The UCISA Spotlight on Digital Capabilities conference in Birmingham, 25-26 May 2016, was a thought-provoking event with excellent speakers and delegates. This year’s conference focussed on the digital capabilities of staff in HE and FE. One recurrent theme was introducing…
Technological tails and pedagogical dogs
An important part of the Institute for Teaching, Innovation and Learning’s activity is promoting and advising on the effective use of learning technologies and to encourage best practice within the University of West London. My interest in educational technologies has grown rapidly during my…
How the Teaching Excellence Framework will work
The details of how the government proposes to introduce a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to monitor the quality of teaching at universities have been revealed in a new green paper on higher education. The paper, Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence,…
On the Twelfth App of Christmas…
12 apps, 12 days, 12 minutes per day With the aim of exploring opportunities for learning with mobile technologies INSTIL, along with collaborators from across the University, has gathered together 12 free apps that are useful for learning and teaching…
Celebrating our accidents with learning
Most of the useful things I have learnt have been by accident or mistake. Very early on, I learnt that if I touch something hot, it hurts. It was a useful lesson. Thankfully, I am not alone in learning useful…
What do university students think of their assessments?
The effectiveness of assessments can be ameliorated by focussing on the students’ need for timely support in the form of consistent preparation and clear feedback. The role of assessments Assessments are an integral part of the academic programme, serving as…