What's New?

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.

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

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

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.

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?

Katie is Director of Quality and Standards at the University of Chichester. Her career in higher education started 23 years ago at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and she has worked at the universities of Southampton, Winchester and Bath Spa, as well as for the Quality Assurance Agency. Katie is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Fellow of the Association of University Administrators. Katie was a member of the QAA writing group for the section of the QAA’s Quality Code on external expertise, and a member of the QAA expert advisory group with responsibility for developing the external examining principles and also the Outcome classification descriptions for FHEQ Level 6.

More information coming soon - event by invitation only!

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. 

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.

As the CEO of Mesma and Senior Strategic Advisor with SDN, Lou and her team have worked with hundreds of apprenticeship providers, including many universities to design and deliver high quality programmes. She is a regular contributor to national publications and speaker at events sharing her experience and understanding of what it takes to successfully navigate the often complex requirements of successful apprenticeships. Lou is a vocal advocate for creating new routes into employment, featuring in the recent Gatsby Education Landscape guide and guiding Mesma towards being shortlisted for a national award in recognition of its approach to growing its own talent in 2022. 

The importance of ensuring our students progress onto graduate level occupations and study following graduating from Portsmouth continues to grow, with government measures of ‘Graduate Outcomes’ now increasing in significance. These measures of graduate destinations now weigh perhaps more heavily upon league tables and reputation than the National Student Survey, increasing the need to focus on employability at Portsmouth. This micro-conference on Embedding Employability at the University of Portsmouth draws together speakers and best practice from Portsmouth to offer tangible take-away interventions for courses to adopt, as well as information from the literature and wider employability services at Portsmouth.

For questions and further information, please email: Tom.Lowe@port.ac.uk

University of Portsmouth staff have been recognised nationally for their contributions to teaching and learning excellence in the annual Advance HE Teaching Excellence Awards.

Dr Mike Rayner has been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship for work on global engagement and education partnerships, while the ‘Project Phoenix’ team, based in the Department of Curriculum Quality and Enhancement (DCQE), has received a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence: a first for the University.

Professor Graham Galbraith, Vice-Chancellor of the University, said: “Providing high quality, innovative and inclusive education to every student - irrespective of their background - is core to our purpose to engage every student in a life-changing experience. The work done by Dr Mike Rayner and Project Phoenix are fantastic examples of how we offer the very best for our students, and are very deserving of this national recognition for teaching excellence.” ...

Nearpod is an audience response system that provides users with a large range of tools that facilitate interactions. These can be used both face-to-face, online and within a blended learning context. The University of Portsmouth has been using Nearpod since 2013 and was one of the first Higher Education Institutions in the world to fully implement it as a provision for its staff. In that time, academics have been using it to create innovative teaching spaces for students to engage with their learning. 

Nearpods implementation within the institution was spearheaded by Tom Langston of the Academic Development & Technology Enhanced Learning teams. Gavin Knight from the Faculty of Science was an early adopter of the tool, saying “I love using Nearpod. Although I was using Nearpod regularly during face-to-face sessions before Covid, I find the interactivity of using Nearpod during synchronous Zoom sessions particularly liberating. I'm a big fan of the draw it, open ended questions and matching pairs tools. I primarily use these to ensure students understand the clinical context of the theory covered in our asynchronous lessons by promoting students to apply their knowledge effectively and interpret data in a safe and non-judgemental environment”

Tom and Gavin, were recently asked by Nearpod to sit as expert panellists at their Camp Engage Europe and run webinars that promote Nearpods use within Higher Education. Nearpod were keen to highlight the importance of the work that Portsmouth have done to shape and inform how valuable it is within the Higher Education sector. 

Tom said “It was an honour to be asked. I have been working closely with Nearpod for years and have been a Nearpod Pionear and Nearpod Certified Trainer in that time. Over the years, I have fed back our suggestions and ideas about how we use Nearpod and what improvements we would like to see. They are very receptive to the feedback and have improved functionality year on year, making it more engaging to use. When I was asked to present a webinar, the title they asked me to speak on was Three Surprising Ways to use Nearpod in Higher Education. This was a very fitting title as my experiences of using Nearpod were different from that of people like Gavin who innovate within their subject area. My role within AcDev is a Digital Learning and Teaching specialist giving me a unique overview of how all the tools we have access to at the university can work within Learning Design. Presenting this session as an expert of “Nearpod within HE” and not a Nearpod employee, I was able to demonstrate all the work that we have done to support digital successes at the university including the EXPLORE tool and the development of enABLe as well as how we use things like Padlet in conjunction with Nearpod.”

Tom and Gavin's session can be found directly on Youtube through Nearpod or as part of the Learning and Teaching Webinars series on the Digital Learning Portsmouth Youtube Channel. If you would like access to Nearpod, please contact Tom.Langston@port.ac.uk 

Published 11th July 2022