Higher education blog

Why do we need learning designers?

I recently delivered a training session on supporting teaching online where, throughout the session, none of the participants turned on their webcams. I finished the session feeling that I had been talking to myself for an hour and questioning the value of delivering the session live versus recording something for the participants to watch instead. This may be a familiar experience for many who have been teaching remotely over the last year or more.

Challenge and opportunity for fresh investment in design effort. 

In social science, agency can be defined as the opportunity or the ability to exert judgement and control over one's own work (Priestley and Robinson, 2015), but what does that look like when applied in the workplace? 

What could a blend of assessment types in higher education look like?

Assessment isn’t just about final outcomes. It’s the golden thread that runs through and underpins the university experience and how it’s handled affects so much more than results – it impacts on student satisfaction, retention, even mental health.

In essence the difference is in the second word of the acronym! 

The World Health Organization (2020) estimate that over 1 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability. They are the largest global minority group and that number is increasing dramatically as people live longer and the number of chronic health conditions rises. In the UK alone, in 2019/20 332,300 students stated that they had a disability of some kind – that’s 17.3% of all home students. This represents an increase of 106,000 (or 47%) since 2014/15 (Hubble and Bolton, 2021).

The UK Office for Students statistics (2020) indicates that the diversity of our higher education student body is growing. 

Continuing the “7 Skills for Right Now” series, this week offers you guidance on how harnessing our ability to empathise can both fuel connections and help you regulate your emotions in times of stress.