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 …

Appreciating Appreciative Inquiry: for the Common Good

By Dr Karen Campbell, Research Fellow in Educational Research and Evaluation   In this post I assess the utility of Appreciative Inquiry as an evaluation methodology with respect to a whole curriculum enhancement, it draws on my recent publication How can universities contribute to the common good? What is appreciative inquiry? The traditional approach to evaluation is …

Writing your story: getting started and staying started

By Dr Kay Guccione, Senior Lecturer in Academic Development Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash “Hi Kay, I'm struggling to find time to get started with writing my HEA portfolio, but I think I’ll have a bit of free time at the end of next week.” Does this phenomenon resonate with you? Every one of us has fallen …

Asking insightful questions, a core mentoring practice

By Dr Kay Guccione, Senior Lecturer in Academic Development I have been working with new mentors on the GCU Academic Mentoring Programme in recent weeks, introducing them to a facilitative coaching style and as I wrote about here, a ‘repertoire beyond advice’. This enables them to work with all kinds of people, with a range …

Evaluating the Going Digital pedagogical model

By Colin Milligan, Senior Research Fellow, Education Research & Evaluation, Academic Development and Student Learning As part of our ongoing efforts to respond to the challenges presented by Covid-19, the University has developed a fully blended pedagogic model that underpins how we design and facilitate digital learning: the ‘Going Digital’ Framework, the 4 Pillars of …

Using Camtasia in practice: what the training courses can’t tell you

By Brian Smith, Lecturer and Programme Leader, Institute for University to Business Education A screenshot of the Camtasia editor view showing a project in development. Further evidence, if it were ever needed, that my memory is not quite what it used to be, stared me straight in the face as I glared at my Camtasia …

Information at our fingertips?

By Jennifer Jackson, IT Training & Development Team Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash Our remote working environment is steadily becoming the new normal, for now. Within the IT Training and Development (ITTD) team, as part of the Academic Development and Student Learning (ADSL) department, our support is very much focused, understandably, on our Academic colleagues; ensuring that …

Celebrating GCU’s newest National Teaching Fellow!

We are delighted to announce that Liz Simpson, Lecturer in Adult Nursing, has been recognised with a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship. The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) celebrates individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession in higher education. The award recognises Liz’s sustained commitment to enhancing student learning at …

Celebrating GCU’s CATE Award success!

We are delighted to announce that a team from GCU has received the prestigious national Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence from AdvanceHE. Larissa Kempenaar, Lecturer in Physiotherapy, led the winning project Agents for the Common Good: Health Promotion in ‘easy to ignore’ communities, and the team is one of just 15 projects at UK universities to receive …

Webinar software: limitations and developments

by Jim Emery, Lecturer in Digital Learning. Photo by Gabriel Benois on Unsplash As COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of online learning and teaching provision, the use of webinar software has proved to vital in maintaining ‘classroom contact’ between staff and students. Most of us will have shared a range of experiences using the technologies and now is …

Walls: What are they good for? Absolutely Nothin’?*

By Dr Alison Nimmo, Head of Academic Development It is a change that we noticed individually at first working remotely.  More recently we have been collectively musing on the possible constraints that the previous concrete walls had placed on us as a team and whether this unconsciously restrained some of our attempts to create flexible team …