Events

Beyond Compliance: Quality, Power, and Transparency in Ethical Educational Research

Dr. Alison Purvis -  Wednesday 20 May 12:05–12:55pm (Online, Via Zoom)

Alison Purvis is an Associate Dean at Sheffield Hallam University and a nationally recognised leader in digital and inclusive education, recently named in the AI 100 UK List, 2025. She has shaped sector-wide thinking on people-centred digital change through contributions to the Office for Students’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) position statement and Jisc’s Digital Transformation initiative. At Sheffield Hallam University, Alison leads strategic work on digital learning innovation, disability advocacy and ethical AI, including the development of an institutional approach to AI transparency. Her work encourages critical engagement with emerging technologies, fostering inclusive practice, ethical standards, and developing staff and student digital confidence.

This session explores ethical considerations in educational research, drawing on recent work in social science ethical standards, research question design, and artificial intelligence transparency. It examines how high-quality research questions improve methodological rigour and ethical clarity, and how researchers can navigate everyday practical issues such as power relations between teachers and students, informed consent, and the challenges of studying one’s own learners. The session also considers wider sector issues, including expectations for transparency when using artificial intelligence and the implications for publishing practices. Using examples from Purvis and Crawford (2024), Purvis et al. (2024), and current work on artificial intelligence transparency (Purvis, 2025; Crawford et al., 2026 in press), the session offers applied guidance for ethics applications and reflective practice. The final part of the session brings these threads together, showing how responsible research design can protect participants, strengthen validity, and support trustworthy scholarship. 

The effectiveness of AI-based tools be in improving students’ communication skills

Dr Li Xue Cunningham - Tuesday 7 July 12:05pm – 12:55pm (Online, Via Zoom)

Dr Li Xue Cunningham is an Associate Professor (Reader) in Management, Bayes Business School. Dr Cunningham’s main research, scholarship, and teaching interests lie in the areas of international and comparative human resource management, gender and diversity management, private enterprise business and development, and AI in business school education. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She gained her BA (Hons) in Economics (First Class Honours) from Nanjing University, China, and Ph.D. in Management Studies from Bayes (formerly Cass), City, University of London.

This session discusses a two-stage study that aims to evaluate and enhance business students’ communication skills, a core graduate attribute through targeted coursework and the integration of AI tools. The localized AI tool, known as the “Gen-AI Teaching Assistant” is based on Chat-GPT and serves two primary functions: (a) assessing students' communication skills using pre-defined criteria through chatbot interactions, and (b) supporting skill improvement by allowing students to engage in multiple practice sessions within the same environment. By combining assessment and training, the study not only measures students’ existing capabilities but also facilitates their improvement through iterative, AI-guided feedback.  

Naming, Framing and Flaming HE mentoring

Brian Irvine - Monday 12 Oct 12:05pm – 12:55pm (Online, Via Zoom)

Brian works at UCL at CRAE, the Centre for Research in Autism and Education.  There, he runs CRAE’s Comms and Engagement.  Not long ago he completed his doctoral thesis at ACER, the University of Birmingham’s Autism Centre for Education and Research where he investigated Specialist (Autism) Mentoring in UK Higher Education.

Before this, he was himself a specialist autism mentor where – for a decade - he had had the pleasure of regular meetings with many brilliant students as they journeyed through their university life.  Even further back in time, he taught in an autism primary school inclusion provision, was a childminder/pirate, and – last century – was Head of Philosophy and Religious Education at a secondary modern school.  For fun he plays the ukelele, as it causes others to back away slowly.

This session discusses a two-stage study that aims to evaluate and enhance business students’ communication skills, a core graduate attribute through targeted coursework and the integration of AI tools. The localized AI tool, known as the “Gen-AI Teaching Assistant” is based on Chat-GPT and serves two primary functions: (a) assessing students' communication skills using pre-defined criteria through chatbot interactions, and (b) supporting skill improvement by allowing students to engage in multiple practice sessions within the same environment. By combining assessment and training, the study not only measures students’ existing capabilities but also facilitates their improvement through iterative, AI-guided feedback.  

Past Events

Where available, these can be accessed via our YouTube Channel @REAL-HigherEd

Conducting Literature Reviews

Dr Helen Aveyard -  Wednesday 28 April 12:05–12:55pm (Online, Via Zoom)

Alison Purvis: I am programme lead for the professional doctorate in nursing and midwifery and MSc in Applied Health Research. My main focus is the development of research education for which I have developed a cycle of teaching, reflection and writing. I am an experienced teacher of research methods and dissertation supervision. Through my writing and teaching, I have increased the accessibility of research methods to students of all levels - from undergraduate to postdoctoral students. My textbooks include: Doing a literature review in health and social care (now in its 5th edition), A Postgraduate's guide to doing a literature review (now in its 3rd edition) , A beginner's guide to evidence based practice (now in its 4th edition) , A beginners guide to critical thinking and writing (now in its 3rd edition) How to read and critique research (now in its 2nd edition) and Audit, service evaluation and research: getting started in project work in health and social care. I am an experienced director of studies for doctoral students and postgraduate tutor within the faculty and publish regularly with my students and colleagues. I am currently an editor for the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

“We’re in This Together”: Designing Groupwork Agreements to Support Inclusive

Collaboration

Dr Ashley Robertson -  Wednesday 25 March 12:05pm – 12:55pm (Online Via Zoom)

Ashley Robertson is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Glasgow, where she is Programme Lead for the MSc Psychological Studies (Conversion) programme and leads the Pedagogical and Educational Research Unit, the School’s learning and teaching scholarship network. Her work focuses on inclusive teaching, supervision, and assessment, and on reducing hidden barriers in Higher Education by making expectations and processes clearer. She is particularly interested in how explicit design can support student confidence, collaboration, and engagement across diverse cohorts. She also works closely with colleagues to share practical, evidence-informed approaches to learning and teaching, especially with early career staff.

This session: With the ever-increasing number of autistic students entering Higher Education, the role of mentoring is more crucial than ever. In the UK, Specialist Mentoring (Autism or ADHD) is a funded reasonable accommodation with impact extending far beyond simple support. Mentoring does not just help students navigate studenthood; it enables them to reframe their experience, critique institutional barriers, and share workarounds for flourishing.

Brian will talk about how mentoring can become as tool for advocacy and institutional change. He will share his study which started with autistic hypothesisers, sparking mentor diaries, which were analysed with an autistic majority group of master mentors.  From this a Framework for Reframing was constructed.

Mentors need to refine their understanding of autism and know how to grapple with university systems. They need to be able to reflect on their role as mentors, and they need to enact the craft of mentoring.  In the UK, this craft seems to follow a model of social mobilisation in: diagnostic framing (naming and understanding and critiquing the university context), prognostic framing (framing and developing strategies and workarounds), and motivational framing (sharing joy and keeping the flame of persistence lit). Naming, Framing and Flaming

In positioning mentoring as more than just support, but as a transformative practice, Brian invites you to consider how mentoring can not only improve autistic students' experiences but also reshape institutional culture itself.

Hopefully, and with a little luck, you will:

• have had some time to consider what mentoring is, and how it may fit around teaching and coaching.

• have considered the transformative role mentoring has in supporting neurodivergent students, not just in terms of course completion but also in fostering advocacy, agency, and institutional change.

• have a model of mentoring that might be of some use in many other contexts.