Blog

Where do we find inspiration in times when Higher Education is suffering from lack of funding and Learning Development is regularly undervalued despite our best attempts to convince those around us of its benefits?? Perhaps by focussing on the things we really value in education, such as the freedom to think – and the freedom to hold out the hand of friendship. In this post Ursula Canton writes about the Council for At Risk Academics (CARA), Scholars At Risk (SAR) and the Committee of Concerned Scientists – telling us about what they do – and how we might get involved.  […]

This blog is brought to you by Dr Jacqui Bartram who has presented on the topic of visual literacy several times at ALDinHE conferences over the years. It looks at how we, as learning developers, can take our existing expertise around academic arguments and adapt this to support students with assessment tasks that rely on more than just words. Supporting visual literacy development I have long advocated that as learning developers we need to be supporting students with developing their abilities to communicate with and critically approach visually rich materials; that is, develop their visual literacy. I have recently been […]

On the 15th of each month, we are inviting those working in the field of learning development to share their day. Write up what you have done on the 15th of the month (or your nearest working day to this date) (plus reflections) and share it with us via this short submission form. The entries will be shared here on the ALDinHE blog. In 2010-11 and 2014-15, the ALDinHE website was previously used for a collective online journal by members of the LD community. The collective journal re-launched on the 15 May 2023. You can read the journal entries for each month. The shared experiences […]

Welcome – this #Take5 is brought to you from Jen Hayes from London Metropolitan University as she reflects on the planning and implementation of a new ‘Introduction to Teaching’ short course. Hopefully providing ideas and inspiration for similar courses.  Jamming with Jen (and team) Working for the Centre for Teaching Enhancement (CTE) at London Met as a Senior Learning and Teaching Development Manager, an exciting opportunity arose to lead the creation of a short introduction to teaching course. The PGCert course leader and I had identified a gap in our provision that affected three distinct groups;  Predicated on a belief […]

This #Take5 is brought to you from  David Tree. David has been obsessed with assessment strategies since 2011 when he redesigned the FHEQ Level 5 assessments on the Biomedical Sciences BSc at Brunel. David used the Integrated Programme Assessment (IPA) approach, taking care to make sure all assignments explicitly linked to the assessments in the previous and subsequent years. Back then he didn’t know there was pedagogy and fancy terms for this, he just thought all programmes of study did this! In 2016 the team David co-led won an Advance HE Collaborative Award in Teaching Excellence (CATE) for IPA and […]

On the 15th of each month, we are inviting those working in the field of learning development to share their day. Write up what you have done on the 15th of the month (or your nearest working day to this date) (plus reflections) and share it with us via this short submission form. The entries will be shared here on the ALDinHE blog. In 2010-11 and 2014-15, the ALDinHE website was previously used for a collective online journal by members of the LD community. The collective journal re-launched on the 15 May 2023. You can read the journal entries for each month. The shared experiences […]

“We use our understanding then, to resist others’ assumptions: around deficits, deficiencies and barriers. We use it to not only impact the individual but also demand change from the institution.” This #Take5 is brought to you from Jennie Blake, who is writing about student partnership, inclusive practice and making a big difference by keeping an eye on the small things. Jennie embraces change as a constant and ‘community’ as an astonishingly powerful force – and this blog looks at one aspect of what it means to work collectively and in partnership with students. As Jennie says, “There are no answers […]

This blog post is brought to you by Maria King, an educational developer and former academic librarian whose teaching and learning (T&L) practice is underpinned by punk pedagogy. You might be thinking what have the Sex Pistols got to do with education? But punk pedagogy draws its principles from the ethos, values and characteristics of the punk scene such as DIY, challenging dominant hegemonies, and thinking critically. You don’t have to like punk music to be a punk educator! But the spirit of punk certainly speaks to the emergent and liberatory nature of learning development. What is Punk Pedagogy? Punk […]

On the 15th of each month, we are inviting those working in the field of learning development to share their day. Write up what you have done on the 15th of the month (or your nearest working day to this date) (plus reflections) and share it with us via this short submission form. The entries will be shared here on the ALDinHE blog. In 2010-11 and 2014-15, the ALDinHE website was previously used for a collective online journal by members of the LD community. The collective journal re-launched on the 15 May 2023. You can read the journal entries for each month. The shared experiences […]

“The world of simulation and immersive learning technologies is developing rapidly and in parallel to the existing and predicted future requirements of health and care on a global scale”.  [Enhancing education, clinical practice and staff wellbeing. A national vision for the role of simulation and immersive learning technologies in health and care HEE, 2020] This  #Take 5 reflects upon ways in which paramedic students responded to a compassionate pedagogical approach to debriefing groups after a high intensity simulation experience. Their experience through changing the ambience of the debrief transformed their session from one where students reported anxiety, insecurity where lecturing […]