Bioscience related CETLs

Advancing Skills for Professionals in the Rural Economy - Aspire

Harper Adams University College

CETL Aims & Objectives:

The Aspire CETL builds on Harper Adams’ excellent record in student progression, achievement and employment in the professions serving the rural economy. We shall create a centre that brings together staff and students to provide a focus for work-based learning, academic and professional skills development, learner support (dyslexia, numeracy and study skills) and learning technologies. We aim to enhance support for all students, especially those who are part-time, sandwich or work-based learners and those with disabilities. We intend to develop and share good practice with others, primarily through funded secondments.

Key Activities:

The Aspire programme has five overlapping themes, each of which has a co-ordinator who drives initiatives within their areas, as follows:
Work-based learning: Extending provision in short CPD courses and part-time taught postgraduate programmes to identify ways in which we can work more flexibly with both employers and their employees.
Placement learning: Developing communication, guidance and support systems during the pre, on and post-placement periods for both students and employers.
Professional skills development: Cross-discipline teams of academic and support staff to develop best practice in transferable skills through the undergraduate professional scholarship programme and within other curriculum areas. This involves staff development programmes and the production of student resources and staff guidance.
Learner support: The team is developing a programme of pre-enrolment, induction and continuing support, for students on an individual and group basis. Guidance to assist tutors in working with students with a disability or under-developed study skills is also being prepared.

The development of web-based resources is underway. Research into factors affecting student motivation to learn maths or use numbers will inform approaches to numeracy-based disciplines.

E-learning: The e-learning team supports each of the other four key Aspire themes. It also works with staff from across the institution to assist tutors in exploiting technologies to make learning more accessible, challenging and flexible. This work includes a professional development programme and individual mentoring.

Aspire Fellowship Schemes
As well as an annual Aspire Achievement Award, the Aspire programme supports two scholarship schemes as follows:
In addition to a number of new appointments and staff secondments to each of the five themes, an internal Aspire Development Fellowship Scheme makes funds available for colleagues across the institution to undertake initiatives in any of the programme themes. Scholarships awarded to date include: developing a Virtual Farm; incorporating video clips in PowerPoint presentations: developing a blended part-time course for rural practice chartered surveyors; developing web-based resources to support students in the UK and overseas to develop their transferable, professional skills; running a programme of placement preparation support for undergraduates; investigation of students’ attitudes towards learning maths; developing web-based resources and assessments in engineering design; and preparing multi-media learning tools in farm mechanisation. Summary evaluative reports on each of the fellowships will be uploaded on to the web site on completion.

The Aspire Secondment Scheme has been established to encourage colleagues from other institutions to work alongside us, with a view to either implementing changes within their home institution, or working with us on a join action research project, across two (or more) institutions. Further details on this scheme are available on the web site. External colleagues are warmly invited to contact us to discuss any ideas they might have.

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Applied Undergraduate Research Skills - AURS

University of Reading

CETL Aims & Objectives:

AURS will develop a range of innovative educational resources building upon teaching and learning of undergraduate research skills. We will further support skills development by maximising student engagement with existing resources in our unique university museums, collections, and fieldwork facilities. This will include the creation of dedicated undergraduate research space and new teaching and learner support materials to complement curricula developments. There will be increased scope for students to learn, develop and apply their research skills through enhanced work experience and research funding opportunities. A suite of teaching and learning resources will be made available to other institutions and educational bodies.

Key Activities:

The CETL will benefit students by:

• supporting the development of students’ research skills through their engagement with primary research, capitalising upon existing, excellent and unique teaching and learning resources within the University;
• developing further the students’ ability to recognise and validate problems, think independently and critically, understand project design, develop observational skills, analyse and evaluate findings and to communicate those findings, all of which will enhance student employability;
• enriching the students’ learning experience by adopting ambitious and innovative approaches to undergraduate teaching of research skills through developments at modular and curriculum levels based on established pedagogy;
• providing students with opportunities to direct their own skills-learning through extra-curricula initiatives that will support professional & personal development, rewarding this through a new scheme that recognises the development of such skills as ‘leadership’ and ‘organisation’, and which accredits this as non-academic modules which will appear on student transcripts.

The CETL will recognise and reward existing practitioners by:

• improving the quality of life of academics by providing significant additional support in the form of financial rewards & resources, direct assistance and ‘time-freeing’ schemes to enable them to develop their learning and teaching in association with a Centre undertaking active pedagogic research;
• providing guidance and encouragement to staff developing their teaching and learning portfolios to support cases for promotion and membership applications to the Higher Education Academy (this will be done in collaboration with the University’s Centre for Staff Training & Development www.rdg.ac.uk/cstd, and the Centre for the Development of Teaching & Learning www.rdg.ac.uk/cdotl); and providing support for applications to the University’s Awards for Teaching Excellence scheme and the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme;
• facilitating more opportunities for intra- and inter-discipline dialogue between practitioners within the University and beyond;
• actively promoting the core-disciplines as places where the case for excellence in developing student research skills has been nationally recognised.

The CETL will benefit the institution and the wider higher education community by:

• creating an active network of staff in which best-practice extends beyond disciplinary & institutional boundaries, thus further engaging practitioners with the wider HE community;
• actively contributing to pedagogic reflection and research both within the University and through external collaboration;
• being a dynamic and recognisable unit within the University having aims which are inextricably linked with existing and developing University Strategies;
• evaluating its practices and disseminating its findings to a wide range of practitioners and students, through cooperation with other CETLs and the HE Academy.

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Bristol ChemLabS

University of Bristol

CETL Aims & Objectives:

Bristol ChemLabS CETL sets out to transform the student experience of learning practical chemistry. It will create a major national resource for the teaching and learning of the experimental sciences. This will be done by establishing professional-standard laboratories and practices with state-of-the-art instrumentation and facilities for the e-learning of modern laboratory chemistry. Funding will also be used to host Fellowships for seconded schoolteachers and university lecturers and to develop outreach programmes to engage pre-university students and the general public. New ways of teaching and learning practical science will be disseminated nationwide.

Key Activities:

Laboratory Redevelopment: The transformation of the old laboratories is now underway, with existing wooden benches being replaced by work stations and fume cupboards to give space for ~150 students at any one time. New instrumentation and equipment will be introduced, so that students can gain first-hand experience of the sort of facilities they would find in a professional research laboratory. The new laboratories will also match up to the highest safety standards, so that students can continue to experience the full range of practical chemistry for many years to come. The building work is scheduled for completion by the start of January 2007.

Practical Course: At the same time, a completely new, integrated practical chemistry course is being developed. The experiments will illustrate aspects of a wide range of topics in chemistry so that the students’ experience will not be restricted by the traditional subject divisions of inorganic, organic and physical chemistry. There will also be a much greater emphasis on pre-laboratory work with self tests and on-line assessments, so that students become familiar with the background theory behind the experiments before they enter the laboratory.
On-line safety assessments will ensure that students are understand the hazards and risks associated with each experiment and develop safe working practices. As a result, they will become more confident about the techniques and equipment they will be using, allowing them to make the most of their time in the laboratory.

Dynamic Laboratory Manual: The paper booklet that traditionally accompanies practical courses will be replaced by a completely new, electronic dynamic laboratory manual. The manual will be available via the web so that it is accessible from individual workstations at each student’s bench in the laboratory, in their hall of residence or at home. It will include not only the details of the procedures to be carried out in the laboratory, but also background information on theory and applications. The manual will include virtual instruments and equipment that will allow students to practice and become familiar with techniques before they enter the laboratory. Video tutorials of common laboratory methods will also be incorporated.

Outreach: Outreach initiatives also form an important element of the ChemLabS CETL project. The appointment of a specialist, seconded School Teacher Fellow to work alongside the School’s Outreach Director has allowed us to develop an extensive programme of outreach activities, with events for primary and secondary school students as well as their teachers. The opening of the refurbished practical facilities will allow us to extend the range of these activities even further.

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Centre for Active Learning in Geography, Environment and Related Disciplines - CeAL

University of Gloucestershire

CETL Aims & Objectives:

CeAL will be an international centre of excellence reviewing, developing, promoting and embedding active learning. Our approach enables students to construct theoretical understanding through reflection on inquiry in the field, studio, laboratory and classroom, using real sites, community-related and employer-linked activities. CeAL will be developed around communities of active learners where students and staff inquire together. A key innovative feature is joint student projects with related Schools in the University, and initially 13 HEIs in England and 10 universities overseas. The University of Gloucestershire is committed to pursuing active learning across all undergraduate/postgraduate curricula, with CeAL as the laboratory for innovation, experimentation and evaluation.

Key Activities:

The CeAL aims and objectives will be met through the development of strategies for student learning, new staff appointments, production of materials and their subsequent evaluation, and adjustments to premises:

Development of Induction (undergraduate and postgraduate): This will better prepare students mentally for active learning through a separate, pre-semester, intensive residential short course. They will explore study skills development, multidisciplinary teamwork, real world problem-solving, Personal Development Planning and group e-learning. Active learning and reflection on performance will also be enhanced in appropriate compulsory modules throughout all levels, including through work experience opportunities within UoG, as well as externally. Senior students will be involved in induction in successive years.

New Staff Appointments: Three new lecturer appointments release existing experienced SoE academic staff from front-line delivery of approximately 24 modules per year, permitting them to focus on CeAL activity, and to develop their personal capabilities. Experienced and new staff will develop more modules that include ‘live’ projects and classroom activities involving external organisations, community groups, employers and cross- or inter-institutional working. New project sites and contexts will be identified, and high quality learning materials developed (hard copy and web-based). External stakeholders and communities will be identified, acknowledged, consulted and drawn into students’ educational experiences.

Five Postgraduate Research Assistants (PGAs) assist with establishing active learning projects for members of disciplinary-based Professional Development Groups (PDGs), developing and facilitating delivery of projects and teaching materials including web-based tuition. Crucially, they will undertake evaluative research work on effectiveness of active learning, leading ultimately to publication. PGAs have registered for research degrees (MA/MSc/MPhil or PhD), whose themes are congruent with their academic interests, and an appropriate pedagogic research question relating to effective practice.
Experienced supervisory capacity for pedagogic research students already exists within the core team, but is also drawn in from beyond UoG. PGAs will form a new cadre, well placed to move into careers in supporting learning in HEIs in the UK.

Synergy Utilisation
Existing synergies between teaching, research, knowledge transfer and AWP initiatives will be utilised. Interaction occurs in many ways: as paid consultants to industry, commerce, voluntary agencies and local authorities; through membership of our Gloucestershire Green Business Club (279 members within and beyond Gloucestershire, 70% SMEs); with companies participating in our RDA-funded ENVIROSKILLS project; through Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (one running now, two more agreed in principle); through links with National Association of Local Councils, Black Environmental Network, and through leadership in professional bodies such as Institution of Environmental Sciences, Landscape Institute, and Society of Local Council Clerks.

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Centre for Effective Learning in Science - CELS

Nottingham Trent University

CETL Aims & Objectives:

The Centre for Effective Learning in Science (CELS) aims to create a new image for science within both the Higher Education and school communities as more relevant, accessible and achievable. Based on our excellent record in HE science teaching and nationally recognised widening participation activities, the CELS will enable academic teams to develop and trial new approaches to teaching and presenting science to both communities. Using best practice in educational research and outreach, these developments will increase the number of science students, support the learning of science students locally, and provide a significant new resource base for science teaching nationally.

Key Activities:

CELS activities are split between developments in Higher Education (HE) and Outreach activities.

Higher Education (HE) developments

CELS is:

• Designing new ways of teaching scientific concepts using approaches such as context-based and problem-based learning.
• Conducting research into e-learning including the impact of learning styles on the design and use of e-learning material.
• Developing individualised learning packages to address the issues of differing entry profiles and subject knowledge within student populations on science courses, particularly interdisciplinary areas such as Forensic and Sport Science.
• Building on the outcomes of the FDTL4 projects in assessment, FAST and EFEL, CELS will look at diversifying the range of assessments used in science, focusing on giving effective feedback.

Outreach activities

CELS have organised a wide range of activities for Primary, Secondary and post 16 students. The aim of the outreach work is to improve the image of Science and generate increased interest in the subject. Activities take place both at Nottingham Trent University and within schools.

Activities include:

• ‘Kit in a Case’ hands on activities taken out to schools, e.g. Oil Spill and Bricks, Bananas and You.
• Master classes and demonstration lectures to 1100 students during Science Week.
• Hosting of competitions such as Young Analyst, Salters Festival and the East Midlands BA CREST, Young Engineers K’nex challenge, Young Engineers in Britain.
• Lab in a Lorry which traveled to local schools providing hands on activities.

CELS are also supporting the teaching of Science within schools by:

• Acting in partnership to run the ExperimentsAtSchool site with the RSSCSE providing on-line interactive experiments (www.experimentsatschool.org.uk).
• Placing undergraduate scientists within schools through the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme.
• Creating new ‘Master Classes’ with teacher and pupil resources.
• Designing and delivering activities (CPD) for teachers and technical staff.
• Developing new Teaching Materials suitable for the new Science GCSE's and after their current review, AS/A2 Sciences curricula.

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Centre for Excellence in Leadership and Professional Learning

Liverpool John Moores University

CETL Aims & Objectives:

This CETL will develop existing innovative learning approaches within Physical Education, Dance, Sport and Exercise Sciences to enhance students’ vocational, leadership and entrepreneurial skills. Building on novel community, industry and business partnerships, models for lifelong learning will be developed through experiential opportunities in organisations dedicated to performance enhancement and the pursuit of a healthy and active lifestyle. These distinctive approaches, as they relate to the professional practice of Education and Science students, will be explored and utilised to enable students to become ‘leading learners’ as well as, at the same time, be ‘learning to lead’.

Key Activities:

• A focus on professional, work-based and work-related learning, entrepreneurship, problem-based, experiential and reflective approaches
• Central co-ordination through the University’s educational development unit (Learning Development Unit) to ensure synergy with institutional learning, teaching and assessment strategy developments and initiatives
• Subject- specific CETL activity led by Centre Leaders for the discipline areas of Science and Education
• Specialist support personnel and business development managers to create new networks with local communities, employers and client groups and to manage enterprise innovation
• Development of a Leadership and Community Learning facility as the epi-centre for creating and developing an interactive learning network with community learning clusters across the region, providing students with state of the art interactive video facilities for analysing leadership and learning in the community
• Development of a Health, Activity and Human Performance facility to expand students’ applied knowledge and practical skills base in a work-related environment to enhance students’ understanding of physiological, biomechanical and psychological assessment of individuals
• Development of students as entrepreneurs through Student Enterprise Fellowships, awarded annually
• Promotion of pedagogic research through a rolling programme of sabbaticals and secondments and appointment of Research Officers

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Centre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science, Computing and Technology

Open University

CETL Aims & Objectives:

The centre will build on the Open University’s experience and innovatory work in open learning in the study of mathematics, science, computing and technology. The core objective is to improve the learning experience of students who have limited opportunity for direct face to face interaction with teachers. Although the potential development agenda is broad, there will be an initial focus on assessment and e-learning. The Centre will comprise an academic community of ‘teaching fellows’ who will refine their skills through action learning based on the OU’s programmes. These fellows will be drawn from the OU academic staff and will occupy seconded roles temporarily.

Key Activities:

The first year of COLMSCT has been focused on establishing the Centre and its community, notably the recruitment and induction of Fellows and the initiation of innovative teaching and learning projects.
COLMSCT is working in partnership with the other three Open University led CETLs, in a collective known as the Open CETL. We share practices, explore synergies, and identifying opportunities for joint dissemination and enhanced impact.

Impact on University pedagogic activities:

• COLMSCT has proposed and founded the E-Assessment for Learning: iCMA group. This Group is helping Faculties to accelerate adoption of online computer-based assessment in their courses and programmes. The fundamental premise is that computer-based assessment with feedback is an underused pedagogic strategy in the OU and that we should build internal awareness and academic capability in order to improve the learning opportunities we offer to students.
• Fuller academic engagement will underpin our aspirations to provide a national lead in this form of e-learning.
• The group is adopting an action research approach. Course teams were encouraged to propose projects to the Group. 10 projects from across University Faculties were accepted and will work with the Group to develop the relevant assessment and to evaluate both the process and the outcomes.
• We see this type of initiative as a model for future efforts to bridge between local academic aspiration and both L&T Strategy and VLE system development. We are currently seeking to establish a similar action research-led development theme – Building Subject Communities that Learn Together.
• COLMSCT and the Open CETL are fully engaged with the senior committee and management boards in the development of teaching and learning policy. We see a role in the generation of ‘green papers’ on significant pedagogic issues.

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Experiential Learning in Environmental and Natural Sciences

University of Plymouth

CETL Aims & Objectives:

The CETL arises from our existing excellence in fieldwork, laboratory work and work-based learning. We will enhance our provision in these areas by using innovative new technologies, applying inter-disciplinarity and embedding the skills associated with employability and entrepreneurship more firmly in the experiential curriculum. We will adapt our laboratories, curricula and procedures to ensure that large cohort sizes, or individual disability, do not impede access to a lively, extensive and safe experiential curriculum. We will develop an innovative Immersive Vision Theatre and an equally advanced Lab+ facility for the benefit of our students, visiting educational groups and the local community.

Key Activities:

Immersive Vision Theatre (the dome): The dome will create an inspiring innovative environment within the University’s planetarium. This facility will allow students to virtually ‘visit’ remote field sites and help them make the very best use of the limited time available in the field. In addition, the dome will mimic access to real environments that are otherwise inaccessible due to location or hazard.

Information Communication Technology resources; A range of ACT tools is available to prepare students for fieldwork. The CETL will investigate the potential for web-based delivery of briefing, de-briefing and assessment materials that is in increasingly wide use.

Fieldwork safety training course; A nationally accredited fieldwork safety training course for higher education staff will be developed, building on a pilot study that has been initiated by the Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES) Subject Centre.

Access to the experiential curriculum for disabled students; Access to laboratory work will be the main focus of the Celt’s activity in this area. A critical review of current lab work will be undertaken in order to adjust the design and delivery of the curriculum and to inform design of the teaching laboratories.

Interdisciplinary fieldwork; The CETL will create a broad, inter-disciplinary resource consisting of an instrumented field site in the local area and an associated archive of environmental data. As well as our own use, both will be available to the many other institutions that hold field classes in the south-west.

The Lab+ facility; The CETL aims to enhance and equip a set of linked multi-disciplinary ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ laboratories, in which students can utilise resources related to experiential events. They can practice the skills needed to observe, analyse, identify and record information from these resources and become familiar with field techniques.

Staff Secondment; To assist staff in enhancing the experiential curriculum, the CETL will introduce a system of generally short-term staff placements in professional settings.
This experiential learning on the part of staff will produce a curriculum more informed by professional practice, ‘real’ sets of data and learning tasks for students, closer employer links and the development of communities of practice which span the academic and commercial worlds.

Increasing opportunities for students; Good field and lab work typify methods of learning that are likely to enhance students’ employability. However, these opportunities are not yet fully exploited and are not always obvious to students. This activity will review our lab and field practice in order to embed opportunities to develop employability and entrepreneurship and to make these visible and explicit to students. The CETL also aims to increase opportunities for work-based learning.

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Genetics Education Networking for Innovation and Excellence - GENIE

University of Leicester

CETL Aims & Objectives:

This CETL builds on existing expertise and synergy between world-class science genetics education. We will lead the development of innovative approaches and establish a network of institutions engaged in teaching genetics, promoting the sharing of resources and experience. An internationally accessible database of these resources will also be assembled. Intrinsic to the philosophy is the embedding of generic skills and the application of generic approaches to broader fields, for example, biotechnology, medicine and law. Therefore the learning experience of students from a wide range of subjects will be enhanced, reflecting the broad impact of genetics on science and society.

Key Activities:

• GENIE funding is providing dynamic state of the art teaching environments at the University of Leicester, with innovative combinations of laboratory and e-learning approaches for undergraduates and postgraduates. Using the latest audio, video and computer facilities GENIE aims to promote and sustain a synergy between first class research and teaching.
• Raising public awareness of genetics in science and society will form an integral part of the GENIE CETL. The Department of Genetics, which houses the GENIE CETL, has a well-established and varied outreach programme.
• GENIE's Virtual Genetics Education Centre (VGEC) will be an extensive web-based network of quality genetics resources and information for teachers and learners. A wide range of genetics resources will be available for undergraduate and postgraduate students, for Higher Education programme co-ordinators and HE teachers, as well as school teachers and pupils. GENIE will enthuse and motivate other genetics educators and will strongly promote sharing of resources to establish best practice. Available resources and useful information and links will also be aimed at health professionals and the general public (including a section specifically for children), increasing public awareness of genetics and its impacts on day-to-day life.
• GENIE is establishing a national network of genetics educators, people involved in delivering genetics programmes and promoting genetics education. This network of stake holders in genetics education promotes sharing of ideas, experiences and resources to establish best practice.
• An important part of the GENIE CETL work is the development and dissemination of resources. Genetics impacts on many areas of human health, welfare, daily life and society in general. Projects currently being developed include student-centred problem-based group exercises, course design focusing on the social, legal and ethical implications of genetics and engaging students in outreach activities for schools and the general public.

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Inter Disciplinary Ethics Applied - IDEA

University of Leeds

CETL Aims & Objectives:

The IDEAS CETL builds on the established excellence in ethics teaching in the Leeds medical course where subject specialists and ethicists help students integrate the diverse ethical issues in the course into a coherent Ethics Theme which crosses subject and year boundaries. The CETL will transform student experiences by extending these successful features of ethics teaching to other programmes of study across the university, including biosciences, business, computing, education and engineering. Thus it will equip students to address increasing public concern about ethical issues in business and professional life. Furthermore the IDEAS CETL will contribute to national and international debates on these issues and their pedagogical implications.

Key Activities:

• The integration of interdisciplinary ethics into the curricula of: medicine, business, engineering, biological sciences, nanotechnology, environment, computer science, sport science, media, law, psychology, education, social work and performance arts at the University of Leeds.
• Develop coherent ethical thread to run through degree courses, rather than a “bolt-on” approach, enabling students to engage with ethical issues in a sustained manner. This will be facilitated by Ethics Theme Teams, partnerships of ethicists, subject practitioners and students from each discipline.
• Promote the importance of ethical decision making as an important skill for graduates.

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Applied and Integrated Medical Sciences - The AIMS Centre

University of Bristol

CETL Aims & Objectives:

This CETL will integrate the teaching of medical sciences with clinical skills in an excellent learning environment. It will develop proven teaching approaches in anatomy, physiology and pharmacology to include state-of-the-art models, images and simulations of normal and diseased body structure and function. A major resource of web-based histology and pathology teaching material will also be created. Existing teaching space will be extended and enhanced to include a clinical anatomy and surgical training centre. New equipment and software, including computer-controlled human ‘manikins’, will be purchased and a number of staff appointments will be made.

Key Activities:

Development of a world class Clinical Anatomy Suite for the integrated teaching of anatomy, pathology, radiology and surgical skills. The suite will also support research in applied human anatomy particularly in relation to the brain and musculoskeletal system.

Human Patient Simulation (HPS) Teaching Suites which each house a state-of-the-art, high fidelity, life-sized human simulator that can be programmed to model a wide range of physiological, pharmacological and pathological states. The HPS is already being used in our physiology teaching for first and second year medical, dental, veterinary science and medical science undergraduates and will soon be introduced into corresponding pharmacology teaching, and clinical teaching for senior medical undergraduates.

We are currently creating a digital image archive by scanning our existing collection of high quality tissue sections. The tissue sections have been stained using many different methods to reveal micro-anatomical and histological features at their best. The digital archive will preserve the material in perpetuity as well as offering facilities such as on-screen annotations of the digital images and the ability to simultaneously display normal and pathological material via a 'split-screen' facility.

Production of 3-D animations of dog anatomy for use in teaching and learning of anatomical structures, we hope to display organs in situ and in various stages of dissection. The images will be enhanced by hidden buttons and pop up type tutorials to enable students to self teach and self-assess their state of knowledge and will also be useful to augment lectures and tutorials in this topic.

For those people who are unable to visit AIMS and Chemlabs at the University of Bristol we have developed an alternative that can come to them! A unique, mobile laboratory and tutorial room will be stationed at the Clinical Anatomy Suite and capable of visiting schools, colleges and hospitals.

The CETL also aims to investigate and enhance the role of Intercalated Degrees in medical education through gathering information about the range of Intercalated Degrees that are available to medical students, using questionnaires and institutional visits, and establishing an Annual Intercalators' Conference.

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Centre for Scientific Literacy - Write Now

London Metropolitan University, Liverpool Hope University, Aston University

CETL Aims & Objectives:

The Write Now CETL is a collaboration between London Metropolitan, Liverpool Hope and Aston Universities that developed out of the successful psychology-based FDTL4 Assessment Plus project on using assessment criteria to support student learning. It aims to improve student achievement and enrich student’ learning experiences through the development of innovative, evidence-based provision focused on writing for assessment. The Centre celebrates and promotes student writing in the disciplines, with the objective of enabling students to develop academic and disciplinary identities as empowered, confident writers. A comprehensive programme of pedagogical research underpins and strengthens the ethos and practice of the Centre, including the key areas of development, evaluation and dissemination

Key Activities:

• Writing Centres
• Student focus groups and forums
• Undergraduate writing coaches
• Induction resources
• Personalised student web sites
• MSc in Student Assessment
• Assessment guidance packages
• Pedagogical research
• Working with staff to promote writing in curriculum design
• Workshop programmes for students and staff

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