Training Resources

These are resources from some of the CPD sessions organised and run by the LTEU.

Academy Forum

The Aber Academy Forum is open to members of the university community: teaching staff, postgraduate tutors, administrative / support staff, and students are all welcome. The Forum provides a platform for sharing good practice in learning and teaching.

If you would like to be notified of upcoming sessions, email cpdstaff@aber.ac.uk to be added to our mailing list. 

For announcements and more information you can also follow our Aberystwyth Academy Forum Blog

Academy Forum Handouts

You can find handouts from previous Academy Forum sessions here. 

Sessions from 2022/2023

Sessions from 2021/2022 

Active Learning ​& Student Engagement

Active learning can help students engage with learning tasks, promote deeper learning, and foster higher order thinking. The result can be better retention of learning.

Many lecturers wonder what we can do besides ‘deliver content’. This session builds on a chapter in a forthcoming book about active learning. Synthesising early definitions and current research on active learning, I’ve come to consider active learning to be any activity where students carry out an Active Cognitive Task (ACT). It is not the content itself but what students do with it that matters.

This session explores why and how we might want to make lectures more active and interactive. While there is already a lot of good practice in active learning at our university, especially in seminars and practicals, it can be challenging to use active learning in a lecturing context. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. Two common approaches are to break up lectures with short interactions or hold longer problem-solving activities that require students to prepare outside of class.

Aligned Teaching

After successful completion of this 4-part workshop series, participants should be able to:

  1. Apply models for aligned teaching when designing learning
  2. Write effective learning objectives based on Bloom’s taxonomy
  3. Plan and carry out appropriate learning activities to support the objectives
  4. Consider learning objectives appropriately when designing assessments

Aligned teaching is a core principle recognised across the HE sector and highlighted in the QAA Quality Code, Advice and Guidance: Assessment. When learning outcomes, activities, and assessment are well aligned, it can have a dramatic impact on student learning and make it easier for the teacher to design the learning experience.  

It all starts with the student: what should they to be able to do after completing the lesson, module, or study scheme? In these interactive sessions, we explore the options for designing aligned teaching to create meaningful learning experiences that help students learn. 

As with most aspects of informed teaching, there is no 'one right way' to design or assess student learning. The aim of these activities is to give you the tools to make informed choices for your own teaching context. 

Please note that each workshop in this linked series requires a short preparation task. This allows us to spend time during the workshop on applying the principles to your real teaching contexts. The preparation task is based on the Aligned teaching handout.

  • Well-written learning outcomes make it easy to plan teaching
  • Tell what students will be able to do after the session
  • Focus on concrete actions, not ‘demonstrate a knowledge of (topic)’
  • Aim for the highest levels possible on Bloom’s taxonomy

Creating Accessible Learning Materials

Choices you make when creating learning materials can make a big difference for your students, especially those with a disability or specific learning difference. There is no one formula that is perfectly suited for all students, but you can easily make your documents as accessible as possible for as many students as possible. Moreover, accessible documents are simply easier to use, which helps all students learn better.

These recordings covers Word documents, PowerPoint, PDF, and media files that staff make available electronically through Blackboard or elsewhere. We work through the Digital Accessibility Checklist and explain how small changes can help your students. 

After viewing these materials you should be able to

  • Use the Accessibility Checker when creating MS Office documents
  • Use Styles to make the structure of your material clear to students
  • Use appropriate colour choices and contrast to make documents readable
  • Use appropriate settings when creating PDF files from MS Office documents

Recordings

Introduction (3 minutes)

Why accessibility? (6 minutes)

Introducing the Accessibility Checklist (2 minutes)

Creating accessible Word documents (13 minutes)

Creating accessible PowerPoint presentations (6 minutes)

Creating an accessible PDF (4 minutes)

Accessible audio and video (2 minutes)

Additional Materials

Creating Accessible Learning Materials training session handout (DOCX)

Digital Accessibility Checklist (DOCX)

Accessibility checker video

POET image description tool

Contrast Checker

Using Styles video

Generative AI

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are having a significant impact on higher education because students can use them to generate content which is then submitted as the student’s own work. In response to this challenge, we have organised a Generative AI Working Group with representation from all three Faculties, the Learning & Teaching Enhancement Unit, and the AberSU. Here we provide ideas staff can use this semester to explain your existing assessments to students and to handle common red flags when marking. The AberSU is organising guidance for students.

Please note that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution. The attached list is not exhaustive and the landscape is rapidly changing as these tools develop. We encourage teaching staff to discuss your own teaching context with colleagues in your department and devise a consistent shared approach.

Please use these documents in conjunction with QAA’s guidance on academic integrity and AI.

Moving to Online Teaching

This session provides a basic introduction to teaching online. These videos provide information about various aspects of online teaching:

Introduction (7 minutes)

Using Blackboard (6 minutes)

Panopto and Teams (10 minutes)

Assessment (11 minutes)

Third Party Software (4 minutes)

We also have a set of short recordings on setting up interactive activities in Blackboard

You can also view these as a single video (35 minutes)

 

Plagiarism Detection and Prevention

Plagiarism and unacceptable academic practice are challenging issues for anyone teaching in higher education. What are the red flags that indicate possible plagiarism, and how can we investigate a case of suspected plagiarism?

This is a 2-part workshop series. 

Part 1 is about detecting and dealing with plagiarism. It is held in a combination presentation / discussion format based on the following questions:

  1. What is plagiarism?
  2. How do students plagiarise?
  3. Why do students plagiarise?
  4. How can we detect it?

Part 2 will give participants a chance to discuss how to develop assessments which ‘design out plagiarism’. We will look at different types of assessment which are harder for students to ‘cut and paste’ information from other sources. We will look at the use of formative assessment to highlight potential issues in advance of the final assignment. We will also look at strategies for embedding good academic practice in the curriculum.

Resources

For resources useful for students, please see the LibGuide on Referencing and Plagiarism Awareness created by the Academic Engagement Team in Information Services. 

You may also wish to watch some of the video clips below: