Join members of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education daily at 3pm! Our wonderful conference go cancelled, and we wanted to share some of the sessions
Here is the schedule up to Easter , all links available via the ALDinHE website
ALDinHE is committed to representing and supporting all those working in the field of Learning Development in the UK.
We aim to cultivate a community of practice, promote discussion and ideas exchange, and further the professional development of our members by offering training opportunities and quality assurance.
We have two aims:
To represent professionals employed in the field of Learning Development in Higher Education, primarily in the UK and Ireland, and those with an active interest in the field;
To promote discussion about effective models for Learning Development (LD), cultivate a community of practice and act as a support network for the general professional development of staff involved with LD.
And we are guided by five values:
Working alongside students to make sense of and get the most out of HE learning
Making HE inclusive through emancipatory practice, partnership working and collaboration
Adopting and sharing effective Learning Development practice with (and external to) our own institutions
Critical self-reflection, on-going learning and a commitment to professional development
Commitment to a scholarly approach and research related to Learning Development.
The JISC
work on the digital student experience shows that students remain unconvinced
that we are delivering the digital skills that employers are demanding. 74% of
teaching staff never teach in a live online environment; and most (33%) learn
from their colleagues, not in a structured and systematic way. Having to
rapidly move to synchronous and asynchronous modes of online learning almost
overnight is putting pressure on teams of academics and Learning Technologists
alike; students are stressed and anxious, and mental health is finally being
foregrounded – against a backdrop of 18% of teaching staff agreeing that they
are informed about their responsibilities to help students behave safely online.
I have been reflecting on the WONKHE piece, ‘the
clock is ticking on a decision about September entry’ by Alex Usher,
challenging us educators to think about the ‘what-ifs’. Moving quickly to
online as a response to crisis has seen teams across the sector move to online
learning, and, getting content ‘out there’ has been the priority. Professional
Bodies are having to rethink their
regulations, Universities are matching the flexibility and making every effort to
ensure that our third year students graduate – and for health workers,
graduating quickly is essential as the needs of the NHS escalate.
The ‘clock is ticking’ article notes:
“everyone is doing their level best to make
the current situation work, but it’s all basically DIY right now, and it’s so
far from good enough that there is now an entire sub-genre of humour devoted to
it.”
Is there any good news out there we may well ask!
The awesome Educause New
Media Horizons report was launched just as we ran into our strike period, rapidly
followed by Corona Virus. And yes is the answer…
Open Educational Resources a variety of materials designed for teaching and learning that are both openly available for use by teachers and students and that are devoid of purchasing, licensing, and/ or royalty fees. The global community are actively developing and curating resources, pressuring Governments and institutions to share their resources. The University of Minnesota has developed and curated the Open Textbook Library, which includes nearly 700 peer-reviewed titles. To stay informed and up-to-date, sign up to the Association for Learning Technology OER Special interest Group. Embedding curated, quality assured resources in your reading lists, your curricula or even the powerpoints we share with our students makes a huge difference, and offers alternative, inclusive ways of accessing content.
We have developed an online toolkit to support staff in updating their assessment and feedback practices with the support of Professor Dai Hounsell
This was part of a far-reaching response to the HEA publication by
Ball et al (2012 p7) that
“assessment
practices in most universities have not kept pace with the vast changes in the
context, aims and structure of higher education. They can no longer do justice
to the outcomes we expect from a university education in relation to
wide-ranging knowledge, skills and employability ” and the HEA recommendation
of “a radical rethink of assessment practices and regulations” with a “holistic
and proactive approach” (Ball et al 2012 p8).
The material in the Toolkit is evidence-based, builds on
best practice in the Higher Education sector, and forms part of a wide-reaching
project to radically transform staff and student experiences of assessment. The
Toolkit continues to grow as new resources are developed or identified, and
FLIE Blog posts alert staff to new materials or key ideas to support the
development of assignments for the next academic year.
Other dimensions of the project included the redesign of the
university-wide Generic Assessment Criteria with feedback and feedforward
statements for each grade-band and level from Level 3 (used in partner
colleges), and Levels 4 to 7; a radical re-writing of formal assessment
policies; a series of workshops and Masterclasses; a conference on assessment
& feedback; individual, team and programme consultations; and input into
the PGCert/PGDip/MA Academic Practice. In addition to the online materials, pocket
guides for staff on assessment & feedback and on promoting assessment literacy accompanied the Toolkit. In
order to facilitate this complex, multi-layered and inevitably disruptive
change we drew on the leadership strategies presented in our journal paper on
extending academic roles and identities (Quinney et al 2017) and worked in
close collaboration with a stakeholder group, in particular with the Students
Union at BU.
We were fortunate to work closely with Visiting Professor
Dai Hounsell, internationally known for his work on assessment and feedback in
higher education. Dai has developed resources for the Toolkit, shared other
resources he has developed (for example the Wise Assessment series of
‘Briefings’ in conjunction with the University of Hong Kong which you can find
in the Toolkit) and is able to alert us to projects and publications on
assessment and feedback as a result of his global networks.
The team shared aspects of the ongoing work at the ALDinHE
conferences in 2018 and 2019
in the form of interactive workshops and would welcome any
comments, feedback and additional open access resources to continue to build
this valuable resource.
Quinney A, Thompson S, Luce A and Holley D. 2019. From
assessment of learning to assessment for learning; Leading assessment policy
change supported by an Assessment & Feedback Toolkit. ALDinHE Conference,
Exeter University.
Anne Quinney, Principal Lecturer and University Lead for
Assessment & Feedback, FLIE
The Association for Learning Technology are sharing a huge range of resources with the wider community. The link below has sections on:
Online Pivot, Courses, Remote conferences, links from partners, playful and creative resource, organisational perspectives and the ‘ALT ‘Know How’ on leading virtual teams
As the pandemic spreads, our wonderful Head of Library and Learning Support here at BU shares the links to all the free resources, for those wanting the evidence base and research. Please share widely…
I’m so excited to be in a virtual classroom with @DebbieHolley1 this morning, adding more new skills in a week that has included a steep learning curve! #BUProud
You can also join Kate Outhwaite this week & next for more webinars on using MyShowcase, Canvas New Quizzes & Using Canvas Quiz Tools to support remote learning. Find dates & times online https://t.co/S7PgElQrTr & email to book on alt@aru.ac.uk @KateO1012@ARU_ITSNews@ARU_AHSS
DO NOT DO THIS. Seriously. Do not replace contact hours directly with online hours. So many reasons, but let's go with it being a waste of resources and a bad way to learn. https://t.co/WTtaychGJi
