(Short paper - 30 mins)
Discussing what 4 years of student and staff digital research has informed us about trends
We need to understand the staff and student digital experience as this underpins much of our higher level activities. We need to understand areas we are doing well and those we need to improve.
Library assistants / Librarians / Managers in libraries / Learning developers / Learning technologists / Academic staff / Student support professionals/ Learning designers
Digital impacts all our experiences - all attendees will benefit from know areas they can influence.
Asking participants about their experiences in small groups and then sharing with the room - then contextualise with the research.
(Short paper - 30 mins)
Behavioural scientists Heinrich at al. (2010) argued that the majority of academic research was carried out in WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic societies. They argue that American and Western Europeans focus on analytical reasoning by decontextualising to conceptualise generalizable rules, whereas people from other types of society see the world differently. This talk will argue that that critical thinking is culturally specific to WEIRD societies. Recently, critical thinking scholars have called for cultural diversity to be acknowledged in teaching and learning (Brookfield, 2017) but they have stopped short of researching and generating frameworks for how this could be applied to the practice and teaching of critical thinking. Campbell-Stevens (2020) coined the term Global Majority, a collective term for people who are racially minoritized due to the colour of their skin. Representing about 80% of the world’s population, it includes people who live in or are descended from the global south including: Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Campbell-Stevens (2009) further argues for GEM educationalists to be able to lead and teach within their own cultural paradigms. Mbembe (2017) argues that ‘indigenous’ wisdom can help teachers to change their teaching by valuing diverse ways of thinking and collective thought. The session will be in 2 parts. The first 15 minutes is a talk consisting of provocations to encourage the audience to confront their own WEIRD thinking. The second part includes collaborative activities to support participants to further their shifting thinking or put new insights into their research or teaching practice.
Brookfield (2017) Becoming a critically reflective teacher. 2nd San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Campbell-Stevens, R. (2020) Global Majority; Decolonising the language and Reframing the Conversation about Race. Leeds-Beckett [online] Available from: https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/-/media/files/schools/school-of-education/final-leeds-beckett-1102-global-majority.pdf
Campbell-Stephens. (2009). Investing in diversity: changing the face (and the heart) of educational leadership. School Leadership & Management, 29(3), 321–331. Available from DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13632430902793726
Heinrich, J. Heine, S. and Norenzayan, A. (2010) The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and brain Sciences 33 pp61-135
Mbembe, A. J. (2016). Decolonizing the university: New directions. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, 15(1), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022215618513
(Short paper - 30 mins)
There has been little research into student perceptions of learning development tutorials despite learning development existing in most institutions for over twenty years. Analysis from annual demographic data from tutorial attendance at the University of Northampton shows that more Black women use the LD provision than Black males and even fewer Black males under the age of 20 use the service. Over 25% of tutorials are attended by students identifying as Black. This mirrors the findings of Coulson and Loddick (2020) who acknowledged in research on learning development and student attainment that students from a black ethnic background, particularly females, were more likely to attend tutorials. However, little exploration into the reasons why have been researched. This presentation will conclude the findings of an internally funded collaborative project to explore the perceptions of Black students and learning development. Due to the nature of investigating a sensitive topic, it was deemed essential that a project assistant is employed who has lived experience and identifies as Black. The project assistant will predominantly conduct the research with Black students and gain their perspectives during focus groups or interviews. The project has been planned to ensure that the project assistant influences the research by offering autonomy to design the project and recruit participants. It is hoped that this project will offer a unique perspective to inform learning development practice and provision. By the conference the project will have finished and offer an insight to the findings.
These mini-keynotes will showcase the range of breadth of research undertaken by the Educational Linguistics Team at the University of Northampton
(Short paper - 30 mins)
As an Academic Librarian I dived straight into online teaching when the UK went into Lockdown in 2020. Before 2020 I delivered the odd, one-off online teaching session, at the end of March 2020 every session was delivered online. In true LLS fashion, I used research to inform my practice. Over the next three years my teaching strategies evolved, as I tried out new tools, gathered ideas from the literature and received feedback from students and colleagues. Although the majority of teaching in HE has moved back to face-to-face delivery, subject areas with large student cohorts have retained their online teaching as a way of managing capacity and timetabling issues. During this presentation, I will demonstrate the different strategies that I have employed when delivering active online teaching sessions to large groups of students. The session will share how the strategies have developed and adapted overtime, reflecting on the experience of multiple sessions. Technologies used include online meeting software (Zoom, MS Teams), virtual classrooms (Blackboard Collaborate), interactive tools (Mentimeter, Xerte, Padlet and GoogleDocs) and webpages such as LibGuides to coordinate sessions. I will also discuss the benefits and shortcomings of the strategies and tools based on my experience. Attendees will have the opportunity to try out the activities and feedback on their experiences. Ideas for improving the sessions will be gratefully received!
(Short paper - 30 mins)
Generative Artificial Intelligence
Generative AI tools have the potential to influence student's learning; little is known about their understanding and uses for learning. This talk will explore this topic focusing on perception and uses.
Library assistants / Librarians / Managers in libraries / Learning developers / Learning technologists / Academic staff / Student support professionals / Learning designers
Staff will gain an awareness of the Generative AI technologies available to students and how these could be used to support their learning outcomes.
Attendees will gain a broader understanding of both these technologies and their potential uses to shape future learning.
We will include Polling and a Word cloud.