“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and

knowledge.” – Albert Einstein

“Student engagement is the product of motivation and active learning. It is a

product rather than a sum because it will not occur if either element is

missing.” - Elizabeth Barkley

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1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3

2 Summary for Students and Staff ..................................................................................................... 4

3 The Form of the Strategy ................................................................................................................ 5

4 CREATE Excellence ............................................................................................................................ 6

4.1 Creativity and Core Skills ......................................................................................................... 9

4.2 Research-Informed Learning, Teaching and Assessment ..................................................... 11

4.3 Employability ......................................................................................................................... 13

4.4 Applying Useful Knowledge .................................................................................................. 14

4.5 Technology-Enhanced Learning ............................................................................................ 15

4.6 Engagement .......................................................................................................................... 17

5 Operational Plan ........................................................................................................................... 19

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1 Introduction

This strategy aims to plot a course for the University’s development of its learning, teaching and

assessment activities for the next four years. While it is deliberately and unashamedly ambitious, it

also adopts realism and consciously concentrates on core aspects of provision. The emphasis is not

on embarking on risky projects whose value is as yet uncertain; it concentrates on getting basics

right, but doing them so well that we will be sure to achieve our ambition to be consistently the best

modern University in London.

In many cases the strategy is programmatic. It delineates an area of activity, specifies some

overarching goals and other desiderata, but recognises that considerable further work is needed in

order to take this work forward to completion. It therefore relies on a presumption that an

operational plan will ultimately accompany this strategy, indicating key projects that need to be

taken forward and brought to conclusion in each of the four years.

There are numerous examples of learning and teaching strategies to be found in the sector. The

strategy consciously refuses simply to follow the themes, approaches or priorities that they adopt

unless they have been independently suggested by conversations and discussions within the

University. Our context and University is unique. While we have much to do, we also have much to

celebrate, and it is not right to develop our learning and teaching in imitation of other institutions.

The articulation of the strategy is consciously brief and designed to inspire staff in designing and

delivering programmes of teaching, and students in their own learning and contributions to the

University’s programmes. It is a strategy that is intentionally designed to be easy to remember and

communicate, rendering it more memorable and facilitating its embedding in practice.

This strategy has been informed by numerous discussions and draws considerably from Ambition

2018. The whole University community has indirectly or directly contributed comments, reflections,

agreements and support, rejections and arguments. Insight has been drawn from across all areas of

the University, from within each academic School and across all the committees and working groups

of the University. On the expectation that that the strategy therefore truly reflects the current state

of the University, its readiness for change, and willingness to accept new approaches and adopt new

standards, it is to be hoped that this strategy will be accepted not just in the letter but in the

observance.

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2 Summary for Students and Staff

The University’s new Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy 2014-18 establishes the overall

aim of achieving excellence in learning, teaching and assessment. It sees this objective being fulfilled

through an unwavering focus on the purposeful development of the following 6 broad areas of

activity.

Creativity and Core Skills We aim to lead the sector in the education and development of

‘creative professionals’, developing creativity in our students and

building on a firm foundation of core and discipline skills.

Research-Informed

Learning, Teaching and

Assessment

We will require all disciplines to nurture and develop their strengths

in and culture of research and scholarship, ensuring these in turn

fully inform and benefit their schemes of learning, teaching and

assessment.

Employability We will focus intensely on the graduate-level employment of our

students, ensuring they develop the graduate-level skills required

for their future success.

Applying Useful Knowledge We will ensure that programmes develop useful knowledge, such as

entrepreneurship and enterprise, volunteering and experiential

learning. We will encourage and teach students to apply knowledge

to real life situations as evidence of their growing mastery of their

discipline.

Technology-Enhanced

Learning

We will enhance the experience of our students and staff through

the effective and creative harnessing of technology, continuing to

invest in new technology, whilst ensuring that we make the most

effective use of existing technological solutions.

Engagement We will continuously promote engagement among our students and

staff, creating a feedback culture in which we always seek, listen

and respond to the student voice, and engage staff in consultation,

discussion and development.

Excellence in Learning,

Teaching and Assessment

In aiming to achieve excellence, this strategy is unashamedly

ambitious. It calls on all in the University community to aim for the

highest levels of performance.

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3 The Form of the Strategy

The strategy takes the form of six strategically important themes. Each of these themes contains a

number of key aims, and the aims suggest a number of goals that we should achieve during the

lifetime of this strategy.

The themes are labelled in such a way as to render them easily memorable. Their initial letters spell

CREATE. The strategy adopts excellence as the requisite standard of performance if we are to

achieve our overall aims. Hence, CREATE Excellence.

Accompanying the strategy are a series of milestones. These will form the backbone of an

operational plan which sets out key dates and timelines by which the strategy will be achieved.

Excellence in Learning,

Teaching and Assessment

Employabilit

y

Applying

Useful Knowledge

Technology-

Enhanced Learning

Engagement

Creativity

and Core Skills

Research-

Informed Learning,

Teaching and Assessment

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4 CREATE Excellence

The University’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy is to seek excellence in its learning and

teaching environment by focusing endeavour on six over-arching themes. The Strategy calls for new

ways of working, for new partnerships, and for new standards by which we judge success. Creating

excellence is not an easy goal. The Strategy is deliberately and unashamedly challenging, but aims to

inspire all our students and staff to tap and develop their creativity.

reativity and Core Skills. We aim to lead the sector in the education and development of

‘creative professionals’. Each discipline will determine what creativity means in its own

context. While some will already aim to produce creative professionals because of the very

nature of their disciplines, all disciplines will need to go beyond existing parameters, providing

learning experiences that extend creativity beyond conventional disciplinary definitions and giving

meaning and credibility to this strategic aim. CREATE Excellence is predicated on the belief that

creativity and its proper exercise depends on a bedrock of core skills, disciplinary specific as well as

cross-cutting. Disciplines will need to develop programme-specific frameworks – skills ladders –

linking creativity to other programme skills, both high-level such as critical evaluation and core such

as reasoning and communication. Disciplines will therefore need to renew and deepen their focus on

the development of core skills and design programmes to ensure that any skills gaps at pre-entry are

addressed. In doing so, they will draw on strengthened and more focused personal tutoring,

seamlessly linked to effective University systems for diagnostic testing, development of academic

literacy and ongoing academic mentorship. Programmes will need to provide genuine opportunities

for students to exercise creativity, including ways in which students can personalise their learning

experience through the exercise of choice in relation to modules and pathways, and within modules

in relation to options for assessment. Such personalised learning will bring additional need for

effective academic support.

esearch-informed Learning, Teaching and Assessment. CREATE Excellence calls for the

comprehensive embedding of research and scholarship into teaching programmes.

Scholarship and research, along with its impact, are defining attributes of higher education

institutions. Through the creation and effective utilisation of knowledge the academy is renewed

and disciplines increase their importance and relevance to society. Activity in research and

scholarship serves as a valuable model for students, enhancing their learning as they see discipline

skills and knowledge put into practice. Research and scholarship give impetus for change and

adaptation, and are key sources of vitality in teaching curricula and portfolio. For all these reasons,

CREATE Excellence requires disciplines to nurture and develop their strengths in and culture of

research and scholarship, ensuring these in turn inform their learning, teaching and assessment.

Students need to be encouraged to learn at the cutting-edge, being exposed to and led through

current controversies and debates. Teaching should aim to arouse curiosity and stimulate students

to utilise their knowledge in the pursuit of solving problems and addressing gaps in knowledge and

understanding. Assessments should appropriately challenge students, and offer them opportunities

to use their knowledge to address real and practical concerns. These objectives will require

disciplines to identify and draw on their research strengths, ensure these appropriately influence

C

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and inform the design of programmes of teaching and assessment, and map the development of

research skills across the curriculum. They will in turn require a renewed focus on the quality of

teaching, ensuring all who teach to adopt the highest standards of the profession, to reflect on their

practice, and to obtain annually meaningful and useful feedback on their teaching quality.

mployability. Through the provision of career-focused programmes that equip students with

valuable employability skills, the University rightly takes great pride in its accomplishments in

relation to employability. Key to building on this platform of achievement will be an intense

focus on the graduate-level employment of our students as well as the graduate-level skills required

for their future success. Such a focus will lead us to strengthen our arrangements for industrial

liaison, ensuring that employers and other representative bodies have substantial input into the

design and delivery of our programmes. We will develop and sustain meaningful relationships with

employers, incorporating them into the University community, and reflected in activities right across

and at all levels of the organisation. We will firmly embed the University’s graduate attributes into all

undergraduate programmes requiring disciplines to demonstrate how they are developed. We will

also further examine our provision in relation to placements, seeking to ensure that all programmes

offer placements; and we will investigate the feasibility of the University offering sandwich years in

all programmes of 3 or more years’ duration. We will also develop a focus around integrated

Masters provision, determining whether the University should offer these instead of its conventional

undergraduate programmes, whilst still allowing undergraduate exit points. Lastly, drawing on HEA

employability profiles and our industrial liaison, we will undertake to describe our programmes in

terms that are relevant to the needs of employers.

pplying useful knowledge. The University’s strategic plan, Ambition 2018, calls for

educational programmes that emphasise the application of useful knowledge. The plan also

articulates what counts as useful knowledge in our connected and increasingly global

environment. We will ensure that our programmes develop useful knowledge. Programmes will

build entrepreneurship and enterprise into the curriculum, extend opportunities for volunteering

activity, for experiential learning, and for engagement with the wider communities in which the

University is embedded. Our focus will be on encouraging and teaching students to apply knowledge

to real life situations as evidence of their growing mastery of their discipline. We will focus also on

the internationalisation of the curriculum, ensuring that programmes are connected to global

concerns such as sustainability, the environment, and equality and diversity. We will encourage our

students to become global citizens, engaging with international partners, and drawing on our

manifold connections with educational providers across the globe. We will provide students with

opportunities for international exchange, including placements.

echnology-Enhanced Learning. Key to delivering many of the aims in this Learning, Teaching

and Assessment Strategy will be the effective and creative harnessing of technology to

enhance the experience of our students and staff. Whilst the University will continue to invest

in new technology, there will be an emphasis on making the most effective use of existing

technological solutions. There will be a particular focus, for example, on realising the full benefit of

UWL Replay, building on our experience of the system to fully inform the way we design teaching

and learning activities. Our use of audience response systems will develop to support interactivity

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A

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and arouse the curiosity and promote the engagement of our students. Familiar technologies such

as Blackboard, the student portal, and the external website will be reviewed, informed by a rich

understanding of student use, to optimise their value for enhancing learning. We will also develop a

systematic approach to blended learning, defining clear options and schemes for adoption by

courses. We will use technology to integrate students into the University community early in the

student life cycle. We will continue to evaluate new technology, such as media library solutions. All

of our activity in relation to technology-enhanced learning will be underpinned by a robust approach

to staff and student development, one that assures the University that systems are in place to

ensure the digital literacy of all.

ngagement. While a condition for the success of this Learning, Teaching and Assessment

Strategy is the engagement of students and staff, the strategy itself will promote greater

engagement. Key will be the measurement of student engagement, helping the University

understand better the challenges to studying our students’ experience and the routes to enhancing

engagement. For example, there will be a re-examination of the value of large and small group

teaching; consideration will be given to attendance and its impact on retention, progression and

attainment. We will work collaboratively with the Students’ Union on the impact of key transitions

upon engagement, how, for example, orientation and induction can successfully engage students,

giving them the best start to their higher education, and how personal tuition can deepen

engagement and promote active learning. We will evaluate the impact of engagement through the

increasing use of learner analytics. Ambition 2018 calls upon the University to ensure students are

engaged as global citizens, and we will therefore also promote engagement with international

partners through collaborative activities such as exchange programmes and through a growing

internationalisation of our curricula. A measure of our success in engaging students in their learning,

their programmes, and their University community will be the extent to which we can create a

feedback culture, one that normalises the completion of module, course and service questionnaires,

and other forms of engagement with the University in a cycle of continuous improvement. We will

work with the Students’ Union to strengthen the voice of students within their courses and Schools,

and across the University. Whilst student engagement will occupy our attention for the life of this

strategy, a necessary condition will be staff engagement. Open consultation and discussion on the

components of this strategy, and how they can be realised, will be a core element of staff

engagement. INSTIL will enhance and build on this engagement through structured programmes of

staff development, and CPPD, postgraduate and research opportunities, and awards for excellence.

This strategy is unashamedly ambitious and

calls on all in the University community to aim

for the highest levels of performance.

Excellence is a cross-cutting standard, one that applies to all elements of the strategy, and one which

we will strive to ensure characterises all our work on Learning, Teaching and Assessment.

E

Excellence

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4.1 Creativity and Core Skills Milestones

4.1.1 The University aims to lead the sector in the education and development of ‘creative professionals’.

4.1.2 This ambition calls for a renewed emphasis from all disciplines to develop in their students high-level skills of creativity, and an underlying bedrock of core skills, disciplinary and cross-cutting.

4.1.3 The University is committed to nurturing the development of creativity in all of its teaching programmes and to providing meaningful opportunities for the assessment of creativity within disciplinary contexts.

4.1.4 All disciplines will develop skills ladders – mappings showing how skills are acquired, developed and honed, and their inter-dependence, across the levels of teaching programmes.

4.1.5 Skills ladders will sharpen our focus on the different levels of our programmes, promoting a consistency in their design.

4.1.6 We will review the meaning of levels, considering the interplay between teaching approach, assessment, and academic support. For example, we may re-conceptualise level 4 in terms of the development of academic literacy, with a focus on formative feedback, enhanced through personal tuition.

4.1.7 Linked to the development of skills maps is the embedding of graduate attributes.

4.1.8 The University has developed a specification of graduate attributes but embedding of these in programme design is not consistent.

4.1.9 This strategy calls on programme teams to use skills ladders to restate their emphasis on the acquisition of graduate attributes, linking them in detail to core, disciplinary and cross-cutting skills.

4.1.10 Graduate attributes will therefore become fully reflected in the design of teaching programmes, and supported via structured schemes of assessment.

4.1.11 An increasingly important focus for the University, and vital to success in a competitive market-place, is an excellent understanding of the needs and expectations of applicants and of their skills gaps.

4.1.12 Student success increasingly depends on skills of academic literacy.

Skills ladders – skills map – for all programmes Review of levels, including teaching approach, assessment and academic support Embed graduate attributes consistently in all programmes Graduate attributes linked to skills maps

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Milestones

4.1.13 The University will engage in further work to ensure that teaching programmes embed academic literacy skills and reflect applicant expectations and skill gaps.

4.1.14 The University will develop its iConnect project to further enhance its engagement with applicants and deploy diagnostic tools to improve our understanding of expectations and skill levels at entry.

4.1.15 Skills development and mapping will also link to the role of the personal tutor. The role has not developed significantly in recent years and is applied inconsistently. The personal tutor role will be redeveloped and re-launched.

4.1.16 All students will have a named personal tutor on entry to the University.

4.1.17 All students will retain a personal tutor for the duration of their studies.

4.1.18 The role of the personal tutor will be defined around sets of structured activities, linked to skills, including employability skills, differentiated by level.

4.1.19 The relationship between dissertation and personal tutors will be defined.

4.1.20 Personal tuition will be a key means for students to personalise their learning, especially in relation to study support and skills development.

4.1.21 Personalised learning will also be developed in programmes through a thorough-going extension of choice.

4.1.22 While there will always be significant restrictions on choice (e.g., PSRB considerations), we will seek where practicable to offer students structured choices at all levels – module, content, assessment, teaching mode.

4.1.23 The exercise of choice calls for heightened levels of academic support. Students will require greater levels of guidance, and this will be core to the revised personal tutor model.

4.1.24 Accompanying the new model there will need to be enhanced staff development opportunities that encourage all members of the academic community to understand better how to achieve excellence in academic support.

Embed academic literacy skills in all programmes iConnect developed Redevelopment and re-launch of a new personal tutor model Development of personalised learning and choice Staff development programmes based on academic support

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4.2 Research-Informed Learning, Teaching and Assessment Milestones

4.2.1 CREATE Excellence calls for the development of cultures of scholarship and research in all programme areas and for these to imbue programme design and the ethos of high-quality teaching.

4.2.2 Researchers and scholars will be models for students, showing how discipline skills and knowledge are put into practice.

4.2.3 Research and scholarship will be sources of renewal for our curricula and portfolio, and will lead to the incorporation of new ideas and new ways of thinking into teaching programmes.

4.2.4 Research and scholarship will promote the teaching of students through exposure to controversy and debate at the cutting-edge of disciplines.

4.2.5 Research-informed teaching should be curiosity-driven, aiming to arouse in students a sense of inquisitiveness and stimulate them to utilise their knowledge and skills to solve problems and address gaps in knowledge and understanding.

4.2.6 Disciplines will evidence their research- and scholarship-informed teaching through an annual return.

4.2.7 Consistent with our review of levels, we will also conceptualise the place of research and scholarship within programmes. For example, we ay conceptualise level 6 in terms of the development of discipline-specific research skills.

4.2.8 Disciplines will also map the development of research skills across their curricula.

4.2.9 Research-informed assessments should challenge students, offering them opportunities to use knowledge to address real and practical concerns.

4.2.10 We will review the nature of assessment practices to ensure the careful, design-led scaffolding of skills throughout programmes, with meaningful opportunities to practice skills and learn through complete cycles of feedback.

4.2.11 Disciplines will map assessments across all levels of their programmes ensuring that skills are developed through effective cycles of practice and feedback.

4.2.12 Where such cycles are not aided by the current modular structure, the University will encourage alternative models, such as programmes based on long-thin modules.

Annual return on research- and scholarship-informed teaching Review of levels, to consider place of scholarship and research Skills maps to incorporate research skills Review of assessment Assessment maps to ensure practice and feedback cycles Review of modular structure as appropriate

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Milestones

4.2.13 A drive towards research-informed teaching calls for a renewed focus on the quality of teaching, ensuring all who teach adopt the highest standards of the profession, reflect on their practice, and obtain annually meaningful and useful feedback on their teaching quality.

4.2.14 The University will ensure that all staff engaged in teaching hold a recognised qualification (e.g., PGCert or HEA fellowship).

4.2.15 All staff will engage in peer review of teaching, and the University will draw on research evidence to debate the most useful form this should take.

4.2.16 We will expect staff also to engage in improvement of their teaching through the systematic and reflective analysis of other relevant forms of evidence.

4.2.17

4.2.18 Evidence from national surveys, module evaluations, and other forms of feedback from students and colleagues all constitute valid forms of evidence that will be used to inform teaching.

4.2.19 CREATE Excellence gives parity to teaching and research, and assumes therefore that it is appropriate for individual academics to receive annual assessments of their teaching quality.

4.2.20 The University community will be engaged in discussion about the most appropriate form assessments of teaching quality should take, and how best and when to introduce them.

4.2.21 Consistent with parity of esteem for high quality teaching, the University will review its systems of teaching awards.

4.2.22 Similarly the University will continue to encourage and support high-quality bids for learning and teaching projects.

HEA fellowship Review and re-launch of peer review of teaching Consultation on Annual statement of teaching quality Support for teaching and learning projects

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4.3 Employability Milestones

4.3.1 The University has achieved considerable success in the development of its students’ employability.

4.3.2 Key to building on this platform of achievement will be an intense focus on the graduate-level employment of our students as well as the graduate-level skills required for their future success.

4.3.3 We will achieve this in part through a comprehensive strengthening of our arrangements for industrial liaison.

4.3.4 All programmes will establish and maintain an active Industrial Advisory Board (IAB).

4.3.5 IABs will play an essential role in programme quality assurance (for example, course development, validation, monitoring).

4.3.6

4.3.7 Programmes will specify how the graduate attributes are attained, relating these to skills ladders.

4.3.8 The University has guaranteed work placements to its students, and this offer needs to be implemented consistently across all the programmes to which it applies.

4.3.9 The University will review the case for the implementation of a full, cross-University sandwich year in programmes of 3 or more years’ duration.

4.3.10 The University will review the case for programme-based employability maps, linked to HEA employability profiles and subject benchmarks, which specify the development of employability skills across the programme.

4.3.11 Such maps would provide a valuable bridge between programmes and employers, allowing the University to state succinctly and in terms relevant to the needs of employers the employability skills of its students.

4.3.12 We will also evaluate the case for cross-University provision of integrated Masters programmes, determining whether we should offer these instead of conventional undergraduate programmes, whilst still allowing undergraduate exit points.

Establish Industrial Advisory Boards for all programmes Secure role of IABs in quality assurance Embed graduate attributes and link to skills ladders Define and implement placement guarantee consistently Review sandwich provision and case for cross-University sandwich year Review case for employability maps Evaluate the case for cross-University Integrated Masters provision

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4.4 Applying Useful Knowledge Milestones

4.4.1 Ambition 2018, calls for educational programmes that emphasise the application of useful knowledge.

4.4.2 We will define what we mean by useful in the context of the University environment.

4.4.3 Programmes will build entrepreneurship and enterprise into the curriculum, extend opportunities for volunteering activity, experiential learning, and engagement with the wider communities in which the University is embedded.

4.4.4 Such links will be reflected in assessments that are applied, that encourage students to find ways of applying their knowledge and skills to address real and practical concerns.

4.4.5 Programmes will specify these links in assessment maps.

4.4.6 We will focus on the internationalisation of the curriculum, ensuring that programmes are connected to global concerns such as sustainability, the environment, and equality and diversity.

4.4.7 We expect all programmes to be able to find ways of addressing such concerns, and will require programmes to indicate how and where they do so.

4.4.8 We will encourage our students to become global citizens, engaging with international partners, and drawing on our manifold connections with educational providers across the globe.

4.4.9 We will provide all students with opportunities for international exchange, including placements.

4.4.10 We will encourage teaching which emphasises application at all stages. However, we will develop a focus on how teaching programmes equip students for graduate employment, linking this to assessment maps.

4.4.11 We will encourage all programmes to build into their curricula genuine opportunities for volunteering and community engagement.

4.4.12 We will seek to develop awards and prizes for students and staff that recognise excellence in relation to wider engagement with the Universities communities.

All programmes to develop assessment maps All programmes to specify how and where they have internationalised their curriculum All programmes to develop opportunities for international exchange and collaboration All programmes to incorporate teaching for graduate employment Programmes to promote volunteering and community engagement Awards and prizes linked to employment-related attainments

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4.5 Technology-Enhanced Learning Milestones

4.5.1 Key to delivering many of the aims in this Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy will be the effective and creative harnessing of technology to enhance the experience of our students and staff.

4.5.2 Our emphasis will be on making the most effective use of existing technological solutions, whilst continuing to make targeted investment in new technology.

4.5.3 A key principle will be to ensure that technology is used for good pedagogic purposes, and not merely for its own sake.

4.5.4 The University has developed UWL Replay and there will be a particular focus on realising its full benefits, building on our experience of the system to fully inform the way we design teaching and learning activities.

4.5.5 The University’s ambition is for all students on all programmes to benefit from UWL Replay.

4.5.6 UWL Replay may encourage some to flip the classroom, moving away from lectures as the staple teaching method.

4.5.7 In principle, a reduction in lecture classes could permit an increase in small group teaching, and therefore some rebalancing of contact hours in a way that would appear to meet student demand.

4.5.8 The University will therefore engage in a discussion of the function of lectures, seminars and other teaching sessions, coming to a better understanding of the value and purpose of these resources.

4.5.9 Audience response systems can be used to promote engagement and interactivity in teaching sessions, arousing students’ sense of curiosity.

4.5.10 The University will therefore engage in further work to promote good practice in the use of such technologies, encouraging all teaching programmes to include its use.

4.5.11 Familiar technologies such as Blackboard, the student portal, and the external website will be reviewed, informed by a rich understanding of student use, to optimise their value for enhancing learning.

4.5.12 We will develop a systematic approach to blended learning, defining clear options and schemes for adoption by courses.

Development of UWL Replay Review of utility and purpose of different teaching sessions Work to promote good practice in relation to audience response systems Review of Blackboard, student portal and external website Define a consistent blended learning experience across all programmes

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Milestones

4.5.13 Defining blended learning will enable the University to plan for and be assured of a consistent student experience in relation to technology and its use in the student learning environment.

4.5.14 The definition of blended learning will also assist in the development of a consistent University offer in relation to flexible and distance learning, of particular relevance to part-time and work-based students.

4.5.15 We will reposition some of the University’s expertise in Technology-Enhanced Learning away from specific School-based teaching programmes and towards cross-University initiatives.

4.5.16 Support will continue to be given to programme teams but the emphasis will be on academic staff acquiring the skills required to author blended courses for themselves.

4.5.17 We will continue to develop technology that serves to integrate students into the University community early in the student life cycle.

4.5.18 The iConnect project allows students at pre-entry to acculturate to higher education, the specific context of the University, and to begin to self-diagnose skills gaps.

4.5.19 We will develop this project and extend its reach so that it becomes the de facto means for pre-entry students to engage with the University and prepare effectively for higher education.

4.5.20 We will continue to evaluate new technology, such as media library solutions, and invest judiciously where there is a strong pedagogic rationale.

4.5.21 All of our activity in relation to technology-enhanced learning will be underpinned by a robust approach to staff and student development, one that assures the University that systems are in place to ensure the digital literacy of all.

Defined pathways for blended, flexible and distance learning Develop the iConnect project and extend its reach to all pre-entry students Develop a robust digital literacy strategy to ensure the skills of staff and students

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4.6 Engagement Milestones

4.6.1 Student engagement is recognised as a critical success factor for students and their Universities.

4.6.2 Key to the University’s success will be our ability to measure student engagement, and develop an understanding of the challenges to studying our students’ experience.

4.6.3 We will develop measures of engagement reflecting widely accepted measures as well as our own context.

4.6.4 Measures of engagement will link to the role that learning analytics will play in this strategy, enabling more sophisticated means for predicting student risk and appropriate support.

4.6.5 Enhancing engagement will be a key feature of the re-developed personal tutor role.

4.6.6 The personal tutor role will be instrumental in developing engagement along a number of dimensions: offering a programme perspective on feedback and taught content; providing very small group tuition; embedding programme and level learning outcomes; supporting the development of skills and active learning; inducting students into University and higher education; outducting students in relation to further study, career and employment opportunities; collecting feedback in relation to module, level, programme, and School.

4.6.7 We will review the University’s policies on attendance and relate this to retention, progression and attainment, and other learner analytics.

4.6.8 Analytics will also help us understand the impact of key transitions (e.g., orientation and induction) on students’ engagement, and we will work with the Students’ Union to develop effective means for supporting students at these key times.

4.6.9 We will consider schemes for promoting student engagement, such as enhancing the mentoring scheme to include peer proof reading and peer assessment.

4.6.10 We will evaluate the impact of engagement through the increasing use of learner analytics, using these to predict retention, progression and attainment, ensuring systems appropriately respect the diversity of our student body.

Develop measures of student engagement and report on an annual basis Redevelop personal tutor role to enhance engagement Review attendance and relate to other learner analytics Work with SU to understand impact of transitions Review student mentoring to promote student engagement Develop the use of learner analytics to provide predictive tools in relation to retention, progression and attainment, and assess equality impact

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Milestones

4.6.11 We will act to develop the global citizenship of our students through engagement with international partners over collaborative activities and exchange programmes and through a growing internationalisation of our curricula.

4.6.12 In the longer-term, we aim to offer all students on all programmes the opportunity for international exchange.

4.6.13 We will engage students and staff in the soliciting of and responses to student feedback.

4.6.14 We will ensure for all modules students have the opportunity to complete a standardised feedback questionnaire, ensuring that its design and implementation assure a robust response rate, and that the feedback loop to students is closed.

4.6.15 We will ensure that all students have the opportunity to give programme level feedback on their programmes, e.g., through NSS, UKES, PTES, PRES.

4.6.16 We will work with the Students’ Union to ensure the student voice is heard effectively at all levels and in relation to all learning, teaching and assessment activity.

4.6.17 We will explore the wider involvement of students in committees and panels, including appointment panels.

4.6.18 Whilst student engagement will occupy our attention for the life of this strategy, a necessary condition will be staff engagement.

4.6.19 Open consultation and discussion on the components of this strategy, and how they can be realised, will be a core element of staff engagement.

4.6.20 INSTIL will enhance and build on this engagement through structured programmes of staff development, and CPPD, postgraduate and research opportunities, and awards for excellence.

Develop exchange programmes for all programmes Develop programme reports to include reference to internationalisation of curricula Develop standardised module evaluation questionnaire with robust response rates and closed feedback loops Work with the SU to develop the student voice in Schools, courses and across the University INSTIL to develop CPPD and other means for developing staff engagement

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5 Operational Plan

The following is one possible mapping of suggested streams of activity within the 6 themes across the different years of the strategy. A more detailed

mapping will be the subject of further work. Designation under a particular year signifies only the start of that stream of activity while some streams will

conclude the same academic year, others will continue over two or more academic years.

Theme 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

Creativity and Core Skills Skills ladders

iConnect developed

Review of levels

Personal tutor model

Academic Literacy

Staff Development

Graduate attributes Personalised Learning

Research-Informed Learning,

Teaching and Assessment

Review of levels

Teaching awards and

projects

Annual return on

research- and

scholarship-informed

teaching

Review of assessment

and assessment maps

Peer Review of

Teaching

Annual Statement of

Teaching Quality

Review of Modular

Structure

Employability Integrated Masters

Establish IABs

Employability maps

Assessment maps

Review sandwich provision

Applying Useful Knowledge Graduate International Internationalisation

20

employability

exchange

Assessment maps

Volunteering/Community

engagement

Technology-Enhanced

Learning

iConnect

UWL Replay

Audience Response

Systems

Blackboard, Portal

and website

Review of teaching

approaches

Defining blended

learning and distance

learning pathways

Defining blended

learning for all

programmes

Digital literacy

Engagement Module evaluation

surveys

Measures of student

engagement

Learner analytics

Impact of transitions

Student Voice

Internationalisation

International exchange