Programme units

Assessments are core components of effective teaching and learning, and meaningful assessment has a strong influence on learning. 

On this unit, we explore methods and directions in formative and summative assessment and consider assessment theory in terms of concepts such as validity, reliability, transparency, professional accountability and generalisability.

This unit aims to develop students’ knowledge of the context of internationalisation, international student transitions, curriculum internationalisation, and internationalising pedagogy and practice. We will critically examine several facets of internationalisation in the academy, including: decolonisation of the curriculum, and tensions between the relevance of national and international learning; inclusive approaches to the student experience; and implications for equity. The unit aims to draw on participants' various activities across the university, from student services to teaching and research, and connect this with contemporary research and theory.

How do teachers in the higher education context approach and execute their practice and what are the needs and role of administrators in supporting them?  The aim of this unit is not simply to provide instruction on different theories of teaching and learning; rather, it is to lead participants to review their own practice and approaches, to evaluate how they connect with students’ needs, and to consider the role of assessment, feedback and support as instruments in this process. 

Explore the culture and practices of your own department - including local approaches to teaching and learning; academic research culture and support; departmental and institutional policy interpretation – and critically examine a theme of your own choosing relating to your own professional interests.

Investigate one relevant area of Higher Education - whether local, national or global – in detail. For example, you might reflect critically on your role and place within the university, or you may seek to understand students’ HE experience in the round and your own contribution towards it.

Alternatively, you may wish to demonstrate a critical understanding of wider issues relating to access, governance or professional identity. A key aim of the unit is that participants produce something of use to themselves and/or their institution.

This unit examines the context, contribution and constraints of openness in higher education.

In collaboration with participants and guest speakers, we will explore key questions regarding the role of open knowledge in a higher education environment as it applies to both research and teaching and learning agendas.

Through contributing to the unit's open educational resource participants will engage in networked open practice to further the conversation in this changing environment.

For the unit's publication, please see https://medium.com/open-knowledge-in-he.

The course unit will develop knowledge of the history and current uses of technology to support teaching in higher education.

It will explore a number of developments and terminology looking at online, blended and mobile learning. It will frame this against our understanding of both face-to-face and distance learning. It will explore methodology and pedagogies that have been suggested to have particular relevance to online practices and consider the role of context, content, activities and modes of delivery.

It will look at moves away from the transmission of ideas to practices that construct knowledge and consider autonomy and independence. It will also consider the nature of the digital generation and their expectations about how they should learn. It will look at how online materials are created and the decision making process for choosing how to create learning opportunities.

It will make use of the Humanities e-Learning Development model as a process approach to the development of courseware and review a number of different digital technologies considering their applicability for teaching and learning.

Investigate how Higher Education is changing, and how university staff contribute to and position themselves within that change. Among the topics covered are developments and shifts in HE, nationally and internationally; fairness in admissions; funding mechanisms for HE, including student fees; and the role of HE as a private and public good.