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NEW OFS CONSULTATIONS ON STUDENT OUTCOMES AND TEACHING EXCELLENCE
 
On 20 January, the Office for Students (OfS) launched three consultations with detailed proposals on their approach to regulating quality and standards in Higher Education. They are consulting on: 
  • a new approach to regulating student outcomes
  • the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)
  • an approach to constructing student outcomes and experience indicators
You can read the press release here and more about the consultations/respond here. The deadline for responses is 17 March 2022.  
REMINDER RE EXTERNAL EXAMINER MID-YEAR UPDATES
 
Please ensure that you provide all External Examiners with a mid-year update on the actions agreed on the previous External Examiner report. Updates should be communicated using the report form and the relevant Partnerships Manager copied in to correspondence. The updated forms will need to be reported to your next JBOS.
EVENTS
Beyond the Ivory Tower?  |  Tue 8 Feb, 6.15pm
Victoria Showunmi will address diversity in higher education, relating the concept to what it means in terms of practice, structure, and educational leadership. Sophie Scott-Brown will reflect on the different concepts of diversity and inclusivity, and the implications of this for 'widening participation' in higher education.
Further info
Queerying Families: Contested Belonging in a Neoliberal Age  |  Tue 8 Feb, 6.30pm  
An experience of ‘family’ is common to us all, and yet is different for each of us. That said, there are some family forms that many societies find more challenging. In this presentation, Prof Cocker will talk about her work with families in which belonging is somehow contested or is seen as different – perhaps because of the sexuality or gender of the parents and/or the non-biological link between children and parents who look after them. She’ll explain that by challenging these ideas and becoming more inclusive in our thinking about ‘belonging’, we can foster stronger relationships with each other and our communities.
Further info
Taming Turbulence  |  Tue 1 Mar, 6.30pm
Turbulence is one of the most complex phenomena in the physical world, and one of the most difficult to investigate experimentally. Nevertheless, aircraft designers need to understand and control its influence both on aircraft fuel consumption and safety at take-off and landing. In this lecture, Prof Atkin will explore the major aspects of aircraft design and why a 60 year-old wind tunnel is still the best facility for exploring the origins of turbulence. Finally, he will look at options for environmentally friendly air transport and how easily these can be engineered.
Further info
Beyond the Black and White Pictures  |  Tue 15 Mar, 6.30pm
Cardiac imaging - and Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) in particular - has evolved greatly over the years. In a journey that starts with black and white pictures and moves to full colour, Prof Vassiliou will highlight the information obtained from CMR for anatomy, function, tissue characterisation and myocardial energetics. He'll also address the effect of COVID-19 on the heart and how this has led to innovative CMR-based studies.
Further info
QUALITY ASSURANCE UPDATE
 
The revised Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) UK Quality Code (the Code) for Higher Education was published in May 2018 setting out the Expectations and Core and Common Practices, with further advice and guidance published in November 2018. The new Code is applicable to all providers in England registered with the Office for Students, and national funders and regulators, in collaboration with the QAA, will use the Code as a basis for assessing the quality of higher education provision in line with their statutory responsibilities. QAA has made the following definitions within the Code:
  • Expectations - express the outcomes providers should achieve in setting and maintaining the standards of their awards, and for managing the quality of their provision. They are mandatory requirements for all UK providers.
  • Core practices - represent effective ways of working that underpin the delivery of the Expectations and result in positive outcomes for students. They are mandatory requirements for all UK providers.
  • Common practices - focus on enhancement. They are mandatory requirements for all providers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In England, providers may wish to work towards these, but are not required to do so as they are not regulatory requirements and will not be assessed as part of the OfS' regulatory framework.
  • Advice and guidance - made up of sector-developed themes, designed to support providers in developing and maintaining effective quality assurance practices. This is not mandatory for providers, but illustrative of a range of possible approaches. The advice and guidance themes are:
    • Admissions, Recruitment and Widening Access
    • Assessment
    • Concerns, Complaints and Appeals
    • Course Design and Development
    • Enabling Student Achievement
    • External Expertise
    • Learning and Teaching
    • Monitoring and Evaluation
    • Partnerships
    • Research Degrees
    • Student Engagement
    • Work-based Learning
Action
Academic Partnerships has undertaken a mapping exercise of the expectations, core and common practices and advice and guidance, and identified a number of areas where enhancements can be made to policies, procedures and processes to further develop and maintain effective quality assurance processes and identified areas of good practice. Academic Partnerships have made several updates to our policies, procedures and processes in light of the actions identified. We have explored areas to ensure we are meeting the Code. Some key areas of enhancement are:
  • Inclusivity
  • Admissions Policy – adopted an annual review of Partner Institution policies
  • Course Design and Development – updating forms and guidance to reflect the information required for course design and development
  • Assessment Design
  • Transcripts for students – undertake a review of partner transcripts and ensuring they meet minimum standards
  • Student engagement – review of a number of themes relating to student engagement and newsletter items written
  • Work-based learning guidance/policy – involvement with UEA work-based learning working group in creation of updated policy.
Updates for 2021/22
Academic Partnerships are continuing with developments in academic year 2021/22, focusing on the following areas:
  • Transcripts for students - review of maintaining a copy of historical and future student records
  • Work-based learning guidance/policy – project to provide broad themes and guidance for Partner Institutions for academic year 2022/23
  • Newsletter/Spotlight pieces on:
    • Advice on writing assessment strategy/Learning & Teaching strategy
    • Employability being embedded into the course.
Outcomes of these developments will be shared with partners and discussed at regular meetings and if appropriate, via a workshop session. Academic Partnerships are confident that partners are managing the expectations of the Code and will continue work with them in moving forward with all areas of the Code. 
SPOTLIGHT ON - USING MICROSOFT TEAMS AS A VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
In this month's Spotlight piece, SMB College Group reflect on their transition to using Microsoft Teams as their primary Virtual Learning Environment. They also share some handy hints and tips for anyone wishing to adopt the same approach.

Engaging in digital technology was fundamental for the education sector when presented with the challenge of a global pandemic. Two of the priorities at the start of the pandemic were to ensure effective forms of communication with students and continue to deliver high-quality teaching and learning. As a result, similar to that of many FE and HE institutes, SMB College Group turned to Microsoft Teams.

The success of Microsoft Teams, combined with the continued interruption caused by the global pandemic, probed SMB College Group to review their digital competencies and reflect on their existing virtual learning (teaching) environment (VLE). Capara and Capara (2021) detail that an outstanding VLEs principle focus is the ability to communicate efficiently between students to teaching staff and their peers. In addition, a successful VLE should allow institutions to provide their students with content that assists and enhances taught content (Edwards-Waller, 2018). 

Consequently, SMB College Group has transitioned to using Microsoft Teams as its central module space to provide an all-encompassing VLE in order to communicate with students, present teaching sessions and host online meetings, embed formative assessments, highlight online activities, upload learning material and resources, and gain effective reports and insights of student engagement – all while providing the opportunity for synchronous and asynchronous learning.

When utilising Microsoft Teams as a VLE it is important that the initial step is setting up a “Class” team. This allows access to teaching and learning specific features including assignments, insights, analytics and a collaborative Class Notebook option. Once the class team is created, it is worthwhile adding channels in relation to the units / modules on the course. This helps to organise content and provides tutors with the responsibility for their own units – and more importantly ensures that content is accessible for students. Additionally, channels can be made private - controlling access to possible optional units or enrichment activities. Utilising the “files” option in your Teams page or unit/module channel allows the user to upload teaching content, resources and module handbooks, while OneNote encourages collaborative working and individual portfolio building. 

Within each channel, there is a “new conversation” option. Use this to keep the students up to date with relevant content, deadlines and changes to their structured timetable, or provide a flipped learning opportunity by posting a journal or podcast prior to their lecture / seminar. Make use of the @mentioning capability and tag a specific student, group or whole cohort to ensure that notifications are sent directly to their computers, laptops and phones. 

A Turnitin tab can be added to allow for summative assessment uploads. Formative assessments can be created through the use of “create assignment” option within the assignments tab. Within this option, simple quizzes can be designed with the Microsoft Forms integration, as well as essay-based tasks that allows the user to detail specific deadlines and upload rubrics. 

Insights allows lecturers to effectively scrutinise formative assessments and student progress by depicting submission (and whether they have even been viewed), activity levels, attendance and punctuality to online sessions and habitual patterns – i.e. if they are logging on late at night.

Moving the SMB College Group’s VLE provision to Microsoft Teams has allowed for greater levels of contribution from students due to the ability to effortlessly stimulate discussion, upload images and provide links - as such this supports the enhancement of the student’s digital skills. Finally, a clinical feature of Microsoft Teams when compared to a traditional VLE, is that it is supported by mobile applications – key for student engagement, communication and enhancing taught content in 2022 and beyond.

SMB College Group would be delighted to answer any questions you may have - please contact your Partnerships Manager in the first instance.
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