TILT Practice and Scholarship Groups
Find out about the goals of TILT Practice and Scholarship Groups, which are improving learning and teaching across NTU.
About Practice and Scholarship Groups
TILT® Practice and Scholarship (P&S) Groups contribute to eight core Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) themes as part of NTU’s overall strategic plan.
These groups are situated within one Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) theme and their work often intersects with other different themes. This regularly involves close collaboration with other P&S Groups.
We welcome any queries about P&S groups. Please contact us if you are interested in finding out more: tilt@ntu.ac.uk.
Groups by theme
1. Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability in Higher Education
These P&S Groups have a specific interest in excellence in assessment, inclusivity and evaluation and accountability in Higher Education settings.
The Inclusive Assessment P&S Group works to identify, develop and promote innovative approaches to accessible and inclusive assessment at NTU and across the Higher Education sector. Inclusive Assessment is a cross-cutting area of work which speaks to all TILT SoTL themes and involves collaboration with Groups across TILT SoTL themes with a view to advance NTU’s Success for All agenda. The group will continue to review final dissertation module assessment(s) to identify and share good inclusive assessment practice(s).
Co-Chairs: Karrin Garrie and Lia Blaj-Ward
2. Curriculum Change, Decolonisation, Social Justice and Critical Pedagogies
These P&S Groups are interested in how the curriculum and curriculum in action in Higher Education settings have been shaped by wider historic, social, political and cultural factors and associated implications for diversity and multi-perspectivity in the curriculum and social justice.
The Decolonising the Curriculum P&S Group explores the legacy of colonisation in the British academy. It takes action to facilitate conversations on the impact of coloniality on the curriculum and contributes to efforts to open up the curriculum in Higher Education so that in addition to Euro-American knowledge, pedagogies, research and training, students, lecturers and researchers will engage with multiple other perspectives.
Chair: Melanie Welaratne, Dr Raúl Valdivia-Murgueytio and V Sharma
General | Decolonising the Curriculum TILT Practice & Scholarship Group | Microsoft Teams
3. Digital Education (Online Learning)
These P&S Groups are interested in inclusive online and flexible learning and teaching practices. With the current shift in the Higher Education landscape, the development of innovative and inclusive approaches to blended and online learning is valuable sector-wide for the impactful delivery and internationalisation of the curriculum.
The Flexible and Online Learning P&S Group works to support NTU’s vision of online and flexible learning across all degrees by 2025. It develops flexible and online guidelines, evaluation structures and facilitates conversations across NTU to ensure the sharing of effective practice - cross-cutting all disciplines and levels of study. The group is focusing on trialling programmes that have potential to increase student engagement in learning activities.
Chair: Clive Whysall
4. Innovation in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
These P&S Groups are involved in the identification and / or development of novel approaches to practice in the pursuit of excellence in learning and teaching in Higher Education.
The Apprenticeships & Work-Based Learning P&S Group is primarily concerned with exploring approaches to learning and teaching in work-based and vocational higher education, including apprenticeships, skills and technical education. The Group seeks membership from across further and higher education and other work-based learning and skills contexts. This is a newly formed Group which aims to promote conversations around effective pedagogy and practice(s) at NTU and across the sector.
Chair: Joanna Booth
The group is underpinned by a shared passion for raising the profile of students as partner initiatives linked to innovation in learning at NTU. Learning is viewed broadly as what happens within the core assessed curriculum as well as outside it, on campus or elsewhere. It encompasses student as well as staff learning and development – in partnership, from each other. The focus is to provide a supportive space for the development of co-creation projects, through the use of cross functional team working, partnership, utilising and valuing both student and staff expertise.
Co-Chairs: Sercan Demiralay and Rebecca Gamble
The Enterprise P&S Group aims to enhance the development of enterprise and entrepreneurship at NTU by consulting and sharing best practice, supporting the integration of an enterprise module into the university-wide curriculum, and amplifying the entrepreneurial competencies of staff and students alike. The group will explore various contexts of enterprise education and identify further opportunities for fostering entrepreneurial skills to equip students for careers which include freelancing, solo self-employment, and business creation.
Co-Chairs: Diana Pasek-Atkinson and Craig Strong
The Supporting Learning for Employability Group promotes the integration of research informed employability learning across the curriculum, exploring the dimensions of both lifelong and lifewide learning. Recent activities undertaken by this group include hosting an Employability month on TILT Online, producing guest speaker highlight videos, creating a work-related learning podcast series and facilitating a peer led Coffee O’Clock series. All of these activities have been designed to enhance NTU's reputation as sector leading in learning for employability, and in 2021/22 we will continue to develop and disseminate scholarship, research and best practice that supports graduates future success in the workplace and beyond.
Co-Chairs: Richard Machin, Iain Wilson and Adam Shaw
General | TILT - Supporting Learning for Employability | Microsoft Teams
The Active Learning @ NTU Practice & Scholarship group is a Community of Practice of / for academic and professional service colleagues and students drawn from across NTU interested in sharing knowledge / experience of effective Active Learning approaches / practices in the classroom and beyond. This includes, but is not limited to, SCALE-UP pedagogies. The group will continue to identify, develop and promote a wide range of Active Learning approaches and resources across NTU and evaluate the impact of Active Learning on student engagement, satisfaction and progression.
Co-Chairs: Bianca Fox, Anita Love and Craig Nolan
General | Active Learning @NTU (TILT P&S Group) | Microsoft Teams
5. Learning through Community Engagement, Sustainability and Social Action
These P&S Groups are interested in the role of community engagement, volunteering and / or environmental sustainability in learning and teaching in Higher Education.
The Education for Sustainable Futures P&S Group aims to help staff teach about sustainability in an engaging, informed way. By bringing together staff from across the University, the group aims to facilitate multi-disciplinary collaboration, with group members helping each other to achieve the integration of sustainability into their teaching. The group will work to provide opportunities for staff across NTU to experiment with learning and teaching methods and materials that have potential to enhance students’ knowledge of sustainability.
Chair: Alex Meredith
Bringing academic and professional services staff across NTU together to share practice and produce scholarly outputs relating to peer learning and support within NTU. Have a positive impact on student experience through engaging students/alumni in mentor/buddying roles.
Support the development of colleagues progressing on the Teaching and Scholarship or Teaching and Practice pathways through University-wide collaboration.
Co-Chairs: Jenny Sanders and Cayleigh Morgan
General | TILT Peer Learning & Support Group | Microsoft Teams
6. The Personalisation of Learning and Student Experience in Higher Education, Success for All and Social Mobility
These P&S Groups are interested in the personalisation of learning and / or student experience in Higher Education and support NTU strategic goals of Success for All and Social Mobility.
The Personal Tutoring P&S Group is interested in the lived experience of personal tutoring/academic mentoring at NTU. The Group will work to advance understanding of experience(s) of tutoring/mentoring across the institution, identify and synthesise best practice drawn from across the sector, and make recommendations for policy and practice based on primary research conducted by the group.
Chair: Jelena Matic
The Student Motivation and Engagement Practice and Scholarship Group is interested in how student motivation and engagement is influenced by the curriculum and curriculum change, as well as the role different student characteristics play. Group members include experts in the field of motivational theory, and supports colleagues interested in identifying useful ways to measure and capture student motivation and/or evaluate the impact specific teaching techniques have on student motivation and engagement.
SME are partnered with the Education, Motivation and Learning (EDMAL) research group. Members of EDMAL and SME will attend the same meetings with a view to optimising your scholarship, practice and research opportunities and ambitions.
If you would like to learn more, please email Dr Richard Remedios at richard.remedios@ntu.ac.uk.
Chair: Richard Remedios
The International Group aims to improve the international student experience by exploring practical and academic barriers to learning and identifying and sharing good practice, such as COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning). Online sessions, delivered by both academic and professional services staff, will allow the opportunity to hear about successful academic interventions and enhance knowledge of existing international student services provided throughout NTU.
Co-Chairs: Stephen Williams, Chris Crabot, and Rebecca Swindell
The LGBTQ+ Pedagogies & Experiences P&S Group develops and shares good practice related to LGBTQ+ students’ and staff' experiences at NTU and in Higher Education. The group actively contributes to advancing scholarship, pedagogies and methods of supporting LGBTQ+ students, with the ambition of reducing the LGBTQ+ student attainment gaps and addressing barriers to participation in the wider university and lived experiences.
Co-Chairs: Dr Beth Jones and Bryony Harper
This group looks to address inequalities in student retention and success for students transitioning at all stages of their academic journey including entry into HE, continuation, and progression. Historically, much of the focus on student transition has been around the transition from School/College to undergraduate studies. This group brings together academic and professional service colleagues to share best practice to enhance the student experience and outcomes.
This TILT group, therefore, has the potential to support collaboration across the University and support colleagues to develop evidence for Fellowship claims or promotions on the Teaching and Scholarship pathway. By empowering members to work together, exploring solutions to overcome the challenges presented by student transition and social mobility, the student experience can be enhanced.
Co-Chairs: Sarah Broadberry, Katie Taylor and Katie Gazey
General | TILT Student Transitions & Social Mobility | Microsoft Teams
7. Technologies in Learning
These P&S Groups are interested in the future of learning and teaching and explore technologies (and gaming) that have potential to expand opportunities to learn.
The group will act as a central hub for AI related activities at NTU as well as provide a platform for colleagues to collaborate, share, and innovatively apply AI in practice. The group will also focus on scholarly output, providing colleagues with a place to sound out ideas for potential papers and the opportunity to apply to present at AI conferences.
Chair: Alastair Town, Tom Newham and Adam Shaw
General | TILT Artificial Intelligence Group | Microsoft Teams
The Games-Based Learning P&S Group provides a forum for staff and students to share, test and promote ideas and engage in scholarship, research, discussions and activities related to the creation, development and deployment of games in learning that support staff and students learn better. A flagship learning tool 'Creative Connections' developed by the previous Chair James Leinster reached the final of the European Games-based Learning competition in 2017. Since then, the group has continued to provide a platform for close-to-practice games-based learning research/ innovation to be disseminated and heard and opportunities to learn from the experiences of peers.
Chair: Ehsan Asnaashari
This group is for staff of all disciplines interested in the intersection between digital technologies and human cultures. Digital Humanities is a broad and interdisciplinary field incorporating expertise and critical methodologies in Digital Archiving and Data Preservation, Digital Scholarly Editing, Digital Storytelling, Mapping, Computer Visualisation, Data Science, Data Mining, Big Data, Digital Heritage, Machine Learning and AI via collaborative projects.
Chair: Natasha Hodgson
8. Advancing Recognition for Learning, Teaching and Scholarship Careers in Higher Education
These are P&S Groups with a remit to develop and promote opportunities for NTU staff to achieve recognition and career advancement based on learning and teaching distinction.
The Teaching and Scholarship Associate Professor/Professor Network (TSAPPN) is for Associate Professors and Professors on the teaching and scholarship pathway who seek to raise the visibility and impact of scholarship and the scholarship pathway at NTU and beyond, as well as to role model routes into T&S and to offer peer-support for progression.
Chairs: Sarah Broadberry, Scott Lawley, Marisela Medoza Ramos
Course Leaders (CL) play a pivotal role in shaping academic experience and ensuring the highest standards of course delivery. The CL Network serves as a platform to champion the value of the CL role to students, both to students and NTU, as well as to the wider HE sector, while highlighting its significance for individual career development. This practice and scholarship group is open to all; CLs and those who support CLs, including professional service colleagues.
This network looks to support CLs through equipping them with core knowledge and skills, fostering a sense of community, and providing ongoing guidance to help them confidently fulfil their responsibilities. This includes understanding their role, managing key tasks throughout the academic calendar, designing and delivering effective courses, and continually enhancing course provision.
Chairs: Sarah Broadberry, Klaire Elton and Gail Mellors.
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