Developing the Guided Learner Journey

The University of Hertfordshire was one of the first UK universities to embrace the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and embed it as part of our learning strategy to personalise and enhance the student experience. Our in-house built platform, Studynet, which has been in continuous use and ongoing development since 2001, has facilitated a continuum of student engagement from blended approaches to studying via online or distance learning modes. In 2014 we embarked on a two year, in-depth consultation process with students and staff to identify the vision for our future online environment. Through the process we co-developed a set of pedagogic principles and aspirations for our new VLE which resulted in our vision of a ‘Guided Learner Journey’ (GLJ). To enable our vision we purchased Canvas (a virtual learning environment) and Talis (a reading management software) and through our close working relationship, and the innovative approach of Canvas, we have embedded the softwares within Studynet to enable the implementation of the GLJ. In our presentation we will share our consultation and prototyping process as well as well as training programme we have developed to ensure the smooth implementation of our vision.Non peer reviewe

Academic leadership at the programme level to address the BME attainment gap

© 2018 Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. As the publisher of this work, the Leadership Foundation would like to encourage its circulation as widely as possible while retaining the copyright. Permission is granted to reproduce for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending are prohibited. If you would like to use this work for your own non-commercial personal or educational purposes – for example download, save, perform or distribute it in any format, including translation – you may do so without written permission. Please note that the following will be required: The Leadership Foundation and the author(s) are credited, Our website address www.lfhe.ac.uk is prominently displayed, The text is not altered and is used in full, The work is not resold, and a copy of the work or link to its use online is sent to the Leadership Foundation.The BME attainment gap (i.e. the difference in the percentage of White students achieving a first or upper second class degree (2i) compared to the percentage of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students achieving a first or 2i degree) has been a long-standing concern within the higher education sector. Many initiatives and projects have identified the need for Institutional commitment and senior leadership to develop inclusive practice strategies but there has been limited discussion on the importance of localised leadership to ensure that strategies are operationalised and enhancements are embedded and sustained. Within the University we have recognised the crucial role of the programme leader and the impact of localised leadership on the student experience. This project provided us with an ideal opportunity to consider how programme leaders reviewed their programmes and identified inclusivity related enhancements. The consideration of programme level data (Value Added (VA) scores) enabled programme leaders to consider ethnicity related attainment gaps within their courses and to discuss appropriate actions with their programme teams. The aim of the project was to support academic leadership at the programme level to enable inclusive curriculum enhancements and subsequent improvements in outcomes for students from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds. The project thus enabled the integrated discussion of leadership, equality and learning and teaching. Following attendance at workshops that focused on promoting inclusive curriculum approaches for programme leaders, and up to three members of their programme team, structured interviews were conducted with 30 programme leaders. The aims of the interviews were to: explore examples of inclusive practice and actions identified by the programme leader as well as any potential challenges they perceived in trying to enhance inclusive practice. Objective review of annual monitoring and evaluation reports (AMERs) plus follow up discussions with programme leaders, enabled the identification of the range of actions implemented by programme teams as well as consideration of any benefits and challenges associated with implementing inclusive practice changes. Analysis of the initial interview transcriptions resulted in classification of responses into one of three categories on the basis of their expressed intention, or lack of intention to influence change. The three categories were: • Effecting programme level change • Personal commitment to inclusivity • Limited action Effecting programme level change: some programme leaders had an in-depth understanding of the challenges associated with ethnicity related attainment gaps. They had engaged in training previously and were aware of national data and in some cases, discipline related data. They had already made some changes to their own practice and identified clear actions to influence change across the programme. Some examples included; programme leaders raising the profile of BME authors by reviewing reading lists and resources to ensure they were inclusive and representative; increasing the use of BME case studies in the curriculum; and showcasing BME role models within the programme. Personal commitment to inclusivity: for some programme leaders, the workshop stimulated personal change, for example, in their own teaching, and/or within their module. They identified the need for enhancements but were not yet influencing change in the wider programme team. Barriers identified by programme leaders in this group included the challenge of leading without line management responsibility. Limited action: A number of programme leaders identified limited actions or no actions. Lack of action seemed to relate to one of four themes: i) general lack of awareness; ii) competing priorities and discussion of other issues such as gender equality; iii) deficit approaches where actions focused on student support; iv) deflection of responsibility. The reviewing of AMERs enabled the identification of a range of actions associated with inclusive practice and follow-up discussions with programme leaders provided details on how actions were being implemented as well as challenges associated with implementing change. Despite all programme leaders having attended a very similar workshop there was variability in approach when considering inclusive curriculum actions. Programme leaders had different levels of understanding based on their own previous experiences as well as the amount of race-related staff development in which they had previously engaged and their willingness to consider their practice and their own privilege. To support programme leaders in leading change at the programme level, 11 case studies of good practice have been produced. The case studies provide different examples of race related actions and are drawn from programmes reflecting a range of disciplines, size of cohort and level of study

Developing a BME Student Advocate Programme

In 2017-18 the University of Hertfordshire designed and implemented a BME Student Advocate programme to support an institutional objective to reduce the attainment gap. Working in partnership with Hertfordshire Students Union, ten advocates were appointed to work with each of the academic schools. The BME student advocates carried our different activities depending on the needs of their academic school. Activities included; holding focus groups with BME students; representation of BME students at school meetings; the challenge of assumptions of staff members; critique of curricula and the promotion of race equality. Benefits for staff members included; having an advocate to discuss inclusive practice ideas with; receiving feedback about BME student experiences; being challenged on assumptions; forming student-staff partnerships. The work of the advocates was highly valued by staff within the university and recognising the impact of their work, the university has fully funded the programme for the next academic year

How did the work impact me? Reflections of the researchers and facilitators of BME success projects

Programme leaders and members of programme teams attended inclusive teaching workshops focused on race equality. After the workshops, programme leaders were interviewed to discuss how they were going to implement inclusive practice enhancements. The core team who facilitated the workshops and conducted the interviews reflected on their experiences of leading change associated with reducing the BME attainment gap. Considering a critical incident which theyd experienced during the workshop or during the interviews, they each wrote personal narratives to explore emotions which the incident had stimulated as well as consideration of how theyd responded at the time and what they could have done differently. The four narratives were considered to identify key themes. Two common themes identified were the stimulation of negative emotions (e.g. anger) and the inability to challenge comments and stereotyping assumptions at the time of the incident. Considering the results in light of literature associated with staff development, the use of personal narrative and leading diversity related change, in addition to autoethnographical thoughts associated with the authors own experiences of race, racism and privilege, five recommendations for colleagues involved in race-related staff development were identified

The University of Hertfordshire’s Curriculum Design Tool-kit

The University of Hertfordshire’s Blended Learning Unit and Learning and Teaching Institute have designed a Curriculum Design Toolkit to help staff take a considered look at their current curricula in terms of their learning, teaching, assessment and the learning environments that they provide. This article provides background information on the toolkit as well as guidance on accessing the resources. The toolkit is split into eight strands, each of which repre-sents a relevant challenge within Higher Education teaching which has received prominence over the last five years. The toolkit is based on the ethos and design of Chickering and Gamson’s “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education” (1987).Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Top 10 tips to support BME student success

Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Peer assessment : educationally effective and resource efficient

Original article can be found at : http://www.herts.ac.uk/blip Copyright University of HertfordshirePeer assessment was included within a Level 4 Human Physiology module at the Univer-sity of Hertfordshire following a periodic programme review during the academic year 2006-2007. The peer assessment exercise was thought to be beneficial in terms of student learning as it: engaged students explicitly with marking criteria; stimulated dialogue around assessment and feedback and ensured prompt feedback. It was beneficial for staff as it reduced the marking burden and enabled students to receive prompt feedback on their work. Performance on subsequent laboratory reports supported the argument that peer assess-ment enhanced student learning and that the skills associated with data analysis and aca-demic writing can be transferred across modules. Comparison of student performance on a laboratory report (tutor assessed) submitted prior to the peer assessment activity, with a later submission of a laboratory report (tutor assessed) which took place after the peer assessment activity, demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in performance on the second assignment (p<0.001). However, a number of possible confounding factors could also have influenced student improvement e.g. improved understanding over time; differing support provision for the two assignments, differing requirements in terms of the nature of the assignments and differing staff members teaching and assessing the assign-ments. The introduction of a reflective questionnaire to the peer assessment process, during the 2009-2010 academic year enabled better understanding of the student perceptions of peer assessment. Of those students who responded, 77% indicated that peer assessment was beneficial for their learning. Over 80% indicated that they had benefited from being engaged with the marking criteria prior to writing the report and perhaps most importantly, 83% indicated that they felt better prepared for their next laboratory report as a conse-quence of the peer assessment activity. The feedback supports the argument that the peer assessment activity did support student learning and was beneficial for future assign-ments. Peer assessment therefore offers the potential to benefit student learning as well as being a resource efficient assessment method for staff.Peer reviewe

Reflections and actions following consideration of the attainment gap between black and white student performance on a journalism course

Despite the proportion of black and minority ethnic (BME) people entering educa-tion being higher than the proportion of BME individuals within the overall UK pop-ulation, the proportion of BME students achieving first or upper second class de-grees is lower than that of white students (attainment gap of 18.6%). The biggest attainment gap is between White and Black students (29.8%). Within a journalism course at the University of Hertfordshire the performance of black and mixed race students was considered in relation to that of white students. An attainment gap was noted, however further investigation of the data indicated that black/mixed race international students out performed black/mixed race home students and al-so outperformed white students. Consideration of the differences in performance suggested the importance of extra curricula activities and journalism work experi-ence opportunities which were accessed by black international students but not as well accessed by black home students due to time pressures faced by home stu-dents including long hours of paid part time work and commuting time. Awareness of the issues stimulated some of the teaching staff to investigate, and promote, paid diversity schemes to enable BME students to gain work experience in journal-ism enhancing their degree performance in addition to improving their employment prospects. The teaching team also reflected on their curricula and stimulated posi-tive activity within the classroom; the inclusion of assessments and course content directly associated with race has increased student awareness, and the facilitation of discussion of difficult topics within the classroom has reinforced to studentsPeer reviewedFinal Published versio

University of Hertfordshire case studies within the Universities UK-NUS report: ‘Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Attainment at UK Universities: #CLOSINGTHEGAP’

© Universities UK 2019. This is open access work distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-NC-ND), to view a copy of the license, see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0

Enhancing the student learning experience: the perspective of academic staff

Original article can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/ Copyright Taylor & FrancisBackground: Quality enhancement in higher education is essentially a planned process of change that leads to continuous improvement in the effectiveness of the learning experience of students and the students' experience of higher education. Published literature that explores the concept in the reality of practice is sparse. Purpose: The overall aims of this study were to explore academic staffs' experience of enhancing the student learning experience and gain an understanding of the factors which create opportunities for, and barriers to, the promotion of quality enhancement activity. Design/method/sample: A qualitative research design was employed to capture a range of academic staffs' views from within one faculty in a higher education organisation. Data was collected by way of three digital voice recorded focus group interviews (n=26). Informants were from a range of subject disciplines and professional groups including nursing, midwifery, social work, radiography, physiotherapy, psychology, pharmacy and life sciences. A modified version of the data analysis method advocated by Chenitz and Swanson (From practice to grounded theory: Qualitative research nursing; Sydney: Addison-Wesley, 1986) was used to analyse the data. Findings: The analysis suggests the existence of three conceptual categories: 'Establishing Readiness', and 'Connecting with the Students' and 'Developing a Work and Learning Environment'. The emergent categories are discussed and considered within the broader context of higher education and extant literature.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio