Learning and Teaching in MMU

How Learning and Teaching is improved in MMU?

Why Learning and Teaching is an important issue for MMU.

What does Excellent Learning and Teaching look like?

This is a ‘Wordle’ showing the frequency of words used by students to describe ‘excellent teaching’ in the MMUnion Question of the Month 10/12

Here is what they actually said!

Why Learning and Teaching is an important issue for MMU.

The QAA Quality Code, Chapter B3 Learning and Teaching, focuses on students as partners and says

‘effective learning in higher education occurs when there is a partnership between the higher education provider, their staff and students, and any external stakeholder that results in:

•teaching that aims to be inspirational •the co-production and enhancement of creative and transformational learning . . .’

QAA Quality Code

University reputations don’t just focus on research excellence. . . Increasingly, learning and teaching is . . . something measured and shared with prospective students (and their parents!).

Students want to know HOW MUCH contact time they can expect – but what does this actually mean? Lectures? Seminars? Tutorials? Peer group work? The Wider Information Set

Universities are also now publishing how many of their staff have professional recognition, e.g. Fellows of the HEA, PgCert and Masters in Academic Practice: HEA Paper ‘Recognising Excellence’

Students tell us that they want . . .•Lectures recorded so that they can re-visit them in their own time (Student Voice First Term Report Dec 2012)

•‘Lecture aids’ uploaded to Moodle in advance of lectures – this poses a number of challenges for staff and students.

•A range of different things . . . From those who want to know what to learn and get enough information to be able to pass exams . . . To those who want interactivity and engagement . . . And those who don’t see lectures as that important – the challenge is meeting the range of expectations.

1. Student Satisfaction feedback indicates the main area in which MMU is lagging behind the sector mean (NSS 2012) is now perceptions of ‘quality of teaching’. For the scores to really shift we also need to convert OK to good and good to great. This requires positive intervention, and excellent supporting resources (human and other). NSS Analysis 2011-12

2. Curriculum and assessment redesign (EQAL) has had good impact on perceptions of course organisation, but not necessarily matched by changes in delivery methods.

3. Strong agenda from MMU Executive supporting classroom observation (non-peer) to understand teaching quality.

How Learning and Teaching is improved in MMU?