Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The first aim of our Strategic Plan establishes that we aspire to go further and
“become an internationally acknowledged centre of learning excellence which
champions the creative exploitation of digital technologies in design and
communication… [and is] pioneering in its approach to teaching, learning and
applied research.” Our relocation means that we will have a new, purpose
built learning environment in which to meet these challenges and to develop a
learning culture that encourages innovation and enterprise.
Our success will depend on understanding fully what we currently do well and
developing a culture and learning and teaching approach to take this further.
This will mean continuously innovating in response to changes in the creative
industries and in the social and technological context of our learners and staff.
The systems that support Higher education have traditionally focussed on the
assurance of quality and standards. A shift is taking place, which adds an
emphasis on enhancement to this. This is a huge opportunity for us because it
moves from simply ensuring that we are doing things ‘right’ towards
continuously striving to develop and improve learning and teaching practice.
Priorities
Our challenge is to embed our mission and aims in the whole range of our
learning and teaching practice. The positive student experience that we
deliver is the result of design, planning and skilled execution. The Learning
Enhancement team can offer support to make this a more valued, ongoing
and proactive process. This includes helping course teams to make greater
use of existing systems such as student feedback, Schemes of Work and
Annual Course Monitoring. Through this we can more fully integrate the
processes of planning and reviewing with those of developing and innovating.
We can therefore apply the design processes that are used in the industries
we are connected to, for designing our learning experiences. By doing this we
will improve our process of learning design. Also we can improve how we
represent and share the products of this process with staff and students.
The Learning Enhancement team will foster discussion and help to lead
further development of the pedagogy that underpins this process. While there
are strengths to the pluralism of our pedagogy, a more integrated approach
can help us to become more flexible, effective, and innovative. This includes
fully understanding how we scaffold learning and how we relate models from
professional practice to the form and content of our learning and teaching.
All of this will allow more inclusive and personalised approaches to learning
and teaching that encourage independent learning. Also it will provide a focus
to develop how we creatively exploit digital technology in our learning culture.
Aims
Extend our shared understanding of technological and social change and use
this to update the content and the form of our learning and teaching.
Highlight what makes our learning experience and graduates stand out in both
educational and professional worlds.
Increase the opportunities and incentives for all staff to innovate in their
teaching practice and for them to learn from each other and from outside.
3. Embed the process of learning design into our learning and teaching
practice.
Develop themes and models that help us to embed our mission in our learning
and teaching and provide a focus for innovation in learning and teaching.