Institute of Teaching and Learning 2020/21 Fellowships reports
21 Mar 2022
We're delighted to share with colleagues the outputs from the projects completed by our Inaugural ITL Fellows, which focused on a range of ways we can enhance teaching and learning for all of our students
We've been sharing the experiences of some of our Fellows via our blog TEA: Teach, Explore, Apply and you can now read their reports on the goals, outcomes and impact of their work.
The reports outline each Fellows’ project objectives, activities, how they collaborated with student partners and what they've achieved as a result. Disseminating the findings, outputs, guidance and resources that their projects produced is important in helping colleagues develop their practice and enhance teaching and learning at Manchester. We hope you'll set aside a little time to enjoy reading these reports and consider how the outputs could help you in your own teaching and learning practice. We would also encourage you to discuss areas you think would be particularly useful to explore within your programmes with colleagues. For example, you may wish to use the key principles and guidance around designing assessments or the effective use of discussion boards to scaffold conversations about how you could develop your practice in the future or explore the possibilities of embedding digital capabilities in your curriculum and the potential of working in true student partnership.
- View the reports from the 2020/21 cohort of ITL Fellows
Work is already underway to embed outputs from the projects in order to support staff in developing their confidence, teaching practice and support for students. For example, Fellows have developed resources and are delivering training to colleagues in Faculty settings in the form of teaching academy workshops and the New Academics Programme. We are thrilled that they will be sharing examples of their excellent practice as part of the ITL's workshop series over the coming months. As always, our workshop programme is open to everyone across the University. Since completing their projects, several of our Fellows have gone on to be appointed to University Theme Lead roles, which provides them with scope to continue to develop and embed their work. What’s more, numerous Fellows are now leading key strands of institution-wide projects in assessment, curriculum development and quality frameworks, building on the impact of their Fellowship work.
Where appropriate, Fellowship projects have also evolved or been extended to feed into strategic level change projects such as the Flexible Learning Programme. This is helping to ensure there is meaningful impact for staff and students and reflects the strategic alignment of the projects and the Fellows' responsiveness to the changeable needs of staff and student since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the system developed as part of Steve Pettifer’s ongoing project on improving the way information about course units is presented has since been adopted by the University’s Flexible Learning Programme (FLP) and will be used to explore how a move in the direction of online, blended and flexible teaching and learning impacts the way in which course units are managed and represented.
Like the work of our first cohort, the 2021/2022 ITL Fellows' projects are aligned with the University’s strategic goals in teaching and learning which are outlined in Our future. The application window for the next fellowship cohort will open soon.
Our inaugural Fellows have showcased the passion and excellence we are lucky to have within our teaching and learning community. We are delighted to share these reports with you and look forward to hearing about the ways in which they inspire you, impact your practice, and support your professional development.
Judy Williams
Associate Vice President for Teaching, Learning and Students
Director of the Institute of Teaching and Learning