Outside speaker:

Paul Orsmond, Staffordshire Uni

CC, Steve Maw, SJ, CJRW, Geetha, HP, PG, AMC, JB, AJC, DH, JS

Presentation based on that given at HEA annual conference 2008

Self assessment in a community of practice

• Paul spoke about how self assessment perceived by students is usually of a product – the essay, poster etc
• However, students do engage in a community of practice: mutual engagement, joint enterprise, shared resources, learning strategies
• The external imposition of Paul's ideas on learning strategies may be resisted– instead we should look more at development of what is already inate in students
• Scaffolding isn't working, working with the students and engagement is key.
• Students were definitely self assessing and making a peer judgment
• Assessment for learning as apposed to assessment as learning – closer to the real situation, making self assessment judgments most of the time and their learning occurs simultaneously.
• Variation and marking – although criteria were agreed with students, they marked posters in a peer assessment exercise, they did not mark to the criteria, they marked on the variation of the work in the whole body – did not know how to mark the first one but once they had seen the group they knew what to do. Could be influential on how the students interpret feedback in this context
• The language used by students to talk to one another is specific and specific language for talking to tutors.
• Therefore we have two unaligned communities of practice (CAP) – academics CAP and student CAP
• Paul argues that signaling for learning could come from tutor discussion of own conceptual understanding – revealing different points of view can show students variation from which one idea may align with their own concepts.
• We are working towards students becoming biologists – ask students: do you see yourself as a a biologist ? at different points in their studies.

Alan also blogged about this meeting.

HEA talk asssessment strand: Wednesday 02 July 2008, 10.15-10.45.
Student self-assessment within communities of assessment practice
This paper considers the role of self-assessment carried out by biology students within a community of assessment practice. Factors that may influence students' movement with their community of practice are considered as are the implication for tutors when considering learning and teaching strategies.
Paul Orsmond, Staffordshire University

DW, JS, NY, MG, CWells, TH, BG, CC, CWillmott, RB, JB

1. Journal club - David Willis. Learning through discussions.

2. W(h)ither the Practical Class? -  discussion postponed from the last meeting

report available from HEA

3. A brief overview of forthcoming conferences/meetings of interest and also any suggestions about funding for projects - this should be a standing item for the monthly meetings.

conferences listed on this site and links to conferences on delicious

4. Springboard - seminars on future projects using IT in the University.

Christine for cakes :-)

Welcome to Paul Green, new memberDiscussion about practicals was delayed until the next meeting so Christine and Tim could join us.

BDRA conference debrief

JB, MG, CJRW attended the conference (presentations and programme) held 8/9 January 2008. Third in the series. Student view was disappointing, GS keynote was mostly web 2.0 stuff, good presentation from Phil Candy (NHS) and good Breeze summary at the end by Tony Bates. Mark Goodwin presented on the VGC and Chris Willmott on bioethics.

Gondar

Jon visited Gondar in December 07. He gave some background about their courses relevant to the biosciences (applied biology and biotechnology). The courses are cumbersome and imported from India where most of the lecturers qualified. Staff are young and mostly qualified to Masters level only. Discussions on curriculum design were difficult as the concept of working back from learning outcomes was very alien to the staff. Practicals are very difficult with limited equipment and resources.  Peer marking was raised but staff were concerned that students would want payment to carry out the marking and mark schemes are not criterion based, leading to competition within the cohorts.

Suggestions for action:

• Undergraduate projects to design a 'practical in a box' for use in Gondar

• field courses on sustainable development for our students in Gondar

• ask staff- student committee/ biol soc to organise book collection

Assessment and Feedback

Jon asked for comments on how we could improve feedback and assessment methods in the school. A lively discussion ensued :-) suggestions included greater use of peer marking and not giving a mark to students at all, only feedback.

Next meeting - practicals discussion and journal club - volunteer required!

Outside speaker

Jenny Harrison form the School of Education came to speak to us about Assessment for Learning.

Chris lead the discussion on a paper relating to assessment.

Journal club

Jo presented a paper on Academic Integrity by Don McCabe

McCabe, D., Trevino, L., Butterfield, K. (1999) Academic integrity in honor code and non-honor code environments: a qualitiative investigation. The Journal of Higher education, 70 (2) p 211-234

Student experience enhancement committee (SEEC)

Jon solicited ideas for major themes for this new committee to explore.

• assessment
• learning technologies
• integration
• communication

next meeting

Chris Willmott to present paper on assessment and Jenny Harrison to speak on assessment for learning.

Journal Club

Christine presented a paper on the use of text messaging at University of Birmingham. The research invovled a very limited cohort and unconventional students but demonstrated that text could be useful for contacting students. JB to investigate the proposed text system for University of Leicester that is currently under review.

External speakers

JS asked for suggestions of external speakers for meetings. It was generally agreed that perhaps only one or two sessions a year should have external speakers as the pattern of meeting once a month was about right. Suggestions included Wes Streeting or other Student representatives. AC asked for suggestions by email.

Feedback from TEF meeting 17 Sept, National Space Centre

JB gave a summary of the meeting.

Alan Cann - Microchunking

Alan gave a presentation and sought feedback on the idea of microchunking which he is trialling in BS3035 using the Learning Objects plug-in for blackboard which allows a blog to be displayed and commented on.

He began with an overview of the 2 sigma problem (Benjamin Bloom) which compared three teaching methods at University of Chicago in the mid 1980's. This demosntrated that tutoring students, providing formative tests and giving one to one feedback provided a dramatic increase in the clas mean and students at the first class level. Although this is generally accepted as true, it is also recognised that it is a prohibitively expensive way of teaching in HE.

David Weinberger's recent book 'everything is miscellaneous'  gave Alan the idea that digital information is more powerful when broken down into small chunks and re-analysed by lots of people. Hence the idea to ask students to comment regularly on the blog on BS3035.

Alan asked for volunteers to trial this new idea later this term.

Journal Club

Stuart presented a paper about teaching styles.

We learnt what a latin square was and how to use it.

Round up of activities

Mark - virtual Genetics Education Centre almsot ready for autumn launch.

Annette - CPD for teachers, CETL interim evaluation, student experience project starting

Chris - Stretch and challenge, Impala, PedR of taught masters with Nick Tate

Jon - STAR paper published, feedback project concluded, reward and recognition project starting, student experience, transitions.

David - bioethics bytes, summary of GSCE specs for ethics

Stuart - statsvision

Alan - short comms for BEEj on video, HEA case study on wiki's, ALT-C presentation, Open 2 Learn conference, microchunking, joined SGM education and training committee

Chris W - DNA sequencing activity, biochemistry knowledge test is no more, DOVES - wellcome grant on video ethics, CABS online, bioethics bytes

Ruth - feedback final report, papers, reward and recognition

Christine - formative quizzes for BS1002/MB, overseas recruitment interviews, plagiarism resources for overseas students

Cas - DNA structure and sequence to publish as paper, summer schools, next video in production (gel running), CPD teahcers, genetics in the community

J Badge, J Scott, C Cane, D Willis, B Green, R Bevan, A Cann, S Johnson, C Wells, C Willmott, T Harrison, A Cashmore

Stretch and challenge

C Cane reported on his attendance at an HEA meeting on this topic:

• discussion of whether this was ethical - broadly, yes
• activities included - essay competitions, redefining assessment with extended variable outcomes (including practicals), masterclasses, lab projects only offered to top students
• when to screen was raised as an issue

options discussed were:

• undergraduate journal club - self selected group
• literature trails
• PDP
• attaching something to key skills modules

It was agreed that we should all put some thought into how these ideas can be developed further for apotential research project before the next meeting.

QSR N6

A Cann reported on a BDRA meeting he attended discussing the use of this software package, available on CFS, which enables the analysis of text (for example content analysis of questionnaire answers, interviews or focus groups). Builds a tree of categories and allows searching on nodes and intersections. Can be useful for pilot studies as it tends to throw up new questions about the data that may not have been considered. Must be looked at in the planning stage of a project to be useful.

CETL evaluation

A Cashmore brought to our attention the forthcoming evaluation of the GENIE CETL at the end of July 2007 (2 years into the project). She wil soon be circulating a draft report for comments and asking staff for their thoughts on how the CETL has impacted the student experience. Additional there is a need for the CETL not to be seen as a granting body but enabling a range of projects across the institution.

Journal club

J Scott proposed that we start a journal club on Learning and Teaching papers. S Johnson was volunteered (!) to present a paper for discussion at the next meeting. SJ will circulate te paper to all in advance of the meeting.

Science Learning and Teaching conference

As ever, we ran out of time for a full discussion of feeback from the Science Learning & Teaching Conference

We agreed to look at various notes and reports and begina discussion online about the conference

• J Badge's notes are available on plone and staff travel fund report
• C Willmott's thoughts are available on his blog
• A Cann's staff travel report ... is very boring. So here instead a my selected Highlights from the meeting:

Overall, I enjoyed the conference, but didn't come back feeling as inspired as I had by the first one. Maybe that says more about me than the meeting?
Highlights:
Craig Nelson's Keynote:
Summary: The basic model for the scholarship of teaching and learning is: recognize and attempt to solve a problem.
Intellectual development = Facts -> Uncertainty -> Opinions -> Comparisons -> Argument -> Contextual Decisions
i.e. the realization and acceptance that things are ore complex than you think they are when you start out!
I also enjoyed Simon Bates evidence-based approach to pod casting in physics at Edinburgh.

Other that that? Networking (but not the singalong).

--
Dr Alan J. Cann, Department of Biology,
Adrian Building, University of Leicester,
University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.

Nadya Yakovchuk, Univeristy of Warwick

Nadya will start as a Research Assistant on the Academic Integrity project with Jo Badge on 1 October 2007. She has just submitted her doctoral thesis on international students and plagiarism and gave a presentation based on part of her doctoral work.

Annette Cashmore

Research Ethics Committee information

All work involving human subjects must be submitted for ethical approval. We will operate under the Faculty Ethics Committee (for Faculty of Medicine and Biological Sciences). Complete a form for each project and submit to the Departmental Ethics Co-ordinator (currently Chris Willmott for Biochemistry, Marcus Cooke for cancer studies and genetics). Be aware of conflict of interest if asking CRJW to review cases, he will pass these projects to Marcus Cooke.

Committee for Research Ethics information pages

Form for completion - called 'research ethics review' (need to be logged into plone using your cfs account details to access this form in word or electronic format).

Mark Goodwin

Presentation and discussion on the CETL Virtual Genetics Education Centre

Other business

CRJW needs an online survey for Careers After Biological Sciences follow up

AC discussion of how to improve assessment of BS2060 SPSS/ data handling

Mark Goodwin

PARLE - research methods in social sciences

Introduction to the Environment (OU publication)

Chris Willmott

Looking at various PedR projects ongoing - acquisition of biochemistry knowledge, Bioethics, Careers after Biol Sci, DNA sequencing, Exam essays

other business

JS introduced JETL

we agreed to circulate details of funding round the group, AC and JB use webtracking to track changes on funding websites

Jo Badge

Reported on FNTI project, Multimedia tools and their accessiblity

Alan Cann

discussion of Web 2.0 technologies

attendance: JS, CJW, AC, JB, RB, NS, MG, CK

Main themes:

1. discuss projects ongoing and future
2. raise funding opportunities and share experiences
3. share reports from meetings/ training events/ conferences