[2003]			The Learning, Teaching and Assessment Newsletter of the Faculty of Science, LJMU
Ab			stract #5.2
1849			… to be no more than 758 words.			8^th Dec 2020
				2021 LJMU Teaching and Learning Excellence Awards: Recommend your colleagues now The Faculty of Science has traditionally performed well in these awards and you now have your opportunity to recommend colleague(s) for an award by midnight Mon Jan 4^th 2021. Draft award categories and criteria are comparable to previous years, the individual teaching award revised in light of COVID to recognise, “proficiency in the use of technology to support learning.” The technology-focussed award has been renamed as, “Excellence in Digital Education.” Colleagues interested in exploring a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Innovation, requiring a personal account of their practice, should contact me: scsade@ljmu.ac.uk.
Students’ mental health and engagement The pandemic has placed extra pressure on the mental health of our students and here is some information on the University’s services that staff, and personal tutors in particular, might find useful.
>		A Personal Tutoring Resource site has been set up by the Teaching and Learning Academy: First log into Canvas then click this link. If you have any feedback or would be willing to contribute examples then please contact Liz Clifford.
>		LJMU has partnered with Togetherall, an award-winning online mental health and wellbeing service. It provides 24/7 peer and professional support plus a range of wellbeing tools.
>		The Student Wellbeing Officers can offer a bespoke workshop for your students, outlining the support available. Contact Kimberley Rowlands in the first instance.
>		The LJMU training session How to Support Distressed Students is next available Mon Dec 14^th 10-1130am.
>		The Teaching and Learning Academy have authored a blog post regarding students’ use of webcams. The general recommendation is for group Zoom sessions to be recorded and published, whereas one-to-one sessions and small group activities where students are likely to disclose personal information should not be recorded.
>		A reminder that enhanced Canvas analytics is available to all staff: access through your Canvas account tab (the tab with your photo). There are plans to ultimately include students’ Panopto and Zoom usage information.
				The Tutor Trust The LJMU Student Advancement Team have launched a joint initiative with the Tutor Trust. This national charity is looking to recruit our students into paid online tutoring for pupils in both primary and secondary schools in Merseyside area. They are plenty of vacancies and full training will be given. Students do not need to be interested in a career in education and the role offers students the opportunity to develop general workplace-relevant skills. The Tutor Trust has a rolling (first-come, first served) recruitment process.
Pronouns in email signatures Faculty staff may include their pronouns in their email signatures, a practice described and advocated by the LJMU Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team. Referring to people by the pronouns they determine for themselves can demonstrate your support as an ally and your commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion both within and outside LJMU.
Adding prerequisites to module content At a recent student focus group, support was voiced for staff using the Canvas prerequisite feature. This obliges students to undertake specific tasks before content is released and you may want to deploy this feature in your approach to active blended learning. A companion approach with discussion boards is to restrict access privileges based on students’ discussion board participation.
CV360 and interview simulator The graduate job market is particularly competitive at the moment and it is worthwhile reminding students that they have access to online CV checking and virtual interview support through Careers 24/7.
Module evaluation Semester 1 You can now access reports through the module evaluation link within Canvas by clicking on the account tab that bears your photograph. If you cannot see the report for your module then you would need to enter ModCat and change the Module Leader to you, save, and submit with a short context message.
New Learning Science Resources Learning Science have recently added seven brand new simulations to the Bioscience library, now available through Canvas. They have published blog posts that provide context on the drawing & fieldwork and osmosis, diffusion & blood smear simulations.
>	Diffusion and Osmosis (Category: Cell Biology)
>	Fieldwork: Methods and Approaches (Category: Ecology)
>	Blood Smear Preparation (Category: Haematology)
>	Staining Blood Smear: Leishman's Stain (Category: Haematology)
>	Scientific Drawing: Principles (Category: Haematology)
>	Scientific Drawing: Low Power Micrograph (Category: Microscopy)
>	Scientific Drawing: High Power Micrograph (Category: Microscopy)
Phil Denton, Faculty of Science Associate Dean (Education)

Maintained by SCSADE@ljmu.ac.uk. Last Update: 10/12/2020.