TALENT, the Teaching and Learning Enhancement NeTwork, was the idea of 6 ‘founders’ who are passionate about learning and teaching. They wondered how they might work together to create a ‘space’ to meet and talk about common challenges and share new approaches to learning and teaching. Encouraged by the Pro-Dean they went on to reach out to fellow teaching and learning-focused staff from the different schools across the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. Their vision developed into a wide-reaching community of staff dedicated to sharing evidence-based best practices in STEM. They were keen for the group to be interdisciplinary and based around a non-hierarchical, open platform to encourage engagement and discussion. This aim also supports the University’s strategic focus on “Collaboration: working together to achieve our goals and ambitions.”
The make-up of TALENT membership is now around 150 staff members being 90% Academics, 5% Professional Services and 5% Learning Technologists. TALENT hosts regular symposia, regular live coffee chats, an asynchronous Q&A Teams channel and an internal SharePoint website for signposting to resources. One of the key impacts for the network was during COVID-19 where our collaborative, cross-school reach, helped to pilot new approaches, distribute devices and rapidly share the experiences and skills across the faculty.
The founders’ natural collaborative mindset has been a significant feature from the start, being drawn together as like-minded individuals, passionate about student education, and keen to facilitate and support the sharing of ideas and expertise within the faculty. They continue to build on existing best practices by creating opportunities and events to draw out staff members’ own experiences. At the heart of TALENT is encouraging and supporting other practitioners to contribute and to share their expertise and perspectives with others.
