Eric Stoller

MAY 23, 2018

When I was a college student, there were times when I skipped out on buying a required textbook for a course. Finances were always tight, so I tried to balance my checkbook with buying actual books. Even then, textbooks weren’t cheap. Today, students are paying more and more for their higher education experience. If a university can find ways to make attending college more affordable, accessible, and “high-tech/high-touch”, well, it’s not really an option, it’s a necessity.

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Teaching Matters Experiential Learning

DECEMBER 20, 2018

To wrap up the year, this editorial post celebrates the top ten viewed Teaching Matters blog posts in 2018. This list captures some of the prevalent teaching and learning issues that have been swirling around the general HE zeitgeist this year. Interestingly, three of these posts were written in 2016, showing that the blog’s content is continually being accessed both nationally, and internationally.

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Teaching Matters Academic Support

DECEMBER 19, 2018

MasterCard Foundation Scholars. Photo credit: Muturi Njeri. In this post, Pete Kingsley, the Student Development Coordinator on the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program , describes how the Reflective Coaching scheme is helping support African Mastercard Scholars during their time here at the University of Edinburgh… Over the next seven years, and beginning in 2016, the Mastercard Foundation is supporting 200 African students with full scholarships to study undergraduate and postgraduate

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Teaching Matters Academic Communities

DECEMBER 13, 2018

The main image of the Nitrogen MOOC – in Hungarian. In this post, Dr Andi Móring, from the School of GeoSciences , presents the University’s first ever Hungarian MOOC… On 1 st of October, 2018 the first ever Hungarian MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) was launched by the University of Edinburgh on the EdX platform. This MOOC is the Hungarian version of the online course “Nitrogen: A Global Challenge” created at the School of GeoSciences under the lead of Prof.

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Teaching Matters Online Learning

DECEMBER 11, 2018

Credit: pixabay, geralt, CC0 As part of its ambitious Vision 2025 strategy, the University of Edinburgh is committed to provide all students with an international experience. In this post, Dr Justine Seran, who works in Go Abroad, explains how Edinburgh Global is keen to build capacity and develop skills in virtual exchange and experiential learning to provide new, flexible opportunities for students who cannot go on traditional year-long exchanges abroad… With our university graduates e

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Terminalfour

DECEMBER 10, 2018

Don’t be afraid of what your students have to say and they may just turn out to be your biggest advocates! A first for Loughborough University!

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Hope College Network

DECEMBER 4, 2018

Coming back to campus after Thanksgiving may not sound like any fun. However, there is nothing like Christmas music and festive decorations to make the last couple weeks of the semester that much better. Holland, Michigan, may be well known as a beach town, but there is something so enchanting about 8th Street covered in snow and strung with lights and stockings above the Bultman Student Center fireplace.

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Teaching Matters Student Engagement

NOVEMBER 27, 2018

Photo credit: unsplash, Samson Creative, CC0 In this post, Ludovic Maguire, a Business and Economics student, discusses how the breadth of the Global Challenges in Business course – from critical thinking to business to guest lecturers – makes for a valuable experience that emphasises development in the skills of students… Global Challenges for Business is a new first semester course, which started in 2017, and has the unenviable task of introducing business school undergraduat

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Teaching Matters Student Employment

OCTOBER 30, 2018

Credit: EPSRC Proteus In this post, Dr Helen Szoor-McElhinney, an Engagement Strategist in the Deanery of Clinical Sciences, showcases the University of Edinburgh’s first Interdisciplinary Health and Wellbeing Science Shop, Our Health. A Science Shop is a small entity that carries out “scientific research in a wide range of disciplines – usually free of charge and – on behalf of citizens and local civil society” ( www.livingknowledge.org )… The ideas and pedagogical concepts th

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HECG

DECEMBER 6, 2018

By DAVID MYTON. Whatever the future holds, investment in human capital is “a no-regrets policy” that prepares people for the challenges ahead, says the World Bank in its latest examination of the changing nature of work. Three types of skills, it says, are increasingly important in today’s labour markets: Advanced cognitive skills such as complex problem-solving.

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Collegis Education Data Management

JULY 31, 2018

Collegis Education Sr. Marketing Technology Manager Dan Antonson presented on “Using Search and AI-Driven Analytics to Deliver Instant Answers to Everyone” at the Big Data Tech conference in Bloomington, Minnesota. The conference was hosted by MinneAnalytics , “a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the data science and analytics community in Minnesota, the Upper Midwest, and beyond by providing accessible, authentic and engaging events.” Dan Antonson, Sr.

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Teaching Matters Experiential Learning

NOVEMBER 29, 2018

Photo credit: unsplash, Piron Guillaume, CC0 In this post, Ashley Ferkol, a recent graduate of the MSc Performance Psychology programme at the University, describes the benefits of partnering with a professional body – the NHS – to collect research data for her dissertation project… Across any professional domain there are numerous qualities, skills, and experiences to consider when qualifying an individual as an expert in their field.

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Teaching Matters Academic Support

DECEMBER 18, 2018

All photos used with permission of the people in them. Photos taken by Hamish Macleod. In this post, Dr Jen Ross, co-director of the Centre of Research in Digital Education , details an international three-day workshop on online teaching, which was delivered to a group of academics in Istanbul who had been displaced to Turkey by the Syria crisis. The visit was orchestrated by Jon Turner, Institute for Academic Development (IAD) director, and one of the University of Edinburgh’s key links with t

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Teaching Matters Academic Communities

DECEMBER 12, 2018

Students hand-printing during Welcome Week 2018. Photo credit: Ye Zhiguo. In this post, Professor Mike Shipston, Professor Sue Welburn, Dr John Menzies, and Cristina Matthews, showcase the award-winning Zhejiang University – University of Edinburgh Institute (ZJE) … It is not every day that a transformation in transnational educational programmes is realised.

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Teaching Matters Online Learning

OCTOBER 31, 2018

Credit: unsplash, @frantic, CC0 Over the previous few weeks we’ve heard from a range of lecture recording PTAS projects. In this week’s post, Sarah Cunningham-Burley provides an overview of the other active lecture recording Principal’s Teaching Award Scheme (PTAS) projects, and gives an insight into the work of the Lecture Recording Engagement and Evaluation Group… The Engagement and Evaluation Group was set up to support wide engagement with the opportunities offered by the introdu

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Terminalfour

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

Without a focused strategy it can be money poorly spent. An approach relying purely on outbidding competitors through pay per click is no longer going to work.

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Hope College Network

NOVEMBER 27, 2018

Whether it’s friends, clubs, or a major, finding your “thing” in college can be a daunting task. With about 80 different clubs and student groups at Hope College, you have plenty to choose from! Here are some tips that will hopefully help you determine what “thing” is rig ht for you. Think about your interests. Are you an athlete? You don’t have to be on a Hope varsity team to play sports here; there are many intramural options.

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Dr. Paul Gordon Brown

NOVEMBER 3, 2018

Because developing a residential curriculum entails refocusing your departmental efforts towards student learning, it necessarily follows that you must develop a culture of assessment. A culture of assessment is one in which decisions are data-driven and tested through the design, implementation, and review of assessment measures. As Lakos and Phipps (2004) describe it, a culture of assessment is: An organizational environment in which decisions are based on facts, research, and analysis, and wh

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Teaching Matters Student Engagement

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

A photo of the Afro-West Indian Association from 1915. Credit to Margaret Busby, a relative of Clara Christian, for showing the photo to Uncovered. In this post, Hannah McGurk, a second year student studying German and English Literature, showcases a student-led, research project – UncoverEd – which aims to uncover the history of University of Edinburgh alumnae from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Americas from the 1780s to the 1980s… UncoverEd is a collaborative and decolonisi

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Teaching Matters Student Employment

OCTOBER 11, 2018

Global Challenges for Business Poster Presentation Award Night in the Playfair Library, Dr Sarah Ivory with winning students. Photo credit: Eoin Carey. In this post, Dr Sarah Ivory, a lecturer in the Business School, reflects on why an interdisciplinary course is so important to prepare undergraduate business students for professional employment in an uncertain world… If you ask academics ‘ what is the purpose of undergraduate education ?

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Academic Librarian

MARCH 28, 2018

In addition to a lot of time to meditate, my last year of serious illness has given me a lot of time to think, including about my job and career. I seem to be of the age where people start considering what they’ve done with their life so far, and evaluating whether it was worth doing and whether they were successful at it. What does it mean to have a successful career?

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Collegis Education Data Management

APRIL 23, 2018

Resource constrained colleges are looking for ways to do more with less. The topic of process improvement and ways to increase efficiencies had our audience’s attention at the February 2018 Collegis Enrollment Growth Summit. Janyce B. Fadden, director of strategic engagement at University of North Alabama’s College of Business, presented on the process improvement philosophy called Lean Higher Ed.

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Teaching Matters Experiential Learning

NOVEMBER 22, 2018

Orestis teaching the Towers project in Ghana. Photo credit: DIEM Project (E4C) This post sees Ryan Gilmour, an electrical engineering student and the ex-Engineering for Change (E4C) society president, talk about the society’s work across schools in Edinburgh on Wednesday afternoons… It seems a fitting time for a discussion around the teaching of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) one year into the Scottish Government’s five-year plan to increase STEM training and teaching,

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Teaching Matters Academic Support

DECEMBER 7, 2018

Image credit: Chris Sheridan Following on from last month’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Week , this extra post sees Chris Sheridan, eLearning coordinator for the Clinical Trials programme with the Usher Institute, exploring how monitoring online activity using learning analytics can help staff spot at-risk students… It’s the start of term.

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Teaching Matters Academic Communities

DECEMBER 5, 2018

Credit: unsplash, @cferdo, CC0 This month’s issue celebrates global connections in learning and teaching. As Professor James Smith highlighted in an earlier blog post on Internationalisation and Teaching , University of Edinburgh is one of the most international universities in the world. Previous blog posts have highlighted international collaborations with Shanghai College of Fashion , partnerships with African scholars in the MasterCard Foundation Scholar programme , and the impact of

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Teaching Matters Online Learning

OCTOBER 17, 2018

Credit: Pixabay, pixelheart, CC0 At the School of Engineering, Dave Laurenson, James Hopgood and a team of students are exploring ways to enhance engagement with Media Hopper Replay. In this post, they share the findings of their comparative study, funded by a PTAS grant… The context of this study is based on the awareness that contemporary media consumption, such as on YouTube, is typically through short, focused content, presented as part of a meta-enhanced ‘channel’, which c

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Terminalfour

NOVEMBER 14, 2018

Our 5th international Higher Education survey to date has now launched, packed with digital marketing insights. How do you compare? What are the latest trends?

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Hope College Network

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. When I tell people this, I generally get a lot of questions asking why. No, it’s not because my favorite food is mashed potatoes (though it definitely takes a nice second to puppy chow) or because I love watching the Lions lose every year. It’s the idea of taking a specific day out of your life to be thankful.

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Dr. Paul Gordon Brown

OCTOBER 22, 2018

Perspective I attended my first Institute on the Curricular Approach (then the Residential Curriculum Institute) in 2010. Since that point I have attended 8 of the 12 total Institutes and served on faculty and planning committees for 6 of them. With the most recent Institute wrapping up this past week in Chicago, I left the.

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Teaching Matters Student Engagement

SEPTEMBER 3, 2018

Credit: Mihaela Bodlovic September rolls in on the back of a wonderful month of festival and fringe delights. Congratulations to all those who performed at the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas – it was a huge success! This month’s theme focuses on student engagement. How students are inspired and motivated to invest in their learning, what sort of initiatives and spaces institutions create to support engaged learners, and how students can shape the direction of their learning, are all que

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Teaching Matters Student Employment

SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

Credit: Pixabay, workandapix, CC0 How do you engage students in large lectures? Richard Gratwick, University Teacher in the School of Mathematics, describes how he redesigned the “skills” component of a third-year mathematics course to ensure that students in a large lecture got extensive practise in developing their presentation skills… Giving a presentation will be an unavoidable exercise for most of our graduates.

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Academic Librarian

APRIL 26, 2018

Within the last week I’ve read about a leftist creative writing professor writing nasty things on Twitter and the ensuing right-wing demand that she be fired or punished, as well as about a feminist journalist in Canada who was vilified and professionally ostracized by other feminists because she wasn’t feminist enough for them. If you don’t want to be terrorized by a mob, don’t take a political stand on anything, because whatever your stance, and whatever your attitude or intentions, there will

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Teaching Matters Academic Support

DECEMBER 6, 2018

Students in front of their posters at the Global Challenges in Business 2018 Poster Awards Ceremony In this post, Business with Marketing student, Dasha Selivanova, reports back on the Global Challenges in Business Awards Ceremony Night 2018… Most students who have just joined university are nervous, shy, don’t know how to cook, and are confused about all the academia.

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Teaching Matters Academic Support

NOVEMBER 29, 2018

Photo credit: Susan Thomson Following on from Karen and Mariana’s post , Samuel Shteinberg, a Sustainable Development student, and Nathan, a Biology student, reflect on their experiences of ‘facilitated group discussions’, which are an integral part of the Our Changing World course tutorials… Samuel I walked into my first Our Changing World (OCW) tutorial ten minutes late.

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Teaching Matters Academic Support

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

Media Hopper Replay student helpers This, the final post in our lecture recording mini-series , is devoted to the views and thoughts of our students – the recipients of lecture recordings. The post features a range of ‘mini-blogs’ from students who use lecture recording to support their learning… Students have been at the heart of the Lecture Recording Programme, from procurement through to delivery and support, providing a unique insight into students’ needs and wants from a lecture

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Teaching Matters Academic Communities

NOVEMBER 22, 2018

In this post, 2nd year students of Sustainable Development, Karen Fonstad and Mariana Scholzova, reflect on their involvement in the Our Changing World series. Our Changing World is now in its ninth year, and it is a credit-bearing course. The course is run by the Deanery of Biomedical Sciences but is open to all pre-honours students, and also invites the public to attend the talks alongside the students… Our Changing World is a valuable course because it encourages students to interact w

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Teaching Matters Academic Support

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

Photo credit: unsplash, Patrick Tomasso, CC0 In this blog post, Anne-Marie Scott, Deputy Director of Learning, Teaching and Web Service, shares summaries and thoughts from some of the most recently published papers she has been reading about lecture recording… Although we have a long history with lecture recording at Edinburgh and our own expertise to draw from, as we scale-up provision, we have also made sure to look outside our institution and learn from others.

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