Dr Simon Paul Atkinson (PFHEA)
Enhancing Institutional Outcomes
Workshop aligned to UKPSF A5, K5, K6, V3 It may seem strange to design our evaluation structures before we have even recruited students onto our programmes. We need first to understand the distinction between assessment, feedback and evaluation. It is then important to explore both the evaluation of learning experiences and evaluation for-learning, which I will refer …
Continue reading “In-course and Post Course Evaluation Strategies (8/8-SLDF)”
Workshop aligned to UKPSF A1-A4, K3-K4, V1, V4 This post is a summary of the page for Stage 7 of the 8-SLDF, and the fourth element in a constructively aligned course design approach, which is feedback throughout. Closely reflective of both our assessment practice and our learning activities, feedback is best fully integrated into the …
Continue reading “Exploring Opportunities for Feedback Throughout (7/8-SLDF)”
See Courses “Why do I need to worry about manual skills? I teach history/French/maths…”. My answer is simple. What tools are used in the pursuit of your discipline? Is there not a degree of increasing proficiency in the deployment of these tools expected of students they progress through their studies? Psychomotor skills can be defined as those …
Continue reading “The Role of the Psychomotor Domain in Higher Education”
Designing Engaging Learning Opportunities Workshop aligned to UKPSF A1-A2, K1-K4, V1 The third element in a constructively aligned course design and stage six of the 8-SLDF is the learning activities that allow students to prepare for the assessment of their learning outcomes. This is not about the content that we share with our students; it is about …
Continue reading “Learning & Teaching Activities (6/8-SLDF)”
Student expectations are serious constraints on imaginative assessment processes. Students are taught through their educational experience that ‘final grades matter’ so it is natural that they become fixated on the final assessment. A transparent design that closely reflects the ILOs within the teaching activity and assessment will necessarily engage students in a broader and deeper …
Continue reading “Developing a Meaningful Assessment Strategy (5/8-SLDF)”
Courses available here Workshop available aligned to UKPSF A1, A4, A5, K2, K3, K6, V1-V4 This post is a shortened version of a new resource posted about designing effective ILOs available here. ILOs are the detailed explanations, written in language the students will understand before beginning the module or programme, as to what they will …
Continue reading “Developing Effective Learning Outcomes 4/8-SLDF”
There are five key considerations we should take into account as we either work with media in our learning and teaching process or design learning using media. The relative importance of each of these depends on the level, context and nature of the module or programme but all should need to be reflected in …
Continue reading “Media Choices Informing Design: 3/8-SLDF”
This 33-minute presentation is from a session delivered to an internal audience of colleagues on my final day at BPP University as part of Digital Literacy Day (16 Feb 2018). Set-up as a demonstration, sharing QRs, Padlet, Twitter. After six years leading a portfolio focussed around teaching enhancement, scholarship and research and educational technology adoption, I …
Continue reading “From Walled Garden to Open Jungle (33′ 30″)”
Workshop aligned to UKPSF A5, K1-K3, V4 Tertiary providers are increasingly expected to deliver ‘work-ready’ graduates. This is a challenge when we must acknowledge that many graduates will begin a career that does not exist today. Identifying the competency frameworks within our disciplines, and those of our professional colleagues is a good place to start. …
Continue reading “Learning Design for Professional or Discipline Contexts 2/8-SLDF”
Our learning programmes are designed to reflect our institutional specialisms and priorities, to play to our strengths. Sometimes we risk forgetting that they will be taken by real people with different dispositions, orientations and perspectives. For this reason, the first stage of my 8 Stage Learning Design Framework is concerned with profiling students. Much the same way that …
Continue reading “Student Profiles – 1/8-Stage Learning Design Framework”
This an introduction to a new resource being shared on this website, the 8-Stage Learning Design Framework, or 8-SLDF for short. The framework provides a supportive step by step process to enable faculty and course designers to develop robust and well-aligned programmes or modules. Publication of the 8-SLDF is in preparation so only brief explanations are …
Continue reading “Overview of the 8-Stage Learning Design Framework (11’48”)”
This morning’s short coffee note identifies some of the functions, and their advantages, in establishing ‘enhancement circles’. For faculty working in a less than supportive context, this works well as a collegial mechanism for personal, and collective, enhancement. Reaching out to colleagues outside your immediate sphere, from different disciplines or institutions, you can establish a personal supportive network. I …
Continue reading “Coffee Notes: Enhancement Circles (3’12”)”
I thought I would share some cross-platform videos which reflect whatever is on my mind professionally each morning. Shot in portrait for IGTV and then annotated for YouTube, they represent unscripted notes on some aspect of learning design or educational enhancement. This one explores the value of an individual approach to personalizing reflection for academic practitioners. …
Continue reading “Coffee Notes: Personal Reflection and Evaluation (5’8″)”
There is a wealth of literature that describes the purposes of providing feedback as part of the learning process in higher and professional education. I’m going to distil this voluminous research and scholarship into four key purposes. Firstly, feedback for student learning is about increasing capacity for future actions. Indicating to the student how a …
Continue reading “What are four reasons for providing feedback to students? (3’59”)”
There are social conventions, unwritten rules, around feedback in a formal education setting. Most students associate feedback as coming from the voice of authority in the form of red marks on a written script! It is important to redefine feedback for university and professional learners. In this short overview video (3’30”) Simon outlines four ‘contractual’ …
Continue reading “Four contractual agreements to make with your students about feedback (3’30”)”
In response to a question from a client, I put together this short video outlining four types of assessment used in higher education, formative, summative, ipsative and synoptic. It’s produced as an interactive H5P video. Please feel free to link to this short video (under 5 mins) as a resource if you think your students …
Continue reading “Four Types of Assessment (Video 4’42”)”
(Coaching is available for direct entries for Fellowship. Contact me to discuss) The majority of academic staff in the United Kingdom will have come across the UKPSF in one form or another. It has been a benchmark for my academic development practice for fourteen years. The United Kingdom Professional Standards Framework is a set of …
Continue reading “What is missing from the UKPSF?”
[See Courses on Using Educational Taxonomies] I believe a sound learning design process should ensure students experience all five domains of educational objectives. Course designs that do not reflect the broad range of skills and attributes that university graduates should acquire through their studies do our students a disservice. To support both course designers (module or programme), and …
Continue reading “Designing with all 5 Educational Domains”