Blog

This #Take5 post is brought to you from Dr Carina Buckley of Solent University – and is in dialogue with her #Take5 on students and camera use in online teaching and learning from a few weeks ago. The Evil DrB herself Should your students turn their cameras on? A rebuttal A few weeks ago, I argued in this blog that students should be free to choose whether or not to turn their cameras on during live online sessions, and that there were other ways for students to participate. While I still support this approach, particularly from a student-centred, theoretical point […]

Using superheroes for structured problem solving and ideas generation The week’s #Take5 blog is brought to you from Dr Katharine Jewitt, a Learning Designer at Heriot-Watt University. The Superheroes ideas generation techniques were designed by Grossman and Catlin to provide a playful group atmosphere during idea generation. Students work in groups and assume the identity of different Superhero characters and then use the characters as stimuli for sparking ideas and problem solving. ‘Superheroes’ produces unique ideas because of its use of unrelated stimuli. This activity also works well in a diverse classroom because students can adopt a superhero of their […]

“I was asked to deliver a ‘skills’ session to a group of second years. I went into the room – the students were dotted about in ones, occasionally twos. They all had their coats on. They did not know each other’s names. These students had not arrived in that classroom. Arguably, they had not arrived on the course.” (Member of staff) Why is this an important area to cover? Not only is it important ethically to develop humane and compassionate teaching spaces, it is vital to the notion of facilitating the dialogic co-construction of knowledge; for active, deep and meaningful […]

This #Take5 post is brought to you from Sandra Abegglen (University of Calgary), Emma Gillaspy (University of Central Lancashire), and Tom Burns and Sandra Sinfield (London Metropolitan University) – all are members of ALDinHE and are involved in the #creativeHE community. There will be a follow up to this blog in November, where we will run the first #creativeHE event of this academic year: Game on: playful practice for online environments – 18th November 14.00-16.00 – and where we will also call for the community to say what sort of creative activities they want support with across this challenging year. […]

The week’s #Take5 blog is brought to you from Dr Carina Buckley Instructional Design Manager at Solent University and ALDinHE Co-chair. Recently Carina spoke in a webinar about how her institution, Solent, has approached online delivery whilst keeping students at the heart of their learning. It went very well – but for those who couldn’t make it, a written case study and the recording of the whole webinar is available here: https://www.solent.ac.uk/news/transforming-solents-learning-delivery-during-covid-19 Photo: Dr Carina Buckley Instructional Design Manager at Solent University and ALDinHE Co-chair Students these days… don’t turn their cameras on Where once a common question from lecturers […]

This #Take5 post is brought to you from Kate Coulson who is Head of Learning Development at the University of Northampton and the Secretary of the Association of Learning Developers in Higher Education (ALDinHE). Here she tries to summarise the current face-to-face  and hybrid teaching situation for Learning Developers from September 2020. Photo: Kate Coulson face in full visor/mask mode! Does anyone care how Learning Developers are engaging with their students? I do! I absolutely care about what my peers are doing within UK HEIs and beyond. Maybe I am just nosey but gaining an understanding around what others are […]

Happy new academic year! As many of us return to a COVID-HE, where we are still working from home – and wrangling our face to face courses into some form of active and creative online learning experience, we at #Take5 are pleased to bring you this blog post from Ben, Debbie and Anne of Bournemouth University exploring digital wellbeing. Please have a read – leave a Comment – and think about offering a #Take5 blogpost of your own. Beyond Google Garage Ben Goldsmith, Debbie Holley and Anne Quinney, Bournemouth University, UK Reflections: Image credit: Anne Quinney Digital wellbeing is one […]

This #Take5 is brought to you from Dr Chris Little. Chris is a Learning Developer and Teaching Fellow in Keele University’s Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence and serves on the editorial board of Innovative Practice in Higher Education. Chris writes about the journal – with a special focus on their new poster section. Publish Your Poster Presentations with Innovative Practice in Higher Education Innovative Practice in Higher Education (IPIHE) is an independent online journal currently, and very kindly, hosted at Staffordshire University. The journal is an opportunity for any colleagues in HE to share their innovations in delivering teaching […]

This #Take5 is brought to you from Dr Chris Little. Chris is a Learning Developer and Teaching Fellow in Keele University’s Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence and serves on the editorial board of Innovative Practice in Higher Education. Chris writes about the journal – with a special focus on their new poster section. Publish Your Poster Presentations with Innovative Practice in Higher Education Innovative Practice in Higher Education (IPIHE) is an independent online journal currently, and very kindly, hosted at Staffordshire University. The journal is an opportunity for any colleagues in HE to share their innovations in delivering teaching and learning, with […]

This #Take5 post if brought to you by Carina Buckley, Debbie Holley and Sandra Sinfield. It is their take on a conversation held at Solent – and digitally across the nation – focussing on the possibilities of teaching academic literacies online. The authors have re-visited their initial recollections, to bring the discussion more up to date in a world of Covid. Teaching academic literacies online: revisiting our webinar in light of Covid-19 The Webinar took the form of a ‘blended’ Panel discussion, with three panel members sitting with Carina at Solent and two joining online – and with ALDinHE colleagues […]