Middlesex ALTC 2014: Creative Curriculum

Middlesex University’s Annual Learning and Teaching Conference Blog

Thank you to all who presented and attended Middlesex University's Annual Learning and Teaching Conference that took place on the 10 July 2014. The theme covered 'Creative Curriculum' addressing creativity  in curriculum design, creativity in teaching, creative assessments and/or feedback approaches, creativity in technology enhanced learning and engaging students in the creative process.

Presentation, session reports, images and videos from the conference are available on this blog. Scroll down the page or use the search bar and tags on the right of the screen to navigate the resources captured on the day.
Due to the volume of rich content this site may take some time to load.

Photos showing a flavour of the day including guests: Chancellor Dame Janet Ritterman, Vice-Chancellor Michael Driscoll, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Prof. Waqar Ahmad, Director of Learning and Teaching Dr. Nicky Torrance,  presenters and delegates.  

Dr Nicky Torrance, Director of Learning and Teaching and Professor Waqar Ahmad, Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic open the conference

Welcome and Registration (Photos)

Keynote I - Authentic Experiences and Risky Pedagogies: Creative Approaches to Curriculum Design in Networked Spaces - Helen Keegan (University of Salford)

Video recording of Keynote I.

Helen’s excellent presentation was engaging, informative, dynamic and exciting in terms of its key messages. Helen discussed her experiences of working on a pedagogic project based around mobile film making with students as a vehicle for exploring the balance between structure and direction vs creativity and freedom in learning. The ELVSS Project (Entertainment Lab for the Very Small Screen) was envisaged as a way of tapping creatively into new forms of production created as a response to the micro formats of film making that have emerged since the internet disrupted previously established patterns of film structure. Students were encouraged to develop their digital literacies by making 30 second films on their mobile phones. The idea was to move learners from relying on high quality cameras etc. and to encourage them to make engaging and creative stories quickly. The project was a multi-disciplinary venture and initially involved students from Salford, Strasberg and France working together to produce film clips around global sustainability. Whilst the project itself was intended to be innovative and exciting, the project team were aware of the complexity of the practicalities involved in the project. This led the teaching team to adopt a structured and directive approach to the task e.g. structuring the on line environment to highlight when students were expected to meet virtually as a way of attempting to negotiate the time and space zones students needed to work with.

The outputs from the project were rather disappointing, however, in terms of creativity and some of the films produced were a little sterile and boring. It appeared that the directed nature of the teaching had possibly constricted the process of creativity and imagination that had been hoped for. The teaching team were keen to re-evaluate and sought to introduce a more open and abstract approach to the task in the hope of bringing back imagination and creativity. Helen discussed how the team moved platforms and renamed the project MoCo360 (Mobile collaboration 360 blog). Students were informed about the platform and the idea and invited to collaborate if they wanted to. In essence, the academics took a back seat and let go of their previous control of the project. While this was something of a high risk approach, in practice this led to the students taking the initiative and showing increased ownership of the new project. Helen told us how the students embraced the chaos and flexibility and how this led to increased creativity and much higher quality outputs. Do have a look at the video attached to see these imaginative clips. Helen left us to consider the relationship between order and chaos and how the two sometimes need to swap clothing from time to time in order to free imagination and encourage creativity.

You can find out more about ELVSS project on the archive blog and by reading an article by Thomas Cochrane and Helen Keegan (2012), 'New Global Learning Cultures:
Interdisciplinarity through networked technologies'.

Presentation sides from Keynote I.
Active links from Helen's presentation:

• HELLO WORLD STOP MOTION video  (https://vimeo.com/89405784)
• Moco360 Tagboard (https://tagboard.com/moco360/155769)
• Vinebox short introduction videos made by students (http://vinebox.co/tag/moco360)
• The Forced Perspective Project (http://theforcedperspectiveproject.wordpress.com)

Report by Patricia Cartney,  Programme Leader (Social Work), School of Health and Education

Keynote II - An Orderly Disorder: Creativity and the Chaotic Curriculum - Dr. Paul Kleiman (HEA)

Video recording of Keynote II.


Paul Kleiman is no stranger to Middlesex and it was good to see him back to present the afternoon keynote at this year’s Annual Learning and Teaching Conference focussing on creativity.

Paul is very interested in the role of storytelling in our daily lives and in particular in education, so it was no surprise that he opened with a story that recounted a conversation with a German minister of education. The minister enquired why it should be that Britain, with its variable economic record, always remained at the forefront in terms of art and design practice on a global scale over and above that of Germany with its comparatively consistent economy. Could it be something that we were or were not doing within our education system? Paul’s answer was that the UK had a healthy disregard for authority and a love of eccentricity that might set it apart from Germany in the realm of creative endeavours.

This was an amusing preface to the main theme of Paul’s presentation that questioned the rationale for an increasingly standardised and homoginised education system in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. Is it possible to replicate student outcomes using standardised curricula? Or, he argued, is it very rare to produce the same result on two occasions with such a complex range of variables? In this respect order might produce as much chaos as disorder and yet our education system clings to order over the sort of controlled disorder that helps students and tutors alike engage their natural creativity in the pursuit of learning.

Paul’s presentation was well illustrated with a number of graphics that ably showed how the current higher education system could be viewed as a sort of industrial process that might easily crush the sort of creativity and engagement with complexity that can benefit the process of education. He concluded that we should be designing curriculums that allow students to engage with complexity and gain confidence to face up to, and learn in an increasingly uncertain world. We should embrace disorder to create learning adventures for students that whilst producing uncertain outcomes may provoke deep and creative learning opportunities.

Presentation slides from Keynote II.

Report by Mike Seignior, Programme Leader (PG Cert HE), Department of Education

Track A - The Role of Creativity in Student Engagement, Learning through Social Learning Networks - George Dafoulas (S&T)

George Dafoulas (principal lecturer in Computing Science at Middlesex University) delivered a workshop focusing upon the value for educators in identifying and employing creative approaches toward the development of a heightened level of student engagement within the learning environment.

Imagination + Creativity + Empathy + Innovation = Value for the learner

The presenter makes the claim that although everyone possesses the facility to be creative it may be necessary for the individual seeking inspiration to adopt specific strategies to access this inner resource. Within this session the participants were invited to undertake a short exercise designed to afford them access to their own creativity.

This process consisted of a number of key elements:

• The room lights were dimmed
• Soothing music was played at low volume
• The participants were asked to close their eyes, control their breathing and enter into a relaxed, meditative state for a few minutes

George maintains that an individuals creativity can be greatly enhanced once this relaxed state is achieved. He then proceeded to reveal some of the creative solutions for student engagement and learning support he had constructed as a result of undergoing the relaxation exercise.

Second Life and the Democratic learning space
George had identified the traditional classroom environment and the overt hierarchies of power that exist within such spaces as potential obstacles to student engagement and learning. He then proceeded to demonstrate how he had utilised a Second Life virtual environment as a more democratized space for learning.

School Supplies as props for learning
George has used classroom tools such as crayons and play-clay to encourage interaction and engagement within his learners. Within minutes of handing out these items within this session some participants had managed, without direction or invitation, to mould the clay into objects. George contrasted this activity with the timidity with which student approached their project work and emphasized that this might serve as a tool to reduce the impact of risk aversion within any learning group.

These creative interventions have led to often surprising but also productive learning outcomes for the learners involved. It is George’s intention to continue to explore his own creativity as a resource to better learning for his students and hopes that the insights he has revealed will encourage educators to do likewise.



Session video


Report by John Parkinson, Senior Academic Developer, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement

On the Day (Photos)

Track B - Live Briefs and the Employability Agenda - Alison Winch (MPA)

This session explored how the Media department has sought to provide meaningful employability experiences for students.

Ben started by discussing initial concerns about the employability agenda and the potential conflict between education as a means to an end providing skills for a specific purpose compared with something which is intrinsically useful. However accepting the wider environment with 39 applicants for every graduate job and a workforce where there are “Few barristers; many baristas” it is clear why students seek and expect to gain skills and experiences which will assist them in their working life.

Alison and Ben then focused on the Live Briefs projects which they have been running for the past three years. These simulate a professional environment - pitching to external organisations, and delivering on a brief. There is sometimes competition between teams with the prize of a workm placement for the best work.

These projects teach the students practical skills which relate directly to the real world - and build their responsibility, rather than being able to rely on the module leaders for guidance. As Ben said, “Practice is heightened by the possibility of failure and the rush of real life success.”

One recent project was linked to the Intern Aware campaign. The students carried out promotional and marketing events at the University, gathered signatures and linked up with MDXSU as well as students at other universities. This culminated in the presentation of 4000 signatures to Vince Cable ahead of a parliamentary vote.

This was an example of a successful project but not everything had gone as smoothly. Challenges included the difficulty of sometimes getting students to work collaboratively with each other in teams. It was also more difficult for the lecturers than normal teaching: needing to strike a delicate balance act between independence and guidance-students want freedom but also need structure. However when it worked well it provided a meaningful learning experience for students as well as being rewarding for the academic staff.

 Report by Matthew Lawson, Assistant Director, Library and Learner Development

Track C - Extreme Course Design: Making Step Changes in the Learner Experience - Elizabeth Parkin (University of Bedfordshire)

Elizabeth Parkin delivered a workshop about course design and changing learner experience by sharing her experiences about redesigning an undergraduate course in Business Studies.

From the beginning of the workshop she highlighted that her approach towards redesigning a course stems from a practice based vision and that an intelligent innovative teaching practice should be developed considering the student profile after graduation and student experience.

Elizabeth Parkin delivered a workshop about course design and changing learner experience by sharing her experiences about redesigning an undergraduate course in Business Studies.

From the beginning of the workshop she highlighted that her approach towards redesigning a course stems from a practice based vision and that an intelligent innovative teaching practice should be developed considering the student profile after graduation and student experience.

The workshop was divided into three parts:

1. Why do you want to innovate?  To do extreme course design?
   
   This part of the workshop encouraged the audience to think about the reasons why redesigning a course, what do they want to achieve by it.  The audience presented reasons such as a better student experience, better employability after graduation, more interesting teaching experience etc.
2. How do you do it?  How do you stimulate ideas?
   
   This part of the presentation began with the argument that conventional course structure should not be employed when designing a course as it does not encourage innovation.  Another approach is to spend time with the academic team designing the course and assessment and then dividing into modules and units accordingly. This model was inspired by an academic team from Denmark that approach education and learning from a completely different unconventional perspective  (www.kaospilot.dk).
3. How do you manage your stakeholders?
   
   Different strategic tools that can be used were delivered and explained and the importance of stakeholders was also emphasized during this part of the workshop.

Most of the discussions of the workshop evolved around the implications and possible issues when developing a radical course design. Issues such as practicability, embracing change, engaging the academic team and the importance and influence of student body when redesigning a course were debated.

Session video

Report by Alexandra Cotiga, Online Learning Content Developer, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement 

Posters (Photos)

Track D - Learning through Looking: How Can we Use Museum Objects to Ignite Critical Enquiry - Richard Lumb and Maggie Wood (MODA/LSS)

Track E - Don't tell me, Show me ! : Using OSCE's in Education - Marion Hinds, Tina Moore, Laura Foley & Nicky Lambert (H&E)

The session presented the use of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) in the context of teaching Nursing at Middlesex and was vividly delivered by Marion Hinds, Tina Moore, Laura Foley and Nicky Lambert from the School of Health and Education. Laura Foley provided an outline of this ongoing project and explained how the team introduced OSCEs for assessment in Adult Nursing and Mental Health. Laura described the process of transitioning from vivas to OSCEs and presented the comparative advantages of OSCEs. A prominent advantage was the ability to better evaluate students' clinical and theoretical knowledge and professional skills, which are closely linked to employability skills. Nicky Lambert highlighted the positive response from students as well as shared with the audience the perception of the teaching team that OSCEs were a more egalitarian form of assessment. Whilst the examinations helped managing students' anxiety, Nicky also noted that it was a fairly resource-intensive form of assessment for staff. Marion Hinds stressed the importance of simulated clinical environments similar to OSCEs, cited relevant research evidence and provided examples of the usefulness of OSCEs  in terms of patient assessment in clinical settings.It was  exciting to see the potential of this form of assessment as far as the use of videos is concerned  and Tina Moore shared the plans of the team to move to Video Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (VOSCEs).

Following the presentation, participants of the session were invited to form groups and explore the relevance of OSCEs to their disciplines or areas of professional practice; disciplinary perspectives from Education, Theology and Social Work stirred up the debate on the validity and reliability of OSCEs as a form of assessment, and  offered an opportunity for the presenters to summarise the session on a very positive note.

On a final note, it is worth mentioning that the project will be presented this autumn at an international conference in Malta; colleagues with an interest in OSCEs as an assessment form, are encouraged to make contact with the team and share their thoughts and experiences.

Session video
Report by Mike Mimirinis, Senior Academic Developer, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement

Track F - Why FIBS are changing the Computer Science Degree at Middlesex - Prof. Martin Loomes (S&T)

Do we need to read a manual before we start using a new device such as a mobile phone – or is this now an outdated notion? Martin started his session questioning the necessity of learning theory before applying it in practice. He himself felt “old enough to feel I should use a manual but technically savvy enough to know that I don’t need to”.

The radical redesign of the Computer Science degree in the School of Science and Technology, included looking at what students needed to be able to do when they went into employment – what skills would they need? “Doing” emerged as the operative word. Comparing existing exams at different institutions, he discovered that many asked students to “talk about” or describe rather than asking students to do things.
Martin also reflected on whether today’s educational system should still be using Bloom’s taxonomy as the basis for creating learning objectives/outcomes for students; their new degree now has identified a set of learning behaviours as the basis for assessment in year one.

The redesign came about in response to a set of challenges:

• accepting students with a low tariff
• improving student progression from year one (and two)
• improving achievement
• improving NSS ratings
• ensuring that the curriculum reflected an emphasis on programming
• getting all staff into the REF

and the redesign addressed all of these, including freeing up staff from marking time to be able to focus on research.

The new approach focused on making the first year more challenging, putting coding at the centre, making it “practical”, establishing a core curriculum that the students must pass and improving the pass rate.

Watch the video of Martin’s session to see how they achieved this (FIBS; flipping the curriculum, inverting – practice is discussed via theory, deep blending and SOB – a tool to record when students have achieved their assessed observable behaviours) and to what he attributes the success so far (he credits the team of staff who ventured on this path with him) and also some surprising outcomes of this considered but undoubtedly risky new approach to teaching computer science.

Session video

Track G - Scratch Nights & Hashtag Chats: Creative Tools to Enhance Choreography in the Dance Curriculum - Lisa Uytterhoeven and Louise Kelsey (MPA/LSC)

Dr Lise Uytterhoeven, London Studio Centre, Louise Kelsey of the Dance Department, and BA Dance Studies student Kirsty Harris delivered an engaging session with what was unsurprisingly one of the more creative and intriguing session titles; Scratch Nights & Hash-tag Chats: Creative Tools to Enhance Choreography in the Dance Curriculum.

The session focused on a collaborative learning and teaching research project between the Dance Department at Middlesex University and the London Studio Centre.  The project aimed to share practices across the two institutions and encourage students from both institutions to engage with each other in a collaborative dance network to support their development as individuals and artists.

The session was heavily grounded in theory drawing on the work of Belinda Allen’s (2010) model for learning, which encourages creative approaches to learning and the curriculum and draws on the use of technology to support and foster reflective practices.

The presentation highlighted the use of twitter, student blogs, and Scratch nights, all aimed at giving students as artists in their own right the opportunity to test out and receive peer and tutor feedback on their performances in a safe environment. The presentation also highlighted the importance of students developing a critical voice when discussing their own and peers practice. This is something that is common in the Dance profession and helps students to develop essential graduate employability skills. 

It was fantastic to have an insight from Kirsty Harris who really brought the project to life with a unique student perspective. An interesting finding from the project and one highlighted by Kirsty was that students were not always willing to share their thoughts publically using a forum such a Twitter, this was out of fear of expressing themselves in a public forum, feeling they either had nothing valid to offer to the discourse or out of fear of having something made public and permanent for the world to read.

Students clearly need support in developing the digital literacy skills so important in helping them navigate the complex social media spheres that blur the boundaries between the private, professional and corporate. The team now has a wealth of experience and knowledge they will be taking forward with the future development of the programme and experience and knowledge that is of interest to others evidenced by the number of questions and lively discussion which continued well after the session had ended.



Session video
http://www.play.mdx.ac.uk/videos/16ubk
Report by Alex Chapman, Head of Technology Enhanced Learning, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement

Session Photos

Track H - Towards Increasing Inter-Professional Learning - Experiences and observations' - Sinead Mehigan & Marion Taylor (Law) AND Jo Killingly & Renu Barton-Hanson (H&E)

Introduction
Track H was on the subject of inter-professional learning and featured two separate presentations by Middlesex University colleagues. The first presentation titled “Toward increasing inter-professional learning” was led by Sienad Mehigan and Marion Taylor from the School of Health and Education. The second presentation titled “Law and Midwifery, inter-professional learning” was led by Renu Barton-Hanson, School of Law and Jo Killingley, School of Health and Education. Both presentations are available below.

Defining inter-professional learning
Both presenters defined inter-professional education and learning as that which occurs when two or more students from different disciplines learn about, from and with each other (Mehigan and Taylor, see slide 3). It was also highlighted that guidance for Nursing and Midwifery programme providers specifies a need to provide students with a chance to collaborate with other health and social care professionals in both academic settings and the workplace.



Misconception
A common misconception is that professionals from different health sectors must know how to work together and that they must be able to share information easily between services. It was said that in practice such misconceptions are being tackled by the creation of new service bodies that focus on coordinating diverse and scattered efforts.

Examples in Higher Education
Sinead and Mehigan encouraged collaboration by organising an inter-professional symposium for final year Nursing and Midwifery students. Symposium themes included:

• escalating concerns,
• substance use,
• dementia,
• refugee care issues and
• safeguarding.

The themes were facilitated by Adult Nursing, Mental Health and Midwifery professionals.

Jo and Renu organised a teaching event that brought together 3rd year Law and Midwifery students to share knowledge and practice. Renu selected some case studies about forced C section for students from both disciplines to debate that were followed by group work discussions. The collaboration between Law and Midwifery helped address a fear of litigation and the practice of defensive medicine that were identified in research.



Challenges
The main challenges were related to organising large cohorts with different timetables. In the collaboration between Law and Midwifery this resulted in Midwifery students outnumbering law students 5:1.

Feedback 
Feedback was good, lecturers thought midwives would be daunted by law students but the reverse was true. Snapshot, verbal and written feedback from students highlighted key benefits such as that midwives had not appreciated how key their documentation was in providing lawyers with a picture of events involved in legal claims.

What next?
There has been a snowball effect that is resulting in research proposals around why midwives fear the law and future symposia and evening seminars with interdisciplinary panel (Health and Law: roundtable seminars).

Session video
http://www.play.mdx.ac.uk/videos/177r4
Report by Tarek Zoubir, Academic Developer, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement

Track I - Enhancement of DE Techniques in PG Engineering Programmes - Noha Saleeb (S&T)

The session outlined challenges of designing and delivering an innovative online Post-Graduate Engineering course while ensuring the alignment of academic material and structure to industry needs. To achieve this, the curriculum was designed in consultation with the professional bodies reflected in the design and content of the curriculum. Workshops were carried out with disciplines of professionals from industry in all relevant disciplines (e.g. architects, engineers, contractors, manufacturers). Additionally, the inclusion of customised curriculum such as PMP enabled learners to gain double certification.

The integration of accredited prior experiential learning was seen as an important part. Suitable techniques to enhance constructivism were built in to the curriculum to achieve this.

One of the requirements for students participating on the course was attending an on-campus 2 day induction event. This enabled learners to form relationships, collaborate with one another and meet the tutors .This was seen as very effective, shown by the results of the volume of communication and collaboration work produced by the students. Asynchronous methods of communication such as email and synchronous methods such 3D interactive Virtual Environments were both employed (Second Life) to allow simulations.

Assessment comprised of real-life case studies, role play, e-journals among others. Real-time interactive online medium was used to deliver lecturers including facilitating discussions, debates, polls, audio, visual, Q&A, chat, presenting simultaneously.

I would encourage you to view the whole PPT for more detail.

Report by Betty Sinyinza, Educational Technologist, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement

Track J - Teaching and Learning with Experimental Economics - Marie Wong (BS)

     

The session on using experiments for teaching and learning of students at Economics and International Development was presented by Dr Marie Wong. Marie and her team took very innovative approach to teach complex economic concepts using games and experiments. This new way of teaching aims not only to help students understand economic better by actively participating in the project but also improve their employability by building a personal profile of participants.

Traditional methods of teaching are regarded by students as boring and not engaging, which results in poor attendance and participation. Therefore, new approach is being adopted to create environment of collaboration, fun and challenge while collating the data about students and their behaviors at the same time. This not only can be used to improve student’s self-awareness and illustrate their learning journey but importantly is it used for a research and marketing purposes.

Marie explained how building paper aeroplanes during teaching sessions introduces students to concepts such as:

 --> Diminishing Marginal Returns
 --> Long term production function
 --> Error learning process in the long run








Students have also access to online materials (www.gstk.eu) to further enhance their learning experience. Although this approach is fairly new and hasn't been evaluated yet, it has been positively received by students. The question and answer session resulted in some interesting discussion on whether it can be developed further by allowing the students to create their own experiments and focus on even more complex economic subjects. It also raised the question about linking the attributes measured during the process to particular employability skills required by economic graduates.

Report by Luiza Dantas, Academic Developer, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement

Lunch Break (Photos)

Track K - Trust Creativity, Create Trust - Faith Dillon Lee and Alexandra Pitt (LSS/LDU)

Faith Dillon Lee and Alexandra Pitt (LDU) were exploring the linked subjects of creativity and trust. Their stated aims included ‘barriers and pathways to creativity’. We started with a good discussion (in pairs) around the Socrates quote “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel”, which everyone really got into. They then introduced the concept of collocations: eg creative writing, creative arts, creative method. One contributor offered the thought that creative = edgy. Discussion was wide-ranging, reaching out to the ‘cult of genius’ - world changing but not necessary for the good. In discussing barriers there were some good quotes from students: “… but I am not very creative”; “am I allowed to do that?”. Faith and Alexandra suggested that we need to develop communication strategies to create trust. Then provided some trust scenarios as examples of learning, which we discussed in the round.



Report by Steve Chilton, Lead Academic Developer, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement

Track L - 'Please don't switch off your phones' Using Social media Tools and Smart Response Systems in the Classroom, Because Learning can be fun - Sukhbinder Barn and Mark McPherson (BS)

Should we be asking students to turn off their mobile phones in the classroom? Not according to Sukhbinder Barn and Mark McPherson's session at this year's annual teaching and learning conference. The session focused on how social media and smart response systems could make lessons fun and provide opportunities for student creativity.

Addressing group cohesion and striving to improve student progression is a common battle faced by academics. Sukhbinder and Mark shared their secret for improving progression by helping students taking their MA Marketing Management programme to transform into 'besties' or best friends six weeks into their module.  Noticing student drop out rates were higher in the first few weeks of the module, Sukhbinder and Mark's strategies help students build social bonds as quickly as possible. They moved a residential field trip that was previously scheduled at the end of the module to week 6. Excitement and anticipation around the visits were generated during lessons. Twitter exchanges out of lessons added to the buzz.

Teaching approaches shared by Sukhbinder and Mark:

Socrative an in class polling system used to gauge individual learner understanding. 

Questions such 'What one thing did you learn in class today?' and 'What did you not understand in today's session that you would like me to explain again next week?' asked through an end of class  poll.

Enhancing group cohesion using social media 

Group building encouraged with  Socrative aided treasure hunts with Instagram and Twitter assisting to capture and record this experience.

Learners as re-designers of learning materials 

Handing over module learning material together with know how about QR codes  to students to re-design learning materials.

They point to a view expressed by one of their former colleagues  ‘that marketing education should reclaim its’ roots and focus more on theorising and less digitising’. They demonstrated how they massively digitised the curriculum to provide students with opportunities to be creative and learn by doing. Their approach to embrace digital technology and bring the 'fun' factor into their higher education learning has paid off. Student feedback  provide evidence that as well as improving  digital literacies and enhancing group work their imaginative use of technologies help students to get to know each other:

'I am very happy because we used social media actively and efficiently' (student) 

'The best part was when random groups were made…it was an opportunity to know the people and after that I felt I know almost everybody…Everybody has come from different culture and nationality, but everybody respect the cultures and I feel proud to have such friends around me (M, India)'

The number of different technologies integrated effectively into Sukhbinder and Mark's teaching practice is commendable. In addition to providing opportunities for student creativity this challenges the usual assumptions  and caution around embedding technology into the curriculum.


Session video
http://www.play.mdx.ac.uk/swf/MDXPlayer.swf

Report by Asanka Dayananda, Senior Academic Developer, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement.

PGCEHE Award (Photos)

Awards presented by Middlesex University Vice-Chancellor Michael Driscoll

Track M - Co-Production in Learning: Learning to use Film-Making in Professional Practice- Pat Cartney, Angus Macdonald, Jo Pitman and Trish Hafford-Letchfield (H&E)

The session was a great illustration of how creative and innovative approaches can be used to engage Social Work students using experiential learning and recordings of short video documentaries as part of the learning process.

The presentation started by showing a short film recorded by a group of students to illustrate the project output using the case of Chase Farm Hospital closure. Pat Cartney then explained the rationale behind their approach. The idea behind the making of the documentary was to stress out the importance of active participation, group work, effective communication and practical insight into community related issues, including strengths, challenges and processes in order to achieve deep learning.

Video used during the session:

  

The task given to students was to focus on a single issue within their own community and explore it by talking to people, researching and recording  evidence with short videos. The group work was perceived beneficial to develop skills required by social workers and to enable students to see a bigger picture about the concept of community as well as have a practical experience of community- related work. This would then help students to apply critical theory around the concept of policy learned in class to understand this complex process. Students were asked to record their experiences using video as part of their formative assessment, which were supported by assessed portfolios and reflection.

The project required  considerable technological support in terms of advising on available software, finding resources for video filming and train colleagues. Therefore, Angus Macdonald from CAPE was asked to collaborate in the project to provide necessary technological expertise. As a result of this collaboration members of staff were able to make and edit films on their own as well as advise their students.

The audience raised some interesting questions about the level of participation of students considering the fact that it wasn't assessed. The project leaders explained that indeed some people were reluctant as they thought that social studies students should not be assessed on their film making skills.

The majority of students actively participated as they could see the various benefits arising from the process and actually enjoyed it. However, the project team is considering using it as part of summative assessment in the future as they see it as integral part of learning about social work and acquiring relevant skills.



Session video
Report by Luiza Dantas, Academic Developer, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement

Conversations at MDX ALTC14 (Photos)

Track N - Flipped Education Video and Sounding Off - Carl Reynolds (S&T)

In this session Carl James-Reynolds, a Principal Lecturer in the School of Science and Technology, started off by describing his ‘flipped’ approach to using video for assessment. Rather than producing video for the students to watch, he asked students to produce their coursework in the form of a 4 minute video and submit it to YouTube. Research shows that 95% of 16-20 year olds are comfortable with multimedia and Web 2.0 tools and this meant that the students required very little guidance when it came to using various tools to produce their videos, including video and screen capture software. The resulting submissions were of high quality and students gave positive feedback despite initially being intimidated. The advantages of this approach include the opportunity for students to improve their presentation skills and develop an online presence, as well as being quicker and easier to mark from the instructor’s point of view because the work displays a student’s ability to reason and reflect on their work better than a written format.



Carl then went on to talk about the benefits of providing audio feedback to students, relating it to the seven principles of good feedback practice (Nicol, Macfarlane-Dick 2007). He found that students are not concerned with ‘professional’ sounding audio feedback and that they enjoyed its personal nature and immediacy. They were also more likely to engage in a dialogue afterwards which in turn would motivate them to improve their work.

Report by Paul Smith, Senior Educational Technologist, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement

Track O - Creativity in Collaboration Across Disciplines: Writing, History and Photography - Peter Thomas, Anne Burke and Gavin Fernandes (LDU/A&D)

This session, delivered by Peter Thomas (AWL), Anne Burke (ML  VCD2396) and Gavin Fernandes (SL in Fashion and Photography), presented the collaborative approach they have taken to creatively support students on the BA Photography. Their work demonstrates a real coming together of practice, studio and academic writing experience and expertise.

Anne has been module leader for five years. In the second year there is a Critical Theory Photography module. Anne has identified that students typically find writing and reflecting difficult and has been trying to find ways to deal with the disjunction between studio and writing practices. Students often view writing as something relating to history and theory, rather than as a dynamic element of studio/making practice. In trying to marry the practice with the theory, photography and reflection, and in working with Peter (AWL) and Gavin (studio based), a summative reflective journal has been introduced where students are asked to practice their writing. The first year yielded a spectrum results with some students finding it easier to engage than others. The journal proved difficult to mark given differences in the volume and quality of the writing.

Moving forward, the brief has been tightened up with more embedded, structured support in place. The students now participate in two writing workshops. Activities address the fact that students find it difficult to apply their ideas and theory to their handling and understanding of images. Gavin’s input helps students connect with real practice as he shares examples of his own academic writing and work as a photographer. The end result has demonstrated an integrated input that has really enhanced the output.

The team will continue to develop their approach and have presented their work at the European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing, Central European University, Budapest, 2013.


 Session video http://www.play.mdx.ac.uk/videos/16mf4

Report by Kirsteen Macdonald, Lead Academic Developer, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement

Plenary/Panel Session: Dr. Nicky Torrance (Chair), Prof. Paul Gibbs, Dr. Paul Kleiman, Helen Keagan, Anna Kyprianou

Video recording of the plenary session

Participants' Reflections (Videos)

Here you can find some videos with participants thoughts about Middlesex University annual Learning and Teaching conference: 'Creative Curriculum' 

   

Helen Keegan, Senior Lecturer (Interactive Media and Social Technologies), University of Salford 

Dr. Paul Kleinman, Discipline Lead (Dance, Drama and Music), Higher Education Academy

Jaap Boender, Lecturer in Foundations of Computing, Middlesex University

Chandana Sanyal, Senior Lecturer in HRM, Middlesex University

John H, Senior Lecturer, Tottenham Hotspur Foundation

Alexandra Pitt, Senior Lecturer English for Academic Purposes, Middlesex University

Maria Markodimitraki, Assistant Professor of Developmental Psychology, University of Crete