April and May saw the return of in person events for Technology Enhanced Learning. The three events below highlight just how diverse the work of TEL is, from Online Distance Learning, to Playful Pedagogies, via Digital Personas, there was something for everyone. Don’t forget to keep an eye on our website for future events. It’s been a real joy getting back to in person events and we hope to see more of your over the coming months and the next academic year.
ODL Community of Practice – 28th April 2022
This in-person event was our first Online Distance Learning (ODL) Community of Practice Day bringing together all staff from Sussex and our external partners involved in our fully online programme of Masters courses.
As we approach our first 5 years of ODL (in Oct 2022) and pass the 1000 student milestone, the time seemed right to bring our ODL community together to celebrate our achievements.
The event focussed on 2 themes: (1) planning live sessions for better student engagement and (2) designing the assessment strategy for ODL modules. Attendees came together and share best practice around ODL teaching and learning. Professor Kelly Coate, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students described the event as “a very thought-provoking and valuable day”. We will be continuing to build our Community of Practice so look out for future events.
Further Resources
- Link to slides (Sharepoint – Sussex staff only)
- Event Schedule (Eventbrite)
Playful Pedagogies – 5th May 2022
Through four interactive and diverse in-person playful learning workshops, this event showcased the potential of learning through play.
The Playful Pedagogies event aimed to actively demonstrate play’s ability to foster creativity, experimentation, and empathy. All participants were encouraged to have fun while pushing the boundaries of their teaching environments.
Further Resources
- Event Resources (Padlet)
- Event Schedule (EventBrite)
- Playful Pedagogies (Canvas – Sussex staff only)
Digital Personas for Inclusive Curricula – 13th May 2022
For this event we welcomed guests Katie Stripe and Katie Dallison from Imperial College London who facilitated the session and were joined by colleagues from across the university.
The Katies gave insight into how and why they developed the personas, the benefits of using them in a variety of ways, then let us loose with post-its and flip chart paper, to have a go at making our own. An incredibly insightful exercise, as it demonstrated just how difficult and challenging it can be to come up with authentic fake people, who represent our staff or student body. We became much more aware of our own starting points, our race, gender, backgrounds etc. as well as trying to manage the contention of designing personas for authenticity not designing them for the end purpose, not to fit a preconceived outcome.
After plenty of questions, discussion, more snacks and coffee the event was over, with many colleagues commenting on how valuable they found the session. As for us, we have work to do. We want to put this to practice and see how we can provide such tools to support our colleagues in the design of inclusive teaching, learning and assessment. Are you planning on using digital personas? Have you used them before for curriculum design? Let us know how you are, or how you plan to use them by getting touch with us. If you want to find out more about our guest speakers or the work they do, you can find all the links you need below.
Further Resources
- To find out more about the use of digital personas at Imperial College London, you can read their paper in the International Journal of Technology and Inclusive Education.
- TEL Event page
