Lightning Presentations 1: Working in partnership to reimagine higher education and our future graduates
13th May 2021
Tuesday 8 June, 15.30-17.00
Recording of the Lightning Presentations
i. Who’s the expert? Learning from school mentors as they share their expertise with aspiring teachers
Colin Forster, Emma Howell and Tracey Wire (School of Education and Humanities)
For many years, student teachers have been well supported when on school placements by in-school mentors. In a recent development, we are now asking our in-school mentors to do more than just support our students: we are asking them to share their expertise as experienced teachers in an explicit way. We are currently undertaking research to understand the impact of this approach on our student teachers and exploring ways to support our mentors to share their expertise for maximum impact.
This session will be of interest to all courses with a professional or practice element and will provide take home messages about valuing the expertise of partners and monitoring the impact of new developments.
ii. Beyond recruitment: collaboration for global (virtual) engagement
Shandin Rickard-Hughes (International Marketing and Student Recruitment)
Virtual events became the new norm due to Covid-19, and to be successful going forward, universities can/need to continue to offer virtual events to recruit effectively from around the world, including here in the UK. However, the opportunity we have doesn’t stop at recruitment – we can involve global and local partners, educators, alumni, current and prospective students in innovative, collaborative events that reach beyond recruitment to truly enriching engagement with subjects and industries.
In 2020-21, rather than offer an average slog through generic webinars aimed at isolated markets, the International Team revolutionised: we joined forces with a few Schools to host week-long virtual ‘festivals’ of workshops, panels and inspiring talks. These Study in the UK Weeks attracted hundreds of participants from around the world, students and educators alike.
This session will showcase the collaborations, engagement and best practice learned through four successive Weeks and the feedback we collected. This could be the future of recruitment and outreach.
iii. Everyone’s an educator now: freelancer education and edu content makers
Tim Land (School of Media)
The pandemic has resulted in a wave of professionals within the creative industries turning to education delivery. With increasing regularity various new online platforms are launched offering learning content, masterclasses and workflows. While the freelance nature of creative industries and the effects of lockdown has highlighted this sector, it is possibly a signpost for how education content might be developed outside of traditional roles.
Within an increasing focus on professionalisation and employability how can HE co-exist, work with, and shape this wealth of content? This presentation examines what systems and tools are needed to utilise meaningful relationships for HE organisation and freelance edu content creators. It also further evaluates the changing role of the lecturer in navigating and facilitating learning content for students.
iv. Reimagining collaboration: Humber College
Andrew Lansley (School of Media)
This presentation will offer an account of how students from the Music Subject Group in the School of Media have collaborated this year with peers from our partner institute Humber College as part of a practice-based exchange in creative economies. It will demonstrate how any academic in our institution can reimagine a partnership within a dynamic, student-led context to develop further opportunities for both students and staff.
The core message will centre around how using a flexible and responsive approach to collaboration allowed for re-examination of the partnership within a community of practice context as it progressed, allowing for the expansion of opportunities for staff and students within the subject group. The presentation will aim to encourage fellow academics to engage with international and partnership opportunities on offer at UoG on behalf of their cohorts, highlighting the professional and pedagogical benefits to those who are involved.
v. Learning and working through the pandemic: reflections, impact and outcomes from UoG nursing alumni
Liz Berragan (School of Health and Social Care) with Chris Hanlon and Kate McCrum (School of Health and Social Care alumni and colleagues)
With the advent of Covid-19, changes to undergraduate nursing programmes were directed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2020). For our first cohort of adult nursing students who were in their final year, this required adaptations to module delivery and assessment for the concluding modules of the programme. Understandably, given the barriers to collaborative work required for their service improvement module, reconfigurations of healthcare services to manage the impact of the pandemic and students opting in (or out) of paid extended clinical placements, our original intentions for student involvement with live service improvement projects were not possible.
As a consequence, alternative and blended approaches for learning and assessment were swiftly designed and discussed with students ensuring recognition of the module learning outcomes and the demands of different clinical practice approaches for opting in or out of paid extended placements chosen by students. Presenting with two of those students (now alumni and colleagues), we will share our experiences of module transformation, student experience for employability and some of the unexpected and exciting further outcomes of this module run.