News
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Centre Update April/May 2010Welcome!Contents
Centre NewsExternal Examiners DatabaseThis directory of expertise is designed to assist in the process of matching the needs of university departments with the expertise of academics who are willing to act as external examiners. If you are a programme leader, the site provides a list of potential external examiners who may be suitable for your course. There is an opportunity for you to plan ahead and arrange for the appointment of a new external examiners well before your existing contracts expire. It will also help you to match the academic expertise with your needs. If you are an external examiner (or someone who is looking to become an external examiner) the site enables you to make your name available to universities, this will help them to plan. Providing brief information assists in the matching of skills and experience, and is likely to facilitate the appointment process. A key aim of the site is to enable new external examiners to become established. So you should not hesitate to enter your details if this is something you want to do, and those making appointments should try to find a balance between experienced and new external examiners to maintain availability of expertise. More information on external examining can be found at: www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/extexam.aspx The Directory went live in March 2010 and is currently in its initial population phase
Open Educational Resources (OER) in the BiosciencesOur pilot project for the Open Educational Resources (Subject-strand) closed (officially) at the end of April. We have been working with 10 project partners from around the UK to build a collection of OERs across a range of disciplines and explore the issues of preparing materials for "re-use and re-mixing" as they say at the Creative Commons. We have titled these our 'Interactive Laboratory and Fieldwork Manual for the biosciences'. These are examples of copyright cleared resources which tutors can adopt and adapt for use in teaching. We hope our community will take these forward to use them and possibly enhance them, sharing the results back into the community. The resources include animated presentations, video clips, question banks, web sites, images, simulations and supporting documentation. Note some applications are provided directly through websites - only a link is required to run the application. The topic areas included are biodiversity, cancer biology, field ecology, genetic analysis, influenza outbreaks, microbiology, microscopy and analytical laboratory techniques, biochemistry, evolutionary history and functional anatomy, and marine biology. There are many other components within each resource which can be used independently. Full details of the resources can be found on our OER project page at: www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/oer/index.aspx If you do choose to use them we would appreciate feedback. If you are a blogger or tweeter then we can gather comments using the tag 'bioukoer'.
New Publication
Centre EventsIt's not too late to register for:
Please visit the individual link or the Events web page www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/events/bioevents.aspx for more information and to register. If you have an idea for an event that you would like to attend, please make your suggestions at www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/events/evaluation/eventthemes.aspx Interested in hosting an event? If you would like to help host an event, please contact the Centre on heabioscience@leeds.ac.uk Please note the Graduate Attributes event has now been postponed until the next academic year. News from the HE Learning and Teaching CommunityCollaboration Opportunity for Virtual Biological MicroscopeProfessor David Male (Open University, Department of Life Sciences) has recently produced a virtual biological microscope for teaching histology and histopathology. The microscope incorporates 120 sections from slide collections at the University of Cambridge (Department of Pathology) and UCL. It is used in Open University courses and to teach pathology students at Cambridge. David is interested in preparing other slide collections for teaching in Life Sciences. This could be done on a collaborative basis with content and subject-specific expertise provided by one university and the multimedia development provided by the Open University. If you are interested in a collaboration of this nature please contact David at d.k.male@open.ac.uk and copy your message to David Adams, UK Centre for Bioscience at d.j.adams@leeds.ac.uk
Vacancy for Head of sparqs (Student Participation in Quality Scotland)Location Edinburgh Salary: £31,754-£34,549 + £1,412 anti-social hours allowance Sparqs was created in 2003 to support the greater engagement of students in the management of quality assurance and enhancement in Scotland's Colleges and Higher Education Institutions. More details at: www.sparqs.ac.uk/page.php?id=79 Events from the HE Learning and Teaching Community'I teach chemistry and oxygen works the same the world over.' Research, resources and reflection on international students and internationalised curricula The Higher Education Academy, York, 20th May 2010 One student in five has traveled from outside the UK to study here. Their assumptions and expectations of teaching, learning and assessment may be at variance with those that are characteristic of UK programmes of study. All graduates, whatever their origin, need the skills to work and live in an ever more global and interconnected world. This one day workshop will consider how and where issues are best addressed in both accredited programmes and continuing professional development schemes, introduce the developing resources of the 'Teaching International Students' project and provide opportunities to discuss and design appropriate teaching and support strategies. It is aimed at initial lecturer induction programme leaders, those responsible for continuing professional development schemes, and others who support institutional and individual development within HE. Details and registration: http://tiny.cc/az6hw Creating Future Proof graduates: Dissemination Millennium Point Birmingham, 25th May 2010 Birmingham City University was fortunate enough to be awarded a National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) project in 2007 - ‘Creating Future Proof Graduates: Transformative Learning Through Critical Incidents'. The aim of the project is to create resources which will help students identify and prepare for critical incidents which, according to employers, epitomise the major problems that newly qualified graduates encounter when they start work in the ‘real world'. Details at: www2.bcu.ac.uk/futureproof/dissemination
Loughborough University. 9th June 2010 Details at: www.engsc.ac.uk/nef/events/20100609-webpa.asp Resources from the HE Learning and Teaching CommunityMicroscopes go digital with The Virtual Slidebox Through the development of a ‘virtual slidebox’, an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC)-funded project has made the study of microscopy exciting once again for a digitally engaged body of students. It enables students to access over 1500 slides from oral histology, oral pathology, veterinary pathology and human pathology and histology. The software required to view the virtual slides is free to download and includes other utilities such as built-in measurement tools, data analysis and a digital camera which facilitates emailing of images from the virtual slide to colleagues. Details at: www.altc.edu.au/April2010-microscopes-go-digital Forensic Careers Website Launched Developed through funding from the UK Physical Sciences Centre the Forensic Careers website has information for current and potential forensic science students on possible future career opportunities. The site also contains information on what forensic science is and details the different sectors within forensic science. www.heacademy.ac.uk/forensic_careers Effective Practice in Industrial Work Placement publication The UK Physical Sciences Centre has recently published this practice guide to assist with the one-year industrial work placement experience. It describes a variety of issues from finding a placement through to passing on the experience to others. Each section contains best practice suggestions and there is a section dedicated to the international placement experience. Details at: http://tiny.cc/4fmyg
Best wishes from all at the Centre
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