Resources for understanding and supporting student engagement with learning

Resources for understanding and supporting student engagement with learning have been collated into a spreadsheet for staff to review and use. The resources are organised into different tabs according to type (such as conference outputs) and with the following information provided: title, year, summary, institution or author and website link. Questions can be sent to j.simpson@worc.ac.uk.

Vignette of Practice: “Not another three-hour lecture”: A Blended Delivery Approach

“Not another three-hour lecture”: A Blended Delivery Approach Team Teaching Award – Richard Pepperell; Dr Christian Edwards; School of Sport and Exercise Science     Introduction Our case studies focused on the development (case study 1) and delivery (case study 2) of two new scientific principles modules in the undergraduate Physical Education (PE) curriculum. Here, we focus specifically on case study 2 demonstrating our use of a blended approach to the delivery of these modules during the COVID-19 pandemic. Background The Wolf report (2011) prompted several UK Government policy changes across the 14-19 education sector that were designed to increase the rigour of accredited courses. Within the PE and sports sector, these policy changes led to an increase in the sports science content required within… Read moreVignette of Practice: “Not another three-hour lecture”: A Blended Delivery Approach

Vignette of Practice: Embedding Real World Learning Through Inspirational Guest Speakers

Embedding Real World Learning Through Inspirational Guest Speakers Team Teaching Award – Dr Kay Emblen-Perry, Senior Lecturer and PRME Coordinator; Dr Paulo Mora-Avila, Lecturer and School Liaison Coordinator; Rachel Cooper, Lecturer and Accounting and Finance Course Leader; Worcester Business School In the Responsible Business L5 module, we include weekly guest speakers [A1]. This approach is inspirational to students, module tutors and the guest speakers themselves, as we will explain. The use of guest speakers each week is unique within Worcester Business School (WBS) and is innovative, as it is not seen elsewhere within education for sustainability. Our practice frames our pedagogical approach to the module which involves students exploring a live case study, and in 2020/21, this was the University of Worcester (UW); weekly guest… Read moreVignette of Practice: Embedding Real World Learning Through Inspirational Guest Speakers

Vignette of Practice: St Jude’s Virtual School: An Innovative Response to COVID-19

St Jude’s Virtual School: An Innovative Response to COVID-19 Team Teaching Award – Judy Miller, Isabelle Schäfer, Dave Hunt and Suzanne Lawson; School of Education Tutors in the PGCE secondary teacher training team created a virtual school called ‘St. Jude’s’ to develop trainees’ skills and attributes for those who were well but having to self-isolate due to COVID-19 during their school experience placement. St. Jude’s was an online innovation born of necessity but developed through genuine pedagogical approaches for teaching excellence. The online platform was a hidden area on Blackboard only accessible to trainees who had to self-isolate. St. Jude’s registration provided a series of activities designed to support their programme of study (A1) with activities to teach and support learning (A2). Subject tutors interacted… Read moreVignette of Practice: St Jude’s Virtual School: An Innovative Response to COVID-19

Get ready for GAAD

Global Accessibility Awareness Day Logo

Can you help us on Global Accessibility Awareness Day? This is a day to raise awareness of how we can all help support digital accessibility and this year it’s on 19th May. It’s an opportunity to take a small amount time to focus on the digital accessibility of your courses or any content that you might want to improve. There are lots of events worldwide and you can find out more about the range of events on the dedicated website. Blackboard are running a Fix Your Content 24-hour global event– challenging institutions and Blackboard Ally users everywhere to look at how they can improve the accessibility of their content. To help with improving the digital accessibility, colleagues from QED, IT, the TEL Unit, the Library,… Read moreGet ready for GAAD

Vignette of Practice: Innovation in Pre-registration Allied Health Professional Student Placements

Innovation in Pre-registration Allied Health Professional Student Placements Rebecca Lees, School of Allied Health and Community   Shortages of good quality placements for Allied Health Professional (AHP) students has been a significant issue in recent times and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this as local health and social care networks have been put under immense pressure. Traditionally, practice-based learning has taken place in clinical settings to learn clinical skills. However, service redesign is being driven by such strategies as The NHS Long Term Plan (2019) which identifies that the health and societal needs of the nation are changing and, as such, traditional services need to adapt in response. It is therefore essential to develop graduates who can be innovative, adaptable, show leadership, research, evaluate and… Read moreVignette of Practice: Innovation in Pre-registration Allied Health Professional Student Placements

Building student resilience

Resilience is fundamental for student retention and it is one of our graduate attributes.  Resilience enables students to cope with the challenges, obstacles and setbacks they are likely to experience on their learning journey, and to graduate with the capabilities and mind set for success.  The term can be applied to both academic and personal aspects of the student experience and is increasingly associated with student well-being, academic buoyancy and a ‘growth mindset’. A proactive approach to developing student resilience as part of the curriculum at Worcester is therefore important because it will support our objectives to improve student retention and graduate outcomes.  We want our students to understand and demonstrate the behaviours, actions and mindsets that constitute resilience, and to be able to articulate… Read moreBuilding student resilience

Vignette of Practice – Going Online in a Pandemic: Staff and Student Voices at the Heart of Inclusive Teaching

Going Online in a Pandemic: Staff and Student Voices at the Heart of Inclusive Teaching Jennifer Hatley, Course Leader Education Studies, School of Education       I am the course leader for Education Studies and like most courses at the University, myself and my team found ourselves moving to online teaching quickly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are in a unique position. We were not just teaching any subject; we were teaching Education. Pedagogy and andragogy are what we do all day, every day, so we knew that we couldn’t simply put resources online and expect learning to happen as it does when face-to-face. Nonetheless, with the need to act quickly, that is in effect what we had to do. This constituted… Read moreVignette of Practice – Going Online in a Pandemic: Staff and Student Voices at the Heart of Inclusive Teaching

Sharing Experiences of Online Teaching – School of Arts – Peer Supported Review of Teaching 2020-21

For the Peer Supported Review of Teaching in the School of Arts (2020-21) staff were encouraged to find a partner who teaches on another course and be prepared to share 30 minutes or more of their session. A very simple form was created to enable staff to experiment, try out teaching ideas and share good practice. The initiative was launched at the end of January 2021 and partnerships were in place by the end of February 2021 so observations were online and reflected the challenges of teaching during lockdown. The comments below are taken from the written reflections of staff and are anonymised…. To carry on reading this article, please click here