Sally Brown

After an outstanding SEDA Conference in Cardiff last week, where I learnt a great deal from co-delegates and especially keynote speakers Ruth Pickford, Debby Cotton and Jane McNeil, we spent a lovely weekend with our tiny twin granddaughters in Neath.

This week I am off to the Netherlands to work on Thursday with colleagues from the new Centre for Academic Teaching at Utrecht University on two workshops: ‘Authentic assessment approaches to foster graduate skills and enhance employability’, and ‘Inclusive approaches to learning and teaching: celebrating and accommodating diversity’, the slides for which are here: Utrecht22-Nov-inclusivediverse19-nov-w.pptx (650 downloads) Authentic-assesment-grad-skills-employability-Utrecht-Nov-20-w.pptx (673 downloads)

On Friday I am again working with Hetty Grunefeld of Utrecht University offering a workshop on assessment for their groundbreaking and highly original program for curriculum leaders in learning teaching and assessment: slides are here: Utrecht-Fostering-autonomy-in-assessment-Nov-2017-w.pptx (902 downloads)

It’s a real pleasure to work again with colleagues at Utrecht University and beyond on matters that matter much to me, that is assessment and feedback and inclusivity.

And from next week, I will start an intensive further programme of workshops with Napier University, working with faculties to enhance and improve assessment and feedback.

After a quiet early autumn I am now back to being as busy as ever until Christmas!. On November 15th I will be working again at Lincoln University helping them with their applications for HEA Fellowship at different levels.

Next, straight down to the lovely SEDA Conference in Cardiff, where Phil, David Baume and I will be leading this panel session on Networking and Communities:  SEDA-Nov-conf-SB-PR-DB-w.pptx (687 downloads) .  I will also have the honour of introducing my friend and former Leeds Beckett colleague Ruth Pickford who is doing what I believe is absolutely groundbreaking work on systematic approaches to engaging students and staff and presenting for the first time her invaluable model. I’ve watched her work on this over a couple of years and Ithink it will be as important to the sector as the work for example John Biggs or Stephen Brookfield. That is no small claim but I think when colleagues hear her, they will agree! Her paper outlining her new model is being published in ‘Journal of perspectives in academic practice’ published by Napier University very shortly.

This week Phil and I had the joyous pleasure of seeing inspiring new National Teaching Fellows receiving their awards, including Sue Beckingham seen in the picture, Pam Parker and Fabio D’Arico at a glittering event in London. 
In the coming week I will be commencing a series of six workshops at Edinburgh Napier University, where I will be working with all six schools on enhancing assessment and feedback. The School of Engineering and Built Environment is the first this week, and my slides are here:  Edinburgh-Napier-EngBE-feedback-am-w1.pptx (716 downloads)   Edinburgh-Napier-EngBE-feedback-pm-6-Nov-w.pptx (836 downloads)

On Thursday I was delighted and actually over-excited to receive an Honorary Doctorate from Edinburgh Napier University and what made it even more special was that Chrissi Nerantzi was awarded her PhD at the same ceremony: a truly special day. Thanks so much to Edinburgh Napier University for giving me such a wonderful day and to Professor Kay Sambell for a stunning Laureation that made me cry! The photo shows Chrissi Nerantzi and me with our respective families at dinner after the event, and Kay Sambell, me and Chrissi outside the Usher Hall.

This week I’m contributing to the REF TEF conference at Bournemouth University where my focus in the panel session is Teaching Excellence. This  is a topic I have spent 100+ hours thinking about in the last 18 months as I led the ANTF. Consultation responses on TEF. we live in strange times and with the NSS weighting being significantly reduced and the Tory pledge to cap fees, it seems difficult to predict how the take up of TEF will be in the next year. My slides for Bournemouth are here:  Bournemouth-11-Oct-2017-w.pptx (743 downloads)
For the rest of the week I am contributing to the Bournemouth PGCertHE, meeting colleagues from Deakin university, chairing the ANTF committee and discussing inclusivity as well as being Granny Sally on Monday and Tuesday, and returning to host a PhD writing weekend at home next Saturday. This semi-retirement lark doesn’t give me time to be bored!

I am delighted to have been asked this week to speak at the Northbrook Metropolitan College graduation ceremony in Worthing on Friday. Northbrook has a very special place in my heart as they provided wonderful learning experiences for my eldest son leading to him getting a First class degree accredited by Brighton University and the outstanding Student of the Year that year ( I stopped breathing for a short while when they announced that!). So I am thrilled to be able to go along and celebrate with them at Worthing Assembly Hall with Phil alongside me.

Today I am meeting in London with Sharon Waller, Erica Morris and Margaret Price to celebrate the culmination of our Anglia Assessment Album project. If you haven’t seen the Open Educational Resources we have created, do have a look at http://www.anglia.ac.uk/anglia-learning-and-teaching/good-teaching-practice-and-innovation/assessment-and-feedback/anglia-assessment-album    Here you will find ‘Snapshots’, which summarise key assessment issues (including what research tells us about each topic) and offer practical advice, Activities for use with groups and teams and some games ( of which I am particularly proud!) to get staff and students thinking about criteria, weighting, agency and other assessment matters. Thanks so much to Sharon for involving us in this project.

You may also be interested to see my latest blog on the Staff Development Forum for the Leadership Foundation on inclusive practices in higher education: http://sdf.ac.uk/3452/inclusive-practices 

I am looking forward this week to meeting with NTFs and Principal Fellows of the Higher Education Academy at the event being organised by Stella Jones Devitt and Susannah Quinsee  which is part of their research into critical success factors for the National Teaching Fellowship scheme. The event takes place at city University of London 10, Northampton Square EC1V 0HB on 13 September from 1 PM to 3 PM and if any National Teaching Fellow is able to rock up there on the day, please do. If you can’t do that, do please participate in the webinar version taking place on Wednesday and Thursday. https://ca.bbcollab.com/guest/1db9cb4c6af64b72be218433ce268cfc

Then I’m off to Brighton (Hove actually) to see my lovely eldest son.
Phil and I are having a lovely quiet autumn: but there’s plenty of writing, mentoring and grandchildren care to keep me busy.

So it’s back to school today with Granny on the school run and back to work for me tomorrow after a lovely summer vacation, with me keynoting at the RAISE conference in Manchester http://www.raise-network.com/events/conference/. The slides for my presentation on ‘engaging students creatively to maximise student retention and achievement’  are here: RAISE-Sept-2017-w.pptx (736 downloads) The Twitter hashtag for the conference is #RAISE17

I look forward to Learning from fellow delegates on Wednesday and then on Thursday I am continuing with my mentoring role with colleagues from Liverpool John Moores University. I have been working with people there over the last three years to help them write and publish journal articles in support of achieving PhD’s by publication with pleasing levels of success!

Then on Thursday night, it’s off down to Wales to see our Welsh grandchildren Molly and Chloe, who, after a bumpy start on now 14 months old and thriving. Meanwhile, Phil is working at Swansea University running keynote and workshops on ‘Designing out Plagiarism’.

It’s been a super summer with time in Spain and at the Edinburgh festival and it’s nice now to contemplate an autumn of creativity and engagement.

This week Kay Sambell, Linda Graham and I have been celebrating the publication of our new book with Palgrave ‘Professionalism in Practice’  https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-54552-3

At the moment it’s only available in a (rather expensive) hardback version or electronically but the paperback should be available quite soon. If you would like to review it, let me know and I will ask the publisher to send you a copy.

You might also like to read the blogs I’ve written for the Staff Development Forum linked to the publication http://sdf.ac.uk/3270/sallybrown2

Over the summer Phil and I are largely home-based, enjoying August with the grandchildren and doing some writing. I am delighted to say that Margaret Price, Erica Morris and I are bringing to fruition the last elements of the Anglia Ruskin University’s Anglia Assessment Album, which we trust are proving to be a really useful set of Open Educational Resources for the Higher Education community on many aspects of assessment http://www.anglia.ac.uk/anglia-learning-and-teaching/good-teaching-practice-and-innovation/assessment-and-feedback/anglia-assessment-album . The resources include Snapshot summaries of the scholarly evidence providing a rationale for change plus resources and lots of fun training activities to use with colleagues. We hope people will try them out and let us know what you think.

We are however joining in with a summer special Tweechat  convened by the fabulous @suebecks on Wesnesday August 16th at 8pm to 9pm on #lthechat. Join us if you can.

I’m also writing a chapter for Ruth Matheson and Sue Tangney in a book they are editing on Transitions into, through and out of higher education. I am exploring what we know about students, their expectations and needs, and then what we do to ease transitions.  I’m including some case studies and also seeking comments from the wider community: if you have thoughts to contribute please drop me an email at Sally-brown.net   What common misconceptions do staff have about students nowadays? What do students erroneously think are universal truths about university life?