Welcome to the March update for the LDC Blog.
We use the blog to announce events and development opportunities that we run; to inform staff of initiatives, projects and changes, and to celebrate the successes of staff from across City University London. Bookmark this page and keep a look out for updates in the first week of each month.
In the blog this month:
Try our new Learning Spaces and win a Kindle
City University London’s Learning Spaces Project is exploring ways of improving lecture rooms, to help improve the learning experience with more dynamic and adaptable rooms allowing for different styles of learning.
There is a growing movement within Higher Education to look at learning spaces, in recognition that the physical environment affects the teaching and learning experience for both students and staff as well as enables different types of learning to take place.
At City, the majority of our lecture rooms are set up so that students sit in rows and listen to the lecturer; very much a one-way model of communication and learning. Many courses use lecture time with a combination of lecture-led and student group discussions and most of City’s current rooms aren’t as suitable for this as lecturers or students would like.
The Learning Spaces Project is devising a new model of learning space that better meets the needs of City’s staff and students. Two learning spaces – rooms A109 and A216 in College Building – have already been redesigned based on feedback from staff and students with facilities such as new tables, squiggle glass, Wi-Fi connectivity, Node chairs and room dividers.
The rooms are currently being piloted but City needs your input to develop them further.
The Competition: Win a Kindle e-reader
Lecturers can book either room for lectures and seminars and the Project team wants to hear about how the spaces are used and their impact on your experience.
Staff who use the rooms can report on what the room was used for and what learning was enabled as a result, and suggest for further improvements to the possible next generation of learning spaces at the University. By telling us your experience, you have entered yourself in the competition for a Kindle. Submissions can be in the form of emails, pictures, videos, tweets, posters etc.
The Lecturer who provides what the Project Team considers to be the best feedback could win a Kindle e-reader.
The rooms can be booked on our website (http://webapps.city.ac.uk/sst/ldc/). Feedback submissions for the competition should be sent to: newcityspaces@gmail.com. Please include contact details (e.g. phone number and email address).
The competition closes on Tuesday 1 May, with winner(s) decided by the Learning Spaces Project Team shortly after.
The project team intends to consider all ideas gathered during the competition to inform the design of future learning spaces at City University London and it may contact some lecturers to talk further about their ideas.
You can find out more about the competition on our website and read about submission and judging criteria: https://www.city.ac.uk/about/education/ldc/sle/learning-spaces/competition/
Or you can email Annemarie Cancienne, Senior Learning Developer (annemarie@city.ac.uk), or Rae Karimjee (rae@city.ac.uk), Learning Development Consultant.
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Learning at City Conference 2012 – Call for Abstracts
The 4th Learning at City Conference will take place on Wednesday 13th June 2012. The conference is a great opportunity for staff to share knowledge and expertise on this year’s theme, Feedback and Assessment, and to allow best practice on learning, teaching, research and development, to be disseminated more widely.
Session formats
The emphasis for this conference is on assessment and feedback. We want you to share your practice, innovation and research in this area. This is an opportunity to share with others good practice and explore transferability to different disciplines.
Proposals for posters and papers /workshops are invited which relate to the overall theme of assessment and feedback. The following sub themes might help you focus your proposal but are not exhaustive:
- Assessment design and tools
- Developing assessment criteria and their use
- Approaches to giving feedback
- Using technology to enhance assessment and feedback practices
Discussion papers/Workshops: (The sessions are for 40 minutes).
If you are providing a discussion paper you should plan to share your paper for no more than 25 minutes and then have 15 minutes for questions. You should have some questions prepared for discussion in case participants do not ask any.
If you are providing a workshop then try to keep your overview to 10 minutes and then have no more than 25 minutes as activity including feedback and sharing and, permit 5 minutes for questions at the end.
Posters: (the maximum size should be A1).
Posters will be available for participants to view throughout the conference. However there will be two 15 minutes slots in the timetable for you to present and discuss your poster with conference attendees.
After the conference we will place photographs of the posters on the LDC website and use some of the information in an article written about the conference.
Submitting your proposal
Submit your proposal here (http://tinyurl.com/LDCConference2012) by Thursday 5th April 2012.
Criteria for acceptance of proposals
Each proposal will be reviewed for acceptance at the conference against the following criteria:
- Relevance to conference theme and subtheme(s)
- Clarity and coherence of the proposal
- Evidence of relevance to others across the University
- Contribution to development, enhancement and scholarship related to the theme
Feedback and Guidance
Once the proposals have been peer reviewed feedback will be sent to applicants and those who are accepted will receive further guidance on the presentation the week beginning Monday 30th April 2012
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The Digital Researcher – Research and Social Media Workshop
The workshop will provide an introduction and hands-on support in using a range of digital tools to support the research process, and provides an opportunity to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of developing a digital presence for your research.
Please bring your own preferred digital device to the session, e.g. mobile phone, tablet, laptop. Details are as follows:
Title: Developing the Digital Researcher Workshop
Date and Time: 21st March 1.30- 4.30
Venue: Room D220, Social Sciences Building
To book for this event please visit the LDC events website at http://tinyurl.com/77v7vfx
Places will be limited to 30, so please book early to avoid disappointment.
If there are particular aspects or questions you would like to cover in the workshop then please send them to this Twitter hashtag: #digiRW
More opportunities for researchers
The next of our Researchers’ Development Days will be held on Friday 4th May 2012. This one day conference is aimed at researchers studying and working at City and will cover a range of themes related to the topic of developing and disseminating your research. Registration will open in early April so watch this space…
On Monday 12th March we will be launching our call for abstracts for this year’s Research Symposium, which will be taking place on 26th June 2012. This is an opportunity for PhD students studying at City to share their research with their peers and receive constructive feedback in a supportive environment. Abstracts are invited for either a 15 minute presentation or a poster and should be submitted electronically using our online application form: http://tinyurl.com/RSAbstracts2012. The closing date for abstracts is Thursday 19th April.
For more information about any of these events please contact ldc@city.ac.uk.
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LDC presentation at ELI Conference in Austin, Texas
During February, Ajmal Sultany – researcher with the LDC – attended the EDUCAUSE Learning Intiative Conference in Austin Texas, to present on the Moodle Analytics Project. There presentation was well received and there was significant interest in Moodle implementation at City University London from other delegates.
You can read about his experiences at the ELI event on our Educational Vignettes Blog here, or view the presentation here
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Dates for your Diary
LDC Research & Journal Club – Monday 19th March 2012
Digital Researchers’ Workshop – Wednesday 21st March 2012
Video Making Day – Wednesday 11th April 2012, 9am – 5pm
TV Studio Induction – Tuesday 1st May 2012
Researcher’s Development Day – Friday 4th May 2012
4th Learning at City Conference – Wednesday 13th June 2012
Researchers’ Symposium – Tuesday 26th June 2012