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

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 

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

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

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

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