Picture of a gloved hand holding a test tube with blue liquid inside in a laboratory setting.

Communicating to succeed: enhancing Bioscience students’ skills through science communication

Discover how a flexible, adaptable 3-week summer project focusing on science communication can enhance bioscience students’ academic and professional skill gains, placement attainment rates, confidence, as well as provide a transnational educational opportunity.

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Using ArcGIS StoryMaps to practice digital storytelling

Dr David Hope reflects on using ArcGIS StoryMaps as a summative assessment for a second-year undergraduate module and offers practical advice and inspiration for colleagues interested in the potential of this digital tool as a form of authentic assessment.

A photograph of Cong Zhang

Boosting digital literacy through phonetics learning

Dr Cong Zhang, Lecturer in Phonetics and Phonology in ECLS, discusses embedding authentic, engaging, and practical digital literacy skills into phonetics learning through interactive tools, online assessments, and creative multimedia projects.

Loiana Leal

Using Inspera Digital Exams for a Language Module Assessment Strategy

Loiana Leal, Lecturer in Modern Languages, worked with the LTDS Digital Exams Team to introduce digital exams using Inspera in a Portuguese module—co-creating authentic assessments with students to improve marking, feedback, and the overall experience.

Katie Wray

Using portfolios to capture competency and engagement beyond module assessment

Discover how Katie Wray, Senior Lecturer in Engineering, collaborated with colleagues from LTDS and FMS TEL to pioneer an innovative reflective portfolio approach that was used with first-year undergraduate engineering students.

Photo of John Hedley

Viewing a module’s exam questions to enhance student engagement

John Hedley, Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering, explains how his module’s NUMBAS exam assesses students’ effort during the module, by giving them the opportunity to see, practise and ask for advice on all exam questions prior to taking the exam, and in the process developing a deep understanding of the module’s learning outcomes.

Photo of John Hedley

Creating consistent and automatic feedback for large student cohorts in Engineering

Dr John Hedley, Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering, designed a marking criteria for a team of markers on a large population engineering module, enabling fast and consistent marking, alongside effective descriptive student feedback that is automatically generated.

Dr David Grundy

Looking Beyond the Data – Using Student Learning Analytics as a Conversation Starter

Dr David Grundy, Director of Digital Education Newcastle University Business School Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences  What did you do? I was part of the Learning Analytics Pilot who were using the Jisc platform, Data Explorer, to have data-informed conversations with my students about their progress and support. I usually have four meetings a Read more about Looking Beyond the Data – Using Student Learning Analytics as a Conversation Starter[…]

A photograph of Chris Graham

Using Vevox as a back-channel for student Q&As

Dr Chris Graham, Director of Digital Learning in Maths, Stats and Physics, explains how he uses the Q&A functionality in Vevox as a channel for student questions during lectures, how he has refined his approach to responding to questions during the lecture, and how students have reacted positively to the option to ask questions anonymously.

A photograph of John Holton

Developing diverse skill-sets, student engagement, and self-evaluation in a poster assessment

Dr John Holton, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History, describes designing a poster assignment for his stage 2 module that builds and tests diverse skill-sets, promotes student engagement by enabling students to self-select and then personally research their choice of topic, resulting in students showing an increased assessment confidence and unusually high engagement with the task.