No images? Click here Don't just click past!!!The Academic Enhancement and Professional Development (AEPD) newsletter is your chance to find out about exciting opportunities, sector level highlights and lots of concise information about teaching and learning within the Coventry University Group. If you want to subscribe, so you get the newsletter automatically, or want colleagues to have the opportunity to share all things AEPD, forward the newsletter on so more people can subscribe. Academic Development is hosting an online book club on student engagementAcademic Development is starting a new online book club on the theme of student engagement. We will be reading and discussing the book "Keeping us engaged", by Christine Harrington and 50 College Students. Meetings will take place online on the 3rd Wednesday of each month between 10.00-11.00 am. With the first introductory meeting taking place on: Wednesday 18th of October 2023 This is part of our scholarly practice and SoTL CoP. Sign up for our book club via the Scholarly Practice and SoTL group. National Teaching Fellowship Scheme 2024The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme for 2024 is now open. The University can submit up to three individuals for award and this notice provides guidance on the process that will be followed to identify candidates. Why can't one of those people be you this year?? For colleagues interested in submitting an "Expression of Interest" there will be a webinar run by Academic Development that outlines the process and will explore the requirements against all of the criteria (detailed below). This will held on Tuesday 24th October 2023, 14.00-15.30. This can be signed up to via the Professional Development booking system. NTFS Criteria - The criteria on which the awards are made are: Individual excellence Evidence of enhancing and transforming student outcomes and/or the teaching profession; demonstrating impact commensurate with the individual’s context and the opportunities afforded by it. Raising the profile of excellence Evidence of supporting colleagues and influencing support for student learning and/or the teaching profession; including demonstrating impact and engagement beyond the nominee’s immediate academic or professional role. Developing excellence Show the nominee’s commitment to and impact of ongoing professional development with regard to teaching and learning and/or learning support. Advance HE will be running three roadshows which interested candidates can also book onto. Academic Development ProgrammeThe Academic Development Team continues to offer a wide range of workshops that are constantly being updated. For further information and for the latest updates refer to out website. You can book your place on the course booking system. Teaching ObservationsCoventry University Group’s Teaching Observation Scheme provides a process for supporting individual professional development and sharing best practice across campuses, curriculum, and subject discipline boundaries. There are three types of teaching observations within RPP: Management-led Teaching Observation scheme in which all teaching staff take part. Apprenticeship Observation Scheme for courses and modules which are Ofsted related. Peer Observation scheme where staff share good practice with each other. To support colleagues undertaking Teaching Observations, the Developing Our Teaching Team offers training sessions throughout the year. The sessions include information about the process, criteria and how to employ coaching conversations within practice. If you have been nominated to undertake teaching observations, please contact AEPD@Coventry.ac.uk to ensure you are booked onto one of the upcoming academic development workshops. For further information, supporting documentation and templates to use in the observations use the button below. The next training session is scheduled to take place on line on Wednesday 18 October 13:30pm – 15:.30pm Working with the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) The QAA's purpose is to..."ensure that students and learners experience the highest possible quality of education." The QAA "support universities and colleges in working with students and learners, governments, funders and regulatory bodies to evidence and enhance the excellent quality and high standards of the education they provide." (QAA, 2023) The Coventry University Group has membership with the QAA and therefore all our staff have access to useful information for those new, or indeed more experienced, in higher education practice. To register for the first time to access the QAA resources, or to log in, follow the link below https://www.qaa.ac.uk//en/membership/resources Colleagues within AEPD regularly attend QAA workshops and conferences sharing and bringing in good practice to the Coventry University Group, highlighting to our staff evidence based best practice from the HE sector. As well as disseminating best practice within the Coventry University Group, AEPD colleagues have input into sector leading reports and guides to help shape the future of the HE sector. Recent inputs from staff in AEPD are included in the following QAA outputs; Supporting and Enhancing the Experience of International Students in the UK. Competence-Based Education Primer. (requires log-in) Assessment in Digital and Blended Pedagogy (requires log-in) Impact of changes in assessment on student achievement and progression across different demographic groups (requires log-in)References QAA. (2023). The UK's expert quality body for tertiary education. https://www.qaa.ac.uk/ Nano Conference on 25th OctoberNano Conferences are a series of online, bite-sized, convenient sessions, organised by AEPD, that share practices to enhance the student experience. The next Nano Conference, Nano#7, will take place on Wednesday 25th October 2023, 10:30am -12:30pm, online. Running once a semester, Nano conferences include six presentations, lasting only 15 minutes each, showcasing staff and student insights from a variety of disciplines and settings across the Coventry University Group, as well as external speakers. This year, Nano #7 has taken on the theme of Enabling Employability and all presentations will focus around aspects relating to employability. Please view the full Agenda for further details. Please register for Nano#7 at the following link Nano Conferences Registration (office.com) Associate Editor - International JournalDr Misrah Mohamed, Academic Developer (Curriculum) in AEPD, has recently been appointed as the Associate Editor for the Journal of Nusantara Studies (JONUS). JONUS is an academic, interdisciplinary, peer refereed journal published biannually by Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin in Malaysia. The aim of the journal is to provide a venue for researchers and practitioners to share theories, views and empirical research results. Areas of interest for the Journal are research related to human behaviour, within social and cultural contexts, including language, linguistics, education, literature, communication, law, economy, culture, and politics. JONUS encourages submissions with a focus on issues relevant to the Nusantara territories i.e. Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Thailand, the Phillippines, and Western New Guinea. JONUS is currently indexed and abstracted in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), with an impact factor of 0.5. Academics and researchers at the Coventry University Group who are interested in publishing a relevant journal article can submit their manuscripts to JONUS at any time. The entire review process takes between 2 and 3 months from the submission of the manuscript. See the link here for author’s guidelines and information on the submission process. If you require more information or further support, please contact Misrah directly at ae2996@coventry.ac.uk. ResourcesActive Learning CoP #4It was our pleasure to host Dr Janet Horrocks, Abertay University, who talked about how to develop students independent and creative thinking through active, authentic and collaborative learning. The session inspired a fruitful discussion on how can we support our students in different disciplines to become independent and learn through trial and error. The recording is now available. The challenges and creative liberation of curriculum design New Lead in AEPD for Curriculum , Chris Haycock, sets out his vision for curriculum development within the Coventry University Group. "Higher education could arguably be described as currently in a liminal space, moving from what it once was, to what it needs to be to maintain relevance for the future. However, despite the uncertainty that accompanies such a perspective, we can be sure that the core business of higher education will continue to focus on communicating the concepts and ideas of the disciplines we deliver every day. Students will continue to put their hopes, aspirations, and their trust in our hands, to see them through their journey to graduation. Our curricula are the embodiment of our professional knowledge, experience, and passion for the subjects we teach. Our hopes and aspirations for our students and for our courses rely upon our curricula being well-designed and well-executed. Designing a curriculum should be a liberating exercise, a time to think creatively, in detail and within university regulations, about the form and function of each facet of our courses. As with all plans, curriculum design requires us to make decisions about what we want to achieve and how we achieve it, what skills our graduates will acquire and what their student experience will be. From delivery mode to assessment type, each tool we select will have a distinct purpose and specific outcome. Nothing about guiding our students on their emancipatory journey through higher education is routine. The Academic Enhancement and Professional Development Unit is here to help academic colleagues navigate this technical and creative process, following a cognate rationale to align your plan with your stated outcomes." For all enquiries relating to curriculum development at the Coventry University Group please email curriculum@coventry.ac.uk Decoloniality starts with having the opportunity and space to unlearn firstFormer Coventry University colleague and now QAA Quality Enhancement and Standards Specialist, Amrita Narang, is running a workshop at Coventry University in November focussed on personal experiences relating to decolonising the curriculum. Amrita's invite states "You are invited to participate and to explore decoloniality and curriculum reform. The interactive session is an extension of my thesis discussion chapter and will consist of movement, reflective thinking and doing using photographs. It is a space to explore ones’ relation with the curriculum for decoloniality. It is autobiographical, personal, and based on the idea that curriculum is a lived experience." To engage in the in-person group session you will need to bring along 4-5 printed photographs of things/moments that hold relevance for you. The photographs can be on a simple A4 sheet and reflect a memorable experience, capture your current state of mind or be a nod to the future you imagine. There is absolute creative freedom! The session will be video and audio recorded. This event would be of interest to academic/ educational developers, colleagues interested in curriculum design exploring practical methods for decolonial framing of the curriculum, and creative educational researchers. Tea / coffee refreshments will be provided. Do note, we have limited room capacity, so registrations will be on first come basis. Details - 24th November 2023 | 13:00pm-14:15pm | Library 3rd Floor. Frederick Lanchester Building. To register email Amrita at naranga3@uni.coventry.ac.uk Sharing Success StoriesWould you like to see your success stories, publications or conference presentations featured in our newsletter? If so, let us know by completing this form. Subscribe to our NewsletterYou can now subscribe directly to receive our newsletter and other news from the Academic Development team at Coventry University Group. Photo by Karolina Grabowska, pexels.com |