Welcome to the Academic Development & Student Learning blog

This blog comes to you from the department of Academic Development & Student Learning at Glasgow Caledonian University. We lead on professional development, digital learning development, and professional recognition for all staff who teach. We’ll be updating on issues in learning and teaching, national news and trends, key achievements for the team, and other things …

GCU Summer Travel Plans: Taking the Road to Digital Accessibility together.

By Suzy Houston, Senior Lecturer in Academic Development This week, GCU launched its essential training in Digital Accessibility in partnership with Ability Net, which is a really important milestone in our journey towards ensuring all of our digital content and platforms are digitally accessible, in accordance with the recent Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR) …

How would you define your ‘approach’ to teaching?

This is a guest post by Dr George Loumakis, Lecturer in Energy in the School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment, and Senior Fellow of the HEA. I recently became a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy by submitting a portfolio that included three case studies about work I do at my university, through …

What’s going on out there? Part One

By Jennifer Jackson, IT Learning Facilitator in the IT Training & Development Team Image Credit: Unsplash What’s going on elsewhere in the wider world of training and development? The days are getting longer, lighter and more hopeful. Spring has sprung and I’m curious to experience and explore online training delivered by my peers outside of my …

PhD by publication: because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts

By Dr Karen Campbell, Research Fellow in Educational Research and Evaluation, and who recently successfully completed a PhD by Publication. This post is re-blogged from the original post on the Thriving Part-Time blog, with kind permission from the Editor

Teaching at the Higher Education level – the importance of flexibility and learning from peers

This is a guest post by Ciara Ryan PhD researcher in the Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions (NMAHP) Research Unit, Graduate Teaching Assistant and Associate Fellow of the HEA. Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash PhD researchers constantly encounter a myriad of challenges and situations that demand flexibility, creativity, and adaptability; learning new research methods, wrangling complex datasets, and …

What is a PhD by publication?

By Dr Karen Campbell, Research Fellow in Educational Research and Evaluation, and who recently successfully completed a PhD by Publication. This post is re-blogged from the original post on the Thriving Part-Time blog, with kind permission from the Editor

Unlocking Intangible Concepts through sharing the codes – building resilient learning communities

By Dr Alison Nimmo, Head of Academic Development “When I use a word”, Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less”. “The question is”, said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things”. “The question is”, said Humpty …

Teaching online: preparation, creativity and engagement

By Chris Bateman, IT Learning Facilitator in the IT Training & Development Team  Photo by Simon Abrams on Unsplash  In amongst all the grim milestones we have recently passed, we have also reached the year mark. Twelve long months now since we left our lecture halls, classrooms and training rooms and took our teaching online, and what a year …

Sharing the wealth: four questions to ask yourself, or your learners

By Dr Fiona Kennedy, Senior Lecturer in Academic Development What ice breaker activities (introductory activities that get students talking and sharing) have you used lately? How have you encouraged learners to engage with you and with each other, whilst learning online? Have you used any unusual or innovative activities to enhance online socialisation for your …

H5P – new tools to support student learning

By Aidan Johnston, Digital Learning Systems Developer As we navigate our way through the current COVID pandemic, Universities are making use of every tool at their disposal to support staff in offering the best student learning experience possible. When we think of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), in our case here at GCU, GCULearn (Blackboard …