UNIVERSITY VIEW
LAST week I heard about the latest innovations and shared good teaching and learning practice at Aberystwyth University’s Learning and Teaching Conference.
Now in its sixth year, the annual three-day conference aims to improve students’ learning experience by capitalising on innovative approaches to teaching.
This year’s conference focused on independent learning and engagement; transition; and students taking ownership of learning.
Attendees benefited from 25 presentations and workshops on topics as diverse as using technology to support feedback; video essays as a mode of assessment; increasing student engagement in large classes; helping students transition to higher education; the Students Union Academic Representative Feedback initiative; using 360-degree and VR technology in teaching; and how we can begin to think of students as partners in learning design.
The keynote speaker was Professor Jonathan Shaw, director of Coventry University’s Disruptive Media Learning Lab, a cross-university initiative described as an incubator of experimental teaching and learning. With a multidisciplinary team of collaborators and wider users, the Lab seeks to help staff rejuvenate their teaching and learning materials, and drive radical approaches to address challenges facing higher education.
Prof Shaw discussed how the lab focuses on mainstream and alternative approaches to using technology to foster a more hybrid and open approach to teaching and learning.
Prof Shaw’s colleagues Thamu Dube (lecturer in media and communication) and Oliver Wood (community producer at the Lab) led two workshops. The first focused on how teaching staff might use LEGO® to enhance learning. The second examined how staff can help students become active participators in the Open Web and build the essential skills necessary for graduates in a hyper-connected world.
The value of holding such an event demonstrates the emphasis that is placed at Aberystwyth University on providing a first-class education experience for a broad range of different learner needs. In sharing best practice from a wide variety of disciplines and viewpoints, attendees benefited from the experience of practitioners and the application of strategies in real teaching scenarios.
Holding a conference such as this serves to enrich the learning experience for students by empowering teaching and academic staff with different strategies to facilitate greater learning.
Plans are already afoot to make next year’s conference even bigger and it is hoped that we will see even more innovative approaches to learning and teaching.
■ Dr James Woolley is an e-learning enhancement and engagement theme leader at Aberystwyth University.