Friday 22 May 2015

8th of the Month - Like, Link, Follow

May's 8th of the Month saw the focus on Social media and in particular Twitter and Google Communities with a little information on LinkedIn too.

Introduced by Mark De Groot, the first presentation saw our own Rebecca Sellers (@becksell2001stepping into present about Twitter in Teaching and Learning taking the place of  Michelle Mellis (@mgmelliswho couldn't present due to unforeseen circumstances. 

Rebecca Sellers presenting. Photo by Lyn Edwards


The talk focused around the basic tools that Twitter has including hashtags and favoriting. Next was the ways it could be used to engage with students in teaching and learning but also with the wider community. Some of the suggestions included setting a hashtag up for module to share resources and questions. Also setting up a tweet chat with an external guest to allow students to engage with industry, without having to schedule class time and does not require travel from the external. 
There were a lot of questions from the audience about appropriateness and privacy particular within area where confidentiality might be important. The view of the speaker was that you should do what was right for your specific situation. This may include keeping the account private so that each follower had to be granted permission to see the Twitter feed or using a generic one so it could not be linked to an individual. 

Michelle was interviewed prior to session about her use of Twitter. Here is her video.



Next up was the Sarah Roe and Mark Flisher from AET talking about their use of Google + Communities to support their students and encourage collaboration and critiquing of others work. They used the Community in 2 modules and found the ability to keep it private from others made the students feel safer and more willing to engage. It was also used as a discussion area if students had an issue with a piece of work they could post a question and wither the member of staff would reply or one of the other students would offer an answer. The answers were visible to everyone so that everyone received the same information. 

Sarah Roe and Mark Flisher presenting. Photo by Lyn Edwards.  

Here are Mark and Sarah talking about why they use Google+ Communities. 



The session concluded with a brief discussion around the use of LinkedIn to keep in contact with alumni and provide a source of potential guest and external speakers to give students an industry perspective. 


The high numbers attending and the audience engagement shows there is a big appetite o using social media in a learning and teaching environment. We will look to enhance and expand the number of sessions in this area in the coming year.  







Wednesday 20 May 2015

SEDA Conference on Internationalisation


The two-day SEDA Conference on Internationalisation of the Curriculum (Twitter - #SEDACONF) was a really stimulating and informative event.

There were some really great examples of innovative work bringing together partner institutions, developing the formal curriculum, and thinking about the effective integration of international students. The role which educational developers have to play in bringing the educational and values-based benefits of internationalisation to the curriculum and learning experiences of all our students cannot be underestimated.

The prezi of my keynote is available on line. I am looking forward to following up with many of the interesting colleagues brought together by the event. Thank you SEDA.

David Killick
Head of Academic Staff Development

Thursday 14 May 2015

Golden Robes 2015


On the night of 30th April Leeds City Museum hosted the Leeds Beckett Golden Robe awards. A group of CLT staff attended the event to celebrate the excellent work undertaken by staff in supporting and teaching students.

The event is organised in partnership between the Centre for Learning and Teaching and the Students' Union. The Golden Robes are awarded to staff and nominated by students from across the Institution in a number of categories.  This year 1053 nominations were received for 603 different members of staff.  The awards recognise the positive impact staff, in a range of roles, have on a student’s experience at university. The staff nominated have gone the extra mile, thought creatively about how they support students, and how they encouraged and empowered students to succeed.

The evening was compered by Saffron Rose (Vice President Education) and Declan Mulholland (Chair of the Student Council). The event got underway with a formal welcome by Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof. Phil Cardew before the prize giving began. The museum was full of expectant staff and those who had come along to cheer them on. Between each prize giving the Faculty Reps and Officers thanked the staff for their hard work.

The award categories are: Virtual Virtuoso, Personal Tutor of the year, Fantastic Feedback, Hidden Hero, Postgraduate Supervisor of the Year, Motivator of the Year, Course Team of the Year, Innovative Tutor, Undergraduate Supervisor of the Year and a Special recognition awarded.

The winners and shortlisted are shown below.

Virtual Virtuoso:
Professor Alex Nunn
Dr Peter Branney
Dr Sarah James

Supervisor of the year (Undergraduate):
Dr Lisa O’Keeffe
Dr Michelle Mellis
Jackie Mulligan
Moses Okech
Rev. Ruth Dowson

Supervisor of the year (Postgraduate):
Dr Andrew Manley
Dr Osama Tashani
Professor Jim McKenna
Professor Martin Samy
Professor Ralph Tench

Personal Tutor of the year:
Annemarie Piso
Tracey Day
Dr Zoe Kolokotroni
Jackie Mulligan
Martin Hird
Robert Minton-Taylor
Sarah Roe
Sunita Morris
Dr Davina Stanford

Motivator of the year:
Dr Niki Kyriakidou
Elizabeth Chesworth
Kate Grafton
Micheale McIntosh
Professor Martin Samy
Robert Minton-Taylor
Sarah Cooper

Innovative Tutor:
Dr Michael Cassop Thompson
Dr Robin Redhead
Neil Kelley
Oliver Jones
Robert Minton-Taylor

Hidden Hero:
Alice Green
Emily Marshall
Gemma Walton
Kathryn Firth
Mark Panter

Fantastic Feedback:
Christine Daley
Dorron Otter
Dr Jamie Morgan
Dr John Connell
Dr Mara Fuertes-Gutierrez

Course team of the year:
Ba (Hons) English Literature
Ba (Hons) Playwork
BSc (hons) Speech & Language Therapy
MSc Responsible Tourism Management
PGDip Youth Work and Community Development

The special recognition was awarded posthumously to Dr John Hamill who passed away suddenly on 26th December 2014. The award was accepted on his behalf by one of his students.

The awards are a celebration to recognise the wide range of staff who do the very best for Leeds Beckett students. Many of these staff would continue to work tirelessly without little recognition. The event also allows us all to learn from those that are getting it right and share this knowledge and practice wider.

Below is a Storify from the event bringing together some of the tweets about the event and a link to the Students' Union Facebook gallery from the night (photos by Adam Shaw).

Thank you to all the students who took the time to nominate a member of staff, to the Students' Union for organising such a great event and finally to all those who were nominated, keep up the good work!