Academic Literacies Learning Circle One-Day Symposium

Leads: Alexander Smith (Sociology) and Susie Cowley-Haselden (WFS)

The principal aim of the Academic Literacies Learning Circle is to investigate and challenge the ways staff and students think about reading and writing in academia. We aim to do this by offering a space for rethinking how we teach, assess and produce writing. We are holding a one-day symposium to provide such a space. Our symposium on academic writing at Warwick will provide the space for staff and students to critically evaluate the academic literacies we wish to nurture at Warwick, to identify systemic barriers to success in academia at Warwick, and to steer the direction of academic literacies at Warwick; addressing strategic aims such as innovation (working ‘to remove barriers to innovative and creative activity’) and engagement and inclusion (working ‘to remove the barriers to Warwick education’).

AI Listening Rooms

Leads: Jennie Mills (ADC), Tom Ritchie (Chemistry) and Will Haywood (CTE)

The Listening@Warwick team believe that the rapid rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence has brought new disruption and uncertainty to teaching, learning, and assessment which in some ways recalls the rupture of the pandemic to traditional ways of working. Thus, the Listening@Warwick: GenAI edition will create a virtual “listening room” to produce a series of six podcasts capturing conversations between students and between staff about GenAI: attitudes, practices, and desired futures. These podcasts will be made available via WIHEAs webpage, and used to inform continuing dialogue and development of GenAI teaching and learning strategies and practices.

Embedding Digital Skill Development in the Learning Cycle

Lead: Jianhua Yang (WMG)

The primary objective of this project is to examine the utilization of digital technologies across various phases of the learning cycle as students progress from one module to another and from year to year. Specifically, the project seeks to investigate how our degree programs contribute to the development of our students' digital skills, what are the barriers and facilitating factors for digital technology usage, and how we can more effectively integrate digital skill development into the learning cycle. The project is designed with co-creation embedded all the way through design from initial ideas, questionnaire development, and recommendation.

Exploring Students' Perceptions of SEM Assessments

Lead: Sam Grierson (WFS)

The primary objective of this project is to explore students' perspectives on SEM assessments to determine what changes, if any, might be recommended to enable inclusive and accessible assessments in SEM modules. The project also aims to better understand students' views on traditional exam style summative assessments. The project is a collaborative activity working in partnership with students both in and out of the University, and their contributions will ultimately stimulate the development of focus group questions and the reimagining and reshaping of SEM assessments at Warwick.

Group work as Assessments: Student Outcomes and Pedagogical Implications

Lead: Atisha Ghosh (Economics)

The project aims to understand the effect of group work on students’ learning outcomes, along with the instructors’ viewpoint on groupwork as part of summative assessments.

Investigating the academic experiences of part-time students in History

Leads: Aysu Dincer (History) and Teresa Grant (Centre of the Study of the Renaissance)

The project focuses on exploring the conditions around the academic engagement of part-time students in History in particular, and in the Faculty of Arts in general. It aims to identify barriers to accessibility and inclusivity that part-time students face, with a view to develop and embed practices that improve students’ academic experiences, as well as enhance practice and policy within Warwick.

The NeuroQueer toolkit

Leads: Luke Hodson (Psychology) and Percy Lim (English)

This project seeks to build on already established work by developing a directed supplement to two toolkits exploring the intersection of students and/or staff who identify as ‘neuroqueer’ (i.e., both neurodivergent and LGBTQUIA+).The NeuroQueer project will feature the perspective of intersectional individuals, and how their intersectional identity affects their experience at Warwick, and in Higher Education more generally.

Pilot Project to Capture Practices in TR&P

Leads: Simon Peplow (History), Claudie Fox (Psychology), Ali Ahmad (WMG) and Martyn Parker (Statistics)

The University of Warwick has established a working model for the recognition and reward of teaching activity in its academic promotions process. Hailed as a step in the right direction by internal members of teaching staff, there remains a need to benchmark and calibrate Warwick's promotion criteria, process and wider institutional and departmental support structures to facilitate promotion of teaching staff against wider practice within the HE sector. The purpose in this pilot project is to undertake a desk-based survey, scraping publicly available information on teaching staff promotion criteria and processes adopted by comparable HE institutions, to allow for an initial cross comparison of institutional practice. The ambition is to gauge whether guidance from Advance HE has trickled through within the sector, and whether this has lead to the creation and publication of clear and transparent documentation to capture institutions' teaching staff promotion criteria and processes.

Reverse Mentoring

Leads: Rosie Doyle (History) and Jade MacFarlane (History)

This pilot project in reverse mentoring aims to raise staff awareness of the experience of a range of WP students through one-to-one, staff-to-student mentoring. The principal output of the project will be a report that will be used to develop History Department strategy in the short term. Through the discussion of reports in committees, staff meetings and training days, the whole staff body in History and the Faculty of Arts more widely will be made aware of any suggestions for good practice emerging from the pilot project.