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.
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
I have spent the last four days at the EU LearningLayers, hosted by Bau ABC, a technical training college specialising I the building trades. A very different model to the UK, in that the training is completely embedded within the workplace, and funded by large employers paying a ‘training levy’. In the first year apprentices ‘live’ in at the colleges for 12 weeks, then 6 weeks in year 2 and then specialist weeks in year 3.
For advanced training
Thanks to Melanie Campbell for an amazing tour. We also had a BBQ and watched the German football match with the apprentices – a fun evening for all!
Pekka Kamarainen, an wonderful EU colleague and linguist in 17 languages! Explains here what the aims of the Bremen meeting are:
I really enjoyed facilitating the workshop about new partners and scaling, with @grahamattwell; the consortium are starting to gear up for the middle-to-long-term, and the tools are being embedded in very different ways and contexts.
The Help-Seeking tool project I am working on has its third co-design workshop in September, looking forward to keeping up with this tool, even when I get back to the ‘day job’. Scaling of technology is really complex, and the Layers project is starting to unpack some of the key issues. I am working with colleagues to produce a ‘Diffusion of Innovation’ internal report , and this will feed into our ALT-C conference talk : “Bridging the ‘missing middle’: a design based approach to scaling” ALT information available www.alt.ac.uk. In the meantime I need to prepare my return to my ‘day’ job…
I went to the talk by the innovative team at the University of Northampton who are working on a combination of a MOOC/SOOC (small online open access course!)! Launching for 13,500 potential students this summer so no pressure there then!…..and one iteration will link to a 10 credit module, be facilitated/ peer reviewed by student ambassadors- a study skills for academic success. Other talks re ‘things MOOC’ various snippets caught my attention –
the difference between “C” constructivist MOOCs and ‘X’ MOOCs which are more structured and directive. Suggested ways forward is a hybrid MOOC
Platforms – Coursera, Udacity, Futurelearn, EdX
Badges are of interest
Pilot MOOCs with sixth forms students
I recently added an extended blog post looking at the issues of MOOC pedagogy and the difficulties in defining and evaluating it. It is hopefully a thought provoking piece that challenges some of the orthodoxies and assumptions around the MOOC-steria that has enveloped the sector over the last few years.
So busy Easter – went to the ever fantastic ALDinHE conference, warmly welcomed by University of Huddersfield – #aldcon for the conference tweets and all abstracts here: http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/huddersfield14
My own talk (with the virtual Helen Webster (@schloristic_rat) was a workshop on how to put together a flipped classroom- the key principles, some theory, hands on ideas and what worked for me – the online resources and what we changed in the classroom. presentation here on slide-share:http://www.slideshare.net/debbieholley1/al-din-he-flipped-classroom
Then it was over to Bradford to work with colleagues from Leeds University: Leeds Medical School on the EU Learning Layers project….
The Help-Seeking tool project I am working on has its third co-design workshop in September, looking forward to keeping up with this tool, even when I get back to the ‘day job’. Scaling of technology is really complex, and the Layers project is starting to unpack some of the key issues. I am working with colleagues to produce a ‘Diffusion of Innovation’ internal report , and this will feed into our ALT-C conference talk : “Bridging the ‘missing middle’: a design based approach to scaling” ALT information available 
