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Faculty
of Science Learning,
Teaching and Assessment Information and Resources |
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07/07/15 Faculty of Science Learning, Teaching and Assessment (LTA) Update |
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2015/16 Week numbers on MS Outlook Calendar If you use MS Outlook Calendar then this simple procedure will
add the 2015/16 week numbers to your calendar. http://www.staff.ljmu.ac.uk/phcpdent/FacultyLTA/msoffice/msoffice.htm |
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School Staff Meeting Presentation June 2015 (thanks to Neil Jones) A 20 minutes video recording of a
recent presentation to NSP School staff on LTA-related matters is now
available at the link below and is relevant to all Faculty staff. The presentation covers: ·
Institutional
LTA activities and plans o
Academic
Framework 2016/17 ·
NSS Response
rates ·
Faculty LTA
activities 2014/15 ·
Faculty LTA
plans for 2015/16 The video includes details of the revised arrangements for
teaching observation in 2015/16 at 17:41.
The video can be found at
this link. |
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International Student
Project: Request for Academic staff volunteers (thanks to Alison Cotgrave) Academic staff are invited to attend a one-on-one interview
as part of a research study about enhancing international students experience
and internationalising the curriculum.
This is part of an LJMU-sponsored student summer internship project. This research seeks to identify the extent of support and
satisfaction international students from LJMU experience as well as their
expectations as to how their current experience can be improved. It seeks to identify lapses and areas of
improvement, as well as challenges in meeting such expectations, from the
perspective of professionals who are involved in dealing with international
students. The study also seeks to explore views and expectations on
internationalisation of the curriculum, what it means and how it can be
achieved or improved. It is voluntary to participate. If you do agree to participate, you will be
given a participant information sheet and asked to sign a consent form. You are still free to withdraw at any time
and without giving a reason. Since the
results will be published internally, care will be taken to appropriately
anonymise individual interview responses. The interviews are likely to be scheduled in the week
beginning 20/07/2015 at a convenient LJMU location for you. However, the investigators are willing to
schedule earlier or slightly later interviews as will fit participants’
schedules. If you would like to take part in this study, please
contact: Libby Wilkinson: l.wilkinson@2011.ljmu.ac.uk or Joshua Arthur: j.a.arthur@2014.ljmu.ac.uk |
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Request for examples of emergent IT needs As the Faculty representative on IT Projects Panel, I can
alert the institution to Faculty examples of IT interventions that have proved
effective and merit further support.
It is also a means by which we can secure funding for piloting new
developments. For example, it has been
suggested that it would be useful to have Skype facilities in every classroom
to enable live link ups with outside speakers. If you support this particular proposal, or
have any other ideas then please contact me p.denton@ljmu.ac.uk. |
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Publications from the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) (thanks to Virendra
Mistry) OFFA has published their outcomes of its monitoring of
2013-14 access agreements, including how many institutions made progress
against their access agreement targets and a commentary on the sector’s
access agreement performance.
Liverpool John Moores is one of only four institutions mentioned in
the accompanying online press
release. OFFA is also launching a series of online briefings
designed to support staff in universities working to improve access to higher
education. The first briefing is on
the subject of mature learners and is available from: http://www.offa.org.uk/universities-and-colleges/guidance-and-useful-information/topic-briefings/offa-topic-briefing-mature-learners/ |
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Annual review and withdrawal of library
stock (thanks to Val Stevenson) One of the key
strands of Library’s Content Delivery Strategy is to support the transition
to a Digital University. This includes
investigating whether the institution can reduce the number of multiple
copies of books on library shelves and move towards electronic provision
where there is a good alternative.
Another aspect of the strategy is to be more rigorous in the
withdrawal of superseded print editions and journals which are now available
electronically from a reliable publisher. The University’s
annual ‘weeding out’ of unused books has fallen a little behind schedule in
recent years and there is also a need to withdraw stock before the libraries
move to Copperas Hill. Library and
Information Services (LIS) will be physically removing some stock and
deleting it from records over the summer.
If you are in the libraries over the next few weeks, you will see this
process in action and at first sight it may look rather alarming. Be reassured that LIS is catching up
against agreed targets to withdraw any textbooks that have not been borrowed
for five years. There is also a big
backlog of withdrawals in the Avril journals where the move to electronic
provision has been fairly comprehensive and LIS now have temporary staff to
assist with this process. The withdrawal
activity commenced in June and early indications suggest that the stock will
look much better when the process is finished. For example, continuing to retain books
that were published during the ‘Liverpool Polytechnic Library’ era probably
does more harm than good. LIS have
procedures in place to protect areas of the stock from specific subject areas
where books are more likely to be consulted than borrowed. Where lists indicate that LIS should not
withdraw a text that is very worn and battered then a replacement will be
ordered. If a book is no longer in
print then the existing copy will be rebound. When it comes to
disposal, LIS work with a company called Betterworld. They are very keen to re-use books and will
try first to pass texts on to developing countries, working with educational
charities in those regions. Next, they
will place books for sale on Amazon Marketplace and other outlets, the
University receives 6% of the purchase price of anything that sells and this
goes back into the Learning Materials Fund.
Only as a last resort will they send books for recycling and they
never go to landfill. If you have any
concerns, LIS have indicated that they are open to discussions around the
policy and you can contact Val
Stevenson, Head of Library Services. |
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Dr Philip Denton BSc PhD PGCE PGCert SFHEA |
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