Community Blog

ScotHELD winter meeting 2026: LD Winter Wonderland, Thu, 29th January 2026 How would you work with students if you did not have to operate with limited resources? How would you plan your ideal LD unit? What job description would your ideal LD post have? These questions are, admittedly, hypothetical, but they are not necessarily useless. In times where restrictions, whether they stem from limited resources or existing institutional or sector-wide structures and pressures, seem ubiquitous, attempts to push the boundaries can seem pointless. In an environment where having or getting a job means someone is comparatively lucky, there might be […]

Call for Imaginary Projects (CfIP) is now open How would you work with students if you did not have to operate with limited resources? How would you plan your ideal LD unit? What job description would your ideal LD post have? These questions are, admittedly, hypothetical, but they are not necessarily useless. In times where restrictions, whether they stem from limited resources or existing institutional or sector-wide structures and pressures, seem ubiquitous, attempts to push the boundaries can seem pointless. In an environment where having or getting a job means someone is comparatively lucky, there might be little reason to […]

Authors: Rachael Harding & Dr Mark Bassett, Auckland University of Technology, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau) Higher education is constantly experiencing extreme waves of change. Rather than sandcastles inevitably washed away by these waves, learning advisors/developers/strategists (from here, LAs) ought to instead be making waves of our own. In a recent facilitated discussion, seventeen participants (from a range of institutions in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Scotland, and the UK) explored and compared current and potential methods for collecting evidence of the impact of our practice, as well as who this evidence is reported to and how. In […]

Steve Briggs, University of Bedfordshire Ralitsa Kantcheva, University of Bedfordshire An ALDinHE research funding grant for 2024-2025 has enabled us to undertake an international project examining the nature of Academic Language and Learning Development (ALLD) practitioner roles. In our International Consortium of Academic Language and Learning Developers (ICALLD) Symposium overtime 2025 session we presented interim findings and invited feedback from attendees relating to the development of a preliminary taxonomy addressing ALLD practitioner operational foci and areas of specialism. Why was this research needed? Bickle, Johnson and White (2024) discussed how learning development could play a central role in the provision […]

Claire Hughes, Dr Suzanne Albary and Dr Amy Wallington We were pleased to be invited to this international conference to share the work that is being undertaken by the University of Southampton’s Advancing Assessment Strategic Major Project (AA SMP) and the newly formed Assessment Consultancy within the Centre for Higher Education Practice, comprised of academic experts in assessment and feedback. The session started with acknowledging a hard truth: assessment and feedback consistently rank among the lowest-scoring areas in the UK National Student Survey (NSS), which is concerning given that this is a core part of the student journey. Moreover, considerable time […]

Derek Keenan and Alexander Cuthbert, University of Strathclyde, 14th August 2025 Prompted by recent developments in both the Learning Development (LD) community and in Higher Education in the UK as whole, we saw the emergence of crisis and potential threat to Learning Development as a distinct discipline and the Third Space that Learning Developers offer to learners. We decided to put some questions to our colleagues in Scotland at the ScotHELD Winter Meeting in January 2025, in order to get a sense of whether we were correct in our fears and how Learning Developers are experiencing the present situation. The […]

Making cases for the role of learning development/advising in changing educational landscapes Join us for two days of exploration with colleagues from across the world! We invite you to come and discuss shared problems we’re facing as a profession and to generate some possible solutions or actionable outcomes, as well as to create spaces for ongoing discussions. There are no ready-made answers, only the will to explore! Register now to be sent the links to the sessions. You need only bring your sense of curiosity! Browse the programme and abstracts below: 2025 ICALLD Symposium Programme (promo version) (1)Download

Mark Bassett – Auckland University of Technology Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau Learning specialists typically avoid dwelling on the negatives, but I feel there’s something we need to talk about. Let me repeat for dramatic effect: Students could not care less how you organise your online resources! Hopefully, I’ve intrigued you enough to delve into a conference paper I’ve recently published with two colleagues on this very subject. Shimmering diamonds of learning content Over decades, many of us have poured our efforts, skills, knowledge bases, hearts, and (waxing/waning) grasps on reality into creating online resources to support students’ […]

Mapping LD in Scotland Learning Developers are not alone in having jobs that are not among the list of options pre-school children understand and consider. Nor are we alone in having job titles that do not immediately give away what our day to day working lives. Yet, working in a field where people who have very similar job titles can do very different things and people whose to do list is relatively similar can have different job titles can be a tad confusing at times even for those involved in Learning Development. It can constitute a more serious challenge in […]

We are delighted to announce our 8th international Symposium over Time! Over two days, rolling around the clock, participants from the member associations will take turns in presenting some of their current work. The presentations are arranged to allow members of every association to listen to all presentations from other time zones without staying up through the night, so we hope members will welcome the opportunity to be inspired by colleagues across the globe. The papers align with one or more of the following themes: All timings in UTC View the programmeView all the abstracts and access the online room links.  […]