We are delighted to confirm our programme for our final event of the year on Thursday 18 December.
Our Mini Conference on Generative AI is taking place between 09:30 and 15:30. We are running this as a hybrid event. For those wanting to join in person, it will take place in the Visualisation Centre building, VC, 0.06.
We are delighted to confirm our external speakers:
James Fern and Richard Mason will be joining us to share the 2-lane approach to Generative AI Assessment Design that has been adopted at Bath University.
In addition to James and Richard, we have an exciting line up:
Hannah Dee, Amanda Clare and Clive King from the Department of Computer Science will be presenting.
Emma Butler-Way, Tom Holt, Rhys Dafydd Jones, Jayesh Mukherjee, and Stephen Tooth will be joining us from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences.
Jennifer Wood and Alex Mangold from Modern Languages will also be presenting.
Joy Cadwallader and colleagues from Academic Engagement will also be joining.
Earlier this year, Professor Anwen Jones announced the Education and Student Experience Award Fund at the 13th Annual Education and Student Experience Conference.
We are delighted to confirm this year’s winners and the 4 enhancement projects that they will be leading over the coming year:
Dr Elizabeth New, History and Welsh History: The Aber Medieval Physic Garden
Dr Emma Sheppard, Geography and Earth Sciences: Developing a Sustainable Student Gear Hub
Dr Kate Woodward, Theatre, Film and Television Studies: Inclusivity and Accessibility in Assessment Design and Feedback Practices
Dr Scott Tompsett, Department of Life Sciences: Pulling together – supporting teamwork assessment more effectively
Thank you to all applicants for submitting a proposal and to the awards panel.
There will be opportunities to hear more about these projects at next year’s annual Education and Student Experience Conference.
We’re pleased to announce the dates for Aberystwyth University’s 14th annual Education and Student Experience Conference.
We will be hosting the conference between Tuesday 8 – Thursday 10 September 2026.
We will start work on planning and establishing themes and guest speakers for the conference.
Conference themes, calls for proposals, and external speakers will be announced in the new year. Keep an eye on our webpages and our blog for further information.
If there is a particular topic that you would like the conference to address, do get in touch via elearning@aber.ac.uk.
At the 13th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, Professor Anwen Jones announced a fund of ÂŁ10,000 for colleagues to bid against to a maximum of ÂŁ2,000 for projects related to the conference theme:
Compassionate engagement and assessment
Health and wellbeing in a learning and teaching context
Accessibility and inclusion (inclusive learning and teaching design)
The University is providing half of the total funding, with the remainder coming from Medr, the Welsh universities regulator.
We are looking for a wide range of projects across all areas of our community which would make a difference to our education and student experience.
A warm welcome to new staff joining Aberystwyth University.
In this blogpost we aim to provide you with information related to technology in learning and teaching, our training provision, support channels, and events that we run.
All the information that you need is on our webpages.
We write a blog full of the latest updates, details on events and training sessions, and resources.
Each module has its own dedicated course in Blackboard. Students can expect to find information about the module, learning materials, and e-submission guidance, as well as links to reading lists and lecture capture.
Please see our staff guide for further information.
Lecture Capture: Panopto
When teaching in person, be aware that all lectures (that is, teaching where the focus is on information being transmitted from staff to students) should be recorded using Panopto, our Lecture Capture software.
At Aberystwyth University, students must submit all text-based and word-processed work electronically as outlined in the University’s E-submission policy.
For this, we use our e-submission tools: Turnitin andBlackboard Assignment. Turnitin provides an automatic text matching functionality. We use Blackboard Tests to run online exams.
Polling can be used in learning and teaching activities as well as meetings to make the session interactive and collaborative with many different possibilities for use.
Resources and further help
We have a number of Guides and FAQs to help you use our software.
Training Provision
To support all staff with their teaching, we run a series of training sessions across the following strands:
E-learning Essentials: designed for colleagues new to the university, teaching, or who would like to get a refresher. The aim of these sessions is to ensure that colleagues can meet the university’s digital learning and teaching policies.
E-learning Enhanced: designed to build on the skills gained in our e-learning essentials series, colleagues will create an activity or assessment unique to their learning and teaching contexts.
E-learning Excellence: designed to offer colleagues the opportunity to create exemplary learning and teaching opportunities – often unique and sector leading.
You can find details of our annual CPD programme and book your place to attend via Book a Course page.
All of these are great opportunities to meet people from across the university and discuss Learning and Teaching issues and developments.
We look forward to seeing you at a forthcoming event. In the meantime, feel free to get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk if you have any questions.
This year’s conference boasts a number of external speakers.
Keynote speaker:
Dr Neil Currant will be offering a keynote presentation on Compassionate Assessment. There will also be a masterclass workshop with colleagues being able to apply these principles to their own scenarios. See our blog update for further information.
External speakers:
We’ve got three other external speakers lined up. For further information, click the links below:
Now, we’ve also got Professor John Traxler joining us for a special panel discussion on Generative AI.
This session will be taking place on the afternoon of Tuesday 8 July via Teams.
John Traxler, FRSA, MBCS, AFIMA, MIET, is Professor of Digital Learning, UNESCO Chair in Innovative Informal Digital Learning in Disadvantaged and Development Contexts and Commonwealth of Learning Chair for innovations in higher education. He is Academic Director of the Avallain Lab, leading research on ethical and pedagogic aspects of educational AI. His papers are cited around 12,000 times and Stanford continues to list him in the top 2% in his discipline. He has written over 40 papers and seven books, and has consulted for international agencies including UNESCO, ITU, ILO, USAID, DFID, EU, UNRWA, British Council and UNICEF.
He was a pioneer of mobile learning, starting in the 2000s with technology and pedagogy but, in the 2010s, concerned with the impact and consequences on societies, cultures and communities of mobility and connectivity, and on the nature of disadvantage. He is interested in the impact of AI on global and individual disadvantage and the decolonisation of the digital technologies of learning and education.
Our full programme will be announced in due course.
We’re delighted to be joined by colleagues from Higher Education Partners (HEP) on the final day of our conference (10 July).
Kate Lindsay from HEP will be presenting and leading a roundtable as part of the conference. Kate is currently SVP of Academic Services at HigherEd Partners, working with UK Universities to grow their capacity and capability in the the design of high quality online learning experiences.
Previously, Kate worked at the University College of Estate Management as Head of Digital Education, leading the transformation of fully-online programmes. Before that Kate was the Head of Technology Enhanced Learning / Director of Academic Services at the University of Oxford. Kate has experience working on teaching, learning and assessment strategy, digital education strategy, learning design consultancy, staff digital fluencies, curriculum design, and IT innovation programmes.
The University has partnered with HEP on the new online learning project as part of the invest to grow strand.
We’ll also be joined by colleagues in academic departments who are working with HEP for the first cohort of courses.
