Welcome to the LDC blog
This is the place to keep up to date with everything related to teaching and learning at City University London. In this blog you will be able to find the most recent information on up and coming events, the most recent learning and teaching news and ideas, and examples of good teaching and learning practice as put into practice by your colleagues.
If you have any comments, suggestions, questions or you would like to sign up for any of the events and sessions please email us at ldc@city.ac.uk
In the news this month:
Good Morning City, Students Behaving Badly; 21st October 8.30am
Learning Development Projects 2011 Launch
Ensemble Team Member wins Learning and Teaching Competition
Inclusivity Day; Wednesday 10th November 2010, 9.30am to 4.15pm
Researcher’s Day; Thursday 6th December 9.30am – 4.45pm
Good Morning City, Students Behaving Badly
21st October 8.30am
How can we as teachers manage difficult behaviour in the classroom…?
All teaching staff are warmly invited to attend the first session in the LDC’s Good Morning City series on Thursday 21st October starting at 8.30am until 9.30am in room E201 (The MILL). Stef Smith and Sian Lindsay from the LDC will be hosting this morning session looking at common classroom management issues and possible solutions.
Dr Jane Marshall, Chair of City’s recent Student Behaviour and Attendance Working Group and joint Head of the Department of Language and Communication Science will share lecturer experiences of difficult classroom behaviour and how this can be dealt with.
Khaleda Boshir, Vice President for Education and Membership Engagement in the Students’ Union, will talk about the student perspective of challenging behaviour in the classroom.
In addition, there will be some time set aside for your questions and to discuss any issues related to the theme.
We would welcome your perspectives and opinions at this seminar, and if you would like to attend please email ldc@city.ac.uk
Learning Development Projects 2011 Launch 
Do you have a bright new idea for a learning development project?
If you want the space, time and resources to work on a project this academic year then apply now.
The Learning Development project scheme is a series of grants that are available to staff across the University, in order to benefit teaching and learning. Funding, support and guidance are all provided by the Learning Development Centre.
Last year’s cohort of project holders worked on a range of different projects from developing a range of video podcasts for engineering students, to looking at innovative assessment methods based around aural feedback. Watch this video on the work of one of the current project holders:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LImAkqYXr-Y
In a new twist to the projects this year, staff are encouraged to propose projects which involve collaboration with students. There are a range of areas that applicants can work on, including: improving the student learning experience; developing new learning, teaching or support materials; introducing an innovation into the curriculum; improving learning, teaching and assessment practice.
Sucessful projects will be relevant to School and University priorities and the Learning and Teaching Strategy. Staff who are interested in submitting a bid should discuss this with their Associate Dean for Education and contact the LDC by email at awards@city.ac.uk
The LDC will provide mentoring and support for each project in the form of networking events, individual mentoring and coaching, administration support for the budget and student briefings. Dissemination of the project whilst in process and the outcomes on completion is a requirement of all projects.
Ensemble Team Member wins Learning and Teaching Competition
Katy Jordan works with the LDC specifically on the ENSEMBLE project. She recently won one of the prizes in the JORUM learning and teaching competition awarded at ALT-C this week for her online resource on molecules and photosynthesis.
In this video Katy talks about the benefits of sharing your own work through JORUM
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3dKThWxDC0
Inclusivity Day
Wednesday 10th November 2010, 9.30am to 4.15pm, Northampton Square
Staff are invited to join the LDC for a one day series of workshops focusing on inclusivity in the curriculum. This is an initiative developed as a result of the diversity and inclusivity work that has been undertaken in the University in collaboration with the PREDICT project.
The aims of the day are to:
Explore what inclusivity in academia is and the scope
Discuss what inclusive learning and teaching could mean
Examine examples of inclusive assessment
More details including the full programme and the booking form are available at www.city.ac.uk/ldc/events
Places are limited so please book quickly.
Researchers Day
Thursday 6th December 9.30am – 4.45pm, Northampton Square
This year we are running an all day research development day which will run on Monday 6th December 2010. The day will take the form of a conference and includes a panel discussion and a range of sessions you can opt to attend. There will be two strands to the day, one focused on Postgraduate Researchers covering topics such as getting the best from supervision, preparing a research proposal, doing your viva and presenting your work at a conference. The second strand is focused on early career researchers and will cover topics including managing your research student effectively, chairing a viva voce examination for the first time and entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer.
The places for these days will be limited.
Registrations for the 6th December are now open at www.city.ac.uk/ldc/events