JISC: Mobile Technologies and the Law Webcast

If you have a particular interest in the use of mobile technologies in teaching and learning, you might like to ‘tune in’ to the free JISC Legal webcast coming up, helping colleges and universities deal with the associated legal issues. 

Mobile Technologies and the Law Webcast
2pm-4pm, Wednesday, 14 March 2012

'Crisis College Causes Mobile Mayhem – USB Stick and Mobile Phone containing personal information on students left at bus stop.'

Similar headlines have appeared in recent years with increasing frequency reflecting the rise in use of mobile devices.

Audience                                                                                                                                  This free webcast from JISC Legal is aimed at staff in colleges and universities with responsibility for planning and managing the introduction and use of mobile technologies in their institution. It is also of relevance to lecturers, researchers and support staff using or supporting the use mobile technologies in the workplace.  Legal issues include:

·         Privacy and Security- do learners have the right to opt-out? How can location data be used lawfully? What level of privacy must be ensured?

·         Identity management and authenticity - how can these work legally?

·         Accessibility – what are the legal obligations?

·         e-Safety and young learners - what are the institutions duties?

·         Loss of information – a real issue for learner or research work?

·         Liability - how can acceptable use by defined?  How must the institution deal with unacceptable behaviour?

·         Copyright - what are the consequences of allowing off-site access to e-resources?

This webcast will highlight good legal practice for institutions across these areas of concern, allowing colleges and universities to go forward with an awareness of the legal risks, and being confident in compliance.  It will provide an opportunity to hear at first hand how colleges and universities are currently using mobile technologies and the legal compliance issues which arise in such use, and JISC Legal specialists will be on hand to respond to your questions and comments.

Visit our website to view the webcast programme or visit http://jiscleg.al./webcast to access the webcast. No registration required, simply follow the link.

Please send in any questions or email webcast@jisclegal.ac.uk

HEA Academic Associates Wanted!

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) is building a community of Academic Associates to deliver and develop support for learning and teaching in higher education.

Academic Associates are wanted for a variety of areas and expressions of interest are sought from academics with current experience, who are leaders in their field, can work as part of a team, and who share the HEA's ambition to improve learning and teaching and the student learning experience.

For further information please visit: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/academic-associates

HEA: World Symposium on Sustainable Development at Universities, 5-6 June 2012, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The objectives of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) are: to secure renewed political commitment to sustainable development; to assess progress towards internationally agreed goals on sustainable development; and to address new and emerging challenges. The summit will also focus on two themes: a green economy in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development, and an institutional framework for sustainable development.

HEA: Innovation in challenging times’ – The ABS Learning & Teaching Conference in association with the HEA, 24-25 April 2012, Mecure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel

The Association of Business Schools is proud to announce our inaugural academic conference for those involved in Learning and Teaching in business schools. Building on the work of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) conferences of previous years, we are partnering with the HEA, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School and the British Academy of Management (BAM) to provide a forum for exchange of excellence in teaching practice and pedagogic research.

HEA: Wellbeing in Teacher Education and Training, 29 February 2012, Cardiff Metropolitan University

The seminar title is ‘We’re all in this together’; the benefits of a partnership approach to student wellbeing in initial teacher education and training. The seminar will begin with a presentation and discussion of a recent research project which captured a range of stakeholder perspectives on student wellbeing. Participants included students, university tutors, student services professionals and school-based mentors. This will be followed by a practice-focused workshop looking at the implications of these findings for curriculum design and institutional service provision.

HEA: National Symposium: Enhancing Dissertations and Final Year Projects – Experiences, Embedding and the Future, 29 February 2012, University of Gloucestershire

This one day symposium will explore how the dissertation experience can be enhanced. It will explore case studies which demonstrate how dissertations or creative honours projects can take many forms which are innovative or creative in the context of their discipline or institution, and may include group, work-oriented and community-based projects. The HEA’s Chief Executive Craig Mahoney will be giving a keynote speech, as well as Stephen Marston (Vice Chancellor, University of Gloucestershire) and Vicky Gunn (University of Glasgow). This event is sponsored by a National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) funded project being undertaken by the University of Gloucestershire entitled: ‘Rethinking Final Year Projects and Dissertations: Creative Honours and Capstone Projects’.

HEA: Using Smartphone technology with foundation doctors: lessons learned (part of the Health Sciences Workshop & Seminar Series 2012), 5 July 2012, Cardiff University

The seminar will report lessons learned from the “iDoc” project. This initiative, supported by the Wales Deanery, provided trainee doctor participants across Wales with a Smartphone, micro SD-card and software containing 17 medical textbooks.

HEA Annual Conference, 3-4 July 2012, University of Manchester

The title for the 8th Annual Conference of the HEA is “Great Expectations – are you ready?” Higher education is undergoing transformational change throughout the UK and although policies may be diverging amongst the four nations, the principle of students being central is shared. Their expectations of their course, institution and learning experience are rising. Staff and Institutions have their own aims and expectations too. In the year of the London Olympics where competitors have expectations of winning and are preparing to be ready for the challenge we apply the theme to the higher education sector and explore its implications for 2012. There are three main strands: Student expectations and the learning experience; Supporting staff to deliver student learning experiences of a lifetime; Institutional adaptability.

HEA: Believe and achieve: supporting achievement through the co-curriculum, 27 June 2012, University of Wales, Newport

This event is being hosted as part of the Higher Education Academy's Workshop and Seminar Series 2012. The aims of the seminar: to identify key development themes in supporting the co-curricular student experience to enhance retention and success; to stimulate discussion on case study examples and developments(from Newport and from attending institutions); and to provide opportunities for those involved in enhancing the co-curricular student experience to link together to discuss potential collaborative opportunities. There is no charge to attend the seminar, but a place must be reserved. To register, please email HEA@newport.ac.uk.

HEA: Health Sciences 2012 Conference – Innovation, Simulation and the Evolution of Technology Enhanced Learning in Healthcare Education, 31 May 2012, East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham

The focus of the conference will be: Innovative practice in Healthcare learning and teaching; Simulation in Healthcare education; and the Evolution of Technology enhanced learning in Healthcare education.

HEA: Pedagogies of Hope and Opportunity: The HEA Arts and Humanities Annual Conference 2012, 29-30 May 2012, Glasgow

Unprecedented changes in UK higher education have placed Arts and Humanities subjects under particular scrutiny and pressure. This HEA conference aims to celebrate the Arts and Humanities in higher education and to highlight and share the many creative and innovative ways in which Arts and Humanities courses, and those who teach and study them, are meeting the serious and complex challenges that confront them.

HEA: Surveys for Enhancement Conference, 17 May 2012, National College for School Leadership, Nottingham

The conference theme is: Using student surveys to enhance the student learning experience. The event will present research and practice on the use of student surveys for quality enhancement. The event will bring together a broad range of people interested in using student experience data to enhance policy, practice and institutional strategies, including senior management with strategic learning & teaching roles, educational developers and lecturers at the chalk face.

HEA: Teaching Islamic Studies in Wales, 11 May 2012, Aberystwyth University

This event aims to bring together teachers of Islamic Studies from a wide range of disciplines (e.g. Theology and Religious Studies, History, Politics, Literature, Sociology, Anthropology, Law, Business and Finance), and is open to both specialists and non-specialists who teach on modules related to Islam.

HEA: Workplace based learning in action: Developing the UK research network, 9 May 2012, Cardiff University

This seminar will focus on bringing together UK researchers investigating triadic interactional activities between students, doctors and patients within workplace based learning activities (e.g. bedside teaching encounters: BTEs). Although patient-doctor interaction has been heavily researched and is of major importance in the development of communication skills, the triadic student-patient-doctor relationship within workplace learning encounters has so far received little attention.

HEA: Inaugural Future Directions conference – Graduates For Our Future, 26 April 2012, Glyndwr University – Wales’ first national Learning & Teaching conference.

The focus of the conference will be to showcase the first Wales-wide quality enhancement theme – Graduates For Our Future, and its three work strands: Students as Partners; Learning in Employment; and Learning for Employment.

HEA: STEM Annual Conference 2012, 12-13 April 2012, Imperial College London

Aiming for excellence in STEM learning and teaching. The HEA’s first annual learning and teaching STEM conference will take place at Imperial College London, one of the world’s leading centres of excellence for teaching and research in the fields of science, technology and medicine.

HEA: What works? Student retention and success conference 2012, 28-29 March 2012, University of York

This two day residential conference is the final conference of the three year ‘What works? Student retention and success programme’. The conference will provide key note addresses from leading experts in the field of student retention and success, findings from the ‘What works? programme’ as a whole, evidence relating to specific student groups and interventions, practical tools developed by the project teams, and sessions about retention research and interventions from across the UK and beyond.

HEA: Back to the Future: Reflecting on Changes to Practice Assessing in Wales since 2006, 14 March 2012, Parc y Scarlets, Permberton Park, Llanelli, SA14 9UZ

It has been six years since the introduction of the social work degree required students to spend more time on assessed Practice Learning Opportunities. The National Occupational Standards are currently undergoing a change. It is an opportune time for practice assessors to come together to reflect on the past six years of supporting social work students through their Practice Learning Opportunities, and to consider the impact the changes to the National Occupational Standards will have on the future of practice assessing. The keynote speech will be provided by Professor Charlotte Williams OBE.

HEA: Developing Students’ Critical Evaluation Skills using Peermark, 13 March 2012, University of Glamorgan

The University of Glamorgan places effective and timely Assessment and Feedback at the heart of its Learning Teaching and Widening Access Strategy 2011 - 2017 and includes the use of technology to support this. The use of Peermark as a tool to support peer marking online has already been piloted by the University of Glamorgan and in 2010/11 HEA Economics Network funded a project to evaluate the perceptions and experiences of international students using Peermark ‘Enhancing the international student experience with innovative assessment and feedback on postgraduate Economics studies at Glamorgan’. The event will present the findings from the study and will focus on the role of peer marking to facilitate and enhance the learning process in way which enables the student to improve his/her performance.

HEA UK travel fund

The HEA has launched a UK travel fund that will help staff and students in UK higher education to exchange and disseminate good practice in learning, teaching and assessment and engage with their peers. The funding may be used to help the applicant(s) attend conferences, network meetings and special interest groups that are being run in the UK.

HEA: Learning and Teaching Enhancement Fund projects – briefing papers now online

In 2010/11, the HEA funded a series of Learning and Teaching Enhancement Fund projects in Wales with funding up to £2,500 per project. The projects covered a range of themes, including assessment, employability and education for sustainable development. The project briefing papers are now available on our website.

HEA: Call for submissions to ITALICS (June 2012) and New Directions (issue 8)

The HEA has opened submissions for the first issue of ITALICS (Innovation in Teaching And Learning in Information and Computer Sciences) for 2012 and issue 8 of New Directions, our journal highlighting education in the physical sciences at the tertiary level. ITALICS (June 2012) will be a general issue and papers are welcome on all aspects of learning and teaching in the Information and Computer Sciences disciplines. The deadline is 3 April 2012. New Directions is a forum for sharing innovation, best practice, ideas and experience within the physical sciences community. Contributions are invited in the areas of 1). Reviews of topics in physical sciences education and educational research (3000-4000 words) and 2). Communications (1500-2000 words). If you would like to contribute to New Directions please send an abstract to new.directions@heacademy.ac.uk by 21 February 2012.

HEA: Supporting Teaching Development Grants (TDG) workshop – save the date!

The HEA is running a Teaching Development Grants workshop on 26 March 2012 at the University of Glamorgan. The workshop will cover what the TDG process has to offer, understanding the funding calls, the selection process, writing successful bids, and discussion, group work and networking opportunities. Further details will be made available shortly.

HEA: Surveys for Enhancement Conference – Call for contributions

The HEA is hosting a one day conference on 17 May 2012 in Nottingham, on the theme of: Using student surveys to enhance the student learning experience. Contributions are sought for presentations and workshop sessions on any issue relating to the use of student survey data for quality enhancement. Please submit your proposals by 12 March 2012.

HEA: Change Academy 2012-13 – Call for submissions

Higher education institutions from the UK and overseas are invited to submit proposals for Change Academy 2012-13, the HEA’s flagship institutional change programme. Delivered in partnership with the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, Change Academy is a year-long process that supports both rapid innovation and capacity building for long-term change. The deadline for submissions is 2 March 2012.

Careers: Creative Futures Event

Careers: Creative Futures Event

The Creative Futures 2012 event demonstrated a strong appetite for success from students of Newport University. Organised by Newport Careers & Employability Service and sponsored by The Faculty of Arts & Business, the 2.5 day event aimed to engage students with industry professionals who can offer advice about working in the creative industries. This took the form of short seminars that led to networking and relationship building.

If you weren't able to attend the Creative Futures Event, this short film documents how and why students and speakers were involved in the event. If you joined us during the event, let us know how to improve it better

JISC Webinar: Digitally-Enhanced Patchwork Text Assessment (DePTA)

 

Information about forthcoming webinars (all free!) associated with the JISC Assessment and Feedback programme

Digitally-Enhanced Patchwork Text Assessment (DePTA)

Friday 24th February 2012 1-2pm

Presenter: Caroline Macangelo (University of Cumbria)

Further info and to register:  http://jiscafdepta.eventbrite.co.uk/

JISC Webinar: e-Portfolios to Support Assessment and Feedback

Information about forthcoming webinars (all free!) associated with the JISC Assessment and Feedback programme

e-Portfolios to Support Assessment and Feedback

Friday 17th Feb 1-2pm

Presenters: Emma Purnell (University of Wolverhampton) and Geoff Rebbeck

Further info and to register: http://jiscaf17feb.eventbrite.co.uk/

Careers Event: Employer Fest

Employer Fest, City Campus, 13th March

Are you:

•  Looking for a job?
•  Unsure what to do next?
•  Keen to improve your CV and network with employers?

Mark your diary NOW!

BEFORE...

CV & Networking Skills Workshop, Wednesday 7 March @1-2pm, City Campus A10

This session will enable you to create a CV and network confidently with other professionals. Whether you are at the beginning of your university journey, or approaching the end of your studies, this workshop shouldn’t be missed. Make a booking

DURING...

Employer Fest, Tuesday 13 March @11am-2pm, City Campus Foyer

Whether you are an undecided fresher, a second year looking for work experience, or close to graduation you can benefit from attending this event. A range of employers will be attending Employer FEST representing a range of occupational sectors, all with the aim of providing you with the chance to discuss the full range of opportunities they have on offer.

Speed Networking Special, Tuesday 13 March @12-1pm, City Campus Boardroom

You will be whistled through to practice and enhance your networking skills with real employers in a time restraint environment.  Places are very limited book here   

AFTER...

Catch up with Careers Day, Tuesday 24 April @9am-12pm, Caerleon Campus Amber Zone or @1-4pm, City Campus D20

As a follow-up to Employer Fest, you will have chance to ask any questions you may have about your future career goals and aspirations.  So if you are behind with your career planning and now feel ready to tackle this head on feel free to drop-in and chat with our Careers Advisers.  Feel free to drop in for tea/biscuits.

www.newport.ac.uk/careers

http://outsidelearning.newport.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=9711

HEA Retention and Success Seminar Series 2012

A student centred approach to developing the content, delivery, and assessment of Research Process modules: Insights and evaluations of student retention
22 Feb 2012, Cardiff Metropolitan University
For full details of the event and how to register, please see the website:
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2012/seminars/themes/tw047_cardiff_met

The aims of the event are:                                          

1. To share our experiences of developing the content, delivery, and assessment of  the modules through student feedback.
2. To share the current practice within the Research Process modules at the CSS, with insight into the content, delivery, and assessment methods.
3. To give insight from current students and staff about their experiences.
4. Offer the attendees the opportunity to evaluate the structure of the modules, with focus on the strengths, limitations, ways to improve, and how such a structure could be integrated within their department / institutions.

Making Assessment Count (MAC)

Making Assessment Count (MAC)

Friday 3^rd Feb – 1-2pm

Presenters: Professor Peter Chatterton (Daedalus e-World Ltd) and Professor Gunter Saunders (University of Westminster)

The objective of Making Assessment Count is primarily to help students engage more closely with the assessment process, either at the stage where they are addressing an assignment or at the stage when they receive feedback on a completed assignment. In addition an underlying theme of MAC is to use technology to help connect student reflections on their assessment with their tutors. To facilitate the reflection aspect of MAC a web based tool called e-Reflect is often used. This tool enables the authoring of self-review questionnaires by tutors for students. On completion of an e-Reflect questionnaire a report is generated for the student containing responses that are linked to the options the student selected on the questionnaire.

The session will provide an overview of MAC and highlight some of the variant MAC processes that are being developed by six different universities, as well as drawing out strengths and weaknesses of MAC. There will be a demonstration of how the e-Reflect tool works but the presenters will also show how MAC can work without that tool.  Participants will be engaged by seeking their views on the affordances offered by MAC as well as their input into identifying barriers and enablers in applying MAC in their own institutional and subject contexts.

Project website - https://sites.google.com/a/staff.westminster.ac.uk/mace/home

This is a free event.

To register go to http://jiscmac.eventbrite.co.uk/.  You will be sent the joining instructions and session link.

Blackboard Collaborate -  information for participants

• The webinars will be run in Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate Live!)
• Participants will need to have the latest version of Java installed on their PC/Laptop - check settings here:http://tinyurl.com/6bacwu4
• You will need speakers or headphones to listen to the session.  We recommend a headset with microphone to enable you to talk in the session. Using built-in microphones can create echoing/feedback so not recommended.
• Download a participant's guide to Blackboard Collaborate
• In some instances you may experience firewall/proxy issues which need to be changed and they are often controlled by the local IT Administrator. If you have these issues, please read the proxy set up guide and information on firewall errors. There is also a self-diagnosis page which gives guidance on how to solve such issues.

·         See the Programme Support Wiki for further information