To support Coventry University Group in increasing the staff apprenticeship offer, AEPD is now offering an Academic Professional Apprenticeship Level 7 (Specialist Role in Teaching).

The Academic Professional Apprenticeship (APA) is a fully-funded 18-month programme which includes the newly validated Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Professional Practice (PGCAPP) and leads to Fellowship of Advance HE.

 ‘We are pleased to be offering an Academic Professional Apprenticeship, incorporating a teaching qualification, to support our professional development offer for new academic members of staff.’ Fay Glendenning, Director of AEPD.

If you are interested in joining the APA please contact AEPD@coventry.ac.uk

Nano Conferences in the Spotlight!

Nano Conferences are in the spotlight for their global impact and inclusive approach to staff development that aims to elevate the student experience. Read about the Nano Conference origins and its growing impact in this CU Group feature story.

If you’re looking for online, bite-sized and convenient ways to inspire your practice then, join our global Nano community at Nano Conference #8 – Beyond the Classroom on Wednesday 28^th February. Explore the full agenda and speaker profiles.

We hope to see you there!

Contact the Nano Team at nanocon@coventry.ac.uk

Inspera updates and training

The roll out of the Inspera digital assessment platform continues. Over 300 staff have now attended an introductory training session. If you are also interested in exploring the new platform then please sign up for one of the ‘Getting Started with Inspera’ sessions that are running this semester. Once you have attended the introductory session you will be given access to the test server so you can explore.

Colleagues are successfully using Inspera for Core Assessments, allowing multiple attempts and the University was one of the first to use the new numerical simulation question type that Inspera has introduced. There is a workshop on this on the 13th February.

A reminder that Aula Quizzes will not be available after March 8th if you need to move any quizzes across then please contact the Education Technologist team – learningenhance@coventry.ac.uk

If you are interested in seeing some of the question types that Inspera has available these can be viewed via this demo test.

If you are interested in using Inspera for quiz assessments, please contact Martin Jenkins.

Supporting the School of Health

The AEPD, Curriculum Development team are working closely with the School of Health and Care on the review and transformation of a significant part of their portfolio. From September 2025, new pre-registration courses across Health and Care disciplines will be launched. The new curriculum is designed to support deep, meaningful, and focused learning, supported by the move to a block delivery model of education. The Curriculum Development team have been working with the school to shape the principles of curriculum design, develop their approach to block delivery, and look to simplify their curriculum design to enable future growth of their provision. As we move into the exiting phase of curriculum build, the team will be delivering several course development “sprints” to rapidly shape the content and structure of the curriculum.

This community space is a mixture of digital specialists and digitally interested individuals across the university group, to share ideas and practice for digital skills development for both you and students. Information will be posted on upcoming digital learning and training opportunities, resources, and news that you might be interested in. The space will evolve with members helping lead the digital fluency strategy, influencing and supporting the digital skill needs of the university group. If you are interested in joining, then use the link below join in: Digital Skills Community of Practice or contact Lucy Bamwo, Digital Fluency Lead, ae2783@coventry.ac.uk for further information.

Erika Hawkes, Academic Developer, left the AEPD team at the end of January. Erika has been maternity cover for Annie Bryan. Whilst she has been in post, many of you will have encountered Erika through her stewardship on the New Academic Network Programme, running Academic Induction sessions and workshops on Playful Learning, Assessment Design and supporting the roll out of Inspera. Erika has also played a leading role in writing the Development Narratives that are now on the AEPD website. Our thanks to Erika for all she has contributed, we are sorry to see her leave and wish her all the best for the future.

We do look forward to Annie Bryan’s return from maternity leave on the 12th February. Annie will be picking up support on the New Academic Network Programme and continuing development of the Development Narratives.