Sally Brown

This week my academic duties include examining a doctoral thesis on globalisation of international students at Liverpool John Moores University, and supporting academics looking to claim excellence in teaching at Anglia Ruskin University, as well as preparing for the NTF consultation next week on Wednesday 16th (1100-1300) at Leeds Beckett University on the Green Paper.
After that, it is parties all the way up to Christmas! I am particularly looking forward to the Playgroup Christmas party on Tuesday 15th, and the North East NTFS Christmas treat in Newcastle on Thursday 17th December.
Seasons greetings to you all!

This week Phil and  I are returning to Luxembourg University to run a suite of workshops.

Firstly I am helping colleagues across the university think about applying for HEA Fellowships and the slides and handout Phil and I use for these sessions are here:  UKPSF grid (763 downloads) , UKPSF slides (724 downloads) , Questions for PFHEA applicants (713 downloads) .

I am also running workshops on Programme Level Curriculum Design, Evaluating and Enhancing your own Teaching, and Using Annual Review for the Enhancement of the Student Experience, and the slides are here:  Annual Review case studies (611 downloads) , Evaluating and Enhancing Teaching (557 downloads) , Luxembourg Annual Review (755 downloads) , Luxembourg Curriculum Design (709 downloads) .

We are looking forward to a productive few days: thanks for Cassandra Mikicic for inviting us and making us feel so welcome..

After a brilliant and inspiring time at the SEDA conference last week in Cardiff, I am immediately booking onto the SEDA May conference in Edinburgh (http://www.seda.ac.uk/events/info/458) which is where by coincidence I am working this week, doing workshops for Edinburgh University on assessing large groups and inspiring teaching. My slides are here:   Assessing Large Groups (563 downloads) Inspiring Teaching (584 downloads)

Next week Phil and I are off to Luxembourg  for a variety of workshops (and of course a quick visit to the Christmas markets!).

Phil and I are delighted to be travelling to Wales together this week to work at the University of South Wales, to contribute to the launch in Wales of the Enterprise Toolkit launch with Emma Forouzan, and to attend the SEDA conference in Cardiff. My presentation for the Enterprise Toolkit launch is here, the link to the really useful toolkit is here and my workshop tasks and brief instruction to Boyer’s four scholarships (which underpins my workshops) are here. ETC Toolkit: Wales Launch (683 downloads)   Boyer's scholarships (551 downloads)   SEDA workshop tasks (675 downloads)   http://www.etctoolkit.org.uk/

While here, I am also doing a bit of mentoring, looking forward to catching up with friends, making new contacts and hopefully getting into some water at the St David’s Hotel and Spa!

Today and tomorrow I am again working at Anglia Ruskin University, supporting applicants for National Teaching Fellowships, and also building on my work with Margaret Price over the last couple of years on improving assessment. We were delighted in the 2015 NSS to see a marked improvement in scores relating to assessment and feedback at ARU, and now we are working with Erica Morris to develop a package of materials for cross institutional support in the same area.

Those of you interested in my recent work on the TEF might like to view the article in the Guardian for Tuesday in which I am quoted. http://gu.com/p/4dmdh?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other.  I thought Peter Scott, formerly  VC of Kingston University, wrote a particularly useful article on the same page.

Very excited today to be chairing my first Association of National Teaching Fellows Committee in a very foggy York where we have plenty to discuss and share including the new committee roles, the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) response and lots of other key matters.  We have been really heartened by the high levels of engagement by NTFs in discussing the responses to BIS on TEF. You can download a pdf of our response here: CANTF response to BIS re TEF (707 downloads)

As my first commitment as a new Visiting Professor at the University of South Wales, I am working with PVC Ben Calvert and Haydn Blackey to run a one day workshop with senior staff to plan enhancements to learning, teaching and assessment across the university over the next academic year and beyond. I am really delighted to be asked to undertake this role, and look forward to meeting old friends and new colleagues over the next five years. My slides for today’s workshop are here: University of South Wales: Oct 2015 (654 downloads)

This week I am spending an intensive week in Plymouth, helping colleagues across the University gain HEA Fellowships in the various categories from Associate Fellowship for their part-time and very new members of staff, up to Principal Fellowship, supporting the expert team who run the program at Plymouth University. My slides and the handout Phil and I prepared explaining the UKPSF and its 2015 edits, together with some questions that act as a checklist for Principal Fellows are here. UKPSF grid (763 downloads) , UKPSF slides (724 downloads) , Questions for PFHEA applicants (713 downloads) .

I will also be drafting a response to the government consultation  on the TEF, for the Association of National Teaching Fellows, in my new role of Chair of the Committee of National Teaching Fellows.

This week my work comprises mainly  home-based writing, reviewing and editing, but my big news is that I am delighted to have just been appointed a Visiting Professor of Learning, Teaching and Assessment Enhancement at the University of South Wales​.  Thank you  for inviting me to work with you! I will be working with senior colleagues there on 28th of October and then again on 18th November, when Phil and I will be helping to launch the Enhancing the Curriculum Toolkit to which we have contributed some ideas on supporting enterprising students. You can get to this Toolkit at this link: http://www.etctoolkit.org.uk/

After a very busy time in the first part of September I am now benefiting from a few days at home to catch up with all the tasks I should have done over the last 3 weeks. We had an interesting time at the HEA Senior and Principal Fellows networking meeting for the North East in Newcastle last night and I find myself doing more academic writing than I had previously planned, particularly on the Teaching Excellence Framework and on learning gain, as well as a new book with Kay Sambell and Linda Graham. Oh and there is a lot of fruit in the garden waiting for me to make jam!