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Potential of an truly inclusive curriculum

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Potential of an truly inclusive curriculum

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To foster belonging, sense of COMMUNITY (key for us from our ET project), and enhance wellbeing.

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Abertay - no longer have PATS, refocussed resources into School based posts (they have 3 Schools). Seeing positive impact on retention figures already.
1) Employ new graduate (from that school) as a student Success officer - 1st point of contact, 'near peer' that students can relate to
2) Student Academic Advisors - 50% academic role, and 50% Advisory role. Act as consistent contact point for triaging issues, signposting to correct support, helping with ECs etc

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We should continue this for other events, and get a date in the diary in advance

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Microcredentials: further reading + consideration for future PGCE (Catriona)

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Microcredentials: further reading + consideration for future PGCE (Catriona)

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Microcredentials Characteristics statement
Also Scottish tertiary education network for microcredentials

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Characteristics Statements describe the distinctive features of qualifications at particular levels within the Qualifications Frameworks. They describe the qualifications in terms of their purpose, general characteristics and generic outcomes, but do not include subject level detail.

On this page you will find the Characteristics Statement for Micro-credentials. A short summary of the Statement is published below.

Author:

QAA

Format:

PDF

Size:

0.96 MB

Micro-credentials have a key role to play in upskilling and re-skilling the workforce as short, credit-bearing courses that support a learner-led engagement in higher education which could be spread over many years. Micro-credentials would not normally constitute an award in their own right, but they have standalone value and could also contribute to a recognised qualification. They also widen access to learners who might not have considered a more traditional approach to achieving a qualification, as well as potentially assisting with meeting skills needs for employers and learners.

While higher education providers have a long history of running short courses, micro-credentials are closely aligned with employability and also offer more structured opportunities for progression which brings new challenges.

This Characteristics Statement for Micro-credentials considers the context and purpose of micro-credentials and the characteristics of the learner, exploring the implications of these for a range of functions including:

admissions and access (including Recognition of Prior Learning)

course design, including learning, teaching and assessment

certification

quality management.

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Characteristics Statements describe the distinctive features of qualifications at particular levels within the Qualifications Frameworks. They describe the qualifications in terms of their purpose, general characteristics and generic outcomes, but do not include subject level detail. On this page you will find the Characteristics Statement for Micro-credentials.

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Enhancement Themes 2022 Conference webpage

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Enhancement Themes 2022 Conference webpage

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QAA Scotland's Enhancement Conference, the UK's largest dedicated to learning and teaching and the student experience, will be held in Glasgow on 8 and 9 June 2022. For the first time, the conference will take place in a hybrid format, with the opportunity to attend in person (subject to guidance) or watch online.

We are expecting at least 300-500 delegates, including students and staff from across our universities and colleges, from both academic and student support roles.

Conference programme

The programme features a refreshing and versatile mix of live and pre-prepared content to allow both synchronous and asynchronous engagement. It features a range of speakers and activities relating to our current Enhancement Theme, Resilient Learning Communities, following two main strands:

Day 1 - Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Learners have a wide range of characteristics, experience, needs and expectations. How do we support our diverse learning communities in 2022 and beyond, ensuring that individual learners have equity of opportunity and that all learning environments are inclusive?
Day 2 - Flexible and Accessible Learning
Flexible and accessible approaches to learning and teaching, as well as flexible pathways into and through higher education are more important than ever recognising individual learner journeys across students lifetimes. The pandemic has accelerated changes across the sector faster than ever before. What changes are here to stay and what can be improved?

Visit the event booking site for the full conference programme:

Day 1 programme
Day 2 programme

Conference registration

Our hybrid conference programme offers the opportunity to attend in person, or participate digitally with all of the plenary sessions and many other sessions streaming live on the conference platform.

Delegates are able to attend in person (subject to capacity) for one or both days, or can participate in the conference online on one or both days. Please note that due to restrictions, in-person places are limited and available on a first-come first-served basis.

To enable us to be equitable in the distribution of conference spaces, we are asking that delegates register for each day separately.

We know that will take you a few minutes longer, but it does allow us to offer places across the conference programme to meet the needs of delegates who can only attend in person or online for part of the time.

Day 1 registration
Day 2 registration

If you have any questions, please email the QAA Scotland team.

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Enhancement Conference 2022: Resilient Learning Communities - Inclusive, Flexible and Accessible

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QAA Scotland's Enhancement Conference, the UK's largest dedicated to learning and teaching and the student experience, will be held in Glasgow on 8 and 9 June 2022. For the first time, the conference will take place in a hybrid format, with the opportunity to attend in person (subject to guidance) or watch online.

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Evidencing Value framework - go back to this and consider tis in the context or resilient academic leadership

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This document relates to the Collaborative Cluster project, Beyond the Metrics: Charting the intangible aspects of enhancement which is part of the Evidence for Enhancement Theme. It was jointly led by Abertay University, the University of West of England and Edinburgh Napier University. The project sought to provide a renewed understanding of contributory aspects to the success of higher education that are deemed important, yet are not easily measurable or quantifiable - our so-called 'intangible assets'. The aims of the project were to work with the sector to identify which 'intangibles' are considered key to the success of teaching quality, student success and a higher education more broadly; develop tools and a process by which the value and impact of these 'intangibles' might be evidenced.

Author:

QAA Scotland

Format:

PDF

Size:

1.37 MB

This workbook forms part of the Collaborative Cluster project, Beyond the Metrics: Charting the intangible aspects of enhancement which is part of the Evidence for Enhancement Theme. The process and associated resources set out in this workbook are designed to help you capture and evidence the value of important but intangible aspects of the student experience: your intangible assets.

Author:

QAA Scotland

Format:

PDF

Size:

0.53 MB

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Beyond the metrics - The Intangibles - Evidence for Enhancement

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Beyond the metrics: The Intangibles is one of the six collaborative cluster projects being complete as part of the Theme, Evidence for Enhancement. This project seeks to provide a renewed understanding of the intangible assets that contribute to the success of higher education.

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Resilient Learning Communities is the 2020-23 sector-wide Enhancement Theme. This Theme will focus on meeting the changing needs and values of an increasingly diverse student community and a rapidly changing external environment.

Resilient Learning Communities is led by a small Theme Leadership Team, who direct the work of the Theme and the wider Theme Leadership Group (TLG), and is supported by a dedicated team of colleagues from QAA Scotland.

Find out more about the team behind the Theme and their aspirations for this sector-wide work.

Watch our video to find out more

The Resilient Learning Communities Enhancement Theme intends to answer the following questions:

What will our learning communities look like by 2023? And what can we do now to prepare for them?

Who are our current and future students and how will they want to learn? How can we gain a clear understanding of their needs? What information do we need to enable us to best support their learning?

How can we capitalise as a sector on the attributes students bring?

How do we ensure we are able to support our diverse learning communities? What might this mean for our staff and our infrastructure?

How should we anticipate, influence and respond to the changing external environment? How can we engage with our stakeholders and ensure we are influencing strategy and policy both in Scotland and beyond?

In answering these key questions, the Theme will focus on four priority areas: equality and diversity; community and belonging; supporting staff and student success; and flexible, accessible learning.

Supported by QAA Scotland, staff and students from all 19 Scottish higher education institutions deliver on individual institutional plans, as well as collaborative projects, and contribute significantly to work across the sector. Find out more about the work of the Theme:

You can also take a look at our Resilient Learning Communities Activities Calendar for a month-by-month guide to upcoming projects work and activities. This document will be updated fortnightly with the latest information.

Resilient Learning Communities Activities Calendar 2021-22

Publication date: 25 Feb 2022

Get in touch with QAA Scotland for details of all Theme events and related activities. You can also sign up to our Quality Enhancement Newsletter for the latest updates and follow us on Twitter.

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Resilient Learning Communities is our sector-wide Enhancement Theme which will run from 2020 to 2023. This Theme will focus on meeting the changing needs and values of an increasingly diverse student community, and a rapidly changing external environment.

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How do we welcome students into our learning spaces?

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How do we welcome students into our learning spaces?

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Made me think about this more and the primary teacher who stands at her door and invites kids to indicate how they would like to be welcomes (high five, hug, fist bump etc).

Wondering how to bring this into my practice

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How does my feedback meet students needs?

Am going to revisit previous stuff that I did on dialogic feedback and audio feedback

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There was lots of talk about involving students as collaborators and co-producers. I had been on a webinar the previous day however that talked about the power differential when staff are in the meeting as paid employees an students are there as volunteers. How do we address this so that we can get genuine co-production?

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How do we get more staff involved? How do we disseminate learning from the conference so that the time spent there is made best use of?

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Some of us attended a session on Theory of Change, which informs the on-going development of a new Evaluation Framework. This is something we could trial - maybe for one of our SEC projects.

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It continues to be really difficult to engage students. Across the sector it is my perception that most of the students who engage with the Themes are in Sabbatical roles. It would be great to broaden this engagement to include a wider student population.

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Could we have a SEC away day (or half day) to support members' awareness/engagement? We could tie this into work on the SES/other projects.

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In addition to the content, one thing I love about these events is the opportunity to see how other sector colleagues approach, mainstream and disseminate their project work. I always learn from this and I wonder if there is a way to harness this type of learning to improve my own practice.

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The importance of outcomes in evaluation and thinking about these at the start of a project. 

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The importance of outcomes in evaluation and thinking about these at the start of a project. 

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https://blog.shu.ac.uk/steer/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2021/11/STEER-Evaluation-Checklist.pdf

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Incorporate outcomes in the PG Cert re-design. Sign up to the Evaluation Collective (Helen)

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Incorporate outcomes in the PG Cert re-design. Sign up to the Evaluation Collective (Helen)

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A couple of universities (HWU being one) appear to have cracked the challenge of variable staff and student engagement with the micro project/mini projects funded from the HEI's ET funding pot by making these an annual occurrence, regardless of the theme itself and the main institutional work, but with a semester 2 start date in year one of the theme then semester 1 in years 2 & 3. So the existence of the projects and associated funding becomes a routine expectation rather than something that happens in the occasional year. Almost inevitably the funding is used to pay for student time/involvement. Every project has to be presented at the HEI's annual LTA conference or equivalent.

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Small project funding (& link with LOGIC model) - take to next ET team meeting

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Small project funding (& link with LOGIC model) - take to next ET team meeting

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Requirement for internal & external dissemination
Leads to raised institutional profile at ET conference
Embeds scholarly approach across institution
Embeds Students as Partners approach
Increases QMU academic staff involvement
Welcome applications for new staff - need support to engage with it.
Align with QMU internal symposium/festival of learning
Encourage colleagues to embed theory of change and evaluation approaches

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To Race Equality Group
To EDI committee

What are the best routes for feeding back key points, resources etc?
Richard to discuss with Jane
Consider Sharepoint as option

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SEC Away Day/Cross institutional away day

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SEC Away Day/Cross institutional away day

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Link with LOGIC model