Mini Conference: Programme announced

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The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is pleased to announce the programme for its forthcoming Virtual Reality Mini Conference on Tuesday 28 March.

Booking for the event is already open. This mini conference is taking place in person in B23, Llandinam Building between 11:00 and 16:00. 

The Mini Conference will start at 11:00 with a session by Chris Rees from UWTSD. Our blogpost announcing Chris as our external speaker provides further information.

From 11:45, Amanda Jones and Bleddyn Lewis from the Healthcare Education Centre in the Department of Life Sciences will be showcasing what they do with their students in their session Embracing Virtual Reality within Healthcare Education for student nurses.

At 12:30, Education’s Steve Atherton will be presenting the session VR in Education.

A lunch break has been scheduled between 13:00 and 14:00. We will not be providing catering at this event but please feel free to bring your lunch along with you.

Between 14:00 and 16:00 Sarah Wydall, Helen Miles, Rebecca Zerk, and Andra Jones will be providing a 2 hour workshop identifying the next step in the evaluation for the use of VR as a training tool. This session is limited to 15 people – the session is first come, first served and you will be able to sign up for it on the morning of the mini conference.

Most of the sessions are hands on and interactive – you’ll have the opportunity to try out VR and see how colleagues are using it in their teaching.

Abstracts and the full programme will be available on our webpages in due course.

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

Mini Conference: Virtual Reality, keynote announcement

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is hosting a mini conference on Tuesday 28 March looking specifically at Virtual Reality. We’ll be showcasing colleagues’ work in this area from a variety of different disciplines. The event will be taking place in person. Booking for this event is already open via this online form.

In addition to this, we’re delighted to have Chris Rees from University of Wales, Trinity St. David’s (UWTSD) join us.

Chris is the Executive Head of Digital Creativity and Learning unit, with a background in teaching and learning across many age ranges. He has always had a keen interest in pedagogy and the use of digital technology to enhance the delivery of content and therefore, enrich learning. With 12 years’ experience of teaching and taking leaderships roles in schools across South Wales, Chris moved to a take a position of Strategic Lead in Digital Learning for a local authority. Within this 4 year tenure, Chris continued to research and implement digital pedological approaches including blended learning, synchronous and asynchronous delivery, VR and flipped learning with the goal of improving teachers skills and student experience 

Within his role in UWTSD, Chris utilises his strategic, governance and management skills across the recently formed DCL unit, which includes the Digital learning team, Graphics, Print and Multimedia team, and the Web team. The position facilitates new approaches to digital creativity and learning within the institution, making use of the newly created team to develop innovative creative digital content for learning. More recently, Chris has been leading the team to develop the use of mixed reality and design content for specific use cases across the institutes. This includes the launch of the university’s immersive rooms, which are a similar design to a VR cave, but utilising the latest AV and Immersive technology to create a collaborative VR experience. 

Keep an eye on our blog as we announce other contributors.

If you’ve got any questions about our mini conference then contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (lteu@aber.ac.uk).

Call for Proposals: Learning and Teaching Conference 2023

We are now inviting proposals for the 11th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, Tuesday 4-Thursday 6 July 2023.

Submit and view the call for proposals online. 

The theme for this year’s conference is:

Transformative Teaching: Creating Opportunities for Learning

The main strands of this year’s conference are:

  • Teaching in the age of artificial intelligence
  • Preparing for Blackboard Ultra
  • Universal design for learning
  • Mentoring for success and self-regulation
  • Active and authentic learning contexts

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 5 May 2023.

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

11th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference: Conference Theme Announcement

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is pleased to announce the theme for our 11th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference.

The Learning and Teaching Conference will be taking place with increased face to face presence and some online activities from Tuesday 4-Thursday 6 July.

The theme and strands for this year’s conference is:

Transformative Teaching: Creating Opportunities for Learning

  • Teaching in the age of artificial intelligence
  • Preparing for Blackboard Ultra
  • Universal design for learning
  • Mentoring for success and self-regulation
  • Active and authentic learning contexts

Keep a look out for our forthcoming call for proposals and for booking onto the conference.

Learning and Teaching Mini Conference Materials Available Now

Resources are now available from the Aberystwyth University Mini Conference for Learning and Teaching that took place on 20th December 2022. For those who were unable to attend or who would like a refresher, the resources for all sessions can be found here.

The conference focused on Sustainability in Higher Education, with the key-note session delivered by Dr Georgina Gough (UWE Bristol) exploring how to embed sustainability goals within the curriculum.

Other topics included Marian Gray’s session ‘Student Mobility and Cross-Cultural Skills – Global & Sustainable?’, and Dr. Louise Marshall’s ‘Discipline hopping: Interdisciplinary approaches to a sustainable curriculum’.

Call for Proposals: Mini Conference: Virtual Reality

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is pleased to announce the next mini conference. On Tuesday 28 March LTEU will be hosting our next mini conference in person.

This mini conference will be focused on Virtual Reality, building on one of the sessions from last year’s Learning and Teaching Conference.

Colleagues from across the University will be showcasing their use of Virtual Reality in their teaching and research activities – offering advice from design to integration.

If you’re interested in contributing to the event, then please fill out this online form. Please submit your proposal before 17 February 2023.

Bookings are already open – you can book your place online.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (lteu@aber.ac.uk).

Save the Date: Annual Learning and Teaching Conference

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit are excited to announce the date for the 11th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference. The conference will be taking place between Tuesday 4 July and Thursday 6 July 2023.

Look out for Calls for Proposals and the announcement of the conference theme. As usual, we will be updating our Learning and Teaching Conference Webpages and also our blog to keep you up-to-date with how things are progressing.

Mini Conference Programme Announced

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On Tuesday 20 December, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit will be hosting an Academy Mini-Conference online.

The theme is ‘Sustainability in Higher Education’.

The Mini-Conference will run from 10:15-14:15.

We’re excited to confirm our programme:

  • Dr Georgina Gough – keynote speaker Embedding Sustainability Goals across the Curriculum
  • Marian Gray: Student Mobility and Cross-Cultural Skills – Global and Sustainable?
  • Dr Louise Marshall – Discipline hopping: Interdisciplinary approaches to a sustainable curriculum

For session abstracts and timings, please see the programme on our webpages.

We hope that you will be able to join us. You can register to attend the Mini-Conference by clicking on this link. If you have any queries, please email lteu@aber.ac.uk.

Keynote Announcement: Mini Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education

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We’re delighted to announce our keynote presentation for this year’s Mini Conference taking place online via Teams on 20 December 2022.

Dr Georgina Gough will be leading a session on embedding Sustainable Development Goals into the curriculum.

Dr Gough is Associate Professor in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) lead at UWE Bristol. She coordinates a cross university, award-winning knowledge exchange for sustainability education (KESE) and mentors academics to incorporate sustainability into their teaching, learning and professional practice. Georgina leads a long-term project mapping academic activity against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is actively involved in city-level work to achieve the SDGs. She was on the expert panel which developed the HE sector guidance on ESD (Advance HE/ QAA, 2021) and works in partnership with colleagues, students and external stakeholders to embed sustainability across higher education and to share good practice both internally and externally. Georgina is programme leader for MSc Sustainable Development in Practice and teaches in geography- and business-based UG modules as well as contributing to cross-university sustainability modules and academic development initiatives.

Booking for the mini conference is currently open – reserve your place online. Our full programme will be announced shortly.

Call for Proposals: Mini Conference – Sustainability in Higher Education

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is pleased to announce our next Mini Conference.

On 20 December, we will be hosting an online event to look at Sustainability in Higher Education.

At this year’s L & T Conference, we welcomed Dr Alex Hope from the University of Northumbria to talk about ways in which we might embed Sustainability in the Curriculum. You can catch up with Alex’s talk from the conference online.

If you would like to contribute to the event, please complete this Call for Proposals by Friday 18 November 2022.

Potential topics might include:

  • Sustainability in the Curriculum
  • Assessment and Sustainability
  • Developing Sustainably Conscious Students
  • Mapping the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Booking for the one-day event is already open – book online.

We’ll be joined by some external presenters at the event so keep an eye on our blog as we announce our programme. If you’ve got any questions, let us know: lteu@aber.ac.uk.

Learning and Teaching Conference 2020 Logo