Posted on behalf of Rebecca Rochon, Senior Lecturer in Education, Buckinghamshire New University:
I’ve got a bit of the Monday blues- I’ve returned from my native Canada where I was fortunate enough to attend last week’s ‘Students as Partners in learning and teaching in higher education’ organised by the McMaster Institute for Innovation and Enhancement in Teaching and Learning (MIIETL) (https://macblog.mcmaster.ca/summer-institute/).
As a single participant, I could not attend the Change Institute aimed at mixed groups of students and staff. However, I was more than satisfied with the two consecutive two-day workshops on Students as partners in teaching, learning and assessment and Students as partners in curriculum design and pedagogic consultancy. Both had wonderful facilitators, and introduced a range of case studies and guided participants in considering potential initiatives that could be implemented after the event. I’m hugely excited by a potential project on student observation to enhance teaching excellence that I spent time discussing with colleagues from Cardiff Met, Coventry and UCL.
I was impressed by both the range of food on offer (ice cream as an afternoon snack: genius) and the incredibly diverse projects that I was able to hear about: the latter was particularly useful as I was able to nab a few people with a view to building on the mapping project (https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2HD8FL8). Indeed, my quest to get an overview of sector activity was considerably enhanced by contributions from the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Australia! Overall, though, I have to underline that the UK is doing a brilliant job driving partnership, and I was delighted to see colleagues from across the UK sharing their expertise.