Blog

Paul Chin, our Co-Chair stepped down from his role in May 2023 and we thank him for his time, enthusiasm, and commitment to ALDinHE. We are glad he will remain involved with the organisation as a member of the Professional Recognition Working Group. As per the ALDinHE Constitution, this triggered a self-nomination and voting process to agree on a new Co-Chair. A call for self-nominations was sent to current Steering Group members on 15 May 2023. Those self-nominations were voted on by the Steering Group members between 29 May and 2 June. On 6 June 2023, Kate Coulson was voted […]

This #Take5 blog is brought to you from Julie Nolan, Student Engagement Manager | Student Communications Project Manager. Julie is reflecting on work she has undertaken to align sustainability with student engagement activities within Library and Learning Services at Edge Hill University. How can we inform students of our presence and entice them in, in ways that are not wasteful and pointless? Plastic Fantastic Library and Learning Services (LS) at Edge Hill University (EHU) have historically purchased promotional merchandise to give away to students during welcome events, tours, open days and other celebratory activities on campus. Over the years this […]

Play provides the energy, the eruptions, the poetry and the connectivity for engagement and success. Play transforms deficit-fixing teaching, it is creative and emergent, it provides spaces and places of reimagining and agency – play has the power to transform education, and educational experiences and outcomes (Sinfield et al., 2019). This #Take5 is brought to you from Sandra Sinfield (London Metropolitan University), Tom Burns (London Metropolitan University) and Sandra Abegglen (University of Calgary). Drawing together playful, arts-based and creative practices, this post offers theoretical arguments for why we all need a more creative Higher Education (HE) to build a more […]

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 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. You can read the journal entries for each month. The shared experiences and ideas have helped shape CPD resources developed for […]

Notice is hereby given of the Annual General Meeting of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education, to be held online  at 16.20 on Friday 9 June 2023. Further details about the AGM are available here. Location details to follow. A key matter for the AGM is the election of new members to the Steering Group of the Association. Self-nominations are now invited from members of ALDinHE who have the enthusiasm and experience to enable the Association to flourish, working with friendly and supportive colleagues on the Steering Group. Further details about the Steering Group and a self-nomination form are attached. Please […]

This #Take5 is brought to you from Lisa Clughen, Nottingham Trent University. It is both about the importance of movement in HE – and an invitation to participate in a small research project focussing on qigong-based mindful movement in HE. #Take5 steps? Taking Positive Steps in Learning and Teaching: An Invitation to Participate in Mindful Movement Research. Image: Lisa Clughen doing some Mindful Movement at the Lourve-Lens, France If you could do a very short activity during your working day that, research suggests, could reap wide-ranging rewards for your physical, cognitive and mental health and wellbeing, and in fact for […]

Join us in the new EDI working group We are establishing a working group to focus on our approach to EDI as an association and a community of practice. We know excellent work is going on within our community and we feel it is important to bring together colleagues to create a vision of how we might embrace EDI work. The Steering Group has been discussing the concept of an EDI working group for a while, but we felt that it is important the community makes these decisions. Therefore, we would like to invite colleagues who are interested to fill in our form so […]

Frantzeska Kolyda provides an overview of her article published in issue 27 of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education which aims to encourage educators and universities to explore interventions and practices that cultivate a growth mindset to reduce inequality in the academic success of students and the central role that learning development plays in achieving this. ‘I am not good at maths’, ‘I am not good at this’, ‘my classmates are smarter than me and get things quicker’, ‘I feel like an imposter’; educators may hear students saying. Students’ beliefs about their competence, intelligence, and skills play an […]

Authors Professor Debbie Holley and Dr David Biggins provide an overview of their research published in issue 27 of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. Their paper is titled: Designing for student wellbeing: challenging assumptions about where our students learn. Our work started with students reporting ‘technostress’ during the pandemic (and yes staff experienced this as well) and reporting that they turned to family and friends to seek support, with only 18% turning to the excellent online materials and signposting Universities offered in lockdown. Digital equity remains an issue across the board, and intersectionality of class, race and […]

Reflecting on who we are: the evolution and growth of Manchester Met’s Learner Development team This #Take5 blog is brought to you by Avril Buchanan, Chad McDonald, and Kate Haley from the Learning Development team at Manchester Metropolitan University following their recent takeover of ALDinHE’s Twitter account.  The post can be seen as a follow up to last week’s #Take5 – which explored finding your feet as a new learning developer. This post constitutes a ‘what the learner developer did next’ – providing some musings on MMU’s LDU’s  evolution, how they currently work and why—and as they say: “recognising that […]