As we start to move to the assignment period for semester 2, we start to look at creating courses ready for 2026-27.
We will create courses for 2026-27 on Monday 3 June 2026.
The courses will be available to staff as soon as we create them.
Students will not be enrolled on the courses until they complete registration in September.
As with previous years, there will be one standard template for all courses at Aberystwyth. The language of the template depends on the language of delivery in AStRA. If the course is delivered 100% through the medium of Welsh, then a Welsh template will be used. For 1-99% through the medium of Welsh, a bilingual template will be used. If the course is registered to be delivered 0% through the medium of Welsh, then an English template is used.
Our Blackboard Required Minimum Presence, E-submission, and Lecture Capture policies are in the stages of being finalised.
We will communicate these in due course.
If you have any questions about course creation, please don’t hesitate to contact us on elearning@aber.ac.uk.
Last month we had the pleasure of welcoming our Education and Student Experience Award recipients to an event.
The Education and Student Experience Award fund was launched last year at our Education and Student Experience Conference.
The event aimed to give colleagues undertaking these projects and their supporters, as well as the panel, an update on progress – to share successes, as well as identify any challenges that colleagues might have come across.
Each of the four projects gave a presentation.
Please read below for an overview of each project and the PDF files associated with each presentation.
Project 1: The Aber Medieval Physic Garden
Led by Elizabeth New (History & Welsh History), alongside Sian Nicholas, Eleri Phillips, and a student steering committee. The aim of this project is to create an outdoor amenity for staff and students that support education and recreation on campus. The project seeks to enhance students’ learning through collaborative mentored historical research, gardening, and public engagement.
Project 2: Developing a Sustainable Student Gear Hub
This project is led by Emma Sheppard (DGES), alongside Toni Beardmore, Eleri Phillips, Morgan Jones, Emma Butler-Wray, Hywel Griffiths, and Tom Holt.
The aim of the project is to promote accessibility, inclusivity, and sustainability in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences by developing a ‘library of things’ for student borrowing and use.
The library will make use of second-hand useable resources and students will be able to participate in repair cafes, making the library sustainable.
Toni Beardmore and Eleri Phillips presented at the event. Please see their slideshow below:
Project 4: Pulling together – supporting teamwork assessment more effectively
Department of Life Science’s Scott Tompsett is collaborating with Cal Walters-Davies and Caroline White from Student Journey to identify common issues for students in relation to group work.
They are investigating how to make groupwork more accessible to neurodivergent students.
They aim to develop a suite of resources for students and teaching staff to better facilitate group work and will test these in several modules.
Scott presented at the event and the slides from the presentation are below.
We’re sure that you will agree that these are such worthwhile projects.
You can hear more about these projects at the 14th Education and Student Experience Conference between 08 and 10 September.
Bookings for the conference, as well as the call for proposals is now open. You can find further information on our blog.
We are delighted to announce that we will be running the Education and Student Experience Awards again next year. The awards will be tied to the conference theme and will be open to conference attendees.
We’ve got topics on neurodiversity and ai, neurodiversity and employability, and improving teaching for neurodiverse students amongst many other topics.
In the afternoon, we are running a series of workshops which delegates can sign up to attend.
We are delighted to announce the winner of this year’s annual Exemplary Course Award.
Congratulations to our joint winners:
Dr Christopher Phillips from International Politis for the award-winning course: IP25320: Warfare after Waterloo: Military History 1815-1918
Dr Catrin Wyn-Edwards from International Politics for the award-winning course: IPM3120: Race, (Im)mobility, and Incarceration.
The panel noted exemplary practices in the following areas:
Community ethos and student co-creation activities
Seminar packs with clear guidance and additional materials to expand on the main topic
Ethos of the module as part of the welcome and orientation
Clear and accessible module structures
Variety of source types
A range of assessment and feedback opportunities
Optional exercises for developing essay writing and critical thinking skills
Reading list organised into different sections
Embedding learning outcomes throughout the course
Many congratulations to our highly commended and commended recipients:
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences’ Dr Tristram Irvine-Fynn and Dr Hywel Griffiths for the course GS25520: Glacial and Fluvial Processes and Theatre Film and Television Studies’ Dr Lara Kipp for the course FM22120: Production Design Skills.
These 2 courses demonstrated some excellent practices, including innovative virtual field trip activities, anonymous student feedback mechanisms, authentic assessment design, and clarity on generative AI usage. The award is assessed based on a rubric across four areas:
Course Design
Interaction and Collaboration
Assessment
Learner Support
The courses were of such a high standard, and we look forward to sharing their practices with you in due course.
Many congratulations to this year’s well-deserved recipients.
Please complete this form no later than 22 May 2026.
The theme for this year’s conference is:
Co‑Creating Inclusive Futures: Flexible, Diverse, and Competency‑Driven Learning
The main strands of this year’s conference are:
Diversifying the Curriculum for Equity and Belonging
Building inclusive, decolonised curricula that reflect diverse identities and experiences, advancing the Race Equality Charter.
Flexible Learning for a Changing Landscape
Hybrid, blended, and accessible learning designs that support varied learner needs through thoughtful pacing, structure, and technology.
Competency‑Driven Learning
Clear, meaningful integration of skills, graduate attributes, and real‑world application of competencies.
Students as Co‑Creators and Collaborators
Authentic student–staff collaboration in curriculum design, assessment, research, and decision‑making.
Staff and students are welcome to propose sessions on any topic relating to learning and teaching, especially those that focus on the incorporation and use of technology. Even if your suggestion doesn’t fit into a particular strand, other topics are welcome.
We seek to encourage presenters to consider using alternative formats that reflect and suit the content of their sessions. As such, we are not specifying a standardised presentation format.
We had the pleasure of recently presenting at the Blackboard User Group on the Exemplary Course Award that we run here at Aberystwyth University. Blackboard run their own Exemplary Course Programme which we use as the basis for our award.
The session title, Celebrating Excellence, Shaping Practice: Aberystwyth University’s Exemplary Course Award Programme, charted the history of the event here at AU.
We’ve been running the ECA since 2014. In that time, over 50 modules have submitted applications.
Since the start of the award, we’ve had applications from all sections of the University. Those that offer on campus teaching provision, Lifelong Learning Courses, Distance Learning Courses, Welsh language and English medium courses, large and small courses have all been recipients of the award.
In the presentation, we gave an overview of how we manage the process and discussed the impact of running the award over the last 12 years. The ethos of the process has always foregrounded reflection giving applicants the opportunity to enhance and refine their course before submitting.
We’ve looked at the ways in which we have marked success over the years, as well as the changes we have applied to streamline the process.
We also discussed how we might change this for the future. We are exploring ways in which the student voice can be brought into the nomination process. We’re also considering running smaller awards alongside the Exemplary Course Award – an award that focuses on each of the 4 criteria: Course Design, Assessment, Interaction and Collaboration, and Learner Support.
We were joined by previous award winners: Lauren Harvey (Law and Criminology) and Mari Dunning (Lifelong Learning).
Both Lauren and Mari spoke about their courses as well as their experience of engaging with the process.
We are pleased to announce our next Mini Conference taking place on Tuesday 14 April 2026.
In collaboration with the Department of Psychology, Student Accessibility and Wellbeing, and the Digital Education Team (Student Journey), we are looking for 15-minute presentations on the following topics:
Navigating university life as a neurodivergent student
Inclusive teaching and learning practices
The role of support services in fostering neurodivergent success
Please indicate in the proposal if you are comfortable taking questions for 5 minutes at the end of your presentation. Please submit your proposal before Friday 6 March.
