Take5

This #Take5 post is brought to you from the TALON and #Take5 teams – and is a reflection on the power of collaboration in Higher Education (HE). This is the team that discussed the Special Issue of the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice on Collaboration in HE in #Take5 #69 – and this post looks at the online International Symposium that followed. This is an example of an international faculty-student collective that worked to bring together diverse collaborative voices to showcase their collective and partnership practice. (And on a collaborative note, Sandra Abegglen, Tom Burns and Sandra Sinfield are part of #creativeHE that has just received a Collaborative […]

Bringing development opportunities to the masses  This #Take5 post is brought to you from Dr Lee Fallin a regular tweeter and learning developer based at the University of Hull. Lee loves all things digital, and uses this #Take5 post to reflect on his journey from MOOC consumer to MOOC producer. I first learned about Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) at the 2013 ALDinHE Conference hosted at the University of Plymouth. This was *just* as MOOCs were emerging as a popular means of accessing learning online. MOOCs are designed to support unlimited participation and open access by delivering learning through online […]

This month’s #Take5 is brought to you from Daisy Abbott an interdisciplinary researcher and research developer based in the School of Simulation and Visualisation at The Glasgow School of Art. Daisy experiments with game-based learning – and has created a novel approach to teaching research skills. Research: Mapping and Pathfinding My name is Daisy Abbott, I’m a researcher in game-based learning and teacher of postgraduates at the School of Simulation and Visualisation at The Glasgow School of Art. Join me on my quest to navigate the dangerous lands of teaching Research Skills… Keywords: Research skills, academic skills, higher order thinking skills, […]

Blackout poetry and playful reading This #Take5 blog explores and illustrates the power and potential of blackout poetry and is a thing of real beauty. Just have a look at the amazing way Aimee Merrydew uses it to enhance reading and writing across her literature programme – and pause and think about how to adapt this to your own context.  We love blackout poetry and have used it with students and staff-as-students to help particularly with approaching policy documents. After reading Aimee’s blog we plan to use it with PGCert LTHE staff to help them think through student issues with reading, hoping […]

This #Take5 blog post is brought to you from Gilly Salmon – and we are so delighted to be able to present her latest thoughts on the 5-stage model for online learning. If not now – when? The 5-stage model: Carpe Diem The 5-stage model for online learning was first built nearly 30 years ago from grounded and action research. (Sure, cue violins!).  It was rooted in social constructivism, learner engagement and scaffolding  when content was still king. Initially, I deployed it to support tutor development – the term I called ‘e-moderating’.  Fast forward through three editions of the book, another on […]

Inclusive practice in learning development (practitioner event) This #Take5 post is brought to you from the ALDinHE Events Working Group (see https://aldinhe.ac.uk/working-group/events-group/). The group organises our LD@3 programme and this post reflects particularly on a practitioner event on Inclusive practice in Learning Development that took place in September last year. In this post Sandie Donnelly reflects not just on issues relating to inclusivity but also on the nitty gritty of organising an LD@3 – and this particular and very important LD@3.  As you read through, we hope that you might also be inspired to run an LD@3 of your own. Feel the vulnerability […]

This #Take5 is brought to you by #Take5 and Talon. Last year we collaboratively edited a Special Issue on Collaboration in Higher Education for the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice. It was hard work, but life affirming to gather so many tales of cooperation and collegiality. In fact, it created such a sense of hope in us that we did not want to stop there – and decided to invite the authors of those articles to come together in a Symposium on the theme of collaboration. Not everybody could make the event – but the majority will be there to speak to their […]

This #Take5 post is brought to you from Ed Bickle from the LDU at Bournemouth University and Ralitsa Kantcheva, a Study Skills Adviser at Bangor University. They are reflecting on their involvement in one of ALDinHE’s CoP (Community of Practice  – see https://aldinhe.ac.uk/networking/communities-of-practice/): The Research CoP. The Research CoP is a group of LDers on diverse contracts who came together to support themselves as researchers in the field of Learning Development. Key words: collaborative writing, learning development research, autoethnography, non-hierarchical Reflecting on participation in our research collaborative writing project This blog post offers the reflections of an academic non-hierarchical research collaborative writing […]

In this blog post, Alicja Syska, Editor, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education reflects on the experience of producing the Compendium of Innovative Practice: Learning Development in a Time of Disruption, the most recent Special Edition of JLDHE.  A Recipe for a Scrumptious Compendium With profound gratitude to all our authors, reviewers, and readers, without whom nothing we do would ever make sense.  To paraphrase the unparalleled life philosopher Forrest Gump (while seeking forgiveness for doing so from my fellow Editors), Learning Development practice is like a box of chocolates – you truly never know what you will get! Unsurprisingly then, […]

As a Learning Developer how do you influence University policy and practice? This #Take5 post is brought to you from Carina Buckley, Instructional Design Manager at Solent University, and Kate Coulson, Head of Learning and Teaching Enhancement (formerly Head of Learning Development), at the University of Northampton. Here they share their experiences of influencing strategy and the long-term visions at their institutions, or at least trying to! The blog post concludes with an invitation to join the emerging Leadership and management Community of Practice. Sound and vision: Introducing leadership “Influencing”, “Visions” and “Strategy” – all seemingly ethereal concepts when you are […]