Community Blog

Portsmouth, on the south coast of England, is the UK’s only island city and as a result is more densely populated than London. Regardless, it managed to find room for the 170 Learning Developers who descended upon the town for two warm and sunny days in June. Fresh from a hugely successful online day the previous week, which featured poster presentations, lightning talks, papers and workshops, the face to face element was characterised by plenty of opportunities for sharing practice. The tone for this was set by an innovative keynote featuring a panel of Portsmouth University students, who went head […]

ScotHELD Summer Meeting 2023 On 25/05/23, Strathclyde’s Learner Development Services (LDS) hosted the Summer Meeting and AGM of the Scottish network of Effective Learning Developers (ScotHELD) in our recently opened Learner Development Centre. More than 40 learning development professionals, from 14 of Scotland’s higher education institutions, met to share current research and practice, including discussions on enhancing support for international student transitions and the potential impact of AI chatbots on academic integrity (for the full programme see here). These meetings give us opportunities to obtain informative snapshots of the current challenges and opportunities across the sector and this year these conversations […]

Members of the Association of Teaching and Learning Advisors of Aotearoa New Zealand (ATLAANZ) were excited to launch their inaugural online biennial national conference held 30 November – 1 December 2022, despite going through one of the most challenging years yet in tertiary education. Participants from tertiary education organisations (TEOs) across Aotearoa and Australia, attended wānanga, workshops, presentations and lightning talks related to the conference theme: Toitū Te Tangata – the Whole Person.  ATLAANZ President Tania Oxenham acknowledged that this year “has been tumultuous for the tertiary environment, and some of our members have been affected by the transition to Te […]

An ICALLD Symposium-Over-Time Eventhosted by LSAC To be held on November 16, 2022at 2pm Canadian Mountain Time Find the time in your time zone:https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20221116T210000&p1=55 Register online now:https://queensu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEkduGopzItHdSLWNr8RrWTZoHoNVtQQYGJ Abstract  In Canada, Indigenous peoples are living, distinct and diverse nations and communities who carry forward the knowledge of millennia in their stories, songs, protocols, ceremonies, and histories. As Indigenous peoples we know that the knowledge we carry must be authentic, validated, and shared through principled action in order for our peoples to survive and thrive into the future.  Join us as we discuss the paradigms and principles of academic integrity based on […]

An ICALLD Symposium-Over-Time event Held on Wednesday, 20 July from 8am-9.30amNew Zealand Standard Time. (View the recording on YouTube) Many academic learning advisors consider engaging in research and higher degree study, but choosing what, when and how to begin this journey may be complex and fraught with indecision. Starting and remaining on this journey may be even more challenging for those whose roles do not have clear academic pathways, professional development opportunities, or support for study and research. If a PhD is part of your past, present or future, or you are interested in what this might mean for your […]

The Life Pursuit: The Life Pursuit: From student to teaching assistant to learning developer A blog with an optional soundtrack (hyperlinks to the music are in bold) Dr Mona O’Brien, LEADS, University of Glasgow Every so often I remember snippets of my undergraduate essays, when my glasses are a little rose-tinted, I call them passionate; other days, I think they sounded a bit angry, especially where I tried ‘critiquing’ scholarly literature. The essays aimed for an air of confidence as I unpicked the literature, always focusing on shortcomings and problems. However, in reality, they said ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’. […]

By Siri Barrett-Lennard, The University of Western Australia – As Academic Language and Learning Developers, we know that for learning to be inclusive it needs to be accessible. We also know that Universal Design for Learning (UDL) benefits all students. But when it comes to making our online learning resources accessible, do we know how to do this? If, like me, you’d welcome tips on designing for accessibility, there’s good news! AALL’s Connect. Inspire. Share. catalogue now includes a video, slides and links on this topic. We can use these resources to improve our understanding of accessibility principles, and to see what […]

by Andrew Struan, University of Glasgow ‘Our students can’t write.’   ‘What are they taught at school, anyway?’   ‘Why can’t they write properly?’   ‘It’s a comma and not a piece of decoration for the page!’   We’ll all have heard complaints about students’ writing. These complaints can range from a focus on the mechanical element of writing – let’s talk about the six main uses of the comma, shall we? – to the more abstract, rhetorical features in academic work.  More often than not, these complaints about writing come from a place of wanting students to do well. Our colleagues know that […]

by Lindsay HeggieAcademic Skills and Writing Specialist (Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada) and International Relations Director, LSAC Board of Directors Every time I see an advertisement for a workshop on resilience, I think, “oh fantastic, just what I need to better support my students!” And a little voice in my head says, “I hope there’s something in it to support me, too; I’m having a hard time.” I found one such workshop particularly affecting. It was hosted by the Learning Specialists Association of Canada (LSAC) in January 2022 and featured by Dr. Michael Ungar, Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience. […]

Continuing from last year’s successful international Symposium-Over-Time, ICALLD is pleased to offer another Symposium-Over-Time in 2022.