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Contract Cheating: Red Flag Checklist Workshop– Materials Available

WordPress User [jbw] E-submission, External Speakers, Feedback, Marking, Turnitin Leave a comment
Turnitin icon

On 20 May, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit were joined by Dr Mary Davies, Stephen Bunbury,  Anna Krajewska, and Dr Matthew Jones for their online workshop: Contract Cheating Detection for Markers (Red Flags).

With other colleagues, they form the London South East Academic Integrity Network Contract Cheating Working Group and have been doing essential work and research into the increased use of essay mills and contract cheating.

The session included lots of practical tips for colleagues to help detect the use of Contract Cheating whilst marking.

The resources from the session are available below:

Contract Cheating Detection Workshop_handout_editable_pdfDownload

Further information on Unfair Academic Practice is available in the Academic Quality Handbook (see section 10).

Many thanks to the presenters. We’ve had such great external speaker sessions this academic year; take a look at our External Speakers blogposts for further information.

Changes to Turnitin: Information for Staff

WordPress User [jbw] E-submission, Technical Updates, Turnitin Leave a comment

For the academic year 2022/23 we will be using a new version of Turnitin.

On Tuesday 5 July 2022 Information Services will be enabling the new version of Turnitin on Blackboard.

Whilst most of Turnitin’s current functionality will remain the same, there will be some changes. 

To help staff with this change, we have arranged the following FAQs:

Further information can be found in our Turnitin LTI FAQs.

Our webpages and help guidance will be updated to reflect these changes. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (elearning@aber.ac.uk).

Guest speaker announcement: Annual Learning and Teaching Conference

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Dr Alex Hope

We’re pleased to announce our first guest speaker for this year’s annual learning and teaching conference (12-14 September 2022).

Dr Alex Hope will be joining us to talk about how to embed sustainability meaningfully into the curriculum.

Dr Hope is Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education) and Associate Professor of Business Ethics at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University. He is responsible for the strategic leadership of education across the faculty and undertakes teaching, research and consultancy across topics such as education for sustainable development, responsible business, business ethics and the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Alongside his work at Newcastle Business School Dr Hope is Co-Chair of the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education (UN PRME) Climate Change and Environment working group and past Vice-Chair of the UN PRME UK and Ireland Chapter. He is a member of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) Learning and Teaching Committee and sits on the Northeast board of Business in the Community, the Prince of Wales responsible business network. He holds a PhD in Sustainable development, an MA in Academic Practice and BSc (Hons) in Environmental Management.

A reminder to colleagues that the Call for Proposals is currently open (due to close on 27 May 2022).

Booking for the conference is also open.

Further information can be found on our webpages. We will be announcing additional external speakers, including our keynote, in due course.

Academy Forum Materials 2021-22 are available on our webpages

WordPress User [jbw] Academy Forum, Events and Networks Leave a comment

Our Academy Forums for the academic year have now finished. We’d like to thank our attendees for participating in the discussions.

We’ve made the handouts from this year’s forums available on our webpages.

The handouts contain key theoretical frameworks as well as practical case studies and colleagues’ reflections on their own teaching.

Topics discussed this year:

Owing to the success of the format and the attendance, we’re looking to increase the number of academy forums on offer next academic year. If you’ve got a topic related to learning and teaching that you’d like to discuss with colleagues, then drop us an email (lteu@aber.ac.uk).

Conference Registration now open

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Registration for the tenth annual Learning and Teaching conference is now open. This year’s Learning and Teaching conference has the theme Designing the Teaching of Tomorrow: Innovation, Enhancement, and Excellence and will be taking place between Monday 12 September and Wednesday 14 September 2022.

You can register for the conference online.

Call for Proposals

Staff, postgraduate teaching assistants, and students are welcome to propose sessions on any topic relating to learning and teaching.

Submit and view the call for proposals online. Please complete this form no later than 27 May 2022.

Component Marks Transfer

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Turnitin icon

As May starts to approach, we thought it would be useful to outline the support available for  the Component Marks Transfer process. This process transfers marks from the Blackboard Grade Centre columns into AStRA’s Assessment marks per Module (STF080) page.   

The tool is available in each Blackboard module and also in the Component Marks tool in MyAdmin. Departmental Administrative Staff are able to view and transfer modules for each module in their department whereas Module Co-ordinators are able to view and transfer marks for their modules.  

To support the Component Marks Transfer process, we have: 

  • Training Session on: 
    • 3 May 11:00-12:00

Book your place online.  

If you have any questions about the process, email elearning@aber.ac.uk.  

Exemplary Course Award 2021-22

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Exemplary Course Award image

Dr Laura Stephenson, from the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, has been awarded the Exemplary Course Award for the module TFM0120: Gender and Media Production.

In addition to the winner, the following modules achieved Highly Commended:

  • Dr Andrew Filmer from the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies for the module TP33420: Performance and Architecture
  • Dr Maire Gorman from the Graduate School and Physics for the module PGM4310: Quantitative Data Collection and Analysis
  • Claire Ward from Lifelong Learning for the module XA01605: Natural History Illustration: Seed Heads

The diverse range of teaching and learning styles evidenced in this year’s applications reflects the innovative work that is taking place across the institution.

The aim of the Exemplary Course Award, now in its seventh year, aims to recognise the very best learning and teaching practices. It gives staff members the opportunity to share their work with colleagues, enhance their current modules in Blackboard, and receive feedback on to improve.

Modules are assessed across 4 areas: course design, interaction and collaboration, assessment, and learner support. The self-assessed nature of the award gives staff the opportunity to reflect on their course and enhance aspects of their module before a panel assesses each application against the rubric.

The panel and the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit would like to thank all of the applicants for the time and effort that they have put into their applications and modules this year.

We’re looking forward to receiving more applications next year and many congratulations to the recipients of this year’s award.

LTEU External Speaker Event: Contract Cheating Detection for Markers

WordPress User [jbw] E-submission, External Speakers, Feedback, Feedback, Marking, Marking Leave a comment
Banner for Audio Feedback

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is pleased to announce its next External Speaker Event.

On 20 May 2022 12:30-13:30, Dr Mary Davies, Principal Lecturer in the Business School at Oxford Brookes University, and colleagues will be running a workshop on their interactive red flag checklist resource Contract Cheating Detection for Markers.

Dr Davies will be joined by Stephen Bunbury, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Westminster, Anna Krajewska, Director of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Bloomsbury Institute, and Dr Matthew Jones, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Greenwich.

This workshop is designed to help staff participants detect potential contract cheating when marking. The presenters belong to the London and South East Academic Integrity Network Contract Cheating Working Group who put together an interactive ‘red flag’ checklist resource Contract Cheating Detection for Markers.

In the workshop, the presenters will explain the red flags that indicate possible contract cheating, through discussing sections of the checklist: text analysis, referencing and the use of sources, Turnitin similarity and text matching, document properties, the writing process, comparison with students’ previous work, and comparison to cohort. Participants will be provided with opportunities to practise using the checklist and to discuss effective ways to help them identify potential contract cheating in student work.

Resources from previous External Speaker events can be found on our blog.

The workshop will take place online using Microsoft Teams. Book your place online.

Please contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit if you have any questions (lteu@aber.ac.uk).

Rob Nash: External Speaker Materials Available

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Why is receiving feedback so hard? Screen grab from Rob Nash's talk

On Friday 11 March, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit hosted Dr Rob Nash, a Reader in Psychology from Aston University. Rob is an expert in feedback and ran a workshop looking explicitly at ways in which we can enhance and develop feedback engagement.

A recording of the transmission elements of the session is available on Panopto. You can also view the slides that he used.

For those of you who are interested in further exploring the terrain of feedback, you can take a look at the references that Rob used in his session:

Nash-Aberystwyth-references-March-2022Download

Our next External Speaker event is Dr Mary Davies from Oxford Brookes who’ll be joined by other colleagues to discuss how we can detect potential contract cheating during the marking process. This workshop will be on 20 May 2022, 12:30-13:30. Booking for the session is already open.

A reminder as well that our Call for Proposals for our Annual Learning and Teaching Conference is currently open.

Call for Proposals: Learning and Teaching Conference 2022

WordPress User [jbw] Annual Learning and Teaching Conference 2022, Conference 1 Comment

We are now inviting proposals for the 10th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, Monday 12-Wednesday 14 September 2022.

Submit and view the call for proposals online. 

This year’s conference theme, 

Designing the Teaching of Tomorrow: Innovation, Enhancement, and Excellence 

Celebrating 10 years of Aberystwyth University’s Learning and Teaching Conferences

aims to reflect the commitment that AU staff have to enhance the student learning experience.

The main strands of this year’s conference are:

  • Inclusive and sustainable pedagogies 
  • Assessment validity, authentic assessment, and feedback engagement
  • Scaffolding skills across the curriculum and beyond
  • Developing a Bilingual University community
  • Working with students as partners to design learning 
  • Active learning in today’s higher education landscape

Staff, postgraduate teaching assistants, 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 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.

Please complete this form no later than 27 May 2022.

If you have any questions, please contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit at lteu@aber.ac.uk.