Annual Academic Year Review 2007-2008 (17th edition)
Academic Leadership Programme
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- 13.8.9 Senior Leadership Programme
- 13.8.10 Management Development Programme
- 13.8.11 Career development and progression
- 13.8.12 Equality and Diversity awareness training
- 13.8.13 Link to Corporate and strategic plans
- 14 Centre for Learning and Teaching
- 14.2 The university’s Learning and Teaching Strategy
- 14.3 Credit-bearing courses
- 14.3.2 MA Academic Practice/MA in Learning and Development
- 14.3.3 Teaching in Higher Education
- 14.3.4 Writing for Academic Publication
- 14.3.5 Certificate/Diploma in Research Methodologies
- 14.3.6 Supervisor Development Programme
- 14.5 Learning Technologies
13.8.8 Academic Leadership ProgrammeThis is an outstanding action from the 2004-6 Strategy which was awaiting the conclusion of matching to revised academic role profiles and the development of proposals for Assistant Heads. To enable this programme to be developed and piloted, there are various considerations to be worked through. A more detailed plan can then be developed. These considerations include defining the cohort. Assistant Heads, Professors, other academic ‘leaders’ (e.g. PLs); is more than one type of programme required with different cohort needs; will the programme be delivered by commissioning external consultants and/or using internal resources. 13.8.9 Senior Leadership ProgrammeFor a variety of reasons, little progress has been made in developing Phase 2 of the SLP since the last cohort concluded in April 2007. This work now needs to be progressed and embedded, particularly in view of the university’s involved in a baseline study on leadership development being undertaken by Lancaster University on behalf of the Leadership Foundation. In order to refresh and restart this project, a Steering Group will be set up to consider how best to support senior staff learning and development, including SMT, Deans and Heads of School and Department. 13.8.10 Management Development ProgrammeThe new Strategy will contain actions to maintain and develop the MDP: Continue to provide the core programme and modules when there are sufficient numbers to make up a cohort – likely to start another one or two in the new academic year Review development needs for delegates who have completed stages 1 & 2 and support stage three with appropriate activities (optional workshops) Explore the options for developing management ‘competencies’ or expectations of managers at the University of Brighton as a tool for development and performance review Consider the need for establishing a new programme for staff with some management responsibility or who aspire to a management role as part of supporting career development and progression for support staff 13.8.11 Career development and progressionFollowing the implementation of the Framework Agreement, the Strategy will include development of an action plan to address the following considerations How to use the role profiles for career development purposes Analysis of ‘skills’ gaps/shortages and succession planning Consider appropriate progression routes for specific job types/families Initial discussions to inform the approach and priorities to take place by the end of the current academic year. 13.8.12 Equality and Diversity awareness trainingA revised university policy for Equality and Diversity was agreed in April 2008 and a ‘Diversity Week’ is planned for early December. The Equal Opportunities Steering group will also consider how to publicise, communicate and embed the revised policy in order to meet the university’s various Equality Commitments and Action Plans. A number of options and issues have been identified by Faculties, Schools and Departments and we need to decide how an equality and diversity training programme should be developed and delivered across the university, specifically Should it be centrally organized and delivered or devolved/’cascaded’ to Faculties, Schools and Departments? A single ‘awareness raising’ session covering all aspects of equality and diversity, and/or specific development activities with more in depth training in equality and diversity linked to specific roles and responsibilities (e.g. admissions tutors, recruitment of staff) Appropriate development method(s) considering the range of staff roles, needs and expectations Who should attend and should the programme be mandatory? Should a steering group be set up to plan and scope this training programme? 13.8.13 Link to Corporate and strategic plansA review of the strategic plans of Faculties and Departments has informed and confirmed some of the headlines for the revised Staffing Strategy, specifically: Leadership and management development for senior academic staff Improve communication, motivation, career development opportunities and work-life balance Encourage excellence, dignity at work and work-life balance Development of staff development strategies clearly aligned to local priorities (enhance SDR processes) Provide a staff development career pathway for staff and students (particularly post-graduate) Ensuring flexible working practice to support the (BSO) agenda H&S training for academic staff and others Recruit a more diverse mix of staff Support access to development opportunities and career development, clarifying and raising individual expectations Other plans not yet specifically covered in the draft Staffing Strategy include: Staff development/mentoring for staff in support of succession planning (FA&A) Develop a range of approaches for recognising and rewarding staff contributions Working to achieve IIP status (R&CS) Support for wellbeing initiatives 14 Centre for Learning and Teaching14.1 IntroductionThe University of Brighton’s Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) supports the professional development of academic staff across the university. We work on several levels - with individuals and groups of staff, with schools and faculties and through contributing to institutional and national strategy and policy. Our aim is to promote the importance of teaching as a professional activity and to work with colleagues to enhance the quality of learning and teaching. We do this through a range of activities, which include: courses for new and experienced lecturers; events such as conferences, seminars, symposia and workshop series; projects and consultancy work for individuals and departments and research into learning and teaching in HE, some of which is funded by the HEFCE and the Higher Education Academy (HEA). We also support individual and group development opportunities such as the learning and teaching fellowships and enquiry groups, and develop resources for learning and teaching practices in areas such as the support of students with disabilities. During the past two years the centre has grown to enable it to engage more efficiently with the range of needs and developments at the University of Brighton, in its national and international context. This has involved us in an increasing focus on research informed and enhanced teaching which has been partly enabled by internal and partly enabled by external funding. 14.2 The university’s Learning and Teaching StrategyThe final version of the new learning and teaching strategy 2007-2010 was submitted to HEFCE in January 2008. The strategy has now been analysed in relation to areas of responsibility, through the Learning and Teaching Committee and Academic Standards Committee. Some elements of the strategy are underway or have already been completed. For example, the development of e learning has been supported by the Pathfinder project (JISC funded) which has enabled CLT and Learning Teaching Advisors (LTAs) colleagues to work with Oxford Brookes consultants and a range of course teams at the university to take forward e and blended learning into their course development. 14.3 Credit-bearing courses14.3.1 Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher EducationThe revalidated and re-accredited PGCert has proceeded smoothly through its first year of implementation, with all 15 participants completing the course. All are recommended to pass, subject to a small amount of additional work in one case. All are therefore expected to graduate next February. The end of course evaluations have been overwhelmingly positive, which affirms the decisions taken in redesigning the course. A typical response was: ‘The workload was appropriate and sufficiently demanding to be worthwhile. More than four Critical Incident Analyses (CIAs) and peer observations would have been too much. The four Study Packs were useful and interesting and relevant to my teaching. This number allowed the opportunity to read a couple of the optional ones as well.’ The course was praised for its coherence and balance, for example: ‘I felt the course was very well-structured. All the pieces ended up fitting together as the course developed. For instance, I didn’t quite see the purpose of the CIAs at first but it became very clear how they would benefit our learning as the course went along.’ The action learning sets were again universally highlighted as the most valuable aspect of the course, for example: ‘This was the most wonderful Action Learning Set who have been supportive and constructive throughout. I feel a much better teacher from the support and advice ALS alone.’ And: ‘It was a fabulous opportunity to get to know colleagues (and their work) across the university, an exceptionally timely SET with brilliant advice/suggestions and incredibly supportive course team. I feel privileged to have been a part of this cohort this year. I will most certainly strongly encourage my colleagues (new ones as well as some with more experience who have not done it) to do this course.’ 14.3.2 MA Academic Practice/MA in Learning and DevelopmentThe MA Academic Practice (MAAP) will cease in July 2009. Currently 3 students (all members of staff at partner colleges) are registered on the programme, the remainder having withdrawn or transferred to the new MA Learning and Development (MAL&D). We will continue to support existing students during the academic year 2008-9. Any who have not completed their study by July 2009 will be offered the opportunity to transfer to the MAL&D and they are fully informed of the situation. In July 2007 the new MAL&D was validated. This includes a number of CLT modules that can be taken singly or combined to provide a distinctive ‘higher education’ pathway for those who wish to follow it. Three of these modules are accredited by the HEA as a route to Membership status. Two people have taken CLT modules during the first year of the course (2007-8). A further five people are considering enrolling on CLT modules in the autumn. It is anticipated that CLT staff will seek validation of additional specialist modules in the coming academic year. 14.3.3 Teaching in Higher EducationThis is a two-day short course usually offered 4-5 times annually. Participants may choose to complete an assessment task related to the course and thus gain credit for the course via module LTM02. c10 people do this each year. The number of participants in the year 2007-8 was 53. This was c10% fewer than normal because 9 of the 18 people who were enrolled for the March iteration withdrew at less than 48 hours’ notice owing to illness. We usually allocate 18-20 places on each iteration of the course and almost always receive more applications than we can accommodate. The actual numbers of participants illustrate that 2-4 individuals normally fail to attend, often with no notice or explanation. Therefore, from September, anyone cancelling at less than 14 days notice who subsequently requests another place will go to the bottom of the waiting list and is likely to have to wait 12 months. As in previous years, participants during 2007-8 included colleagues from Partner Colleges; research students and research staff with teaching responsibilities; medical staff based in local clinical settings who also teach within the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and new part-time or visiting lecturers from a number of Schools within the university. It is notable that 3-5 participants in each iteration this year (i.e. 12-15 in total) have been research students and staff from PABS. We also regularly have participants from the BSMS, and Arts and Architecture in particular. The course continues to be very popular and there is a waiting list for each iteration. Each participant is asked to evaluate the course and their comments continue to be generally very appreciative, although there is a persistent concern about the lack of natural light and ventilation in M115. Individual participants sometimes value certain aspects of the course less highly than others, but there is no consistent or persistent pattern. Indeed, it is notable that participants in the same iteration often differ quite markedly in their preferences. The assignments submitted for LTM02 provide detailed analyses of the ways in which the participants draw on the course to enhance their teaching and the very high pass rate provides good evidence that the course is of benefit to participants. During 2008-9 we intend to conduct a longer term evaluation of the course, subject to the availability of resources. 14.3.4 Writing for Academic Publication12 colleagues began, 10 undertook this course and 8 completed the course for assessment purposes. The current 10 credit weighting is felt to be too slight for the amount and time of work and on proposal will be increased to 20 credits and this will bring it in line more with the MAL&D. 14.3.5 Certificate/Diploma in Research MethodologiesApproximately 10-12 URTF participants take module LTM02 Teaching in Higher Education each year. In addition, the CLT provides two modules on the URTF/CRM/DRM programme: RMM18 Teaching your research, and RMM19 Supervising student projects, enquiries and dissertations. Five people participated in RMM18 in the 2008 iteration. In 2007 4 people attended the first iteration of RMM19, which was used as a pilot. While it is appropriate for research students planning an academic career, this new module is also intended to support the work and development of lecturers at the university and affiliated colleges. This year (2008), the module will run in the autumn term and it is notable that to date c18 members of academic and research staff have registered for the module or indicated a firm intention to do so. (Following the pilot, the second iteration of the module was much more widely advertised.) 14.3.6 Supervisor Development ProgrammeThis programme was re launched in summer 07 and ran again December 07 and summer 08 with a two day programme and a one day refresher course for those who have been supervising for several years after taking the first course. 14.4 Outreach work with faculties, schools and course teamsCLT colleagues have ongoing membership of/contribution to work of university committees and activities including: 14.4.1 CUPP Working with CUPP, including exploration of possibilities for an interdisciplinary community engagement project based at Newhaven. 14.4.2 Sussex Learning Network Involvement in various collaborative activities including facilitating seminars on pedagogic research for members of the SLN Practitioner Research Grants Project. 14.4.3 Disability, equality and diversity Pauline Ridley is a member of the Course Development Team for the new MA in Inclusive Arts Practice. This was validated in April and will build on the successful Access to Art project to provide opportunities for disabled and non disabled artists to work together. 14.4.4 Learning Development Catherine McConnell has been appointed as a new CLT lecturer specially looking at supporting and advising academic staff about Learning Development issues and addressing these through improved curriculum design. 14.4.5 Developments We are currently discussing a number of potential developments with colleagues, including ways in which we might enhance our support for: new and existing course leaders staff engaged in course design and curriculum development staff with little experience of supervising undergraduate and taught post-graduate projects, enquiries and dissertations staff engaging in pedagogic research and development. 14.5 Learning TechnologiesPathfinder, the e learning JISC funded national project, is now complete. The project has established a sustainable internal team both during and following the end of the consultants work with us (May 2008) Consultants and internal team have run 3, 2-3 day course team developments, and to date 2 entirely internally run course team developments. 5 full days will have been run by the internal team, 4 with external presenters, 1 as a showcase of internal work. Individuals and teams have benefited from the work with the LTAs, CLT and the consultants. Work with the LTAs has continued this year to develop understanding of and practice in Web 2 technologies including Elgg. The achievement of the HEA JISC Pathfinder bid supports such developments and brings it to the notice of University of Brighton and others in the UK particularly through the collaborative teams with whom CLT and colleagues are working UK wide, the CAMEL project grouping (TVU, Bradford, Greenwich). The two day final project development and pilot dissemination ran in May 2008 and was an event open to the university. 14.6 ResearchResearch into learning and teaching, research led teaching and developing students as researcher have become increasingly important at the University of Brighton during the year, as they have nationally and internationally. Following UK funding for universities related to their learning and teaching research in inverse relation to the RAE funding, and international trends (eg the Australian Carrick foundation grants, and US Carnegie grants), we have built the foundations of several funded projects, some gained in 06-07 some 07-08. We have developed our own research strategy growing from the university’s developing strategy and the Learning and Teaching strategy. We have developed our own ethics guidelines in relation to the university’s processes and the Faculty processes and we support and advise colleagues on research processes and ethics, particularly those undertaking Fellowship related research. The CLT have a number of successful research or research related projects running currently. These are either externally or internally funded and indicate a robust internally well established and externally recognised university engagement in the research which underpins and enhances and informs learning and teaching – a direction the university intends to develop further in the post RAE climate. Examples of our research projects include: 14.6.1 Pathfinder and related e learning activities Using appreciative enquiry to explore enhancement of learning and teaching outcomes for staff and students. 14.6.2 ESCALATE Sustainable development in the curriculum. 14.6.3 Gina Wisker’s NTFS individual project Continues with a number of conference papers given on cross cultural supervision, threshold concepts and conceptual threshold in postgraduate learning (international examples, in literature and art and in education, and in the role of supervisors in supporting postgraduates to achieve conceptual, critical and creative levels in research). 14.6.4 NTFS Doctoral Learning Project This is the major UK project on postgraduate learning and supervisory practice. This project will start disseminating early work at the EARLI conference in 2009, ISL 2009 and other conferences in 2009. 14.6.5 Widening participation Five projects have been planned and launched. 1 Open Minds – this project focuses on students’ mental health, 2 Learning Differences – Transitions into HE for students with ASD & Aspergers 3 The experiences in HE of older students 4 Retention of younger male students from socio-economically disadvantaged areas. 5 International students –further research into the learning experience of international students, particularly postgraduates i) Business Masters ii) cross cultural supervision at PHd. 14.6.6 National Student Survey The Report of this project was published on CLT website at end of the autumn term. Web counter suggests over 300 separate individuals accessed the report website in first week. 14.6.7 Case studies of continuing professional development Small-scale case-studies have been compiled to ‘map’ naturally occurring evidence of CPD that occurs in the course of working activities. 14.6.8 Support for Pedagogic research Advisory sessions have taken place for Teaching Fellows engaged in pedagogic research. Seminars have been facilitated on pedagogic research for members of the SLN Practitioner Research Grants Project. 14.6.9 CETLD A project has been developed looking at how students learn through sources of inspiration. There are several partners involved – CETLD, University of Brighton, The V and A, Royal College of Arts, and RIBA. This is CETLD funded and finishes Autumn 2008; an internal seminar was delivered in February 2008. 14.6.10 Small projects with international partners to date include Fellowships and their impact with University of Stellenbosch; External examiner reports on PHDs and other doctorates with University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia; Postgraduate professional supervision practice with Trinity College Dublin; Threshold concepts and conceptual thresholds – supervisor responses with Margaret Kiley, Australian National University. 14.6.11 Enquiry groups These are CLT facilitated, networked, small funded and unfunded research groups. The ‘enquiry groups’ develop projects focusing on a range of key issues in learning and teaching. From two of the enquiry groups, a proposal has been developed for an action research project related to the first year student experience. This intends to capture and enhance the experience of being a first year students at the University of Brighton, working in collaboration with Student Services, the SU and other staff across the university with a particular focus on supporting diversity through positive teaching practices. 14.6.12 Research conference The first learning and teaching research conference was held in October 2007. It showcased some of the ways in which colleagues at the University of Brighton and partner colleges are using pedagogic research to enhance their learning, teaching and assessment practices. Professor Mick Healey, co-director of the Centre for Active Learning in Geography, Environment and Related Disciplines at the University of Gloucestershire gave a keynote seminar on links between research and teaching. 14.6.13 Publications A very attractive and useful publication has been produced following the 2007 Learning and Teaching Conference. Connections: sharing the learning space contains 11 articles, including one based on Clive Holtham’s striking keynote. It was edited and compiled by Joyce Barlow, Gail Louw and Mark Price. The first issue of Academic practices, the CLT’s new twice yearly publication was well received. The newsletter aims to keep the university and its partner colleges up to date on developments within and outside the university in terms of research-enhanced and informed learning, teaching, assessment and curriculum development. It also aims to showcase some of the innovative and well-established practices and activities around this community for the benefit of the widest readership possible. Directory: reg reg -> Board of Historic Resources Quarterly Meeting 16 June 2016 Sponsor Markers Diversity reg -> Port Cambeltown dated 8th April 1830 Name reg -> Contents september 2009 I. Executive order reg -> In this issue reg -> Reginald irenee vachon reg -> Index for the Register Volumes 72-108 (1974-2010) reg -> A century of ufo sightings and Close Encounters in the Midwest Download 2.04 Mb. Share with your friends:
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