| Grant Holder(s) | Project Title & Abstract | Grant Status |
| Julie Blackwell Young, Jack Hogan | Evaluating a framework for microcredential design and delivery Since 2021, the Abertay Learning Enhancement Academy has been developing a learning design framework to support academic and professional staff in designing and delivering online microcredentials. The framework integrated several existing models such as Laurillard’s Conversational Framework and the ICARE model. To support staff in using this integrated model, AbLE developed a number of complementary resources to scaffold staff through the design and development process. This project will evaluate the framework’s impact on teaching practice and support offered during development and delivery, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. Anticipated outputs include a good practice handbook, resources for the sector, a SEDA report, and dissemination through conferences and blog posts. | Ongoing |
| Helen Donaghue, Marion Heron | Using genre analysis to design formative assessment Formative assessment is key to supporting student learning and success in higher education (HE). However, there is little evidence-based, practical guidance on effective approaches to formative assessment (FA) and FA design, and as a result FA is not regularly adopted in HE practice. This project aims to provide HE lecturers with support in designing effective FA using a genre analysis approach. This study builds on previous work using genre analysis in developing students’ academic writing, lecturers’ awareness of assessment task expectations, and language teachers’ development of learning tasks and activities. We aim to evaluate training in which HE lecturers use genre analysis to design formative assessment tasks (FATs) to provide scaffolding for student learning and achievement. This project involves collaboration between researchers at two universities and will involve HE lecturers from different disciplines as research participants. The outcomes of this study will include training material in the form of a Workshop Guide which will be available for academic developers from other institutions to use to develop HE lecturers’ capacity to design FATs. The guide will include resources such as training notes, workshop lesson plans, and examples genre analyses and FTAs. These resources will be available under Creative Commons. It is hoped that our original and novel genre analysis approach will facilitate effective formative assessment design, promote lecturers’ assessment literacy, and enhance student achievement. | Ongoing |
| Janet Ramdeo, Jaq Bessell, Jo Franklin, Stewart Nicholls | Raising racial and ethnic representation within performing arts training: evaluating the effectiveness of implementing an Inclusive Curriculum Framework The lack of diversity in the performing arts workforce is well documented, with the acknowledgement that the pipeline from training to ‘treading the boards’ needs to change. Specifically, the representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic within the performing arts remains a point of discussion. 2020 saw universities, conservatoires and drama schools making public statements and commitments to tackling racial injustices, with reinvigorated efforts to ‘Decolonising the Curriculum’. This project looks to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing an ‘Inclusive Curriculum Framework’ educational development pilot initiative, in part designed to enhance racial and ethnic representation across curricula. The voices and perspectives of racially minoritised students on performing arts programmes is central to contextualising generic inclusive practice statements embedded within the framework, for effective implementation. Engaging Purdie-Vaughn and Eibach’s (2008) intersectional invisibility model, narrative inquiry will be utilised to capture racially minoritised students’ experiences of being seen and unseen, informing the application of the Inclusive Curriculum Framework’s generic statements around enhancing racial and ethnic representation. Initial data collected provides the direction for design of a supporting workshop content. Conservatoire practitioners will draw on the workshop to consider how to implement the Inclusive Curriculum Framework to enhance racial and ethnic representation. After a period of programme delivery using the enhanced curricula, implementation of the framework will be evaluated, again capturing racially minoritised students’ voices and perspectives. The project will provide an evidence-based case to support review and modification of the framework prior to wider roll out across the university and across the sector. | Ongoing |
| Manoj Ravi, Richard de Blacquière-Clarkson, Benjamin Chong | Developing developers: using insights from international students’ experiences to enhance educational design International students are a significant and growing cohort in UK Higher Education, yet are often treated as ‘cash cows’ and subject to deficit narratives whilst their diverse experiences and sense of belonging are not well understood. At the same time, the literature on this topic focuses primarily on actions for individual academics rather than the more systemic level of change which educational developers can work at. This project aims to address both issues by developing a small community of international student interns, who will co-create a survey with the researchers to understand wider international student perspectives, and collaborate with educational developers to design an action guide or toolkit to inform the developers’ ongoing professional practice. In doing so the project will contribute to the theoretical body of understanding regarding international students’ experiences, and to practical guidance on how to provide a more equitable, inclusive learning environment which could be employed across the sector. We will adopt a participatory action research approach which recognises the documented challenges international students face studying in the UK, including deficit narratives, and foreground sense of belonging amongst the student interns by dedicating the first phase of their involvement in the project to community building. Only once a ‘safe space’ has been established, where the students can share their experiences comfortably and confidently, can they act as genuine pedagogic partners, sharing their insights to help co-create practical guidance with meaningful impact. | Ongoing |
| Susan Smith, David Walker | The contribution of Educational Developers to academic citizenship in higher education Academic citizenship is regarded as a foundational value of academia. In the face of new public management techniques deployed across the sector, and the continued disaggregation of the academic role, the literature has lamented a retreat from academic citizenship. This has significant consequences for the academic ecosystem both within institutions and beyond. The itemisation of academic work through workload models, designed to enhance transparency and fairness has led to a focus on citizenship tasks attracting workload visibility or those specified on promotion criteria to the detriment of other academic citizenship activities. As a result, expected behaviours are less likely to be learned through role models and professional development activity has an increasing role to play in fostering an environment of academic citizenship. The literature has not yet considered the role played by educational developers in service to their institution both as contributors through their own citizenship activities and more broadly in nurturing others in their respective service to the academic community. Through a series of semi-structured interviews with educational developers, this research explores the role of educational/academic developers in facilitating the development and mutual understanding of academic citizenship within their organisations as well as to their community. The proposed small-scale study examines the extent of educational development activity in relation to academic citizenship. It does so through the lens of educational developers’ direct involvement in service and in support of service to the academic community and offers recommendations for practice and policy. | Ongoing |
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