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June – Sept 2010

Journal

This edition of the Teaching Fellows Journal has been restored from an archived online edition, hence the simplified form.

Edinburgh Napier University is a registered Scottish charity. Reg. No. SC018373

ISSN 2050-9995 (Online)

Please note - Some links and content within this document may now be out of date.

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EditorialTowards a Digitally Inclusive Edinburgh Napier?

Keith Smyth, Senior Teaching Fellow and Senior Lecturer, Academic Development, considers technology-enhanced education in relation to digital inclusion and Edinburgh Napier as a ‘digitally inclusive’ institution

Edinburgh Napier University has a now well-established reputation in technology-enhanced learning and teaching, and a strong commitment to the pedagogically sound use of technology. This is evident within the strategic aims of the institution, a large and diverse staff development programme, two major evaluations in recent years, and not least in the good practice we see within a range of our modules and programmes. That Edinburgh Napier will be the only Scottish HEI featured as a case study in the forthcoming report of the HEFCE Online Learning Task Force is perhaps further testament to the good work we have been doing.

However, like many other universities the majority of our work in technology-enhanced learning and teaching has focused around enhancing our full-time campus-based provision. This is to be expected. Arguably there is a need for any institution to get their approach right within their core provision before they can begin to explore how technology, as an enabler not driver, can be harnessed in improving (and if desired expanding) part-time, distance, and work-based learning.

At Edinburgh Napier, we have begun to explore how we can use technology to meaningfully support learning, teaching and assessment in these and other contexts, but how much further might we be able to go and where might this take us as a modern UK university?

In both of the volumes reviewed for this issue of the tfj (Meyer, 2009; Bell et al, 2009), a number of fundamental concerns around the successful development of technology-enhanced learning and teaching, and around the future of higher education itself, are discussed. I’d like to highlight several of them, but for the purposes of this editorial highlight two in particular.

The first is the critical need, identified in the institutional case studies in Meyer, for universities to use technology to provide equity in wider support

Contents2 Editorial

5 Eureka!

7 Reports

11 Review corner

13 Web spotlight

Edition Editors

Angela BenziesSenior Teaching Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Academic Practice

Coordinator of the Teaching Fellowship Scheme

Margaret Nairntfj Web Editor and Publications Officer

Academic Development, Bevan Villa,Craighouse Campus, Edinburgh

Current enquiries to:Office of the Vice Principal (Academic)Sighthill Campus, Sighthill Court,Edinburgh EH11 4BN

Email: tfj@napier.ac.uk

http://www.url.napier.ac.uk/tf

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inclusion and participation, workforce upskilling, and global citizenship that are central to the ethos of digital inclusion. If we then add to this the notion of a university that is seeking to proactively improve outreach to a broad range of potential learners, then the ‘digitally inclusive university’ may be one that:

• embeds the development of digital literacy throughout the curriculum

• works with partners in the community (eg libraries, action groups, businesses, FE) to support beneficial community-based learning projects and initiatives, with technology supporting distributed activity and outcomes

• utilises social networking tools and other technologies to help student transition and social integration. This could include initiatives that allow new students to interact with peers pre-arrival, and to provide students who are part-time, geographically distant, disabled, or otherwise restricted to have more opportunities to take part in key aspects of university life

• uses technology to support learning across learning communities, including between students on different programmes or at different institutions, and through engagement with guest experts and professional groups. Such initiatives could enhance learning, but also increase cultural awareness as well as prepare students for the transition to their chosen professional fields

• enables effective work-based learning for professionals that offers individualised and collaborative opportunities utilising technology to allow all of the formal learning to occur without any need to attend campus

• uses read/write web technologies that many students are already familiar with to actively engage them in collaborative learning, and produce work in digital formats which may become valuable ‘learning artefacts’ for other learners

• places an emphasis on having not just flexible curriculum provision with the range of attendance/duration options this implies, but more ‘fluid’ curriculum models that utilise technology to adapt to who and where the student is, where they aspire to go to, and at the pace they want to get there.

This list is merely indicative, but perhaps provides a flavour of what being ‘digitally inclusive’ might mean for universities seeking to adapt to the needs and expectations of current and potential learners (Higher

provision (ie comparable induction, study skills and careers advice, library resources) if part-time, distance, and other ‘non traditional’ students are to have the same chance of success as their full-time, campus-based peers.

The second issue, discussed in several chapters in Bell et al, is the need to rethink and reposition our universities if we are to remain relevant and viable as education providers in the changing national and global context. This is a complex and multi-faceted issue, but a fundamental aspect of the argument is the need for universities to diversify further in how they provide education in order to proactively meet the needs of a wider range of learners and partners and, in doing so, contribute even more significantly to personal, social, and economic growth locally, nationally and internationally. There are major implications for institutions to consider here around redesigning existing courses, and possibly designing new courses, to meet the needs of learners in industry and overseas, and provide further widening access and articulation opportunities for learners seeking relevant skills development or progression to the next level of their studies. There are also clearly issues of resource to consider in an already ‘stretched academy’ (as discussed by Morris in Bell et al), but to be weighed carefully against the potential to reach new learners, sustain institutional growth, and be socially progressive in outlook and approach.

In relation to this, there is a view that universities could certainly do more to effectively harness technology in breaking down societal, geographic and other barriers to education. This concern, to which institutions are becoming more alert, is central to the growing ‘digital inclusion’ movement that is seeing action from governments, charities, organisations and other bodies to improve access to and via technology for greater inclusion in all aspects of society including education.

The current Scottish Government, seeking to build upon the work of the previous administration’s Digital Inclusion in Partnership (2007) strategy, share with other advocates the view that digital inclusion is a direct means to a more productive and inclusive society with real benefits in terms of social participation, promoting global citizenship, having a skilled workforce, research and knowledge transfer, and lifelong learning. With all this in mind, what might a ‘digitally inclusive’ university look like?

Let us first consider the use of technology to remove barriers to education alongside the tenets of social

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Education in a Web 2.0 World report (2009)), and to experience the benefits that becoming more digitally inclusive may bring.

So where might Edinburgh Napier currently be as a ‘digitally inclusive’ university?

Well, within our technology-enhanced provision across current modules and programmes, we do have a small number of fully online programmes and CPD units which are very effectively enabling distance and work-based learning. Some of these courses support learning within and across different learner and professional communities, and geographic boundaries. We also have good online access to core library resources including e-books and journals, while a small number of colleagues in the Faculties and Professional Services have been working on projects designed to offer blended and online equivalents to the kinds of student support provision that are readily available on-campus. Within Academic Development there is also some very innovative work happening around the use of Web 2.0 and other tools to support the transition of FE students, including through pre-arrival online interaction.

Our work in these areas is currently on a small scale, but provides an excellent foundation to draw upon as we continue to take forward technology-enhanced learning and teaching, and especially if we move towards further growth in part-time, work-based and distance learning. The redesign of the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy that is currently underway will provide an important opportunity to disseminate the above examples more widely through the resource bank that is being developed. Furthermore it has been suggested that one focus for the new Teaching Fellows Special Interest Group (SIG) in Technology-enhanced Learning and Teaching should be on digitally inclusive education.

Is Edinburgh Napier a ‘digitally inclusive’ university? Like the majority of UK institutions, no we can’t lay claim to this. However, in what are still early stages in addressing digital inclusion in the sector we are

certainly becoming more digitally inclusive in our thinking and in some of our initiatives as highlighted – more so than some institutions perhaps. Would we want to move towards becoming more digitally inclusive? This question raises issues around resource, necessity and practicality, as well as around the benefits becoming more digitally inclusive would bring.

What is clear, however, is that we are well placed to have an informed discussion about this.

While we are still seeking to engage some of our colleagues in considering what technology-enhanced learning and teaching may offer them and their students, we are at a point where we know what technology can offer us by way of extending, through the VLE and other tools, the opportunities and spaces for effective learning that we can provide our current students with. However, digital inclusion in education is not so much about extending existing opportunities and provision as it is about extending the University itself for those who want to study with us but who have limited opportunities to do so, and to work in collaboration with potential partners to do new and better things. Towards a digitally inclusive Edinburgh Napier?

References Bell, L., Stevenson, H. and Neary, M. (eds) (2009). The Future of Higher Education: Policy, Pedagogy and the Student Experience. London: Continuum.

Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience (2009). Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World. Available at www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/ generalpublications/2009/heweb2.aspx

Meyer, K.A. (ed) (2009). Lessons Learned from Virtual Universities. New Directions for Higher Education, Number 146. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

The Scottish Government (2007). Digital Inclusion in Partnership. Edinburgh: The Scottish Government. Available at www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/02/28141134/0 •

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Eureka!Enthusing Students

Andy Moffat, Lecturer and Teaching Fellow, School of Accounting, Economics & Statistics, offers us the ten steps that he takes to try to enthuse non-accounting students in the finance classroom environment

A recent survey at Strathclyde University listed the following five main reasons for student disengagement:

• Studying modules they don’t want to do

• Studying modules they see as irrelevant

• Large lectures

• First year doesn’t really count

• A repetitive and dry lecture format.

Woopee! I thought…absolutely every ingredient that I have in my first-year Accounting for Business module which is a compulsory module on the Business Management, Business Studies, Economics with Management and the Financial Services Management degree programmes. Students on these programmes harbour ambitions to create the next great Saatchi & Saatchi advert, help to shape the Government’s economic policies, work in PR or the media, benefit from the next large RBS annual bonus payment or recruit the latest high flyer…but please don’t ask them to hit a calculator button in a finance class because that will certainly bring on a nose bleed!

So in week 2 of trimester 1 (remember we are not allowed to teach in week 1 nowadays) I’ve got 150 non-accounting students sitting in the ‘Egg’ lecture theatre at 9 o’clock on a Thursday morning awaiting confirmation of their innermost thoughts…how dull and boring are accountants!!

Step 1 – first slide: joke of the day

Q. What do you have if you have a room full of accountants up to their necks in sand? A. Not enough sand.

Reaction round the room…some laughter, some smiles, many groans BUT, most importantly…a reaction.

Message to the students: we are off and running. They have just witnessed an accounting lecturer making fun of accountants. Maybe this guy isn’t going

to take himself too seriously and he might actually be human after all?

Step 2 – slides 2 to 6 feature photos of Arsène Wenger, Nick Leeson, Alistair Darling, Sting and André Agassi/Steffi Graf

Arsene Wenger – tax dodge at Arsenal FC where bonus payments only attract 1% tax. Nick Leeson – defrauded Barings Bank of £650m. Alistair Darling – Chancellor of the Exchequer responsible for planning the Government’s finances for next year – although he won’t need to worry about that now! Sting – as he clearly didn’t understand finance, his accountant decided to steal £6m from him. Steffi Graf – her dad was her accountant but was jailed for three years for tax evasion on Steffi’s tennis earnings.

Reaction round the room…bewilderment, but now interested.

Message to the students: finance is everywhere. It’s in sport, politics, the entertainment industry, the banking world and it’s even on TV so why should it not be part of degree programmes within a university’s Business School.

Step 3 – slide 7: there is no textbook required for this module

Reaction round the room…joy, utter elation and the prospect of fifteen more pints on Friday night.

Message to the students: we are not trying to scare you with a £50 accounting textbook which will very likely go into far too much detail for what is required in this module. We prepare a user-friendly module pack, tailored to students’ needs that includes a guide as to why they are doing this module, the lecture and tutorial plans (referenced to a textbook on short-term loan in the library), summary lecture notes each ending with a ‘do you know’ checklist, all the tutorial questions and sample assessments…all for the princely sum of £5.

Step 4 – ‘interesting’ module content

Clearly the module has to cover the required material in the syllabus but this shouldn’t stop you trying to make that material as relevant and interesting to the students as possible.

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Asking the class in a large lecture where Lloyds/TSB plc might generate revenue, or what assets they might have on their balance sheet will be unlikely to provoke much response. Ask the same question about Manchester United Football Club (NB non-sexist question because my wife is an Aberdeen FC season-ticket holder!) and suddenly you are bombarded with answers like Sky TV, season-ticket sales, merchandising, selling players, Old Trafford, Wayne Rooney etc etc.

Step 5 – try to be topical

Students like to watch TV so I try to bring TV into my lectures wherever possible. Many of the students watch ‘Dragons’ Den’ so I’m not slow to ask them what 75% of the questions asked by the Dragons are all about? Correct...finance; for example tell me what profit margins will be, what will the selling price be, what is your predicted profit for the next three years, what return will I get for my investment? Equally, students like ‘The Apprentice’. How does Sir Alan/Lord Sugar decide each week who the winning team is? Correct…usually finance, through either the most revenue generated or the most profit earned.

Step 6 – make use of the internet during the lecture

Students suffer from PowerPoint® fatigue so try, where possible, to build in other sources of learning.

This year the students were doing an assignment on Ryanair’s approach to costing.

What they perceived as a dull topic soon livened up after I showed them a YouTube video clip of Michael O’Leary’s plans to charge passengers for going to the toilet. Although the students had a good laugh at the ‘outrageous’ plan, they were quick to embrace the logic of how that would help reduce costs. Charging for the toilets would stop people using them. That, in turn, would enable Ryanair to remove two of the three toilets. They could then put in six extra seats and so the price of every passenger’s ticket would go down by 4%.

Topical, humorous but also bringing to life a basic accounting point of principle.

Step 7 – who wants an Xtra 10%?

For each of the first eight weeks of the module we run a quiz in the lecture called ‘Who Wants an Xtra 10%?’. In the very first lecture, the students are given

a marking grid which they will use to record their answers to the quiz questions. They bring this marking grid every week because during each lecture they will be asked a few multiple choice questions (MCQs) on that lecture’s topic. If they end up with 40/40 they get an Xtra 10% onto their module mark, if 16/40 they get an Xtra 4%, etc etc. The catch is that they don’t know what weeks (usually week 3 and week 8) we will take in the grids for marking and if they are not at the lecture the week we collect them in then they score zero.

Helps attendance, helps break up the lecture, the students enjoy it and they ultimately get rewarded for their success.

Step 8 – try using TurningPoint®

Slightly less formal than the quiz above, TurningPoint® is the software that allows you to use the ’voting buttons’ during the class. It is ideal for revision lectures, where you can set up a number of MCQs which the students vote on. As voting is anonymous, the students are always very happy to offer an answer. The results are projected onto the screen immediately by the percentage of students who answered A, B, C or D. As a lecturer you can therefore gauge easily the areas of the syllabus that most of the class have understood, compared to the areas that might require some extra revision.

Step 9 – try to know your students

I know some staff members have a different opinion on this but I think it’s really helpful to know who your students are, particularly if you are going to see them in a tutorial every week. Greeting a student in the front foyer at Craiglockhart with ‘hello Kathy’ rather than ‘hello’ will have Kathy feeling a lot better about herself, the module and perhaps even her time at the university, confident in the knowledge that someone has taken the time and effort to know who she is. I also always take attendance at tutorials and I always email those who don’t appear, not for punitive reasons but simply to let them know the work we covered and what might be coming up next week. The student reaction is invariably positive. They will let you know why they missed the class and offer promises for the following week’s attendance. Secretly, I think they are probably delighted that someone knew that they hadn’t been there, giving more credence to the belief that staff do see them as individual students and not just a mass of bodies in the class.

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Step 10 – finance is fun

In summary, we try to create a fairly relaxed, informal, fun environment for the students which will hopefully

result in firstly, a greater participation in the module and secondly, a more enthusiastic approach to their studying. •

Reports

Hazel Powell, Lecturer, and Christine Pollock, Senior Lecturer/School Director of Academic Development for Undergraduate Programmes, both School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Care report on the Festival of Learning 2010

Angela Benzies, Senior Lecturer, Academic Development, gives us her Teaching Fellowship Scheme Co-ordinator’s Report for 2009/10

Monika Foster, Senior Lecturer and Senior Teaching Fellow, School of Marketing, Tourism & Languages, reports on the HEA conference The World in your classroom: a day for teachers of international students

Hazel Powell and Christine Pollock report on the Festival of Learning

The Festival of Learning is an annual conference organised by The Higher Education Academy Health Sciences & Practice Subject Centre. The Festival aims to enhance the quality of learning, teaching and assessment in higher education and work settings. Held annually in different UK locations, this year’s Festival, the eighth, was held at our very own Craighouse Campus. The theme this year was Connection, Communication and Collaboration.

102 delegates attended the Festival which was held over two days. Delegates came from all over the UK with the majority from a Higher Education Institution background. The format of the Festival consisted of a blend of keynote presentations, workshops and trigger presentations as well as opportunities for delegates to view a range of posters. The format and size of the event encouraged active networking; choosing your workshops or trigger presentations meant you were meeting people with similar interests. The idea behind a trigger presentation is to allow a brief presentation that ends with the audience being asked one or two questions to gain their views, thoughts and experience on the topic covered. This approach seemed a positive

way to engage and the discussions were lively and informative.

The scene for the conference and the first day was set by the keynote speaker Rosalynd Jowett, University Director of Education and Associate Dean, Education Faculty of Medicine, Health & Life Sciences, University of Southampton. Ms Jowett heralded the conference themes of connections, communication and collaboration and in her presentation she explored the diversity of connections and how they might manifest themselves. The importance of communication and collaboration both within the university context and with external partners was emphasised. The centrality of good planning for successful connections, communication and collaboration was demonstrated within the case study of Southampton University’s approach. Following the keynote address, curricular themes relevant to the University were exhibited in the parallel trigger sessions and workshops. The themes on display included virtual communities, new technologies, simulation and a student-led learning initiative. Poster presenters were given the opportunity to speak briefly about their poster prior to participants voting for their favourite. In the spirit of making connections a lecturer/student group from Queen Margaret University was awarded the first prize for The Adventures of Super Nurse: using new technologies to enhance student engagement in nursing curriculum.

The second day had a focus on interprofessional education, service user and carer involvement, and elearning. The day began with a keynote presentation from Professor Andre Vyt, Lecturer in Interprofessional Collaboration for Health & Social Care, Arteveldehogeschool University College and Ghent University. Professor Vyt explored a system of quality management for interprofessional learning and gave an interesting presentation on quality, promoting the value of a quality process that is ‘done with’ rather than ‘done to’ people. This topic was threaded throughout the day with examples of good practice and discussions around the challenges for successful interprofessional learning coming up in the

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workshops and trigger presentations. It was clear that there continue to be issues surrounding professional protectionism and tradition.

Elaine Kwiatek and I presented a trigger presentation entitled Collaborative Curriculum Design and Delivery. This trigger presentation outlined the development of the Learning Disability Development Group (LDNDG) and Stakeholders Group. These groups are a model for involving people with learning disabilities, family carers, mentors and students in the curriculum development, review and delivery, in line with considered good practice (NHS, 2005; Scottish Executive, 2002). This was one of two trigger presentations focusing on service user involvement which led to active discussion around the positive benefits and the constraints of service user involvement.

The conference ended positively with delegates encouraged within the closing session to reflect on what they wanted to take away from the event and into their future practice.

ReferencesThe Right Preparation; The Framework for Learning Disability Nurse Education in Scotland (2005). Edinburgh: NHS Education for Scotland.

Promoting Health, Supporting Inclusion: The national review of the contribution of all nurses and midwives to the care and support of people with learning disabilities (2002). Edinburgh: Scottish Executive.

Angela Benzies reports on the Teaching Fellowship Scheme for 2009/10

The session 2009/10 has been a very busy one for a number or reasons. Many of us have been directly involved in encouraging our colleagues to apply for Fellowship through workshops and mentoring, with such work resulting in twelve new Teaching Fellow appointments since last June and more applications due on 30 June 2010. We have had four rounds of Teaching Fellow Grant funding, double the number that we originally scheduled, and have awarded 39 grants totalling approximately £61,500. This represents a mixture of project, event and individual funding, with reports now being received and collated into an annual report format for distribution to the Teaching Fellow community and consideration by the University’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment Committee in early September. We now need to consider how we ensure that what we have done so far in our faculties, through our projects and other work, is disseminated and used to the maximum advantage.

We have had some changes within the TF Scheme this year. A new Teaching Fellow administrator, Ruth Lough, has been appointed and has already made a very valuable contribution to supporting the community and its work. July sees the end of the pay protection period for those Teaching Fellows appointed under the old Scheme so this will mean a reduction in salary for many and this, in turn, is also likely to affect Scheme membership to some degree. We are enhancing our administration by further developing our online grants application process and the record-keeping and communication activity associated with a range of Teaching Fellow functions.

Our new patterns of activity are becoming established and are reflected in the draft schedule of activities for 2010/11 (contact me for a copy), ie a mix of central Teaching Fellow community events (see the photo above of the TF breakfast meeting held in June) and local, faculty and/or school activities and meetings. Special Interest Groups (SIGs), which have been recently set up may also begin to feature in the programme, and such SIG-organised events are likely to be cross-faculty. At present we have SIGs and leaders for Technology Enhanced Teaching & Learning (Keith Smyth), Internationalisation (Monika Foster and Alison Varey), Inclusive LTA (Morag Gray) and a Mentor’s Group (Daphne Loads). At an event in early June, we opened up ‘a conversation with Mick Healey’, our Visiting Professor for teaching and learning. He is keen to work with us as a community of practice and we have the opportunity to learn from him, especially in the areas of his interests such as the inclusive curriculum, and to draw on his experience to assist where required in the operation of our SIGs.

There are certainly challenges ahead and we are all likely to experience reduction in resources which may well affect the amount of time and money available to support Teaching Fellow work in service areas and faculties. I suggest that this will require us as Fellows to articulate more clearly what we do and its value at all levels in the university, including at PDRs, so we may maintain the management support we have had to date and are thus enabled to make our contribution effectively. In a difficult time in Higher Education, there is a danger that we may slide over into what is often referred to as ‘managerialism’, ie a ‘command and control’ approach to the utilisation of Teaching Fellows, rather than viewing Fellows as a group of excellent and committed teachers who wish to share their expertise in a co-operative and professional manner with all university colleagues, including with management at every level. It is important that Teaching Fellows remain and are seen as people with a strong, collegial

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community of practice ethos who are actively engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning for the benefit of Edinburgh Napier and its students.

There is much interesting work to do and most of our Teaching Fellows are actively engaged in some aspect of this and clearly deriving personal satisfaction from making their unique contributions. However, it is important to recognise that we may need to do more to help involve our currently non-active TF colleagues to engage in the community’s work. I suggest that we keep doing what we enjoy doing and are good at and continue to talk to each other about how we may best face and overcome the challenges as they arise. I would certainly be very happy to receive any comments or suggestions you may have.

It’s been a pleasure working with you this year. I do hope you all have a relaxing and refreshing holiday.

Monika Foster, reports on the HEA conference ‘The World in your classroom: a day for teachers of international students’

This event was designed by HEA together with the speakers, including myself, to prepare a day which would link colleagues facing similar challenges and generate ideas and solutions to enhance the teaching of international students. The event also introduced the ‘Teaching International Students’ (TIS) project resource bank, designed to showcase effective teaching practices. The HEA TIS project aims to raise awareness of how students’ learning experiences are key to their overall experience of UK study. The day was intended to be very interactive with input from delegates, so participants were asked to prepare themselves by bringing to the event verbal or hard copy examples of case studies or examples of resources.

Sessions addressing specific issues in depth offered an opportunity to explore selected aspects more thoroughly and provide some tangible results. The four selected areas were: Induction and transition to UK HE (facilitated by myself), Effective intercultural group work at university (facilitated by Catherine Montgomery, Northumbria University), Assessing international students: tough questions and possible solutions (Jude Carroll, Oxford Brookes University) and Postgraduate teaching (Karen Smith, Glasgow Caledonian University).

For sustainability reasons, the HEA does not produce delegate packs on the day and presentations were made available on the event mini-site which can be

found at www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2010/ academyevents/11_June_2010_The_World_in_your_ classroom_Event

After a short introduction from Edinburgh Napier’s Andy Gibbs, Jude Carroll gave an opening keynote which set the scene for the day. Jude’s keynote ‘Introducing the Teaching International Students project: a way of improving learning for all’ included the rationale for the TIS project and the latest figures on international student representation in UK HE. According to UUK’s figures, there has been a 22.9% increase in international students in the UK in 2010; 66% of full-time taught postgraduate students are international; 12% of first degree students are international. There is a huge mobility of students and it is getting bigger.

The TIS project is aiming to bring together the facts and figures about the international student lifecycle from pre-arrival to study in the UK as well as good practice, resources, strategies and staff development opportunities out there about the subject in the TIS resource bank. The TIS resource bank can be found at www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/ teachingandlearning/internationalisation /internationalstudents According to Jude, the overall picture with regards to teaching international students is that the students, no matter where they come from and with what skills, face ‘new game and new rules’ which involves using new skills, new disciplinary knowledge and new academic English. These are major challenges for the students. For the staff, the major challenge remains managing the increased academic diversity. There are several ways we seem to manage this including:

• Denial: ‘I teach the same no matter who my students are’, ‘I didn’t admit them’

• Repair: deficit driven, focusing on what’s ‘wrong with the students’

• Students must adapt: ‘they need to learn the new ways’

• Teachers accommodate and adjust practice

• Both teachers and students negotiate the difference.

Jude then set out some action points for those involved in teaching international students in UK HE which helped us focus the rest of the day’s discussions:

• acknowledge and learn about cultural differences

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• skills development, including academic English

• teaching methods which encourage participation and collaboration

• create a globally relevant curriculum

• manage problems (expectations, integration, group work, plagiarism).

After Jude’s keynote, it was time for the breakout sessions. On invitation from HEA, I gave a session on Induction and Transition to UK HE. The abstract for the session and slides are on the event mini- site.

My session included a brief overview of current thinking about induction and transition from the literature, followed by an activity. Participants were asked to consider their context, including the areas of concern for students and staff in induction and transition and what is already being done to address them, and then discuss their thoughts in groups of three. This was an interactive task allowing the participants to compare their respective practices. After a brief all-round discussion, we moved on to look at the results of my recent research with Indian students and the indicators of the type of support the students prefer and which is culturally appropriate. It seems that students from India respond well to peer-support and they already use social networking sites and get in touch with one another well before arrival. I also found that, due to the gap in skills and awareness, the students need an extended, steady development of skills, which is longer than the traditional induction event.

Guided by research outcomes, I then presented two current projects that address student needs: a peer mentoring project and the online study skills resource

‘SPICE’. The participants had an opportunity to offer feedback and discuss how these solutions may or may not work in their contexts. There was also some discussion about broader constraints or enabling factors, such as support from management, the set-up of university professional services etc to enable efficient and effective support of students in induction and transition.

At the end of the session, 10 minutes were given to help capture the discussion and allow for some action planning. The participants were encouraged to give their ideas under the three headings: ‘Action points/challenges for the sector’, ‘The world in your classroom’ and ‘AOB’. ‘The world in your classroom’ was intended for colleagues to write down exciting or innovative practice they are currently doing and willing to share. The feedback from the session and notes from the chairs are to be collated and put on the event’s Wiki for participants and non-participants alike to further develop and discuss the ideas and to share the results of the event.

I think the focus on specific issues in teaching international students was a good idea as it helped focus the minds and generate some excellent ideas. During lunch and coffee breaks we continued our discussions in relations to these topics, enthused to think forward and action plan how we can address the issues in our own contexts.

The sun was shining when we were leaving Pollock Halls at the end of a busy but a very rewarding day!

There are further HEA events on the TIS project planned for 2010/11. For details please check the links above. •

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Review corner Keith Smyth, Senior Lecturer, Academic Development, reviews Lessons Learned from Virtual Universities by Katrina A Meyer (ed) and contributing authors (2009)

New Directions for Higher Education, Number 146, Summer 2009 Jossey-Bass: San Francisco ISBN 978-0-4705-2554-8 112pp £19.99

Christine Penman, Lecturer, School of Marketing, Tourism & Languages, reviews The Future of Higher Education; Policy, Pedagogy and the Student Experience by Les Bell, Howard Stevenson and Mike Neary (eds) (2009)

Continuum: London ISBN 978-1-8470-6473-8 192pp £22.99

Lessons Learned from Virtual Universities reviewed by Keith Smyth

Lessons Learned from Virtual Universities, a monograph in the New Directions for Higher Education series, offers a collection of papers charting the history, development and possible future direction of Virtual Universities in the United States.

Beginning with a review of the work undertaken by Epper and Garn over 2002 and 2003 to identify the different types of organisational and financial models in use across the 61 Virtual Colleges or Universities (VCUs) that had emerged in the US, the volume then presents a brief but useful typology of VCUs from the editing author. Drawing upon the early work of Wolf and Johnstone and other researchers who first began to investigate the nature of VCUs, Katrina Meyer argues the need for new definitions of Higher Education Institutions in order to make sense of what is happening in VCUs including how they function, and offers distinctions between centralised and decentralised models (respectively those VCUs which offer services by a single body or institution, and those VCUs which function through partnerships).

This is followed by a series of institutional case studies which explore variations on the centralised and decentralised approach, and which collectively cover issues including operating principles and policies, engagement with college, corporate and community partners, funding models, selection of technologies,

and strategic planning. Of particular interest is the paper by Connie Broughton on lessons learned from WashingtonOnline, the first major consortium-based VCU, and the paper by Lynette M Krenelka documenting the short life of the US Open University. This highlighted, amongst other issues, the pitfalls that lie in trying to adapt one particular model (in this case the UK OU model) and associated course materials without due consideration of cultural differences, expectations and practices.

Another key message for universities seeking to expand their online course provision, addressed in several papers but most explicitly in Karen Vignare’s paper What to Expect from a Virtual University, is the need to ensure equivalence or comparability of student support services for those students who are studying at a distance online. The point that good online course provision and good online tutoring will take care of academic development, but is not enough to provide a well-supported, engaging student experience from enrolment to graduation, is a hard one to disagree with.

Overall, Lessons Learned from Virtual Universities is a valuable volume that usefully brings together much of the major work that has documented the development of VCUs and informs our understanding of how they can function. The interested reader may want to follow up on this volume by looking into examples of VCUs within Europe and elsewhere, as the developments and case studies documented in this monograph are within the educational and wider political and cultural context of the US. It might also be noted that the ‘lessons learned’ are a little light on the pedagogical challenges and lessons learned from learning and teaching in virtual universities. However, for an accessible and informative eye-opener to the strategic issues relating to VCUs, this is a good text.

The Future of Higher Education; Policy, Pedagogy and the Student Experience reviewed by Christine Penman

This book is a collection of essays by 13 contributors working in the field of education/pedagogy. It is described as a joint writing effort by the staff of the Centre for Educational Research and Development at the University of Lincoln, a post-1992 university based in Hull.

One can note that the title is not country-specific, a fact emphasised in the introductory sentence in the

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preface which presents this volume as an exploration of the theme ‘at a conceptual level’. This is true but also many references made and conclusions drawn are firmly indebted to the British context. The word ‘future’ is in pole position but the book sets the scene for many of the policies and current practices in Higher Education and as such this is fed forward into suggestions as to what the future might hold.

As an edited volume, it is designed for staff in Higher Education who are either aiming to gain a better understanding of existing and emerging practices or who are engaged in a Postgraduate Certificate or some other form of professional development.

The book has a three-pronged focus – policy, pedagogy and the student experience – and is sub-divided into ten chapters. The cohesive thread is the tension between policy statements and experience on the ground, the emphasis on the need for a better articulation between institutional and individual needs, be it in terms of professional development, technological advancement, or in enhancing the student experience.

I found the Introduction particularly useful as it situates the values and conflicts of HE policy in terms of academic interests and values, and socio-economic remits. In particular, it charts the course of two key reports – the Robbins Report in the 1950s and Dearing Report in 1997 – which gave the impulse to broad, sweeping changes in provision and access, from the binary system of polytechnics versus universities to the flattening of structures after 1992. The following chapters are situated in the context of dealing with two core issues: 1) a widening gap between research- and teaching-based universities, leading to more diversification, specialisation and increased competition in the sector and 2) the fact that university strategies are increasingly led by market imperatives (manifested, for instance, in demand-led course provision and adaptation of teaching strategies to changing learning cohorts). These are indeed thematic watermarks through the ensuing chapters.

Part 1 is quite heterogeneous as it brings together three chapters which explore, in turn, the issue of academic freedom, considerations on the physical teaching environment and the need to embed instructional design in education on sustainable development to deal with issues of ‘dissonance’ (ie the discrepancy between the intellectual grasp of the concepts and personal attitudes which can prevent implementation). I found the first chapter in this section particularly thought provoking as, while it

does not challenge the concept of academic freedom in relation to research, it questions whether total freedom is desirable in relation to teaching since apathy in this area can have a deleterious effect on the student experience.

In Part 2, devoted to pedagogy and the institutional context, three chapters look, in turn, at the place of staff development and that of technology. The chapter on Educational Development Units highlights a variance of the perceptions of EDUs within universities that are seen either as part of the ‘centre’ or more integrated with the work of academic departments. The author’s message is that there is a need to develop reflectiveness among HE practitioners rather than just deliver training. This message is very much echoed in the following two chapters: in the area of continual professional development (CPD), the plea is for a better articulation between institutional and individual needs; in the field of technology, the point is firmly made that while there is no real choice for educators to shrink away from IT competence, a constructivist approach to knowledge is essential in order to alleviate a degree of digital resistance among staff. Future success is predicated on the ability to meet in the middle as use of digital environments is an integrated part of the students’ evolving lifestyle.

In Part 3 the student experience is given central stage. The first section uses the metaphor of the ‘stretched academy’ to highlight the difficulties experienced by students from under-represented groups. The author stresses the importance of the facilitating role of tutors, of the availability of quality contact time which can make or break academic studies. The chapter on student intelligence looks at student surveys, in particular the NSS and concludes that they are positively received by students provided they are seen as contributing to future improvements. The final chapter posits that there is currently a dysfunctional link between the teaching and research remits of universities but that 19th century discourse of better linkage needs to be revisited in order to engage students in a form of Socratic dialogue with their tutors. This chapter is both conceptual and pragmatic in that it provides suggestions for collaborative knowledge enhancement.

In my view the strength of this book of essays lies in its cohesiveness of theme and approach, in particular in its ability to trace back the genesis of particular issues. I found all chapters to be informative and thought provoking as they look into different nooks and crannies of Higher Education and relate them to core values and policies.

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The only weakness I perceive is in the title as the volume draws together background information (the past), current practices (the present) and thoughts

about possible well and ill-conceived trajectories (the future). It therefore offers no crystal ball but a set of reflective pieces along time-lines. •

Web spotlight Edinburgh Napier’s Image Library of free-to-use images

Have you spent ages looking for the perfect image to use in lectures, on WebCT or in a slide presentation only to find that you have to pay a fee or the process involved in downloading the image is long and complicated? Are you disappointed with your own photographic efforts? Then the solution might lie in Corporate Affairs’ Image Library available from the Marketing & Brand intranet pages at staff.napier.ac.uk/services/CorporateAffairs/marketing/ Pages/MarketingBrand.aspx then click

on ‘University Image Bank’ under Quick Links on the right-hand side.

This library of images and digital assets is provided by the photography team and is free to use by Edinburgh Napier staff for University publications, websites and promotional materials and is being added to regularly. It has a search facility and low resolution images are available to download with high resolution versions available by contacting the photographers.

Add the link to your favourites for professional, high quality images to enhance your lectures and materials. •