Jess Power, APVC Learning and Teaching Enhancement, Calum Thomson Higher Technical-skills lead and Davina Whitnall, EDI lead, share the University of Salford’s Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre's creative approach to developing principled learning and teaching enhancement. (Image – Student drawing', University of Salford)
The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Centre (LTEC) at the University of Salford was formally launched in January 2022. Three years on, we are excited to share our principled approach to enhancing learning and teaching practices and its impact on continuous professional development. Our approach to academic practice has yielded significant benefits in several key areas, including:
- significantly increasing the number of core teaching staff seeking and being awarded Advance Fellowships,
- encouraging more staff to participate in disseminating practice,
- boosting staff engagement with LTEC and our resources,
- supporting staff in applying for and completing internal scholarships.
Here, we share the implementation, impact and steps for the future.
Three ‘Cs’ to build a Creative Collaborative Community
Our newly formed Learning and Teaching Centre brought together a diverse team with a wide range of skills. This provided an opportunity to create something special with a new vision for education and pedagogical development. Our goals were to enhance learning and teaching by showcasing innovation across the university which enriched student experiences working in partnership with our four academic schools.
We started from scratch, with no preconceptions, and only high ambitions of what could be achieved with the talented people both within the team and around the University. Leading by example, a bold new collaborative approach was adopted, incorporating innovative practices and agile approaches.
Vision and Mission
The Centre’s mission is to lead the University community in innovative, digitally enabled, and societally focused inclusive pedagogic practice, and scholarship of education. LTEC’s vision was ambitious – to be a nationally recognised Centre of Excellence for Higher Education pedagogical enhancement and development through inclusive, equitable, and diverse practice, achieving outstanding recognition for our staff and supporting inspirational learning and teaching to enrich lives. Using the 3 Cs approach we devised a roadmap for our journey. Learning from the pandemic practices, a principled approach to learning and teaching was developed, enabling agility and responsiveness to student needs and sector changes, whilst empowering our staff. At Salford, we acknowledge that our academic community is best placed to determine the appropriate academic practice within their discipline area; the principled framework provides sound pedagogic guidance to underpin strong learning foundations.
Showcasing Creativity
We brought creativity to the forefront of learning and teaching through engaging colleagues across the institution to establish new ways of working and recognising talent throughout the university. We built ‘ground up’, with six foundations to support: enabling student success, celebrating best practice, recognising talent, transforming pedagogy, building sustainable networks and enabling us. We embedded:
- inclusive practice: ensuring all voices are heard and valued
- equitable opportunities: providing equal access to resources and support
- diverse perspectives: embracing a wide range of viewpoints and experiences
- innovative pedagogy: encouraging new and effective teaching methods
- digital enablement: leveraging technology to enhance learning
- societal focus: connecting education to real-world challenges and opportunities.
Here’s how…
To communicate our strategy effectively, we created a bold, bright, and inviting, brand placing learning and teaching at the centre; representing LTEC as a connecting entity, bringing together our academic community. This reflected our vision and enabled us to communicate goals and achievements clearly. Our strategy infographic is presented as a camera lens, representing our focus on the University’s practices and approaches. Our logo represents four kites, symbolising the four academic schools within the university, highlighting our connection and collaboration while recognising their individuality.
Our principled approach
Recognising the need for agility, creativity and multi-modality, we moved away from unnecessary complicated policy, adopting a principled approach to learning and teaching, curriculum design, inclusive assessment and educational technology. The principles form a high-level overview approved centrally by the University, supported by online wraparound guidance developed collaboratively with the academic community to showcase best practice and underpinning theories. This enables the academic community to respond creatively in-line with the speed of change and institutional learning without the continuous requirement to update policy. Recognising that the blends and approaches will vary according to specific programme requirements, the academic community is well placed to determine the exact mix to best support their learners based on sound pedagogical principles.
Impact & achievements
Over the past two years, we have seen a substantial increase in subject areas scoring 85% or above in the NSS categories of teaching and assessment. The number of core staff holding Advance HE fellowships increased by 2.6%, with significant further growth anticipated. We have two fully subscribed cohorts in the newly validated in-house Advance HE accredited scheme. Furthermore, we celebrated our first successful NTF and CATE awards in over five years and made strides in closing award gaps across the university and increased the number of students passing all modules on the first attempt.
We’ve encouraged more staff to participate in disseminating practice, through the development of communities of practices to transform global futures, support neurodiversity, and foster growth in AI. Staff have shared practice, resulting in over 200 resources captured in our academic practice exchange. Additionally, our annual ‘Festival of Learning and Teaching’ has grown, engaging 200+ participants and externally published proceedings. More recently we launched the LTEC external-facing hub and supported staff in applying for and completing internal scholarships.
Our internal hub for academic practice support reached an all-time high with over 61,000 visits from 3,375 users. Bespoke sessions for academic schools saw attendance from over 800 staff in a single year. These accomplishments highlight our commitment to enhancing the learning and teaching experience and the value of adopting a principled approach to academic practice.
Looking Ahead
We remain committed to our principled approach to learning and teaching enhancement, continuing to innovate, collaborate, and support our staff and students, ensuring that our practices embed inclusivity, equitable, and diversity. We encourage others to foster a creative approach to principled learning and teaching enhancement and to share impact with the sector.
Links for further information
- LTEC Principled Approach
- LTEC at Salford
- Advance HE Collaborative Case study
- LTEC Post Festival Publication
Staff profiles
