Presentations full abstracts
Parallel session A, Parallel session B, Parallel session C, Parallel session D
Parallel session A
Location: Room R0.03
A1: A compassion elective: aligning evidence-based teaching with self-compassion
Kate Owen (Warwick Medical School)
Final year medical students have the opportunity to choose a placement following their final assessments. Many students travel widely to expand their experience, however a number of students are experiencing burnout, need to work for financial reasons or have caring responsibilities and are unable to do this. We designed a compassion elective which incorporates scientific evidence, humanities and a strong self-compassion and wellbeing strand. We share how the module was developed, the interplay between academic and wellbeing elements and demonstrate how the strands integrate to provide a module which combines theory and experience. The session will share some of the creative outputs and give an opportunity to try some which could easily be integrated into other taught modules.
Type of Small Teaching: Small interventions in a module, programme or extended learning experience.
Event Sub-Themes: Student support and wellbeing
A2: The scroll’s the limit: an inclusive approach to academic reading
Cleo Tilley and Joanne Raynor (Warwick Foundation Studies)
In this session we will present a small change to our teaching that we implemented with our students to help them to navigate long academic texts, specifically research articles. Research into emancipatory practice and theories such as academic literacies has indicated that some “traditional” approaches in higher education can exclude learners and make them feel like outsiders. By adapting a recently developed reading strategy known as “text mapping” our students were able to visualise whole texts made into “text scrolls” in order to analyse the structure and navigate the content in research articles. It is a low-tech activity which develops both academic reading and writing skills as part of an inclusive approach to teaching and learning. We will take you through the process from theory to practice, and sharing our lesson materials so you can try it out with your own students.
Type of Small Teaching: Small modifications in module or programme design, assessment or communication with your students.
Event Sub-Themes: Building inclusive communities
A3: An exploration of ChatGPT for Module Assessment: Graduate Teaching Assistants’ perspectives on the role of Artificial Intelligence in Student Assignments.
Nikolaos Katsanakis, Yiduo Wang, Youn Affejee and Khairul Fadhli Mohammad (Warwick Manufacturing Group)
The use of Artificial Intelligence in student assessment has attracted increased attention in higher education. The launch of ChatGPT has alarmed higher education institutions, which now need to adapt to potential threats to academic integrity yet recognise opportunities for enhancing teaching and learning (Perkins, 2023). For instance, ChatGPT may enhance student learning at the initial stages of assignment completion helping with creativity and idea generation, yet it poses a risk in which students can outsource their assessments, like essay writing (Rudolph et al., 2023). In this session, Graduate Teaching Assistants reflect on their role as student and tutor to evaluate differing positions to the role of ChatGPT to support or hinder assessment by exploring its use to generate a module assignment. The aim of the presentation is to foster discussion to how academic institutions can account for student and tutor perspectives on ChatGPT to design and mark module assessments.
Type of Small Teaching: Small modifications in module or programme design, assessment or communication with your students.
Event Sub-Themes: Wildcard
Parallel session B
Location: Room R0.04
B1: Micro Teaching: The Student Becomes the Master
Oliver Turner and Sara Hattersley (Academic Development Centre)
Micro-teaching is a form of learning that involves the delivery of short, focused teaching sessions by a student to a small group of peers, followed by feedback and reflection. It is traditionally associated with teacher training programmes. In this presentation we will explore the possible benefits of using micro-teaching across all university departments. As part of our presentation, Graduate Teaching Assistants from our APP PGR programme will demonstrate some micro-teaching. We will argue that such an approach, if deployed effectively, can help students deepen their understanding of a specific topic (Fernandez & Robinson, 2006), as well as developing communication skills and building confidence (Kılıç, 2010). However, we offer an important caveat: Most student-centred activities, such as this one, are not successful by default. They can also fall flat, and even prove counterproductive. We will, therefore, consider the importance of clear guidance, structure and modelling when setting up such tasks.
Type of Small Teaching: Small interventions in a module, programme or extended learning experience.
Event Sub-Themes: Co-creation e.g. with students, communities, etc.
B2: Our journey so far into VR
Cath Fenn, Adam Ferguson, Julie Sherriff, Michele Gutteridge and Marcus Thevarajan (Warwick Medical School)
The aim of this session is to share the joy and pain of the past 12 months of our journey so far into VR with the hope that you will experience more joy and rather less pain!
We are excited to share the stumbling steps of our shared journey into new dimensions of immersive education. We feel much has been learned through our collaborative experience as we continue to explore and find our balance. We would like to take this opportunity to reach out and help up the ladder anyone who is thinking about taking their first small steps. We acknowledge that for those new to VR/XR/AR experiences the leap to considering the affordance of embedding immersive experiences into your curriculum is daunting. We also believe we can demonstrate the value of a collaborative team-based approach where we have drawn on the specialist skills and experience of staff and students.
Type of Small Teaching: Brief in session or blended learning activities
Event Sub-Themes: Co-creation e.g. with students, communities, etc.
B3: Sharing Successful Strategies to improve Post-graduate Inclusive Communities: Student and Staff Stories
Catherine Hale, Gurpreet Chouhan, Alyson Quinn, Debbi Marais and Lucy Hammond (Warwick Medical School)
The aim of this session is to present the findings of two focus group discussions (1) with the postgraduate taught (PGT) Student Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) and, (2) with PGT academic and professional services staff. This is a qualitative research project in Warwick Medical School (WMS) seeking to capture PGT students’ and staff experience of the new (in 2022-2023) strategy to build an ‘inclusive PGT community with students from all years of study and academic and student-facing staff’.
Type of Small Teaching: Small modifications in module or programme design, assessment or communication with your students.
Event Sub-Themes: Building inclusive communities
Parallel session C
Location: Room R0.14
C1: Authentic professional learning: Using Reusable Learning Objects to support Case Based Learning
Will Haywood and Rebecca Friesen (Centre for Teacher Education)
In search of an authentic teaching experience for a practice-based course we redesigned a module to use a case-based learning pedagogy. Drawing from the department’s Digital Teacher Education Project, we turned to Reusable Learning Objects* (RLOs) as a flexible solution to create materials which could be used to build case studies suitable for both face-to-face sessions and for online or asynchronous learning available beyond the teaching session.
This session will detail how RLOs were used to facilitate case-based learning, drawing on examples from two taught sessions: one focusing on dialogic and anti-racist pedagogies; the other on behaviour management. We will also share the findings of our student evaluation of the use of RLOs and CBL as well as welcoming discussion in the consideration of future practice in this area.
*Reusable Learning Objects are digital objects that can be used and reused to support learning (Gee, Strickland, Thompson and Miller, 2017)
Type of Small Teaching: Brief in session or blended learning activities
Event Sub-Themes: Wildcard
C2: Office hours: Do your students take them?
Zhiqiong Chen (School of Modern Languages and Cultures)
Office hours' is a common practice in UK universities and is considered an important way for students to interact with their instructors. The non-classroom interaction between students and academic staff has positive effects on students in academic, cognitive, psychosocial, and attitudinal areas (Cox et al. 2010) and the benefit to students included increased student retention, satisfaction and performance (Griffin et al. 2014).
However, such practice is often overlooked by students and institutions. In the last academic year, the tutor set up office hours in a slightly different way for one module in an effort to push students to take them regularly. The presentation will showcase this intervention, how it was carried out, students’ attendance, their discussion topics in office hours and their feedback on the experience. Then combining research findings, the tutor will discuss the immediate benefit of attending office hours to students and the main barriers for them to attend office hours. She will also discuss the possible ways to promote office hours at both academic staff and faculty level.
Type of Small Teaching: Small interventions in a module, programme or extended learning experience.
Event Sub-Themes: Student support and wellbeing
C3: Learner Autonomy and Engagement through Weekly Course Design: Lessons from Graduate-Entry Medicine
Nicholas Hopcroft (Warwick Medical School)
The Warwick graduate-entry medical degree admits mature learners from varied subject backgrounds and with diverse personal circumstances. The rapid pivot to online learning during the Covid pandemic presented challenges to course delivery and student engagement, but also opportunities regarding learner autonomy. This presentation will describe a set of small changes to Year 1 course design, focused on the weekly level, that emerged in response to the pandemic and has been retained in an adapted form since. These developments included weekly release of pre-recorded lectures, use of a student checklist in place of a traditional timetable, live online introductions to each week’s content and alignment of case-based learning with the calendar week. Student feedback shows these approaches enabled far greater flexibility for students to organise their time with respect to other commitments and individual learning needs, whilst providing a supportive structure and sense of a learning community.
Type of Small Teaching: Small modifications in module or programme design, assessment or communication with your students.
Event Sub-Themes: Building inclusive communities
Parallel session D
Location: Room R1.15
D1: Don't just sit there, do it! Approaches to active learning.
Amy Stickels (Warwick Foundation Studies/Warwick Active Learning Network Satellite Group), Anna Tranter (Warwick Foundation Studies), Jan Davison (Warwick Manufacturing Group), Penelope Mosavian (Applied Linguistics), Jenny Lloyd (Warwick Business School) and Sara Hattersley (Academic Development Centre)
Active learning strategies cover a spectrum of activities, from small teaching to more complex problem-based learning pedagogies. Defined by Bonwell and Eison (1991) as “instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing”, active learning focuses on students engaging in work that requires higher-order and more complex thinking. Although “active learning” is not a new term, it was listed by the World Economics forum in 2022 as 1 of 4 trends that will shape the future of HE. In this session, the newly formed Warwick Active Learning Network Satellite Group invites participants to come and explore what active learning is, the benefits for students (and staff!) and to take part in a selection of small active teaching activities that can be adopted in a wide variety of contexts for impact on learning.
Type of Small Teaching: Small interventions in a module, programme or extended learning experience.
Event Sub-Themes: Wildcard
D2: The formative OSCE: a mock practical exam in the first three months of medical school with immediate feedback to students
Lindsay Muscroft and Qasim Malik (Warwick Medical School)
Warwick Medical School (WMS) is the only medical school in the UK to offer a formative clinical exam to medical students after their first term at medical school. OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations) involve a group of students rotating around a set number of stations, each containing a different specified assignment, and a different patient and examiner, so that they are all exposed to the same “variables”, thus increasing the reliability of the exam. At WMS, students sit a 4-station formative OSCE at the end of the first term, under complete exam conditions, at the same location as the summative OSCEs. After completing the stations, they are given real time feedback on their performance using Pendleton’s rules. Experiencing the examination so early alleviates a lot of the students’ anxiety around the process and provides focussed feedback for them to work on for the rest of the year. We believe this model could be easily transferred to other courses with practical exams.
Type of Small Teaching: Small modifications in module or programme design, assessment or communication with your students.
Event Sub-Themes: Wildcard
D3: ‘Seeing the curriculum’: sharing lenses on professional learning and being
Sara Hattersley and Oliver Turner (Academic Development Centre)
Teaching Warwick colleagues thorough professional development programmes requires a certain honesty, openness and reflection on a shared experience. We explore how we encourage participants to ‘see the curriculum’ through targeted activities, many of which are contextualised in the programme design itself, encouraging a critical eye on (their) curriculum.
Programme tutors also use regular participant feedback to ‘see’ the curriculum from the perspective of the participants and make changes that we hope will benefit and enhance both the individual experience and the programme overall. None of these actions are large scale: they represent small, nuanced considerations and actions that we hope will make a difference to practice, perception and participant progress.
Type of Small Teaching: Small interventions in a module, programme or extended learning experience.
Event Sub-Themes: Co-creation e.g. with students, communities, etc.