In 2012, IATL commissioned two third-year undergraduate student researchers, Suet Ping Cheah (graduated BA PPE, 2012) and Shena Willis (graduated BA History and Politics, 2012), to produce an evaluation of IATL's impact to date. This report is part of IATL's programme of regular evaluation.

Executive Summary

Context

The Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL) was formed in 2010 with a mandate to provide the impetus and means to ensure that the University of Warwick achieves a distinctive and excellent learning experience for all students across all departments. Given the present context of upheaval in the higher education market this objective is essential to safeguarding Warwick's world-class reputation and working towards the strategy aim of becoming a 'Top 50' university by 2015. The three-fold fee increases for home-students initiated in 2012 have led to a greater emphasis on the 'value for money' offered by degree courses in general. As such, the expertise in stimulating teaching methods, open-learning spaces, student-focus and internationalism IATL provides will be of vital importance to the future success of the University of Warwick. This report will evaluate the impact IATL has had on the learning experience offered by Warwick University 2010-2012. It will also consider the visibility of IATL among both the staff and student populations as IATL aims to be a visible centre of teaching and learning excellence on campus.

Overview

• The assistance given by IATL staff during the application process is highly praised by applicants
• Interaction with IATL over the course of projects is also consistently highlighted as a positive experience
• Smaller projects, in general, are particularly effective at reaching students in a meaningful way
• Dissemination of projects is an area which needs development, particularly in regard to IATL's 'branding' and visibility on campus
• Project applicants have consistently expressed a willingness to do more and a belief that dissemination could be made more formal
• Student visibility is poor whilst staff visibility is comparatively very high
• There is no strong resistance to IATL, or the way IATL is funded, from staff or students

The full report

The full report is currently restricted to members of the University of Warwick:

 IATL Evaluation Report 2012

We welcome responses and comments, which should be emailed to iatl at warwick dot ac dot uk.

Note

p.16 Feedback from a respondent in the Economics Department. IATL notes that there may be a misconception here as it has no record of interaction with academic colleagues in Economics.