Annual Academic Year Review 2007-2008 (17th edition)
The Teaching One to One book by Gina Wisker, Maria Antoniou, Pauline Ridley, Charlotte Morris, with Kate Exley from Nottingham has now been published and well received on the Routledge website
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- 14.7.1 Support for writing
- 14.7.2 Talking about Teaching
- 14.7.3 Learning and Teaching Conference 2008
- 14.7.4 Learning and teaching fellowships
- 14.7.5 Teaching Excellence Awards
- 14.8 External links and developments
- 15 Information Services
- 15.2 Corporate Plan Aim 2: Research
- 15.3 Corporate Plan Aim 3: Economic and Social Engagement
The Teaching One to One book by Gina Wisker, Maria Antoniou, Pauline Ridley, Charlotte Morris, with Kate Exley from Nottingham has now been published and well received on the Routledge website.14.7 Major events and activities co-ordinated by CLTThe CLT run a range of internal events and development activities which aim to work with the needs of internal University of Brighton and Partner colleagues in terms of their developments in course leadership, working with international students, research and writing practices, retention and attrition, informal learning, visual practices and a range of useful events related to diversity and widening participation. In addition, CLT colleagues contribute to university wide development programmes and sessions, external examining, leadership and other issues as appropriate. 14.7.1 Support for writingWith focus on teaching contemporary women’s writing (supported by the English Subject Centre) September 07, with a deliberate development focus on taking research through to completion publication and developing the writing confidence and skills of colleagues we launched two major symposia and workshops led by Professor Graham Badley (December 07)and support on academic writing led by Dr Rowena Murray (June 08) In addition a session was held by Gina Wisker on writing for publication in journals and books. 14.7.2 Talking about TeachingThe series now has a regular ‘slot’: the afternoon of the first Friday of each month. Seven lively, successful sessions were run, attended by a total of almost 110 people from a range of Schools. Topics have included: Communication and information technologies, ethics and the law, Exploring visual learning in the disciplines and Student attendance. Are you concerned? What do you do? 14.7.3 Learning and Teaching Conference 2008The theme ‘Social purpose and creativity – integrating learning in the real world’ reflected the values and aspirations of the university’s new Corporate Plan. It generated an enthusiastic response from across the university, leading to an exciting programme of parallel sessions and a dozen poster displays. The keynotes were Professor Mike Neary, Dean of Teaching and Learning at Lincoln ‘Student as Producer – risk, responsibility and rich learning environments in higher education’ and Dr Liz Beaty, Director (Strategic Academic Practice and Partnership), University of Cumbria ‘Learning and "real life": what place for a campus based institution in the 21st century?’. The event was fully subscribed, and as evidenced in the overwhelmingly positive evaluations, it provided a very stimulating and enriching experience. 14.7.4 Learning and teaching fellowships31 colleagues, individuals and groups were successful in gaining fellowships in 2007-2008. The Fellowships are for learning and teaching innovation developments, research informed activity, and for curriculum developments. The CLT have been pleased to receive applications from partner colleges. 14.7.5 Teaching Excellence AwardsRenamed Excellence in Facilitating/Empowering Learning Awards and launched in December 2007. The selection panel awarded 10 individuals and 2 groups. The task facing the panel was not easy. The panel received 24 submissions, following a nomination stage at which over 41 staff were nominated by colleagues and/or students. 14.7.6 Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLS) CLT is closely involved in all three of the University’s CETLs. Pauline Ridley coordinates the Visual Practices learning area of the LearnHigher CETL, a partnership of 16 universities led by Liverpool Hope and is a member of the joint CETL liaison group which also includes CETL-D (CETL in Design) and Inqbate, the CETL in Creativity. During 2007-8, we continued to provide educational support and evaluation to Inqbate and to the Creativity Development Fund projects (details available at http://www.inqbate.co.uk/ ) and to encourage staff awareness and use of the Creativity Centre at Cockcroft by holding a number of our own events there. Gina Wisker led a CETL-D funded project to research the way that design students use museum collections and other sources of inspiration. Highlights from LearnHigher this year included publications from several of the 20 Visual Practices projects funded across the University and partner colleges, including a book and DVD on the Overalls /Access to Art project, a successful conference on the Role of Visual Practice in Clinical Education attended by medical and arts professionals from around the country, and the Big Draw@ Brighton, a month long programme of drawing activities for which the University won the Drawing Inspiration Award from the National Campaign for Drawing. Details of these and other activities are available at http://staffcentral.brighton.ac.uk/learnhigher/ . 14.8 External links and developmentsOur external links and developments enable us to play a part in learning and teaching internationally and nationally as well as regionally. They are important in the development of strategy and policy, internationally and nationally and ensure that we are in touch with deliberations and developments. Some of our work at the University of Brighton has contributed to major deliberations in the sector through involvement in the CETLS, SEDA, HEDG, SRHE, HERDSA and HELTASA as well as the HEA subject centre networks and the HEA itself. Individual external links also include a range of international and national, external examinerships and consultancy and workshop deliveries. 15 Information Services15.1 Corporate Plan Aim 1: The CurriculumThe aims of the Information Services Strategy under Corporate Plan Aim 1 are: IS Aim 1a: to ensure that service development is informed by academic programme development and best practice in quality assurance, in line with the university’s Learning and Teaching Strategy. IS Aim 1b: to enable all relevant staff & course teams to be able to make appropriate individual & collective choices in the use of technologies in their learning & teaching, working in partnership with CLT and other central services. Information Services fully contributed to the development of the university’s submission to the QAA Institutional Audit, provided IT infrastructure and support for the visit of the auditors and is participating in discussing the response to the “desirable recommendation” in the report: “continue to monitor and enhance the effectiveness of studentcentral as a tool to aid learning and teaching”. The university has successfully completed its participation in the Higher Education Academy (HEA) e-learning Pathfinder programme. This is a joint venture between the Centre of Learning & Teaching (CLT) and Information Services, focusing on e-learning pedagogic staff development in the university. The project had three main aims: to build staff development capability at the university to enable the sustainable development of e-learning practices; to build multi-professional support teams for integrated technical and pedagogic support; to explore the extent to which using online social networking tools can facilitate the implementation of these aims. This was to be achieved by organising intensive bespoke e-learning skills sessions for course teams, facilitated by external consultants, with CLT staff, Learning Technology Advisors and Information Advisors involved; and organising topic-specific one day or half day workshops on aspects of e-learning. The HEA funded element of the project completed in May. During this period the main achievements were: Four intensive sessions completed, three facilitated by the external consultants, one by university staff only; Six topic-specific workshops completed; Research strand, still continuing, investigating the engagement with the Pathfinder project & identifying course enhancements directly resulting; The finding that course intensive events are proving valuable for general enhancement of curriculum design and not just for enhancing e-learning elements; Identifying the importance of high quality venues for staff development activities (CETL Creativity Centre used). The university produced a number of reports on the project (which can be found on the project blog at http://community.brighton.ac.uk/pathfind/weblog/) and there was a poster on the project, which included the work of other Pathfinder projects at other institutions, at this year’s university’s Learning & Teaching Conference in July. Discussions are advanced on how best to sustain the momentum of the work undertaken in 2008-09. An informal survey was undertaken of Heads of School to identify academic colleagues currently engaged in using commercially organised social networking tools and services to enable an analysis of: how such tools and services are chosen; identification of good practice and issues in their use; and an assessment of the prior risk analysis undertaken. This was followed up by a small number of face to face meetings with some academic colleagues engaged with these services. YouTube and Flickr were the most popular services used and in almost all cases their use is restricted to viewing materials rather than depositing them. Some staff use social networks and sites specific to their discipline or profession. Those using Facebook encountered some difficulties in that not all students wished to join in, and generally academic use of Facebook for learning and teaching appears to be very low. As a result of this analysis, a set of guidelines for those considering using such services, with a checklist to ensure that the university, staff and students are not unduly put at risk, is being produced over the summer. 15.2 Corporate Plan Aim 2: ResearchThe aim of the Information Services Strategy under Corporate Plan Aim 2 is: IS Aim 2a: to develop better support services to underpin the evolving research activities of the university, in line with the university’s Research Strategy. The university has participated in the pilot phase of the national theses digitisation programme, EThOS. Information Services has submitted a number of theses of the university’s successful research students to the British Library for digitisation; the criteria for selection was the number of requests for copies of theses at the British Library. It is anticipated that the first batch of electronic versions will become available during the summer. Discussions continue with colleagues at the Medical School about the challenges being raised by the increasing research activity at BSMS. A review of priorities has led to the identification of resources to provide more IT support and purchase additional e-journals. A new university research information database has been specified in a project led by the PVC (Research). This new database will bring together for the first time all research related information in one place. This will make it possible to produce automatically a comprehensive range of reports, both textual and graphical, for management processes within the university and for external assessment processes. Recruitment will shortly be underway for a developer for the project and the target initial release deadline is September 2009. 15.3 Corporate Plan Aim 3: Economic and Social EngagementThe aim of the Information Services Strategy under Corporate Plan Aim 3 is: IS Aim 3a: to enhance the existing reputation for helpful, effective and proactive participation in the key partnership activities of the university. The provision of library and computing services for the first cohort of YearFive students of the Medical School, when they study at various NHS locations around the region, has been successful. A comprehensive review of the use of studentcentral by the Medical School was completed and the follow-up action plan is being implemented. The PDA project at the Medical School, started in 2005, whereby students in Year Three and beyond who have purchased an appropriate PDA device get a School subsidised loan of electronic copies of medical reference material, was formally reviewed in July. As a result a number of options are being considered for carrying forward the project, including one where the School purchases a PDA and electronic copies of resources for all of its students. The success of the refer scheme at University Centre Hastings (UCH), whereby the residents of Hastings now have ready access to the physical resources in all the major libraries in the town, continues. This service has now been awarded accreditation and kite mark by Inspire, the national scheme which encourages collaborative partnerships between public and educational libraries. The university’s desire to join the regional Inspire South East scheme has been delayed by the requirement that a university photo id is required for students. The chess collection at UCH, the largest in the UK and believed to be the third largest in the world, was officially opened on 10 June by Rt Hon Charles Clarke, MP, whose father was the first donor of a private collection to start the library. The Hastings Local Family History collection has been added to the special collections inventory at the Centre. An inter-site loan service between libraries of the university and that of Plumpton College has been devised and will be piloted in the forthcoming academic year. IT and library arrangements to support the new CUPP community followship scheme have been agreed. 15.4 Corporate Plan Aim 4: Student and Staff Experience The aims of the Information Services Strategy under Corporate Plan Aim 4 are: IS Aim 4a: to enhance and extend studentcentral by taking the lead in the development of the technical infrastructure and support for studentcentral, in line with the university’s Learning and Teaching and Information Strategies. IS Aim 4b: to collaborate proactively with Schools and other central departments to improve and make more coherent the experience throughout the student life cycle. IS Aim 4c: to plan and manage staffing in the department, in line with the university’s Staffing Strategy. IS Aim 4d: to sustain departmental attention on matters of health and safety and equality commitments. The use of community @ brighton has grown during the year with a number of innovative applications to support learning and teaching as well as many uses for sharing of communications and resources. The functionality of the service has been steadily enhanced during the year, particularly with multi-media “YouTube-like” facilities. Community @ brighton was shortlisted for the prestigious Times Higher Education Supplement ICT Innovation of the Year Award. Information Services was again successful in a bid from the university’s “top up fee” income for funding a programme to improve the student experience. Informed by various strands of student feedback, and the university’s list of additional activity submitted to the Office of Fair Access, this additional source of funding has been used for: the purchase of 4,747 multiple copies of core text books; the purchase of 153 new computers to support discipline specific learning activities in Schools; the purchase of 415 new e-books; continuation of the trial of extended opening hours at Aldrich – opening hours were extended to 2 am every morning for three weeks around the semester one assessment period and for six weeks around the semester two assessment period; continuation of the trial of Sunday opening of St Peter’s House library during term time; additional computer helpers to provide advice and assistance during the weekdays at various sites; better back-up support for computer helpers on duty in evenings and on Sundays; a trial of “drop-in” Computer First Aid Clinics to provide advice and help to students when using their own computers to access the networked services of the university. The annual Information Services student survey had fewer responses this year; 558 compared to 1,084 last year. This is thought to be due to the larger than usual number of surveys conducted by various agencies and groups of the university’s students this year and a change in timing to avoid the Students’ Union’s survey in connection with the QAA Institutional Audit preparations. Once again “more print copies of core texts” is the highest priority for students, despite the significant additional investment in this area over the last two years. “More journals” returns to its customary position as the second highest priority with “provide informal study areas in the libraries (coffee/ books/ wireless)” the third highest, the latter being a question asked for the first time this year. “More computers in libraries” has dropped from second highest priority to fifth, reflecting the increasing numbers of computers. As usual there are site variations; for example “more computers in libraries” is again the top priority for students based at Grand Parade, “more journals” the top priority at the libraries in Eastbourne: however, the lower response rate means that site specific results might need to be treated with caution. Other results of interest in the Information Services student survey include: a preference to borrow a printed copy of a core text compared to an electronic copy (60% against 40%); 81% of the university’s students have used Facebook and 71% YouTube; creditably in only its second year of service, 36% reported that they had used community @ brighton. In the free text comments many students highlighted a desire for more informal learning areas. The Students’ Union conducted a survey of students to inform the Student Written Submission element of the university’s QAA Institutional Audit. This survey included a section on learning resources. There are a number of positive messages about the provision of learning resources at the university which emerge from the analysis of the results. These include: 96% of students usually use at least one of the university’s libraries; 82% of students feel that library opening hours meet their needs; 68% of students are able to access lecture notes online through studentcentral; and 68% of students are able to access other course materials online through studentcentral. There are, however, a number of potential issues raised: 11% felt that the supply of books does not meet their needs; considerable variance in students’ experience of being able to access university computers at times appropriate to their needs; wide variation in responses to the questions on being able to find course materials on studentcentral, ranging from 80% to 90% in BSMS and PABS to 40% in the School of Architecture and Design, 30% in the School of Arts and Communication and 11% in SHACS. These results were considered at the Learning & Teaching Committee where it was agreed that the priority was addressing the variability of accessing resources on studentcentral, with the PVC (Academic Affairs) taking the policy lead. Information Services conducted a survey of students at UCH on their use of library and computing facilities. The response rate was good with nearly one hundred students completing the survey form. Generally the replies were very positive, with the level of help from library and computing support staff being rated particularly highly. Some areas of concern are that most students claim to be unable to find all the resources in the library on their reading lists, comments on short opening hours and that only around 50% had used the UCH IS website to find information. A follow-up investigation of some of the issues identified was undertaken and an action plan is being implemented (eg reminding academic colleagues on the importance of their students attending a library induction and the trial introduction of longer opening times for the Learning Resource Centre around exam periods). The university has participated in a one-off survey of taught postgraduates about their experience at the university, carried out by the HEA. 479 Brighton students completed the survey. Overall a picture of positive experience emerges from the results. 74% and 71% agreed that library and IT resources respectively are appropriate to their studies (the national average for these questions is 70% and 74% respectively). However, less than half agreed that they had been able to access specialised resources when needed. Information Services investigated possible reasons where there have been low scores in the computing and library questions in the National Student Survey 2007 results; most of the activity was focused on the very low scores for the humanities programmes in SHACS. A report of the key findings and a list of the priority action areas was drawn up and agreed by the School’s Management Group and Information Services; the follow-up actions are being implemented. Information Services’ Computer First Aid Clinics for helping students who are having problems with their own computers were expanded over the academic year. Students may bring along their own computer to one of the evening clinics, run on all of the major sites of the university, for services such as diagnosing computer faults, systems configuration advice, setting up network connections, anti-virus help and advice on computer security measures. The Computer First Aid Clinics are free to students and help is provided on a best efforts basis; it is not possible to undertake hardware repairs. The service is funded by the additional “top up” fee income allocated to Information Services. In June Information Services participated in a reciprocal staff development event with Information Services colleagues at Kingston University; around eighty staff from Kingston visited the university and met up with colleagues undertaking similar roles. The feedback of those participating has been very positive. Information Services was one of the departments visited by the Health and Safety Executive inspectors during their visit to the university in December. As a result of comments made during the visit, more systematic health and safety training needs analysis is being performed and better procedures implemented for a comprehensive programme of development and revision of health and safety risk assessments. 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