Through our event programmes, we aim to cover a range of learning and teaching topics to aid you in your developing your teaching practice. Please use the quick links below to access previous events and supporting resources.
Innovation in Learning and Teaching Lecture Series:
Experiences of Block Teaching at the University of Suffolk
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.
This festival welcomes everyone who is part of our university community who believe in the power of education to transform lives and effect positive social change. By joining forces and sharing our collective knowledge, whether that is lived experience, or discipline expertise we can reimagine a future higher education that celebrates diversity, dismantles barriers to equity and belonging, and empowers our students and community to thrive.
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.
Applied degree education is shaping the future. We take cognizance of a world with new realities to ensure through our good practice and students at the heart of our teaching, that our graduates are prepared and ready for the shifting of realities of the new future of work. Education 4.0, as it is coined, is on our doorstep and we would like to share experiences and good practice with colleagues involved in this important area of work.
The World Economic Forum identified in 2020 eight critical characteristics for a more productive world i.e. global citizen skills, innovation and creativity skills, technology skills, interpersonal skills, personalised and self-paced learning, accessible and inclusive learning, problem based and collaborative learning and lifelong and student driven learning. These characteristics prove relevant in the context of high-quality applied degree learning experiences with a focus on advanced skills application and the imperative to upskill and reskill, to unlearn and to relearn in driving a stronger applied educational paradigm and the significance of the Degree Apprenticeship to and for a new economy.
This mini-fest event will showcase best practice in Degree Apprenticeship provision. If you are involved in Degree Apprenticeship provision and would like to share your work at the mini-fest please contact the mini-fest organiser Andre Van Der Westhuizen - andre.van-der-westhuizen@port.ac.uk
Dr Neil Gordon, Reader in Computer Science, University of Hull
As the world has wrestled with the challenges of coping with a pandemic, education has potentially been one of the most significant casualties. Schools and campuses closed to direct activity, and institutions had to rapidly pivot to flexible learning, utilising technology, but without preparation time. This lecture will consider some of the learning from the last two years, as well as the longer term trends in technology enhanced learning and the way that approaches such as gamification. We will consider how emerging technologies from VR and AR and the Metaverse, combined with the rise of foundational AI offer new opportunities and challenges to increase access to education across all levels and locations.
Katie Akerman, Director of Quality and Standards, University of Chichester
Spiralling grade inflation (Office for Students, 2018), the way that degrees are classified is a rotten system (Peter Williams, then-Chief Executive, QAA, 2008) and significant doubt that external examiners hold shared academic standards (AdvanceHE, 2015) tell a story of doubt – doubt in the ability of the UK’s higher education sector to manage academic standards. Is the start of the story our own assessment practice? And what is the end of the story?
Professor Angela O'Sullivan
In this lecture Angela considers what inclusivity really means and encourages self-reflection on inclusive practice to consider whether we are inadvertently creating barriers to learning whilst our intention is to widen access. Angela shares her ‘Open Field’ model of inclusive practice which focuses on the dynamic student, the importance of the student voice and the essential component of choice.
Session 1b: The CCI Graduate Outcomes Framework: Embedding Employment into the Curriculum
Session 2a: Enterprise Education at the University of Portsmouth
Session 2b: Why and how to engage external partners in the curriculum?
Session 3a: A Multi-layered Approach to Career Management Learning in the Law School
Session 3b: Embedding Employability into the Curriculum at the University of Winchester
Session 4a: Engaging Level 4 Students with the Placement Preparation Process
Session 5a: Embedding Employability - Top Resources for your Students and Courses
Session 5b: Embedding Employability in Graphic Design: Sharing Best Practice
Session 6: B3 Regulations! Don't Panic Just Embed and Assess Employability
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.
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)
Student Belonging and Communities in HE: Student and Staff Expectations and Strategic Reflections
Strand 1d - Students as Partners in Building Learning Communities
Strand 1e - Making the Case for Student Engagement at the Heart of the System
Strand 2e - Creating Communities for Degree Apprenticeship Students
Building Student Communities through Academic Societies and Course Reps
Looking for some additional inspiration to spark those ideas? Check out the below quick links:
Experience enABLe is a large-scale collaborative workshop, with multiple teams from across the University actively engaging with our expertly trained facilitators, headed up by Professor Ale Armellini, Dean of Digital and Distributed Learning, to review specific modules that have been deemed high priority. Teams will be introduced to the enABLe toolkit and guided through a full enABLe workshop. Through meaningful discussion and directed activities, the team will identify their shared values and utilise the enABLe toolkit resources to draft a storyboard, identify and plan enhancements.
enABLe is the University's emergent framework to support an innovative approach to team-based learning design. View information about how you can learn more and book on our upcoming sessions.
View recordings from our week long festival. From Learning and Teaching Webinars to TEL Me How sessions.
Please note - currently our video content, delivered via Panopto, uses closed captions generated using automated speech recognition. This is about 70–80% accurate depending on the topic, audio quality and lecturer. We advise you not to rely solely on the captions when reviewing your video content. If you are reliant on these captions due to a disability or additional learning need then please use your existing assistive technology or contact ASDAC for advice on additional support. In support of accessibility and EDI, these videos have had additional manual review. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.