Eric Stoller
DECEMBER 4, 2017
The following is an excerpt from Chris Douce’s review of my keynote “How digital engagement enhances the student experience” presented at the Higher Education Academy’s HEA 2017 Annual conference: Generation TEF. The opening keynote was by Eric Stoller. Eric has built a consultancy about using technology and social media to create digital engagement , with a particular emphasis on higher education.
Teaching Matters Academic Communities
DECEMBER 19, 2017
CC0 We have just launched the first ever Digitisation Strategy for the University of Edinburgh. The University has world-class collections of books, archives, art and museum objects, whose potential for learning and teaching can be unlocked through digitisation. We are investing in a new programme of digitisation so there is more online content for students and teachers to use.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Teaching Matters Academic Support
DECEMBER 5, 2017
iStock [yesfoto] It’s an exciting time for internationalisation and teaching and learning in higher education. Rapid growth in ‘transnational education’ creates opportunities to collaborate with new partners, adopt new approaches and technologies, and even teach in new places. This blog highlights some of the innovative work going on at Edinburgh (and around the world).
Teaching Matters Student Employment
NOVEMBER 30, 2017
Student Experience Students commonly give feedback that they would like ‘real-life’ opportunities to use their degree during study. Placements allow this but are quite challenging to resource. Volunteering opportunities can be hugely valuable and offer similar experience, especially when related to the degree discipline. Our students feel under pressure to get involved in volunteering.
Hope College Network
NOVEMBER 29, 2017
Pine Ridge, South Dakota One of the unique academic experiences that Hope College offers students is to study over the summer months through May, June and July terms. For many Hope students, this is a chance to travel or spend some more time in lovely Holland and build a deeper community with the members of one class. In May 2016, myself, a group of Hope women and an extraordinary Religion professor packed into a twelve-passenger van and drove off into the Badlands of South Dakota.
Teaching Matters Experiential Learning
NOVEMBER 17, 2017
iStock [fanjianhua] Encouraging reflection on learning is becoming increasingly central to the experience of all students within the University. Nursing is recognised as having facilitated this approach to learning within the curriculum for a number of years. There are a variety of approaches and opportunities for reflection within the curriculum, yet students do find it challenging to move from describing accounts of their experiences; to be more critically reflective of the experience and the
Teaching Matters Online Learning
OCTOBER 27, 2017
iStock [ConstantinosZ] Questions arise when one thinks about the idea of learning, such as ‘what do we mean by learning?’, ‘where does it happen?’, ‘who does it?’, and ‘what does it have to do with knowledge?’ How one proceeds towards an understanding of what learning is -or what learning could be- does matter. Approaching learning with causality in mind, a taste for abstraction, and an impulse to categorise, can generate a meaningful and useful set of learning objectives to guide teaching desig
Student Affairs Connection brings together the best content for student affair professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Terminalfour
DECEMBER 6, 2017
Before people get caught up in the fast-approaching festive season, we wanted to bid a fond farewell to our freakiest of holidays.
Collegis Education Data Management
NOVEMBER 8, 2017
Presenter: Dan Antonson. Senior Manager of Marketing Technology. Collegis Education. Easy ways to make sense of admissions data. Admissions teams tell us that they want to use data, but find it hard to manage. And let’s face it: all too often data lacks meaning. We’ll help you connect the dots between the data you have and the data you want. Consider this a continuation of our July 2017 webinar that covered how to improve the value of data captured by admissions.
Academic Librarian
JUNE 2, 2017
This blog is approaching its tenth anniversary, and I realized that its tenth year has been one of silence. Partly I’ve been working (slowly) on another book, partly I’ve been chairing a really busy ACRL committee that produces lengthy documents , and partly I’ve less incentive to blog since one provocative librarian has ceased publishing laughable false dichotomies about libraries and another has ceased all public activity due, supposedly, to “threats and politics.
Eric Stoller
NOVEMBER 10, 2017
Audio from a podcast interview that I did with the Efficiency Exchange back in April at Jisc ‘s DigiFest event. I had a cold, hence the reason why my voice is a bit off. Hope you enjoy this quick clip.
Teaching Matters Academic Communities
DECEMBER 12, 2017
CC0 [Pexels] As academics, I believe that we have a responsibility to create opportunities for equitable access to higher education. The delivery of online, distance learning programmes at the University of Edinburgh has produced a vast increase in the number of students from Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), who otherwise would not be able to undertake study at the University.
Teaching Matters Academic Support
NOVEMBER 21, 2017
iStock [agsandrew] Kevin Parker is a US-based writer for MastersDegree.net, here he shares his thoughts on University teaching and effective distance-learning approaches for disabled students. Being a professor is quite the challenge and it’s regarded as an art of its own. We spend years in university and then more time to prepare to face students.
Teaching Matters Student Employment
AUGUST 17, 2017
iStock [BrianAJackson] Several previous posts on Teaching Matters have focused on graduate attributes – the skills, abilities, attitudes and approaches that students develop “through meaningful experiences and the processes of learning and reflection” (from Definition: what are Graduate Attributes? ). But what do students understand about graduate attributes?
Hope College Network
NOVEMBER 10, 2017
THE BEACHES Whether it’s Big Ol’ Red (aka Holland State Park), Tunnel Beach, Laketown Dunes, The Bowl, or some random beach front you found on a drive, everyone has their favorite beach and it’s a must no matter what time of year. Even in the depths of winter, my friends and I will bundle up in coats and blankets, trek out to some Lake Michigan beachfront, and watch the stars for probably longer than we should.
Teaching Matters Experiential Learning
OCTOBER 6, 2017
The Festival of Creative Learning , now entering its second year, is a year-long series of events exploring creative learning and innovation at the University of Edinburgh. With this blog post we are delighted to announce the call for applications to participate in the curated week of the Festival, taking place from 19th – 23rd February 2018. This is a unique opportunity for you to embrace your creative spirit and find space for your imagination to flourish.
Teaching Matters Online Learning
OCTOBER 12, 2017
By NSF/Josh Landis, employee 1999-2001 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons “The most memorable part of @osfair2017 was learning of The Penguin Effect: Waiting for someone else to ‘jump first’ to assess risks.” Jon Tennant , September 2017 The Wikimedia residency at the University of Edinburgh has supported three Wikipedia in the Classroom assignments in year one (2016/2017) in 3 very different disciplines: Reproductive Biology Hons.; Translation Studies MSc ; and Worl
Teaching Matters Student Engagement
SEPTEMBER 19, 2017
iStock [kubkoo] Teaching at scale poses specific challenges. How do we maintain student engagement in that seemingly anonymous sea of students in the large lecture hall, and how can the same strategy do so for each individual with different backgrounds and needs? Having just completed a secondment with the Institute for Academic Development evaluating the new ‘quecture’ approach to the flipped classroom, over two full teaching cycles, I am starting to believe that I might have something.
Terminalfour
NOVEMBER 20, 2017
A new blog series called “Scrolled by this week”, featuring Marquette University, University of Aberystwyth and Perdue University
Teaching Matters Academic Communities
DECEMBER 7, 2017
An academic from Edinburgh College of Art, Rachel Simmonds, shares her experience of collaborating with a Chinese higher education institution… Over eight years ago the School of Design, one of the five schools that make up Edinburgh College of Art (ECA), began looking into the possibility of a collaboration project with Donghua University, Shanghai, which is well known within China as being a centre of excellence for fashion teaching.
Teaching Matters Academic Support
NOVEMBER 9, 2017
iStock [nambitomo] This week’s lighthearted news: someone’s paid $1.56m for a scribbled note from 1922, which reads (translating from the German) “a calm and modest life is happier than a life of successful but constantly agitated striving.” It was from Albert Einstein, who had just won the Nobel prize. He doesn’t say striving is bad, but he does remind us to consider options for happiness and peace.
Teaching Matters Academic Support
NOVEMBER 2, 2017
iStock [a-poselenov] The theme of student mental health has been covered recently in the national press which has been positive in that this has focused attention on the need for us to work together to enable students to flourish at university. Mental health at universities needs to be everybody’s business and, as outlined within a recent Universities UK report , given its multiple determinants and consequences, this requires a “whole-university approach”- we are looking at how we can achieve th
Hope College Network
OCTOBER 30, 2017
By: Eddie Cervantes Growing up in Chicago, there was always something to do whether it was in my neighborhood, downtown, or even in a neighborhood on the other side of the city. Transportation was never an issue, it allowed us to get from one side of the city to the other without ever switching a bus or train. However, there are some cons of living in the city.
Teaching Matters Academic Support
OCTOBER 19, 2017
iStock [JamesBrey] How can we support our students through their degrees while providing a sense of place and community? This is a central question animating discussions at all levels of the University. Although there are many different answers, one thing is certain: there is no one size fits all approach. Large, diverse Schools like my own – Literatures, Languages and Cultures – also present their own set of unique challenges.
Teaching Matters Academic Communities
OCTOBER 18, 2017
iStock [michellegibson] In a post from November 2016 , Dr Esther Mijers told Teaching Matters about how reforms to the pre-honours curriculum in History, including the implementation of a new training course for first-year students, The Historians’ Toolkit, constituted the most important innovation in teaching in the department since the creation of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology over a decade ago.
Hope College Network
OCTOBER 12, 2017
By: Arianna Bratt “And the winner of the 2017 Nykerk Cup Competition is…” Those words will inevitably ring through DeVos Field House in just three short weeks, the night of October 28 th to be exact. But, the words that will follow this red-underlined-incomplete-sentence are yet to be fought, rehearsed, sang, played, spoke, and deliberated over. The ultimate question remains: WHO WILL REIGN NYKERK CUP CHAMP?
Teaching Matters Academic Communities
OCTOBER 10, 2017
iStock [Todor Tsvetkov] Alison Thomas works in English Language Education as an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teacher. Here she shares the work of English Language Education. English Language Education is situated within the Centre for Open Learning (COL), which forms part of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science. We find as we are out and about on campus that there can be misconceptions amongst students and staff about who we are and what we actually do.
Teaching Matters Online Learning
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017
iStock [da vooda] Dr David Grumett is Chancellor’s Fellow in Christian Ethics and Practical Theology in the School of Divinity and Eli Appleby-Donald was the Technology Support Officer at the School of Divinity, and now works as a Learning Technologist in the Edinburgh College of Art. Here David and Eli share their thoughts on lecture capture, originally published on Teaching Matters in June 2016.
Teaching Matters Online Learning
SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
Ross Galloway is a Senior Teaching Development Officer in the School of Physics and Astronomy, here he shares his thoughts on teaching large groups, originally published on Teaching Matters in October 2016. For the last few years, I have taught the first year introductory physics courses, Physics 1A and 1B. These are the largest classes in the School of Physics and Astronomy, typically having student numbers of around 300 or so.
Teaching Matters Online Learning
SEPTEMBER 7, 2017
With the University rolling out lecture recording equipment in 400 rooms by 2019, many may be concerned about how this will affect lecture attendance. As part of my internship with the implementation team working on the rollout of lecture recording, I decided to read some of the literature on this topic. Firstly, does lecture attendance improve performance?
Teaching Matters Academic Communities
SEPTEMBER 5, 2017
iStock [Henrik500] The experienced Teachers’ Network launched in 2016 with the aim of providing a discussion space for experienced teachers around the University. The network is currently led by Richard Blythe (School of Physics and Astronomy), Chris Perkins (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures) and Velda McCune (Institute for Academic Development).
Hope College Network
AUGUST 22, 2017
Throughout the weeks of June and July, the halls of Schaap Science Center bubbled with activity as hundreds of children excitedly chattered about newfound lessons as they clutched goodie bags full of goofy but cool science projects. This summer marked the 20th year of Hope College’s annual ExploreHope camps, hands-on workshops meant to stimulate love and learning for youngsters in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and while ExploreHope promises kids a great time, it also provi
Teaching Matters Academic Communities
AUGUST 15, 2017
CC [alljengi] Colleagues in the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security have used a new process to design degrees in Agricultural Science. The new Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security at the University of Edinburgh will provide world-leading research and innovation in support of global food and environmental security, sustainable rural development, and human and animal wellbeing.
Teaching Matters Academic Support
AUGUST 10, 2017
iStock [shuoshu] Many of us will have been taught by, or worked as a postgraduate tutor. Postgraduates make up a majority of those who work as teaching assistants, tutors, and demonstrators at the University of Edinburgh and elsewhere. It is therefore important that postgraduates who teach are trained, developed, and supported in their roles. Providing the right support and guidance for those postgraduates is an issue that was picked up in the last Enhancement-Led Institutional Review cycle.
Teaching Matters Academic Support
JULY 27, 2017
Poor academic practice and academic misconduct cases are much more visible and frequent among taught undergraduate and postgraduate assessment than they are in PhD work. However cases do occur and the consequences are potentially catastrophic and extremely distressing for all concerned. Cases we are aware of have involved the external examiner identifying plagiarised material with an almost forensic level of rigor – exactly what we expect of any external examiners doing their job.
Teaching Matters Academic Support
JULY 20, 2017
For the past three years, the Scottish Higher Education sector has been exploring student transitions in, through and out of university as part of the national Enhancement Themes. I was a member of the University’s Institutional Team which was responsible for developing and coordinating a programme of work and, from an early stage, it was agreed that it would be useful to provide a resource for staff on important transitions and what good transitions look like.
Teaching Matters Academic Communities
JULY 11, 2017
University teaching often happens ‘in isolation’ involving a single teacher in a lecture theatre or tutorial room. This limits opportunities to pick up new ideas for enhancing teaching and learning through seeing others ‘in action’, or to receive constructive feedback on your own teaching. Peer observation can help overcome these challenges, and is widely recognised as an effective approach to enhancing teaching.
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
130 
Let's personalize your content