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Member Project 23-24: Fit for the Future: Enhancing and adapting practice for new paradigms of higher education

This member benefit aims to help members adapt to rapidly evolving markets and novel environmental shocks by exploring innovative and unconventional approaches to how higher education is structured and provided.

The HE landscape is shifting and diversifying to meet the changing needs of students and employers. Post-pandemic changes to student expectations, experiences, and prior learning combined with external factors, including the cost of living, globalisation, student mobility and graduate employment, necessitate changes to how higher education is structured and provided. Students ask for more flexibility in approaches to engaging with their learning, peers, and higher education provider.  

Fundamentally, how we learn has remained constant; we need motivation, opportunity, and time. However, what students need to know and the competencies and values required to succeed are changing. Providing diverse HE models can help ensure that personalised, quality learning opportunities are accessible to all. In 2023/24 we will be exploring how we can adapt key areas of our education practice to these new modes of higher education.  

 Dr Kay Hack, Principal Adviser (Learning and Teaching), Advance HE introduces the project below

This project is relevant to: All members

Job functions: Academics, Academic Developers, Programme leaders, Heads of schools or departments, Deans, PVC/DVC (education and student experience), Quality Assurance.

Explore the individual projects

Projects:

Modes of Assessment

This project will develop two guides designed to help educators:

1. Design authentic assessment instruments that promote academic integrity and desired learning behaviours.

2. Use multi-modality to enhance teaching, learning and assessment

Find out more

Leading Digital Transformation 

This project will bring together those leading digital transformation within their institutions to connect, share good practice and solutions.  

Find out more

EnvisionED 

This project will support educators to reflect on how they can guide students through their own academic and personal/professional journeys, emphasising growth and self-empowerment.  

Find out more
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Output - Multi-modal Learning: A Practice Guide

Multimodal teaching, learning and assessment Guide taps into the diverse ways in which individuals want to receive, process and share information. This guide will support educators incorporate multimodal learning in content creation, developing learning activities, and
assessments, applicable to a range of learning contexts and educational settings.
This guide to multimodal learning in higher education, including case studies from HE around the world, aims to help practitioners turn their multimodal ideas into teaching practices.
Read the guide

Output - Assessment of Higher Order Learning: A Practice Guide

Building on the Modes of Learning Practice Guide published in 2022, this new practice guide is for course teams designing authentic assessments that encourage academic integrity and provide flexible and inclusive opportunities for students to showcase how they have achieved learning outcomes.
Read the guide

Lead

Dr Kay Hack (PFHEA)

Lead Consultant (Education)
,
Advance HE
Dr Kay Hack
Kay leads a team of senior consultants to deliver a range of services to the HE sector to support strategic leadership and change in HEIs.

Vic Stephenson

Senior Consultant - Education
,
Advance HE
Vic Stephenson
Vic is a Senior Consultant at Advance HE, designing and delivering support and training on inclusive pedagogy approaches and leading a range of collaborative projects to enhance quality, student experience and outcomes. She has over 25 years of experience in education as a teacher, teacher trainer, academic manager and assessment specialist. Vic’s main interests are in international education, inclusive curricula and assessment design and technology-enhanced learning.
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Output - Roundtables

Two roundtable events brought together thought leaders in HE learning and teaching to explore best practices in leading digital change, review and discuss relevant outputs from the sector, discuss current strategic priorities, highlight the impact of digital investment, and explore the challenges and opportunities of talent recruitment.

Roundtable 1: 17 January 2024-This focused on best practices in leading digital change and highlighted the impact of digital investment.

Roundtable 2: 14 February 2024-This focused on exploring the challenges and opportunities of talent recruitment.

Output - Network

Traditionally, a knowledge gap has kept senior staff from fully grasping the intricacies of digital transformation and leadership. Often delegated to others, this vital knowledge remains dispersed across the organisation, leaving leaders ill-equipped to steer this essential facet of institutional growth.

This is where the Leading Digital Transformation Network steps in. We understand senior staff and executives seek more than expertise; they require a dynamic community fostering dialogue, showcasing excellence, and championing their efforts.

We aim to launch the network in June 2024, following consultation with the sector.

Lead

John Sumpter

Senior Consultant in Education
,
Advance HE
John Sumpter
As a senior consultant, he has an impressive track record of driving positive change at the international, national, and government levels. With an extensive work experience that includes tenure at three universities and two national sector organizations, Jisc and Advance HE.
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Output - EnvisionED: Where 'becoming' is at the heart of education

The endeavour of nurturing becoming in higher education is driven by several high-level objectives that collectively seek to enrich the educational experience and empower both educators and learners. Nurturing ‘becoming’ in HE reflects a commitment to growth, self-awareness, transformative and lifelong learning, and the creation of inclusive communities of practice (Flint et al, 2022). By weaving these into the fabric of education, members are empowered to lead examined lives and flourish as active participants, proving to be valuable investments for higher education providers.

In this introductory thought piece, sector experts Juliette Gaunt and Mark O’Hara will consider the critical reflection and self-awareness required for transformational learning, and the role of educators in enabling this.
Read the thought piece

Output - Open Forum 1

Belonging, Mattering and Becoming: Empowering Education through Connection

The first forum took place on Tuesday 5 March 2024

Are you already involved in working with students in a way which enables their whole selves, and supports the development of the student beyond the level of knowledge acquisition, with a focus on nurturing emotional and personal growth?
Would you like to work with students in this way but are not sure how to get started and who you might connect with to gain support and ideas?

We want you to get involved if you are interested in taking forward enabling growth for students in regards belonging, mattering and becoming - exploring how these concepts can be instrumental in fostering self-actualisation and self-efficacy for all of our learners.

Output - Open Forum 2

Belonging, Mattering and Becoming: Empowering Education through Connection

Our second online forum as part of this project highlighted some good practices from the institutions or areas to the wider group.

This event took place on Tuesday 7 May from 11:30 - 12:45 BST.

Output - Panel Event

This event took place on 17 June 2024.

This event will bring together a panel to explore aspects of belonging/mattering and consider how individuals can develop their own practices fit for their own context.

Speakers of the panel event

Prof. Katie Strudwick, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Student Engagement, University of Lincoln

Dr Mhairi Morris, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry, Loughborough University

Simon Abbott, Work-Based Learning Advisor, City, University of London

Kate Lister, Professor of Education, Director of EDI, Arden University

Lead

Juliette Morgan

Senior Consultant (Student Success)
,
Advance HE
Juliette Morgan
Juliette Morgan is a National Teaching Fellow and Collaborative Excellence Award winner. Juliette’s current role is Senior Consultant (student success) with Advance HE. Her interests include student success, mental health and wellbeing, student enablement and leadership in Higher Education.

Professor Mark O Hara

Senior Consultant, Education
,
Advance HE
Mark O'Hara
Professor Mark O’Hara is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a National Teaching Fellow and a winner of the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence in the UK. Mark is a former Chair of the UK’s CATE-Network and has over 30 years’ experience leading educational change in a wide variety of roles including undergraduate and postgraduate programme leadership, Head of Student Experience, Associate Dean for Learning, Teaching and Academic Quality and Associate PVC (Education).
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An Advance HE member benefit

Member Projects are part of Advance HE's member benefits for the 2023-24 membership year. Click below to see the full range of benefits available.

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