Practical guide to facilitating classroom discussions

Inclusive teaching is a key strategic goal of the University of Sheffield. Moreover, ensuring students have equal access to learning opportunities whilst participating in Higher Education is an ethical priority. Toward this end, this guide offers practical tips to foster that most democratic, but often elusive, pedagogical technique: classroom discussion. 

Dr Niall Docherty, Lecturer in Data, AI and Society

School of Information, Journalism and Communication

Embedding ESD Principles into Anatomy Teaching 

This article shares how I’ve brought Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) into my anatomy teaching to help students think beyond the textbook. By weaving in real-world issues like health inequalities, environmental challenges, and disability inclusion, I aim to prepare future professionals to think critically and act responsibly.The article also reflects on what’s worked, what’s been challenging, and how these ideas could be adapted by educators in other fields.

Dr Ofelia Meza-Escobar, University Teaching Associate

School of Biosciences

What Makes a Good Tutorial Video? 

Spoiler alert: writing a good script makes a really good tutorial video. Read on to find out why you should write a great script and how you can do it!

Matt Gilchrist, Digital Learning Officer

Tips for Interacting Online with Students on a Distance Learning Programme 

Online discussion forums are a core part of an online programme, as they offer an opportunity for students to engage with both peers and tutors about what they are learning and other relevant professional issues. 

TUoS offers guidance for online communication. While this guidance is helpful, it is aimed primarily at on-campus students who have other opportunities to engage with peers face-to-face during the week. Our programme team felt it was important to create more tailored guidance for our distance learning students.

Dr Jayne Finlay, Lecturer in Librarianship

Introducing a Fast Way to Give Feedback on GTA Teaching

GTAs (Graduate Teaching Associates/ Assistants) are an integral part of the teaching team in the School of Biosciences. Last semester, I developed and introduced a form for Academic teaching leads to give feedback to GTAs in the School of Biosciences on key areas of their teaching practice. The aim of the GTA Development Form is to provide fast, actionable feedback and facilitate teaching development discussions between GTAs and their supervisors. The form was developed to map onto the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education.

Dr Emma Hughes, Teaching Associate

Simple Ways to Make Your Teaching More Digitally Accessible

In today's digital world, access to information and resources online is crucial. But what if you can't see the screen clearly, navigate with a mouse, or process information in the traditional way? Digital accessibility is all about breaking down these barriers and ensuring everyone, regardless of ability, can experience the web. 

Sophie Ward, Digital Learning Team

Stefan Ash, Corporate Communications

How to Make Group Study Work for Everyone

For a while now, we’ve had students working in pairs as part of their lab sessions. More recently, we’ve ramped up the group work side of things, both in learning and assessment. There’s a good reason for that—working in teams helps students build important skills like communication, collaboration, and problem-solving. 

These are exactly the kinds of skills that students will need in their future careers, where working with others is standard. In fact, many degree accreditation frameworks now require group projects because of these benefits.

Dr Matt Mears, Senior University Teacher in Physics

5 Ways that AI Avatars can be Used in Learning and Teaching

At the University of Sheffield all staff and students have access to Wonda VR.  Wonda now also has an AI feature and here we explore how that AI feature can be used by staff and students.

Sophie Ward, Digital Learning Advisor

Making Sense of Conference Notes Using AI 

When attending events and conferences, notes are often made.  You may have a preferred way to capture your thoughts.  Over the course of an intensive day or few, these thoughts and observations can become a wide-ranging record.

Coming back to these a day or week later in order to make sense and share these with colleagues can often seem a large amount of work.

Find out one way of using AI to create digestable and useful outputs for yourself and to share with colleages.

James Little, Digital Learning Advisor

Transforming an Open Book, Online Assessment Using AI

In Biomedical Science, Louise Robson, Francesca Henshaw and Gordon Cooper have been using an open book, online assessment in their Physiology module for several years. This inclusive approach to assessment gave them the opportunity to evaluate student knowledge and understanding of the topics covered in the module, with students asked to write a topic based essay from a title they were given.  

However, when large language models became available, they took the opportunity to evaluate their assessment approach, considering whether  they could include AI to enhance student skills, particularly around critical thinking and analysis.  

Prof Louise Robson,  Professor of Digital Innovation in Learning and Teaching; Dr Francesca Henshaw, University Teacher; Dr Gordon Cooper, Senior University Teacher