1849

The Learning, Teaching and Assessment Newsletter of the HITS Faculty science Schools.

Ab

stract #9.3

[2024]

… to be no more than 940 words.

29^th January 2025

Supporting LTA within the HITS Faculty – update

From August 2025, new HITS Faculty Associate Dean (AD) roles will be introduced. In the meantime, the three existing Faculty ADs Education and Student Experience will continue to support their respective portfolios (being the science Schools in my case).

Teaching and Student Support Awards (TASSAs) 2025

Our new scheme covers all staff within the HITS Faculty and science SMTs have agreed the academic staff who will receive Commendations within their respective categories. Note that awards for administrative, manual, research and technical staff are now overseen by the Heads of Faculty Operations.

Category 1: Rising Star

Rodrigo De Marco, BES

Paige dePolo, BES

Danni Hinchcliffe, BES

Monica McCard, BES

Lauren Silvano, PBS

Category 4: Academic Leadership

Amanda Boddis, PBS

Kenneth Ritchie, PBS

Category 2: Academic Practice

Lee Bradley, BES

Nick Bryan, PBS

Danny Cullinane, SPS

Mark Feltham, BES

Chrysanthi Fergani, BES

Fyaz Ismail, PBS

Wendy Johnston, SPS

Mirko Pegoraro, BES

Brian Preston, BES

Richard Webster, BES

Torsten Wronski, BES

Category 3: Digital Education

Jon Ashley, PBS

Category 5: Personal Tutoring

Vicci Boyd, SPS

Philippa McCabe, PBS

Category 7: Equity and Inclusion in Education

Jon Dick and Neil Simcock, BES

Julia Nowack, BES

Physical Education Team, SPS

Congratulations to all our commended staff! This year’s Faculty Award Winners will be chosen from these staff alongside other commended colleagues from the wider HITS Faculty.

Teaching and Learning Academy events:

> Personal tutor training: Jason Boulter (HR) and Rob Michael-Phillips (SAW) are delivering an online session on ‘boundary-setting and signposting.’ It can be booked on your preferred date via these links:

6/2/2025 12.30pm-2pm or 11/3/2025 2.00pm-3.30pm or 7/5/2025 11.00am-12.30pm

> Level 7 CPD Courses: The TLA’s portfolio of accredited staff development includes a range of 20 credit courses open to teaching staff and those who support learners. Please note that 7006ACADEM Pedagogic Research in Academic Practice and 7008ACADEM Principles and Practice in Digital Education are both now full for 24/25. For other courses (and once you have the approval of your line manager), complete this application form and send to Rach Boulter R.M.Boulter@ljmu.ac.uk.

> Students at the Heart Conference: A portal is now open for you to submit a proposal for a 25-minute session, five-minute lightning talk or five-minute poster presentation. SATHC 2025 takes place on 18 & 19 June and the submission deadline is Friday 7 February.

> Teaching Insights Seminars: Bookings are open for the next event in this series on Tuesday 4 February, 3pm-4pm.  Dr Craig Hammond from the School of Education will lead this session Heutagogy: an introduction to some adaptive principles for teaching, learning and assessment. The session will explore its potential to incorporate students’ personal experiences and cultures into the curriculum.

Peer Observation and Reflection

To date, 50 colleagues have recorded their participation in our peer exchange scheme through the online declaration form, each School recording engagement (table, below). A reminder that observation pairs are stored here: BES, PBS and SPS and that the designated observer should take the lead in arranging a mutually convenient date for the observation.

School	No of staff	%
BES	19	28
PBS	23	26
SPS	8	9

The focus of this activity is formative observation and collegial practice exchange and so, for example, staff are never paired with their line manager. When a pair meet for the post-observation discussion, the observer should discuss:

> What elements of the observed session might I consider adopting or adapting for my teaching?

> What elements of my sessions might the observee consider adopting or adapting for their teaching?

Student Officer Elections: Suggest a student

JMSU is inviting staff to identify students who they think would make a great sabbatical officer (President, VP Education, VP Activities or VP Community & Wellbeing). This isn't a formal nomination and so you can select multiple roles for your candidate to consider. All that is needed is a short passage to explain why you are recommending your student.

Academic advisory: Awarding the same mark to team members for group work

LJMU guidance justifies why, “It is essential to avoid the practice of giving all group members the same mark.” One recommended approach is the use of BuddyCheck, LJMU’s peer moderation software. This program computes individual marks based on the academic’s overall score for the group ± a correction factor based on the sentiments of individual team members.

While currently guidance, the awarding of the same mark to team members for group work may ultimately be constrained by policy. The OfS General Ongoing Condition of Registration B4.2 requires that assessments are “effective”, “valid”, “reliable” and “credible”. In guidance note 52f, the OfS clarifies that, “Assessments designed in a way that allows students to gain marks for work that is not their own would likely be of concern.” In student evaluations, single-mark awarding for group work is not popular, one student commenting that it, “feels like lecturers are gambling with my degree” (given that the equitaable engagement of all group members can never be guarenteed). It is recommended that assessments where single marks are awarded for group work are reviewed and mitigations put in place.

Helpdesk is changing

In the next few months, you will notice that helpdesk will move to a new, cleaner interface (preview below). The new system will include a chatbot functionality that can be used to find answers to queries before raising a formal ticket.

Phil Denton, HITS Faculty Associate Dean: Education and Student Experience (science programmes)

Maintained by SCSADE@ljmu.ac.uk. Last Update: 29/01/2025