Discover and share good practice for smarter working universities

DMU Replay Student View

Raising the quality of teaching and learning for disabled students

Using tech to provide ways to make teaching and learning more accessible has won De Montfort University admiring words from government. Abigail Moriarty explains how DMU Replay works and why it doesn't only aid students with disabilities.
HEFCE logo

Hefce issues funding call and study supporting innovation in teaching and learning

Improving student outcomes and survival in a marketised environment are amongst the drivers for innovation in teaching in learning, according to a Hefce study. A blogpost by Hefce's Amanda Wilcox outlining the findings of the study also launches a funding call for institutions wishing to develop experimental innovations in teaching and learning.
Megan Dunn NUS vice president

Value me not my money: why students are key to good decision making

The notion of the student as a consumer is one that is gaining popularity. But NUS vice president (higher education) Megan Dunn says universities need to start seeing students as full members of their community who should play an active role in it, rather than customers, easily impressed by shiny new buildings.

How lean can nurture the relationship between educators and students

At the University of Winchester, academics are working with professional services to improve the student and staff experience. Dr Tammi Sinha, one of the academics in the HE continuous improvement unit, describes the benefits of lean approaches from the perspective of an educator.

i-MAP study, September 2015

The follow up to the original i-MAP project finds that a significant number of higher education institutions that adopted i-MAP's market-led approach to academic programme development saw increased levels of efficiency in their processes.

What we’ve learned from pedagogic podcasting

Academics at Birkbeck College have sought to take their teaching beyond the lecture room with a weekly podcast to support their British politics module. Dr Dermot Hodson, reader in political economy and Dr Ben Worthy, lecturer in politics outline the lessons from the initiative over the past two years.

Exploring institutional practices in the post-digital age

The 15th annual Academic Practice and Technology conference included discussions around student engagement and digital provision and provided an opportunity to expand on ideas that can improve the link between students and institutions. Steve Dawes writes on the Association for Learning Technology blog about how the event showed that there is still a willingness to use digital technology to help students individually as well as part of a group.
Virtual reality

What are the features of excellent technology-enhanced teaching?

Technology from tablets to virtual reality headsets can be used in a range of ways to enable great teaching and improve student outcomes. Jisc's Sarah Davies offers her expert view on what helps technology-enhanced teaching make the grade.
The ALT conference. Photo credit : Chris Bull CC-BY-NC-SA ALT https://flic.kr/p/yuDXkn

Connect, collaborate and create with the Association for Learning Technology

September sees the return of the ALT Annual Conference for its 23rd year. Martin Hawksey explains some of the hot issues preoccupying the minds of delegates and looks forward to this year’s event, organised by the UK's leading membership organisation in the learning technology field.

The UK Higher Education Learning Space Toolkit: a SCHOMS, AUDE and UCISA collaboration

This toolkit has been produced by three higher education organisations to help their members share best practice and work more effectively when creating learning spaces. It is intended to serve both as a practical guide and as a source of inspiration in the design of spaces that delight and motivate students, as well as meet their functional needs.