Education (2024).

https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/shaun-mudd/; @shaunmudd.bsky.social 

Prof. Helen King is Professor and Director of Learning Innovation, Development & Skills at Bath Spa University, UK. Her career in educational development spans three decades and has included leading roles in UK–wide learning and teaching enhancement projects and organisations, as an independent consultant collaborating with colleagues internationally, and university-based senior leadership. Her role supports a range of learning, teaching and assessment themes but her passion is supporting colleagues’ professional learning and development. She holds a senior fellowship of the Staff & Educational Development Association (SFSEDA), is a UK National Teaching Fellow (NTF), Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland. She also thoroughly enjoys trail running and playing Bluegrass banjo (not necessarily at the same time). Helen is editor of Developing Expertise for Teaching in Higher Education (2022) and The Artistry of Teaching in Higher Education (2024).

https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/helen-king/; @profhelenking.bsky.social‬ 

Questions and chat

  • Q1 What does the “Artistry of Teaching” mean to you?
  • Q2 What elements of artistry do you think new colleagues tend to struggle with the most?
  • Q3 How have you been supported to develop your own artistry?
  • Q4 What opportunities do you think we (as a sector) could pursue to support colleagues to develop further their artistry of teaching?
  • Q5 Do you think there’s a stigma against considering Higher Education teaching as (to some extent) performative?  
  • Q6 If you had to pick just one aspect of your teaching artistry to work on over the next year, what would it be?
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#LTHEChat 333 Coming Together to Strengthen Educational Development: The Story of the EdDCoP and Our Co-Created Toolkit

Posted on June 6, 2025 by gilesmartin

This #LTHEChat took place on Bluesky on Wednesday 11th June 2025 at 2000 BST

Chat led by

Four hands from different people each gripping another at the wrist.

Introduction

By Cassie Lowe, Helen Morley, Jo Hall, Eszter Kalman, Alyson Lewis, Tracy Part, Heather Pennington, Isabelle Winder 

In higher education, collaboration is key to navigating the complex challenges educators face. Recognising this, we—eight academics from seven institutions—came together with a shared goal: to explore how Communities of Practice (CoPs) can support professional development, foster meaningful connections, and enhance teaching and learning. The result? Two interconnected achievements: 

  1. Advance HE’s Teaching and Learning Communities of Practice Toolkit. —a practical resource co-created by and for the sector. 
  2. The formation of an international Educational Development Community of Practice (EdDCoP), now 180 members strong. 

1. Co-creating the Toolkit: A collaborative framework 

The power of collaboration

Communities of Practice (CoPs) are not a new concept, but their potential to drive innovation, share expertise, and sustain engagement in higher education is immense. Our journey began with a simple question: How can we harness the power of CoPs to support educators and developers? 

This toolkit is the second of nine projects published as part of Advance HE’s 2023-24 Collaborative Development Fund grants. Led by the University of Cambridge, the project brought together seven institutions across the UK and Australia to produce a practical guide for developing teaching and learning communities of practice. 

What’s in the toolkit?

Drawing on our diverse experiences, we pooled insights, challenges, and successes to create a resource that: 

  • Helps educators establish, sustain, and evaluate CoPs. 
  • Offers frameworks, case studies, and reflective questions. 
  • Grounds theory in real-world practice, ensuring relevance for practitioners. 

The co-creation process itself mirrored the collaborative ethos of CoPs—iterative, inclusive, and driven by shared purpose. 

2. Growing a community: The EdDCoP story 

While creating the toolkit, we realised the importance of living the principles we were advocating. This led to the formation of the Educational Development Community of Practice (EdDCoP), an international network for colleagues leading or interested in CoPs within higher education development. 

How EdDCoP works

EdDCoP meets virtually four times a year, providing a space for members to: 

  • Engage in professional learning and grow together. 
  • Share successes and challenges in running inclusive and effective CoPs. 
  • Explore new ideas for sustaining engagement. 
  • Reflect, evaluate, and refine strategies in real time. 

With over 180 members, the community has become a dynamic forum for collective learning. Sessions have explored topics like building inclusive communities, hybrid engagement models, and measuring impact—all while fostering connections across institutions and borders. 

Successes, challenges, and lessons learned 

Our successes: 

  • A supportive, cross-institutional network spanning career stages and geographic locations. 
  • Collaborative leadership: Our rotating steering group ensures diverse voices shape the community. 
  • Bridging theory and practice by testing toolkit strategies in live settings. 

Challenges we’ve navigated: 

  • Fluctuating engagement: Sustaining momentum requires intentional design (e.g., interactive workshops over traditional webinars). 
  • Balancing structure with flexibility: Clear objectives help, but rigidity can stifle organic growth. 

Looking ahead 

Our work embodies the transformative potential of CoPs—combating isolation, sharing knowledge, and driving change. The Advance HE Toolkit is now an accessible resource for those starting or refining CoPs, while EdDCoP continues to evolve as a space for collective growth. 

Join us! 

Dr Cassie Lowe (University of Cambridge), Dr Helen Morley (University of Leeds), Dr Jo Hall (University of Brighton), Dr Eszter Kalman (University of Sydney), Dr Alyson Lewis (Cardiff University), Dr Tracy Part (Goldsmiths, University of London), Heather Pennington (Cardiff University), Dr Isabelle Winder (Bangor University). 

See you on 11th June 2025 for #LTHEchat!

Guest Biographies

Dr Jo Hall profile picture

Dr Jo Hall is a Principal Lecturer in the Learning and Teaching Hub at the University of Brighton. Her current research focuses on the development of inclusivity, well-being and race equity within Higher Education pedagogies. https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/jo-hall, @jolhall.bsky.social

Dr Heather Pennington profile picture

Dr Heather Pennington is a Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University’s Learning and Teaching Academy. She is a Mentor, and Assessor within the AdvanceHE-accredited Education Fellowship Programme and leads the Associate Fellowship pathway. Heather is also a member of the University’s Inclusive Education Project Team. https://profiles.cardiff.ac.uk/staff/penningtonh1, @heatherpennington.bsky.social.

Dr Alyson Lewis profile picture

Dr Alyson Lewis is Lecturer in Education Development at Cardiff University, supporting the development and delivery of the University’s Education Fellowship Programmes accredited by AdvanceHE. https://profiles.cardiff.ac.uk/staff/lewisa81, @alysonklewis.bsky.social‬

Questions and chat

  • Q1 What makes a Community of Practice (CoP) work? From your experience, what’s one key ingredient that helps a CoP thrive?
  • Q2 What’s one creative way you’ve seen (or used) to encourage participation in a CoP?
  • Q3 How can CoPs foster meaningful engagement, especially in online or hybrid formats? 
  • Q4 How can we design our CoPs to be truly inclusive and accessible? What barriers have you seen – or overcome? 
  • Q5 What strategies have you seen (or used) to keep a CoP active and avoid it becoming stagnant? 
  • Q6 How can CoPs demonstrate their value to institutions and participants? What does ‘impact’ look like? 

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