Previous Events

Dr Ellen Buck, Pro Vice-Chancellor Education and Student Experience at Middlesex University.

New pedagogies are inevitably daunting beasts. They come with questions, concerns, challenge – and also opportunity. More than a delivery model, block asks institutions considering adoption to take look across the whole academic ecosystem, - reimagining policy, learning teaching and assessment practice, and all the services, and systems which underpin and drive the student lifecycle.  Read more...

This year’s theme – Teach Well, Consistently Well – aligned closely with the newly approved Connected Curriculum, set to launch in 2026–27. 

The conference provided a valuable space for colleagues to connect, share practice, and explore innovations that support high-quality, inclusive and student-centred learning and teaching.

The keynote session focused on the Connected Curriculum, featuring insights from Anne Murphy, Jovana Radulovic and Ale Armellini. 

The engaging event was opened by Dr. Ope Lori, our keynote speaker. This was followed by a presentation from Alexander Bradley, our Graduate Outcomes Manager. Attendees were then able to choose from two strands of presentations by Faculty colleagues, who shared examples of their practice. Ebi Sosseh, our Head of Equity, Wellbeing, and Inclusion, closed the event by focusing on the institution's future direction.  Catch up with the session resources and recordings ...

The focus of this conference is assessment and feedback and covers such themes as inclusive assessment and awarding gaps, authentic assessment and employability, AI and academic integrity, co-creation in assessment and feedback, technology integration and engaging students with feedback.

If you were unable to attend the Marking, feedback and grade release in WISEflow sessions in October and December a recording of this session is available here. 

If you were unable to attend the Course Leaders Forum in October a recording of this session is available here. 

If you were unable to attend any of the Introduction to WISEflow sessions that were run in September and the start of October, a recording of this session is available here. 

If you were unable to attend any of the Categorical Marking guidance sessions that were run in September and the start of October, a recording of this session is available here. We are also planning to put on more live categorical marking sessions nearer assessment period - you will be able to find details here once these are finalised.

As one of four strategic imperatives, prioritising graduate employability within our courses and wider student experience remains a priority for Portsmouth, as well as for the wider sector. To help us meet this imperative, the Careers and Employability Service in collaboration with Academic Development held an in-person Employability Conference on the afternoon of Thursday 12th September 2024.  The event was open to all University of Portsmouth staff, where we particularly welcomed Course Leaders, Heads of Schools, Students’ Union colleagues, and any roles that support student learning such as Student Services, Learning Developers and Student Engagement Officers.

The University of Portsmouth are proud to be working with Jisc to host the 11th Change Agents' Network (CAN) Conference in May 2024. This conference will draw together students, students’ unions, professional services, academics and university leaders to address the continued need to innovate higher education with students. This year’s conference theme is ‘The future of student engagement and student-staff partnerships to enhance higher education’ where we welcome contributions from students and staff new and returning to CAN along the conference sub-themes below.

Portsmouth’s guidance on generative AI for teaching, assessment and feedback.

In this forum, we will introduce the University's new guidance on generative AI for teaching, assessment and feedback. Colleagues will have a chance to discuss the document and then consider the implications for their practice.

As an international and widening participation University, the University of Portsmouth is committed to ensuring that our diverse student body experience equitable student experience and outcomes. As part of Global Week, an annual event that celebrates the diversity of our staff and students, Academic Development is running an EDI mini-fest on Wednesday 13th March 2024. Global Week is a prime opportunity for colleagues to showcase best practice strategies and research on equity, culturally responsive pedagogies, and the wider challenges impacting student engagement through a global lens.

Join Academic Registry and Information Services to learn more about the launch of the Student Experience and Course Outcomes Dashboard, a new dynamic Power Business Intelligence (BI) tool set to replace the existing Oracle based Annual Monitoring Dashboard.  Developed as a result of your feedback, the dashboard incorporates a broader range of data and offers enhanced flexibility in analysing and reporting. You will have the ability to review data for different intakes and months, alongside both past and current in-year outcomes.  You will also be able to review external outcomes from the OfS alongside internal outcomes, removing the need to go to multiple links for information.    In addition to the dashboard unveiling, the session will cover crucial changes for the 2024/25 academic year on annual course monitoring KPIs and associated outcomes thresholds, as well as important changes to the way we prepare and review EQuIPs.  

The session aims to seek positive and constructive and valuable insights from course leaders and module coordinators to shape the future of Moodle. We want your influence on the direction of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). This collaborative discussion will focus on positive changes that you might like to see in Moodle. We aim to gather practical input and perspectives, fostering an environment where academic voices play a key role in enhancing the functionality and user experience of Moodle over the years to come. Your participation is crucial as we work together to ensure that Moodle evolves in ways that truly benefit our University community.

Presented by Tom Cripps and Richard Heath (Technology Enhanced Learning)

The University of Portsmouth prioritises a student-centred Higher Education, where our largest stakeholder in our university community are core to our strategic imperatives and recently published Education Strategy. Ensuring we provide an engaging curriculum and supportive experience at Portsmouth is critical, yet following the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to explore how to facilitate student engagement in the modern university. 

In addition to this, the Education Strategy outlines that academic and professional services should work to co-design in our enhancement activities with students to make our engagements more meaningful. This Mini Festival explored the topics of Student Engagement and Co-Creation together to share research and innovation in engaging students post-covid-19, as well as best practice in Co-Creating the student experience

If you are a course leader, especially a new course leader, approaching the Excellence and Quality Improvement Plan (EQuIP) process in autumn 2023, the University will be running a briefing event on the upcoming EQUIP process.

Get ready to dive into an afternoon filled with interactive sessions, and insightful discussions, where vital briefings will take place and useful advice and best practice are shared.

As one of four strategic imperatives, prioritising graduate employability within our courses and wider student experience remains a priority for Portsmouth, as well as for the wider sector. To help us meet this imperative, the Careers and Employability Service in collaboration with Academic Development are organising an in-person Employability Conference to share examples of best practice that help our students achieve success, whether in employment, self-employment or further study.

Celebrating Excellent Practice that Delivers Impact

The focus of this year’s conference is to celebrate the excellent practice that is taking place across the University and delivering real impact against the key themes of: Student engagement through blended and connected learning; employability and employment; academic integrity and assessment, and designing for diverse prior educational experience.

For many students who are experiencing challenges, academics are frequently their first point of contact. Students do this because there is often a pre-existing relationship and they are seen as approachable and knowledgeable about how to access support. However, many academics may feel overwhelmed and can struggle to support students effectively.

Responding to student mental health and wellbeing concerns can have a negative impact on the wellbeing of academics. However, when academics and colleagues in professional services work in partnership with and are connected with Student Wellbeing teams and are aware of how to access support for students and themselves, they feel better equipped to respond to student concerns.

This session is a practical guide on how to support and advise students who find themselves in difficult situations, who are distressed and in need of help. It will also cover how colleagues are able to access support from the Student Wellbeing team to think through the supportive role you play and to explore roles and boundaries.

We will cover:

• Accessing support for students causing concern through the Wellbeing Consultation service

• Where to find policies and guidance relating to students causing concern

• Roles and boundaries

With the advent of language models like ChatGPT, the Higher Education sector is now faced with the challenges and opportunities of integrating AI technologies into learning, teaching and assessment while retaining academic integrity.  ChatGPT and other such tools have certainly sparked debate and investigation across the sector, but in reality are they more hype than harm?

To start to answer this question, you are invited to join us for a special event in our Learning and Teaching Innovation lecture series, where we will address the challenges and opportunities posed by ChatGPT and AI in Higher Education. We will get beyond the chat, and both investigate the risks to the future of education, and the potential to transform the way we teach and learn.

Our keynote speakers, Michael Webb, from Jisc, and Professor David Smith, from Sheffield Hallam University, will discuss the practical implications of ChatGPT, and how it can impact the quality of education. Q&A sessions throughout the morning will provide attendees with the opportunities to engage with the speakers.  A final plenary will include an interactive activity where attendees will have the opportunity to share their own views about ChatGPT, and how Higher Education should be responding to what is being called a potentially disruptive technology.

The Employer as the Champion of Quality: Their Role in Successful Apprenticeships

Lou Doyle, CEO of Mesma

This session will explore the critical role employers play in the design and delivery of successful apprenticeships, and the impact for apprentices when their role is not fulfilled as intended. We will explore how effective involvement of employers is referenced in Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework, help colleagues attending to reflect on their own provision when evaluating whether employers are acting as champions of quality.

An Introduction to Coursera
Maria Hutchinson, Larissa Wheatcroft (Coursera), Mike Wilson

Coursera provides an in-depth catalogue of high-quality online modules in a wide range of subject areas. Staff are invited to join us for this introductory session on how Coursera can help academic staff.

In this session we will demonstrate how Coursera modules can be integrated into University of Portsmouth teaching programmes.  Many of the modules available are delivered by household name companies such as Google, IBM and Amazon. Combined with certificates of completion available for each topic, students can showcase industry-recognised skills to future employers.

There is no need to book in advance just simply use the link to join the session and see how you could creatively use Coursera to enhance your learning and teaching. Coursera can be used by academics in a number of ways. We’ve identified a few areas below with examples of Coursera titles.

Employability and Soft-Skills Training

Employers are increasingly looking for graduates who have developed their soft skills in addition to vocational skills. Here are a few titles which students have found beneficial.

• Learn to Job Search with Indeed (Coursera)

• Presentation skills: Speechwriting and Storytelling

• Strategically Build and Engage Your Network on LinkedIn (Coursera)

• The Art of the Job Interview (Big Interview)

• Plan a Successful Freelancing Business

• Positive Psychology: Resilience Skills

Web Technologies and Software Tools

Resources to support these subjects can often be labour-intensive to create but provide invaluable support for students. Here are a few examples from the Coursera catalogue.

• Use Canva to Create Desktop and Mobile-friendly Web Pages (Coursera)

• Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Cloud Developer (Google)

• Tools for Data Science (IBM)

• Engineering Design Process with Autodesk Fusion 360 (Autodesk)

• The Future of Payment Technologies

• 3D Printing Software

• How to use the perspective grid tool in Adobe Illustrator (Coursera)

• Mastering Final Cut Pro (LearnQuest)