Students as Creative Designers and Developers of Relevant Learning Analytics: A First-Hand Experience Approach

Dr Raghda Zahran, Programme and Project Manager from the Project Management Office worked with colleagues from the School of Computing to engage postgraduate students taking an Innovation Project, offering students a unique opportunity to apply their Data Science skills meaningfully, alongside developing an understanding of Learning Analytics from Newcastle University students’ perspectives, to inform the development of practical tools and strategies.

Using in-class debate to deepen students’ understanding of a teaching topic

Dr Xin Li, Senior Lecturer in International Management and Degree Program Director for MSc International Business Management describes how he used in-class debate with the 2022/23 cohort of full time MBA students, using group work to develop presentations and debate to encourage communication, self-reflection and learning by giving students the opportunity to listen to and engage with different opinions.

Virtual Summer School: Decolonising Research Methodologies in Applied Linguistics and Education

Dr Sarah Ganassin oversaw a highly successful Virtual Summer School, bringing together students and staff from Newcastle University and the University of Nicosia in Cyprus to explore a wide range of issues, including decolonising theoretical perspectives, intercultural communication and collaboration, with the aim of equipping doctoral students with the research skills needed to progress their academic career.

A photo of students sitting around a table playing the Team Work Training Board Game

Team Work Training – Alien Alliance Groupwork Board Game

Dr Catherine Douglas (staff: she/her) and Manjot Brar (student intern: she/her) from the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, discuss the development of an innovative ice-breaking board game to enable students to discuss effective strategies for addressing common group working issues, and learn about the value of feedback. Students were integral to the design of the game which was funded to address requests for support in preparing for groupwork. This extremely successful pilot initiative will continue to be used and can be loaned out to anyone interested in reviewing the game and trialing with their students.

Photos of members involved

Bringing the rocks into your house, virtual fieldtrips (VFT)

With Dr Cees van der Land, Dr Sanem Acikalin & Dr Mark Ireland Newcastle University School of Natural and Earth Sciences Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering What did you do? For our Earth Science students we developed a range of VFTs during which they learn to analyse and map the rock strata. We used Read more about Bringing the rocks into your house, virtual fieldtrips (VFT)[…]

Picture of Rachelle Maddison

Using Canvas New Analytics to gain insights into students’ access

Find out if Dr Rachelle Maddison and Dr Raghda Zahran could use Canvas New Analytics to check whether a small cohort of international students could access resources in their own countries.  

Jessi Komes

Assessing students innovatively via peer-reviewed small group video presentations

Dr Jessica Komes assessed students through a pre-recorded oral group presentation. As well as assessing the student’s ability to orally articulate the intended knowledge and skill outcomes, this approach helped students engage with each other and provided an opportunity for peer feedback.

Headshot of Andrew Lovatt

Engineering Poster Competition

One of the high points for our Stage 3 students is the annual poster competition normally held in a large venue with all students and supervisors simultaneously. This is something I could not do this year due to the pandemic restrictions. I used Miro to set up a poster exhibition for around 80 posters which is simply accessible via a URL.

Diagram of the Lab heath and Safety project

FMS BNS Health and Safety Case Study

The aim of this project was to produce an online lab health and safety package to support students from Biomedicine, Sports and Nutrition. Academic staff were finding it difficult to monitor student engagement with the module handbook and lab code of conduct and wanted to have a more standardised approach to ensure that all students are aware of and complying with health and safety requirements in the lab.

Managing large file submissions in Fine Art

Chris Jones and Richard Elliott, from the School of Arts and Cultures, explain how they used OneDrive successfully throughout the pandemic to allow students to digitally submit their work in place of what would have been ‘in person’ studio presentations.