Sally Brown

Leaving, we hope, the English rain behind, we set off to Spain on 30th June for a week where Phil and I will be presenting workshops in Leon on getting published in learning and teaching, and I will be keynoting on excellent teaching (slides for my keynote are here, in English and Spanish, Leon-excellent-teaching-July-2017-w.pptx (570 downloads)   Presentación-Sally.ppt (528 downloads) and slides and handouts for our workshops in English: GetPublishedParts12Leon-v3pr.pptx (557 downloads)   Getting-published-in-Journals-with-top-LT-from-Google-docx-w1.docx (562 downloads) developing-your-writing-w.doc (522 downloads) ).

Then we plan to do a little light tourism and much reading/ listening to music, and making the most of the opportunity to get to know that part of Spain better. Hasta luego!

As we all digest the TEF outcomes and colleagues either celebrate (or weep) at the justice/injustice of the process, Phil and I thought this compact ‘TEF on a single sheet’ adapted from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/teaching-excellence-framework-tef-results-2017  might be handy.   TEF-table-4a.docx (538 downloads)
More detail and discussion is available elsewhere, particularly from Wonkhe (my go-to guide) and the Times Higher. It’s been fascinating to hear how the radio/tv spin it, largely focusing on the way that some elite universities have been ‘failing’ to demonstrate outstanding teaching (their verb) rather than celebrating some of the great universities we know and are associated with who have done well, or analysing whether the metrics really recognise and reward excellence in teaching ​ as opposed to anything else.  (Hint: they don’t!)

What a glorious weekend! We worked with our pro bono group of friends  preparing to do PhDs by publication and it was all very productive despite the sweltering conditions. This is one of the endeavours that Phil and I really enjoy engaging with as we move from paid-for work to voluntary work and mentoring. There are always lots of laughs and lots of cake but also really in-depth discussions, and it’s fantastic to see people completing their PhDs successfully.

On Tuesday of this week I’ll be working at Keele University contributing to their learning and  teaching conference with a keynote on supporting international student success and then an afternoon workshop on making assessment and feedback more manageable and effective. The slides for both sessions are here:  Keele-Internat-June-2017-w.pptx (517 downloads)   effectiveefficient-assessment-Keele-w.pptx (483 downloads)

Next week I am looking forward immensely to catching up with old friends and meeting new colleagues at the Assessment for Higher Education conference in Manchester prior to flying on Friday to Leon in Spain where Phil and I will be contributing to a conference of Spanish educators around teaching,  learning and assessment.  Here we will be contributing to internationalisation in practice by learning from colleagues as well as presenting, particularly on developing capability for publishing about learning and teaching. My slides in English and Spanish will be available here in due course.

After a hectic week last week around the UK and a delightful weekend celebrating Phil’s birthday and raising funds for the Singleton Hospital premature baby unit in Swansea, which saved our tiny granddaughters’ lives almost a year ago, I am on my travels again this week.

Learning Developers who are currently (or aspire to be) National Teaching Fellows are meeting this week at Imperial College London on Wednesday 14th June 2-4pm to discuss  the role of Learning Developers as a profession,  the special contributions that LDs can bring to the NTF community and how we can encourage LDs who are aspirant NTFs. We are particularly grateful both to Helen Webster of Newcastle University who is leading the event with me, and  to NTF Giskin Day who is generously supporting the ANTF by hosting this event at Imperial College. If there are any learning developers who want to join us at the last minute, drop me an email  s.brown@leedsbeckett.ac.uk and I will fit you in if I can! Slides are here:  NTF-Learning-Devs-June2017-w.pptx (484 downloads)

“I have many miles to go before I sleep and promises to keep” (Robert Frost, ‘Stopping by woods on a snowy evening’)
“I would walk 500 miles” (The Proclaimers)

Starting out from home in the North East on Sunday, Phil and I will be presenting at the Solstice Conference at Edge Hill University in the North West on Monday and Tuesday. My handout for my workshop on bidding for grant funding is here:  Solstice-workshop-handouts-June-2017-w.docx (517 downloads)

I am delighted to say that this week I have had the great news that I have been appointed Visiting Professor at Edge Hill University, where I alongside Phil will be contributing to the work of the Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University​ for the next two years, so we expect to be celebrating while we are there.

Then we fly south down to Southampton for an event organised at Bournemouth University by Debby Holley and Kirsten Hardie around teaching excellence and encouraging people to apply for National Teaching Fellowships, in my capacity as chair of the Association of National Teaching Fellows. My slides for my sessions on NTF and getting Published are here.  GetPublishedBournemouth-w.pptx (671 downloads)   NTF-Bournemouth-June-2017-w.pptx (626 downloads)

And the it’s on a plane north again to Edinburgh for Dundee’s learning and Teaching conference where I will be keynoting on ‘Supporting student transition and engagement through effective feedback and assessment’ and running a workshop on ‘Making assessment more effective and efficient’   Dundee-Assess4TransitionEnhancement-w.pptx (526 downloads)   effectiveefficient-assessment-Dundee-June-2017-w.pptx (542 downloads)

Then we will be on the train south again to Newcastle for Phil’s birthday weekend garden party.

So lots of miles, and lots of promises hopefully kept!

On Friday 2nd June I will be working again with Lincoln University Business School, supporting colleagues going for Senior Fellowships of the HEA and discussing with colleagues how best to support associate lecturers and others including distance tutors to gain Associate Fellowships. Phil’s and my generic slides and useful colourful diagram on working towards all levels of Fellowship are here: UKPSF-recognition-slides-2016-LATEST-1.pptx (581 downloads) UKPSFgridUpdatedJan2015-1.docx (510 downloads)  .

I’m aiming to get to Lincoln early on Thursday so I can have a wander round the city, which looks its best  at this time of year.

On Thursday 25th of May I am working with the Computing Department at Sheffield University, helping them think about several aspects of assessment: my three PowerPoint presentations are here.  Authentic-assesment-Sheffield-25-may-2017-w.pptx (532 downloads) ,  group-assessment-Sheffield-may-2017-w.ppt (472 downloads) ,  Manageable-and-effective-assessment-Sheffield-May-2017-w.pptx (589 downloads)
In the afternoon I am working with PhD students and novice assessors on how to manage the process of becoming an effective assessor. I am using here a handout adapted from materials I created for Anglia Ruskin University as part of their Anglia Assessment Album.  This is a substantial project I’ve been working on for a couple of years with Margaret Price and Erica Morris, and together we believe we have produced some really useful open educational resources. The link is here: http://www.anglia.ac.uk/anglia-learning-and-teaching/good-teaching-practice-and-innovation/assessment-and-feedback/anglia-assessment-album
My handout for the Sheffield workshop is here:  New-to-assessing-handout-for-Sheffield-25th-May2017-w.docx (519 downloads)
After a rather cool and damp spring I’m hoping for lovely weather for my day out in Yorkshire

After a delightful Easter beak with a nice mixture of  desk work and leisure (a high spot of which was going to the gardens at Howick hall, just south of Craster, home of Earl Grey, with a lovely tea room where you can drink his tea, it’s back to work this week with workshops at York St John University on ‘Assessment to support retention & engagement’ and ‘Inspiring teaching’, the slides for which are here:  Assess4retentionYSJ-April17-w.pptx (481 downloads)   Inspiring-teaching-YSJApril2017-w.pptx (512 downloads)

Networking with NTFs
We had a terrific NTF symposium in Aston on April 10th-11th, and we follow this in May with our open conference at Leeds Beckett University on May 10th.

This event will enable NTFs both to showcase the excellent practice that helped us gain our awards in the first place, and to give our non-NTF colleagues presenting alongside us opportunities to build evidence of their own innovative practice which could be helpful for future NTF applications.  The day will provide three strands of participatory workshops, as well as NTF-led keynotes and panels.

The delegate rate for this event to include coffee, tea and buffet lunch is again £80 and booking closes on May 3rd.

If you want to come along, please book via this link:
ANTF Symposium: Teaching Excellence – Building Bridges – https://my.heacademy.ac.uk/events/book-event/?eventid=8f3d42b7-e999-e611-b1f7-00505689cc9e

Today is my last day of working on the University of Sheffield teSS Scholarship circle project, with staff aiming to get their work about teaching and learning published. Today we are discussing refining one’s own written style and language, coping with rejection, finding an authentic voice and developing personal strategies for publication. The handouts I am using are here. teSS-handout-Thurs-6-April-v2.doc (494 downloads)   teSS-Scholarship-Circle-Evaluation-and-feedback.docx (425 downloads)   Edit-this.docx (394 downloads)
It’s been a real pleasure to work with colleagues over a six-month period and seeing a significant amount of growth both of confidence and of capability. A feature of the workshops is that colleagues attending have been getting to know each other better and plan to write together in the future. It is of course what I’m supposed to be doing,  that is writing myself out of a job by building colleagues’ own self efficacy!

On Monday 27th March Phil and I are flying to Venice then on to Padua where we are delighted to be presenting alongside Kay Sambell, Fabio D’Arico and David Nicol at a conference on assessment at the ancient University of Padua. We will be seeing some Giottos while  we are there as well as visiting the oldest university botanical garden in the world. Then later in the week we are going to Venice for a three day break with no work at all! Our slides for our workshop and presentation at Padua are here Padua-1st-sessionn-2017-2.pptx (466 downloads)   Padua-Assess4Engagement-pr2.pptx (490 downloads)