Written by NCFE

We know that educators in the further education sector are always seeking new ways to engage their students and prepare them for the future. The Assessment Innovator Learner Competition, in partnership with Ufi Voctech Trust, offers a unique opportunity for learners to showcase their creativity by designing AI-driven ideas that could positively impact the way assessments and exams are conducted in the future.

Why encourage your students to participate?
Engaging your students in this competition is more than just a chance to win prizes. It’s an opportunity to spark their interest in how learning is evidenced and assessed. Here are a few reasons why you should consider integrating this competition into your teaching:

The ideas your students generate could shape the future of FE assessments, making them more relevant, efficient, and inclusive. Who better to reimagine assessment methods than the learners themselves?

This competition encourages students to think critically about the role of AI in education, giving them hands-on experience in problem-solving and innovation: skills that are increasingly valuable in today’s job market.

The winning learning provider will receive £750, and the winning learner or team will receive £250, with more prizes for second and third place. These funds could provide much needed resources for your classroom, supporting further innovative projects and enhancing the learning experience.

What we’re looking for
Entrants will need to consider a range of factors, including the potential benefits and challenges of using emerging AI technologies within the assessment space. They will need to present their ideas in either a 6-minute video presentation or a 6-slide presentation which effectively communicates the features, functionality, and benefits of their proposed solution. By participating, learners will have the chance to influence how their own education and that of their peers might be evaluated in the future.

How you can provide support
With no one set approach for supporting learners with this competition, there are a number of ways you can tailor your level of support to fit around your workload:

Integrate into lesson plans: use the competition as a project within your curriculum. Encourage students to explore how artificial intelligence can be leveraged to improve assessment methods relevant to their courses. This not only enriches their learning experience but also ties in with their ongoing studies.

Encourage collaboration: foster a sense of healthy competition by encouraging students to work in teams. This will allow them to build on each other’s strengths, leading to more comprehensive and innovative solutions.

Flexible participation: if class time is tight, consider assigning the task as a homework project. This way, students can choose to engage with the competition without feeling pressured by time constraints during lessons, while also being empowered to work independently.

Important dates and how to enter
The competition will be open for entries from 2 September to 31 October 2024. Encourage your students to start thinking about their ideas now and visit the NCFE website for more information on how to enter.

Thanks for reading this AmplifyFE post! AmplifyFE is a strategic partnership between ALT and the Ufi VocTech Trust. AmplifyFE connects over 3000 professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community to share, collaborate and learn. We connect innovators, industry and educators, therefore, AmplifyFE posts may include contributions with a commercial focus. AmplifyFE’s posts are included on the #altc blog to support networking, collaboration and sharing. For more information, please check AmplifyFE’s dedicated submission guidelines.

The #altc blog submission guidelines detail who can post and the type of posts accepted to this blog.

Written by Lynne Taylerson for the AmplifyFE Team

I really value attending ALTC – I’ve actually lost count of the times that I’ve been over the last decade or so! I think I particularly value visiting for 2 reasons, meeting up with the practitioner research community and promoting the work of everything we do in FE and Skills.

As a practitioner researcher myself with a focus on digital skills and pedagogy, and now AI for education, it’s always fascinating for me to engage with the latest research. The thing I most like about ALTC is that at the research sharing sessions, there is always a dialogue, rather than a formal ‘paper presentation’ which is sometimes the format at other conferences. There are real opportunities to discuss emerging research with other delegates and I’ve learned so much about such a wide range of areas relevant to my practice.

The other research focused reason that I value the conference is the opportunities it has given me to share and discuss my own research and I’ve done this for several projects I’ve been involved with over the last decade. For the last couple of years I’ve been sharing and discussing the ‘Insights’ research I’ve been conducting for ALT/Ufi as part of the #AmplifyFE project. The research is focused on how we best design and deploy learning technology to have positive impacts on learners most affected by the digital divide. As well as having opportunities to disseminate and discuss completed research it’s been brilliant to share interim findings and get the perspectives of delegates at the conference on them. After ALTC22, I recorded a podcast with Chloë Hynes reflecting on attending the conference and that was the very first AmplifyFE podcast.

The reason that I’ve been particularly enthusiastic to come along to ALTC in the past few years is again related to the #AmplifyFE project which has put a strong focus on the work of the FE and Skills sector. I (and the rest of the team!) work in such a vibrant and important sector which goes beyond large colleges and includes Adult and Community Learning, prison learning, work-based learning, third sector organisations and many more scenarios. 

Despite its importance, FE is not called the ‘Cinderella sector’ for no reason and is often overlooked with schools and universities having more of the educational spotlight. It’s been fantastic that ALT and Ufi VocTech Trust have worked together to create AmplifyFE. I particularly enjoy being with the team in the exhibitors’ hall on our stand where we promote the value and work of the sector and meet up with the many and growing number of FE friends who attend the conference. I’d encourage anyone from FE and Skills (and beyond!) who has a focus on digital learning to take a look at the ALTC programme, to join us in Manchester this year so that together we can AmplifyFE and all the wonderful work that we do in the sector.

Thanks for reading this AmplifyFE post! AmplifyFE is a strategic partnership between ALT and the Ufi VocTech Trust. AmplifyFE connects over 3000 professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community to share, collaborate and learn. We connect innovators, industry and educators, therefore, AmplifyFE posts may include contributions with a commercial focus. AmplifyFE’s posts are included on the #altc blog to support networking, collaboration and sharing. For more information, please check AmplifyFE’s dedicated submission guidelines.

The #altc blog submission guidelines detail who can post and the type of posts accepted to this blog.

By Neil Dixon, Uwe Richter (Anglia Ruskin University), Rob Howe (University of Northampton)

This is a report of our recent ALT East England (ALT EE) event on 4 July 2024. The blog starts with a brief summary of digital badges, and reports on the three presentations: Peter Harrison (Cranfield University), Bernadette Martin (The Open University) and Cory Saarinen (Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), University of Cambridge).

Attendees in the session were asked how many were considering or have used badges, and most had either tried badges or were considering investigating them. The polling results showed that there is an increasing recognition of the importance of reward and recognition within institutions. Therefore, this event was a timely way to share case studies and examples of how universities in the region are using digital badges and certifications.

Introduction: What are digital badges? (Uwe Richter, Associate Professor: Digital Pedagogic Innovation)

Digital badges are verifiable digital tokens and certificates that represent a skill or competency learned, an accomplishment achieved, or a program completed. Compared to traditional paper certificates, they offer greater accessibility and shareability.

In the education context, digital badges can be used to supplement traditional transcripts and certificates. They certify and showcase a student’s activities and accomplishments in curricular,  co-curricular or extra-curricular activities. These badges are highly motivating for students and a way to maintain a record of achievements and evidence for applying for jobs on graduation. However, badges may also be used to motivate progression within a module or course (gamification) using badging tools embedded in a virtual learning environment and these may not always  be shared externally.

Uwe also differentiated between digital certification and micro-credentialing, the latter being credit-bearing and, therefore, subject to quality assurance similar to academic modules and courses.

Using digital badges and credentials to enhance UX in learning and teaching (Peter Harrison, Head of Academic Practice and Education Excellence)

Cranfield University introduced badges originally  as a good way to encourage students to undertake activities that supported employability. From this the portfolio has expanded to more than sixty badges. Examples of badges included showcasing industry skills, personal growth and development, and self-evaluation and success. The most popular platform to share these badges is LinkedIn. 

Some of the learnings from implementing badges included the importance of metadata, which makes the badges easier to verify, and allows for portability. Another important factor is the design of the badges, using different templates and colours for core badges and short courses. Students can progress to different levels of badge within each area, so it is key that each badge theme remains consistent. To retain the integrity of the badge rewards, it is advisable to have awarded badges approved centrally.  

One takeaway from the project was to have a clear and transparent system from the outset, rather than making changes later on. By having such a system, the benefit is that badges can be changed and updated, so they can be used for different purposes as required.

Badged digital and information literacy course – the journey so far (Bernadette Martin, Learning & Teaching Librarian)

The Open University (OU) has a long history with badges and is increasingly offering digital badges within undergraduate modules to improve student engagement, motivation, well-being, and retention. Bernadette highlighted research from their curriculum design student panel indicating that 75% of students would be motivated by the prospect of earning a digital badge and 73% would be inclined to finish an activity if a digital badge were on offer. 

To capitalise on the potential usefulness of badges, the OU library is working towards offering badges for digital and information literacy skills, which is expected to launch in September 2024. The primary motivation for creating the badged course is to provide a “shop front” for the OU’s skills activities, increase engagement with these activities, and provide equity of access to all students. The badge courses will be aligned with the OU’s Digital and Information Literacy (DIL) framework and will cover all the DIL skills expected of students at each level. The benefits of the awarded badges are that they will give students opportunities to share evidence of their skills externally, such as to enhance their employability (like through LinkedIn, or their CVs).

Digital certificates and badging: our story so far (Cory Saarinen, Assistant Director – Technology Enhanced Learning )

A digital certificate and badge pilot project for non award-bearing courses at the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) aims to prepare for a flexible, modular future in higher education, where students may customise their learning paths. Previously, students received paper certificates of participation, which had limited utility and were time-consuming to produce. The digital certificates and badges aim to enhance student achievement recognition, improve shareability, increase utility, and ensure security.

Again, the most popular mode of sharing was either LinkedIn or email. Cory also talked about many of the benefits and values of digital badges such as automating processes, the ease of sharing, and the role in marketing. He also noted issues such as the security of the badges, for example, the risk of certificate alteration.

Concluding remarks

In summary, the main themes that came out of the discussion were that students value badges and find them useful. From a university perspective, they are useful for tracking learning and helping to motivate students to engage. However, there are still concerns raised regarding the value of badges to employers or how employers regard badges. With the amount of badge sharing on LinkedIn, it is clear that most badge holders value them. The impact on employability and the value to employers still needs further investigation. 

We thank Uwe, Peter, Bernadette, and Cory for such a fascinating session, and everyone who attended and contributed to the lively chat discussion. 

By Alice Chapman, ALTC24 Conference Committee Member

Picture this.

You arrive at a conference event that your manager has suggested you attend to meet your CPD objectives. Your train was delayed, and you didn’t have a seat for the duration of the journey. Despite your efforts to arrive early, you ended up rushing from the train station to find the venue, where you’re greeted by a busy person who thrusts a lanyard in your hand, telling you that the keynote is about to start, proceeding to give you lots of directions to the room.You try to spot somewhere to get some water, but you’re ushered up the corridor and reminded that there will be no seats left. You walk in the door which is located at the front of the room, and you scan the seats for a spare place to sit but everyone appears to be there with people they already know, and any other spare seats are occupied by bags. You notice a gap up the stairs, and it feels like your every move is being watched as you arrive next to someone who is frantically typing on their laptop, trying to get that extra email done before the event begins. And when the keynote speaker walks on to the stage, you find you are shaking, so much so that you can’t concentrate anyway and take none of the keynote session in.

Does that sound familiar?

We are all often reminded that conferences are good for professional development, providing networking opportunities, helping you in building your confidence, and a good chance to see different places. And whilst this may be true, and some people are natural at enjoying the experience of it all, for others it can be stressful and even cause high levels of anxiety.

Remember that you’re not on your own in feeling this way! Research shows us that in the UK, a little over 1 in 10 people will be living with an anxiety disorder at any one time which is over 8 million people (Mental Health UK).

What can we do if we experience anxiety around attending conferences?

Decide on the sessions you don’t want to miss in the programme ahead of arrival, including additional breaks if you know they would be beneficial for you.

Give yourself extra time for travel to and from the venue. Where possible, try and travel at quieter times.

Remember, it’s okay if you miss something! You don’t have to go to everything and sometimes, things are out of your control. It’s more important to take a moment for your wellbeing than try to fit everything in.

Make use of the quiet spaces. Step away if you’re feeling overwhelmed.

What can we do as delegates to help make people feel that they belong?

Be mindful of others while you’re at the conference. If you see someone that is on their own, say hello and give them a smile. Don’t be offended if they don’t want to chat, but your welcoming gestures may have helped them to feel more at ease.

Invite others to join you at lunch. This can be one of the most daunting times of the day so try and spot people who are on their own.

Only use the designated quiet space as somewhere to take a break from the conference, not as a workspace as some people really appreciate having a separate space to step away.

So, what is the main takeaway?

Be kind to yourself and be kind to others. Let’s make ALTC24 our most welcoming conference yet!

This year, #ALTC24 is heading back to Manchester on 3-5 September 2024 and we are looking forward to once again convening the Learning Technology community at this unmissable event.
Learn more and register here – altc.alt.ac.uk/2024.

By ​​Candela S. Baixauli

About Wooclap

Launched in 2015 by Jonathan Alzetta and Sébastien Lebbe, engineers from the École
Polytechnique de Bruxelles, Wooclap emerged from a passion for education and technology.
Recognising the growing challenge teachers faced in maintaining student attention, they
developed a neuroscience-based tool designed to enhance engagement and focus. In celebration of higher education institutions that have revolutionised pedagogical methods using Wooclap, the Interactive Learning Olympics were hosted, a global competition honouring the most interactive universities and schools.

A Global competition

This global competition recognised the most interactive education institutions in the world, those where students regularly respond to questions posed by their teachers. The participating institutions competed in nine categories, highlighting the various ways to use interactive technologies to engage students during and after classes.

The University of Edinburgh stood out in the international competition and won the gold medal in the Versatile Champions category, rewarding teachers for their use of various interactive questions such as Find on Image, Fill-in-the-Blanks, and many others.

As Alan Hamilton, Learning Technology Advisor at the University of Edinburgh, puts it: “[Wooclap] has certainly given us a lot more question types to use. The previous tool we used didn’t have as many. We try to encourage people to use more than just multiple-choice questions.”

Increased collaboration within educational teams

Other education professionals shared their vision of pedagogical innovation where collaboration among various stakeholders in education was particularly highlighted. This includes collaboration between teachers, between learning technologists and teachers, and involving students in the creation of learning resources.

Alan Hamilton, University of Edinburgh, “We created a SharePoint page where we build and maintain information and guidance on using Wooclap with all the different question types. This includes a ‘try it yourself’ participant-paced resource, where we explain each question type and provide examples. Each presenter can experience a question as a participant and use it as a resource to familiarise themselves with more unusual questions before their event or before teaching a class.“

Read more information on the competition and the winning universities.

Turn your students into active learners, try Wooclap for free and explore their educational
options.

>> Thanks for reading this AmplifyFE post! AmplifyFE is a strategic partnership between ALT and the Ufi VocTech Trust. AmplifyFE connects over 3000 professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community to share, collaborate and learn. We connect innovators, industry and educators, therefore, AmplifyFE posts may include contributions with a commercial focus. AmplifyFE’s posts are included on the #altc blog to support networking, collaboration and sharing. For more information, please check AmplifyFE’s dedicated submission guidelines.

The #altc blog submission guidelines detail who can post and the type of posts accepted to this blog.

Liesl Rowe, working at Leeds Beckett University, is the newest member of the Alt CoOL SIG. Read on to find out more about Liesl.

Where are you based?

I’ve been based in Leeds since 2021 and have worked at Leeds Beckett University for just over a year as their Senior Digital Library Advisor (Copyright). I’m responsible for answering any copyright queries; delivering training on copyright; and managing our digitisation service.

Online Channels 

My email is l.rowe@leedsbeckett.ac.uk

I can be found at:

LinkedIn: Liesl Rowe | LinkedIn

X: @libraryxmachina

BlueSky: littlebutfierce.bsky.social

What do you like?

I’m passionate about making copyright understandable and relevant to a wider audience. Students and staff at my institution often mention anxiety around ensuring they’re complying with guidelines or are unsure how it’s relevant to them. Working at a university with a thriving arts department, I think it’s crucial that they understand how to protect their own work as well as know how to respect others’ copyright. As such, I love finding cases of copyright coming to the attention of the general public and using that as a route to talk about key concepts, everything from the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons through to Mickey Mouse entering the public domain for the first time.

A bit about you

I started working in libraries in 2017, starting out in an inner-city London school as their Assistant Librarian before moving into acquisitions in HE. I got my start in copyright through working closely with academics to ensure that they had all the items they required for module development and processing digitisations.

A lot of my work is trying to pre-empt colleagues’ copyright issues so we have resources in place for them to utilise. This has included a leaflet on how academics can best protect their work and two “Copyright in Three Minutes” animated videos, one aimed at staff and one aimed at students. I’ve also taken a keen interest in AI developments: I’ve been working closely with a colleague to review different ways we can make use of AI as a library team, whilst also setting out some guidance for users so they follow best practice from a copyright point of view.

Hobbies/interest 

As a history graduate, it’s probably not a huge surprise that some of my hobbies have a historical angle: I’m an enthusiastic fencer and have entered a few competitions wielding the foil. Many of my weekends are spent visiting museums or stately homes. I’m also very fond of cooking. During the pandemic, I was very passionate about replicating many of my favourite restaurant dishes as a way of handling lockdown and this has grown into a passion for trying out new recipes. One of my greatest delights is to recreate dishes from history or whatever media I happen to be watching.

Theatre is one of my greatest passions in life. Despite having left the capital behind now, I do make a point of going to London a few times a year to indulge in seeing as many shows as possible, everything from Shakespeare through to the latest musicals.

By Andrew Larner, Manchester Metropolitan University

Summary

The definition of e-learning teams has evolved since the early 2000s (Joyce and Lisewski, 2003). In my roles as an E-Learning Technologist, Technology Enhanced Learning Advisor (TELA), and Digital Education Specialist, I’ve witnessed these changes firsthand. Until the COVID-19 Pandemic the factors affecting the role had generally been internal to Higher Education. 

COVID-19 lockdowns had a profound impact on Higher Education (for example, Watermeyer et al., 2021). Lockdowns required a rapid switch to emergency online teaching (Hodges, 2020) for universities across the world. Many teaching staff were suddenly overwhelmed by new technologies and teaching methods in an almost overnight switch.  

This had a direct effect on the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) team at Manchester Metropolitan University. When the lockdowns began TELAs were required to provide more technical support where previously support had been teaching focused. However, such was the demand for support to demonstrate the use of Microsoft Teams for online delivery we struggled to show pedagogy. Staff just needed to be able to use the tools available. 

Previously, I had been a face-to-face faculty contact, very visible and easily contactable on the phone or in the office. The requirement to ensure the team could cope with demand and provide redundancy if anyone was off sick meant I was now behind an IT style ticket system, working remotely and more centrally in the team to manage demand from across the university. 

I studied how the pandemic affected perceptions of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in the Faculty of Science and Engineering (S&E) at Manchester Metropolitan University.  I asked staff in S&E what their perceptions of the TEL Team were following the pandemic. I surveyed and interviewed staff in the summer of 2023. 

The findings suggested that colleagues considered technical and administrative activities were the focus of our role with Technical Selection and Learning Design scoring dismally. Using my research findings, I created a set of recommendations to change perceptions of the TEL Team’s role. These were written with specific reference to Manchester Metropolitan University’s context. 

Recommendations

Proactive Integration:

• Integrate into University processes. Reason: Stay informed about faculty activities, increase recognition, and have a high-level influence that can lead to more impactful outcomes.

Clearer Communication:

• Use clearer terminology and educational context in communications. Reason: Helps define the team as supporters of teaching rather than just technology.
• Focus on educational importance rather than technical details. Reason: Shifts the focus from technology to its educational benefits.
• Propose a single ‘must read’ email from all teaching support services for timely academic events. Reason: Reduces email overload and ensures important information is highlighted.

Holistic Programme Development:

• Support staff in early curriculum and programme planning to spot competency gaps in staff. Reason: Allows for timely support and skill development when staff need it.
• Embed and refresh Digital Education strategies regularly when programmes are reviewed. Reason: Ensures strategies remain relevant and effective as programmes evolve.

Training Offerings:

• Split into central sessions and tailored faculty-level training. Reason: Addresses different training needs and preferences between faculties.
• Shorten central sessions to 15-20 minutes, schedule at lunch times and push staff towards tailored one-to-one sessions. Reason: Increases attendance by making sessions more accessible and does not overload staff with extra detail.
• Integrate micro sessions into faculty meetings and collaborations. Reason: Makes training more relevant and convenient for staff.
• Reach out to education leads for departmental training bookings. Reason: Ensures training is tailored to departmental needs and increases engagement.

Rebranding One-to-One Sessions:

• Rebrand to ‘tutorials’ for a more academic feel. Reason: Makes sessions sound more educational and less technical.
• Provide tailored guidance on tool implementation within teaching. Reason: Helps staff apply digital tools effectively in their teaching.
• Say no to inappropriate queries and redirect staff to the correct support team. Reason: Develops staff understanding of the University support structure and team responsibilities. 

Online Resources:

• Defragment and simplify information on intranet and video portal. Reason: Makes resources easier to find and use. Takes smaller technical queries away from TEL. 
• Integrate videos into intranet pages, use less jargon and acronyms. Reason: Improves accessibility, understanding and demonstrates good practice.
• Limit technical demonstrations to those not provided by suppliers. Reason: Reduces the burden of creating and updating technical content.

These steps should help in redefining the role and perception of the Technology Enhanced Learning team, making them more integrated, recognised, and effective in supporting educational goals. Please share your own experiences, thoughts, feelings or suggestions on this subject in the comments! I’ll also be presenting on this topic at the ALT Conference in September. If you would like to discuss this subject further, I welcome you to join the session! You can also reach me via email at a.larner@mmu.ac.uk for any questions or further discussion.

References 

Hodges, C. et al. (2020) ‘The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning’, p. 12.

Joyce, P. and Lisewski, B. (2003) ‘On reification: a reinterpretation of designed and emergent practice – a reply’, Research in Learning Technology, 11(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v11i2.11278.

Watermeyer, R. et al. (2021) ‘COVID-19 and digital disruption in UK universities: afflictions and affordances of emergency online migration’, Higher Education, 81(3), pp. 623–641. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00561-y.

Did you enjoy reading this? To become a member of our community, see Membership details here https://www.alt.ac.uk/membership

by Katie Stripe, Imperial College London.

This post is the second of a series based on the Animated Inclusive Personae (AIP) project (Stripe and Meadows, 2024) which, at is heart, is about creating digital personae that genuinely represent the diversity of our students. This post is less of an update on the project and more an exploration of some of the issues that have arisen, primarily around language, and a request to the community for reference material, thoughts, and ideas for collaboration.

In part one of this series (Stripe, 2024), we discussed the difficulties with finding appropriate images that was the driver for the project. In response to this we are commissioning artwork from humans, which is going really well, but there is another issue of scalability and the language we use to talk about what we want from images, particularly when it comes to racial identity.

As part of the project we run a workshop on developing inclusive curricula using digital personas (Stripe and Dallison, 2024) that explores how to create an inclusive persona in which we share the stock images that are we used for the initial project.

There is a broad range of visual diversity represented but one of the most frequent comments is that they are all ‘beautiful’. They all look like models. In some ways that is inevitable, because they probably are. How else does an image get into a photo library? This is why we started the project and hired artists to create illustrations which we are in control of. However, this has raised a different set of questions, one that revolves around the language used to instruct an artist to create an illustration that represents a certain demographic.

This has wider implications than just commissioning artwork. As we discussed in the last post one of the issues with searching image banks is the way assets are tagged. The language that is used and the elements that are described in the metadata is important for searching out appropriate images but this is by no means the only place the descriptive language is used. We have not yet explored Generative AI for creating images, partly because supporting artists by commission them to create assets for is a good thing to do if you have the resources, but there is also the consideration of what exactly you would ask it to generate.

What language would you use?

Finally, however the images are generated, there needs to be alt text for the assets. Which again poses the question what elements do you describe and what language do you use?

Shutter Stock has requirements for the metadata (Shutterstock, Inc., 2024) on submitted images that ask for a minimum of seven and maximum of fifty keywords and the definition of an image against a set of categories. The categories are a finite list but there is no real guidance on what should be in the keywords. Nappy.co (SHADE and Boogie Brands, 2024) is an image library for ‘beautiful photos of Black and Brown people’ which in some instances references the colour of the person’s skin in the metadata but not all. With such a diverse range of skin tones, representing broad and diverse communities, is it enough to simply say ‘Black’ when defining an image? If not, what do you say?

When tagging images, adding alt text, or using AI, the advice is almost always to be as specific as possible. When discussing race and ethnicity we are being steered away from using the term BAME (Cabinet Office, 2021), and rightly so, as the term covers so many identities that is unhelpful. However, when tagging, and hence searching, we are forced to write statements like ‘East Asian’ because, unless it was tagged with knowledge of the person in the image we do not know for sure if that image is of a Chinese person, or Japanese, or American. So, if you want to represent a Chinese American what options do you have?

Discussing with our artists (all students) what was needed in order to support them in generating images for racial identities different from their own resulted in an image trawl of different identities for research. A valid approach, and essentially what a Generative AI tool would do, but in doing that you could be forgiven for concluding that all Korean people look like K Pop stars. Consider who has their images on the internet, or in image libraries, and what metadata will be associated with them. As already discussed, image libraries provide a certain type of image, and anyone with their biographical details on the internet is likely to be famous in some way and therefore are unlikely to represent a range of ‘normal’ people from that demographic. This again brings us to the question, if you want to represent a Chinese American what options do you have?

One could ask, and legitimately so, why this is important. The ethos of this project is to represent the broad range of diversity in our student cohort, and for us that means creating images, which while they are not photorealistic, still need to be appropriate when it comes to racial diversity. We are also developing backgrounds, and stories for these characters so it is important to get an image that matches the story.

Furthermore, once these assets are produced, they need to be tagged appropriately and given relevant and descriptive alt text. The argument for describing diverse traits in alt text is clear and underpins the whole reason for the project and the need to ask these questions. ‘When we don’t describe the race of someone in an image, we push the narrative that what our society deems as the default (usually a white person), is the default.’ (Adegbite, 2022)

However, with such a sensitive subject I do not feel that we, as a society, or a group of educators and designers, have enough language to describe, safely and confidently, what we need to in order to change the way we tag images, commission artwork (from humans or AI) or provide details for assistive technology.

And we need that.

References

• Adegbite, T. (2022) The case for describing race in alternative text attributes, Medium. Available at: https://ux.shopify.com/the-case-for-describing-race-in-alternative-text-attributes-a093380634f2 (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• Cabinet Office (2021) Writing about ethnicity, www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk. Available at: https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/style-guide/writing-about-ethnicity/#bame-and-bme (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• SHADE and Boogie Brands (2024) Nappy, Nappy. Available at: https://nappy.co (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• Shutterstock, Inc. (2024) Content Publishing Standards: Contextual Metadata, support.submit.shutterstock.com. Available at: https://support.submit.shutterstock.com/s/article/Content-Publishing-Standards-Contextual-Metadata (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• Stripe, K. (2024) Generating inclusive images to represent students – Animated Inclusive Personae (Part 1), #ALTC Blog. Available at: https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/2024/01/generating-inclusive-images-to-represent-students-animated-inclusive-personae-part-1 (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• Stripe, K. and Dallison, K. (2024) Developing inclusive curricula using digital personas, Imperial College London. Available at: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/staff/educational-development/workshops/focus-on/developing-inclusive-curricula-using-digital-personas (Accessed: 25 July 2024).
• Stripe, K. and Meadows, C. (2024) Animated Inclusive Personae, Imperial College London. Available at: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/about/education/get-involved/funding-opportunities-for-learning-and-teaching-innovation/funded-projects-funding-opportunities-for-learning-and-teaching-innovation/personae (Accessed: 25 July 2024).

Dear Members,

I hope you are all well and have some time off planned over the summer to rest and recuperate. At ALT, we are entering our busy period as preparations ramp up for our Annual Conference and AGM. I have lots to share with you in this update.

Could you be our next Trustees?

Our Trustees are a vital part of ALT. Our Trustees set ALT’s direction, are responsible for ALT’s strategy and the overall performance of the association. We have two vacancies for appointed Trustees and are seeking enthusiastic individuals to join our Board. Find out more about how to apply. Applications close on Monday 29 July at 12:00 BST (noon).

Annual Conference 2024

We are really looking forward to our Annual Conference in September. We had a fantastic response, as ever, to the Call for Papers and Scott, Diane and the Conference Committee worked hard to complete the peer review of every submission. The ALTC24 draft programme is out now and we’ve announced our keynotes.

Opening the conference on Tuesday, Chris Friend will explore empowering people through technology in ‘Humane Education: Empathy in Policies, Places, and Platforms’. On Wednesday, our student panel will be ‘Imagining the Future of Education and Technology’ and sharing their thoughts on what the future could hold. Our final keynote on Thursday, will explore how our panel fosters inclusive environments and spaces by ‘Inviting Improvement through Lived Experience’.

This year sees the return of the popular ALTC Radio show hosted and organised by DJ extraordinaire Dom Pates and we introduced a new theme focused on emerging research. Our Gala Dinner will include our Awards ceremony and evening entertainment.

As I mentioned in my last report, we are trying a new venue this year. The venue is well connected by rail and air with accommodation in the vicinity or short train ride to Manchester city centre. I look forward to hearing your feedback on it. We know the timing of our Annual Conference is a challenge with children starting school or the start of term at work for many, so, we are trying out this kind of venue as we have more flexibility on the timing of the conference in future.

We know how difficult the current economic climate is and the challenge of securing funding and time to attend conferences like ours. To help our Members, we have written a blog on ‘Writing a business case to attend ALTC24‘ with tips and suggestions for writing a strong case to attend. Thank you to our Trustee Puiyin Wong for sharing the case she wrote as an example.

Annual General Meeting 2024

Our Annual General Meeting will take place at our Annual Conference on Wednesday 4 September. If you are unable to attend the conference, you can register to join the AGM online. Resolutions must be received by 16:00 on Friday 26 July.

ALT Awards

We had a fantastic response to our call for nominations this year. We introduced a new award with our partners at Ufi VocTech Trust that aims to highlight the work of educators who develop student skills in vocational subjects (education that prepares people for a skilled craft as an artisan, trade as a tradesperson, or work as a technician). Our judges had a very difficult job selecting our winners and we look forward to awarding them at our Gala Dinner in September.

This year, we reintroduced the Community Choice Award to enable our Members to have a say in who they feel deserves recognition for their work. I encourage you all to read the entries and vote for the person or team you feel is most deserving of recognition. Voting is open until Thursday 22 August 2024 (at noon). You only get one vote, make it count!

CMALT Online Course

The CMALT Online course, tentatively titled “Your guide to Certified Membership of ALT (CMALT)” is progressing at pace. Our friends at Catalyst IT Europe have provided the cloud-based Moodle platform that will host the course. My thanks to Richard Oelmann, Joey Murison and Sam Taylor for helping us make it happen.

We have been very lucky to have the support of the team at King’s Digital to design and create the content. Having the collective learning design skills and experience of the team has been invaluable. My thanks to Michael Kay, Hazel Deacon, Elisa Vallarani and Evelyn Huang (and everyone involved that I have forgotten) for the hard work they have put in to this project.

In June, CMALT holders and assessors were invited to record videos for the course on their experiences and tips. My thanks to Anna Armstrong, Ellie Dommett, Geraldine Foley, Kiran Gawali, Tom Gurney, Antony Makrinos, David Reid Matthews, Dom Pates, Sheila Smith, Julie Voce and Puiyin Wong for giving up their time to create content to help their peers. We are very lucky at ALT to have such generous Members!

Image from a post on X by Puiyin Wong/@Puiyin. “It was fun filming [for] the upcoming…#CMALT course for @A_L_T today with Dom Pates/@dompates & Anna Armstrong/@frenchdisko. We aced it! Julie Voce/@julievoce you better watch out, ours are better than yours!”

We plan to demonstrate the course at the Annual Conference in September. King’s Digital will also share the process and approaches they go through to design and create the course. I hope you’ll join us on Thursday 5 September at 13:30 for our session.

Launching new Special Interest Groups

This year, we reopened applications for new Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and received a brilliant response. We are introducing four new SIGs who will launch at the Annual Conference. We will be inviting Members to get involved as Officers of these new SIGs very shortly so watch this space!

CEO Recruitment

Our Board of Trustees have been very busy over the last few weeks interviewing candidates for our next CEO. Thanks to our recruitment consultant Jenny Hill, from Harris Hill, we had a very strong field. We will update Members on the outcome as soon as we can.

Call to get involved

We will shortly be inviting Members to get involved in ALT, as we do every year, via our ‘call to get involved’. Participation is a core value at ALT and our Members are integral to everything we do. By getting involved in our activities, you can shape what we do. I hope to see lots of new Members get involved in what we do!

By Ann Gravells and Gavin Lumsden

A significant transformation is underway in the realm of Further Education and Skills (FE&S) training with the introduction of the new Diploma in Teaching (FE&S) qualification. The qualification commences on 1st September 2024. This update not only aims to enhance the quality of teacher training but also aligns with contemporary educational needs and standards. The transition from the existing Diploma in Education and Training (DET) to the Diploma in Teaching (DiT) reflects a progressive shift designed to better equip teachers for the evolving landscape of further education. This article delves into the details of this new qualification, the accompanying resources, and the comprehensive guidance provided by Ann Gravells and me to ensure a smooth transition for all stakeholders.

Understanding the new Diploma in Teaching (FE&S)

The new Diploma in Teaching (FE&S) is tailored for practitioners in England who teach learners aged 14 and above across diverse contexts including colleges, prisons, private training providers, and community organisations. The qualification is available from level 5 (typically offered by further education colleges) to level 7 (often provided by higher education institutions). While the core content remains consistent across levels, the depth of study, research, and complexity of assessment activities increase with higher levels.

The DiT qualification incorporates several contemporary educational themes such as Education for Sustainability, Digital and Online Technologies, and Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge. It is meticulously aligned with the latest Learning and Skills Teacher (LST) Occupational Standards, ensuring that trainee teachers are well-prepared to meet the demands of modern educational environments.

Key changes from DET to DiT

1. Content and Curriculum:
   – DET: General educational content.
   – DiT: Incorporates new topics relevant to today’s educational needs, such as sustainability and digital pedagogy.

2. Standards:
   – DET: Based on older teaching standards.
   – DiT: Aligned with the latest LST Occupational Standards, ensuring up-to-date educational practices.

3. Mentorship:
   – DET: Varied mentorship requirements.
   – DiT: Mandates two mentors for trainee teachers, one for pastoral support and another for subject-specific guidance. 

4. Teaching Practice:
   – DET: Requires 100 logged teaching hours and 8 observations.
   – DiT: Expands this to 250 hours (150 teaching practice and 100 non-teaching hours) with 10 observations, ensuring comprehensive hands-on experience

Transition guidance and checklist

To facilitate a seamless transition from DET to DiT, a detailed checklist and guidance document has been created by Ann Gravells and me. This checklist ensures that training providers, teachers, and learners are well-informed about the changes and requirements of the new qualification. Key aspects of the checklist include:

– qualification offering: confirming if current awarding organisations (AOs) offer DiT and if re-approval is necessary.
– choosing an AO: suggestions on selecting an AO if the current one does not offer DiT.
– funding and resources: information on funding options and updating resources to align with the new qualification content.
– mentorship and staff requirements: ensuring adequate training for mentors and verifying staff qualifications for teaching and assessing.

If you are a centre who would like to offer the qualification, please contact your awarding organisation, as not all are offering it.

New Book: “Achieving your Diploma in Teaching (FE&S) – Putting theory into practice for the qualification or apprenticeship”

In conjunction with the rollout of the new DiT qualification, a new book titled “Achieving your Diploma in Teaching (FE&S) – Putting theory into practice for the qualification or apprenticeship is now available for pre-order. This book promises to be an invaluable resource for both trainee teachers and educators. It aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice, providing practical insights and strategies for effective teaching in the FE and Skills sector.

The book covers a wide range of topics essential for aspiring teachers, including course design, lesson planning, teaching, learning and assessment strategies, the development of resources and the use of technology. It also emphasises the importance of reflective practice and continuous professional development, encouraging teachers to continually improve their teaching skills and stay updated with the latest educational trends regarding their subject.

Preparing for the Future

The transition to the new Diploma in Teaching (FE&S) represents a significant step forward in teacher education. It ensures that educators are better equipped to handle the challenges of modern teaching and therefore provide high-quality education to their learners. The emphasis on sustainability, digital technologies, and robust mentorship frameworks aligns with the broader goals of enhancing educational outcomes and fostering an inclusive, future-ready education system.

Training providers, teachers, and learners are encouraged to thoroughly review the guidance and checklist to ensure they are fully prepared for the new qualification. By adhering to these guidelines, they can ensure a smooth transition and continue to provide exceptional education and training in the FE and Skills sector. 

The introduction of the new Diploma in Teaching (FE&S) is a welcome change that promises to elevate the standards of teacher training, and ultimately benefit the learners who depend on skilled and knowledgeable educators. The transition from DET to DiT is set to be a positive and transformative experience for all involved.

Follow Ann Gravells and Gavin Lumsden for future resources and clear guidance, you can also find us on either www.anngravells.com or www.essentialteaching.uk

You can also join our Diploma in Teaching (FE&S) LinkedIn group for discussions and updates with like-minded educators and teachers.

>> Thanks for reading this AmplifyFE post! AmplifyFE is a strategic partnership between ALT and the Ufi VocTech Trust. AmplifyFE connects over 3000 professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community to share, collaborate and learn. We connect innovators, industry and educators, therefore, AmplifyFE posts may include contributions with a commercial focus. AmplifyFE’s posts are included on the #altc blog to support networking, collaboration and sharing. For more information, please check AmplifyFE’s dedicated submission guidelines.

The #altc blog submission guidelines detail who can post and the type of posts accepted to this blog.

By Anirudh Vadiyampeta, COO & Co-Founder of Fabrio

Background

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is no longer a niche skill – it’s the universal language of modern creativity. From manufacturing everyday products to developing Oscar-winning special effects, CAD is fundamental to the entire design process. Yet, a concerning skills gap is emerging. A staggering 64% of engineering companies report a lack of skilled talent as a barrier to growth, with 56% of new recruits lacking the necessary skills upon entering the workforce.

The gap between education and industry becomes strikingly apparent in engineering education. While colleges and universities are integrating CAD into the curriculum, traditional teaching methods often leave out practical, industry-relevant CAD skills employers desperately need.

The Problem:

• Time-Consuming Marking: Educators are bogged down by manual marking processes, spending countless hours providing feedback on CAD assignments. This leaves less time for valuable learner interaction and curriculum development.
• Insufficient Feedback: Learners are not receiving adequate or timely feedback on their CAD work, hindering their progress and impacting their learning experience.
• Industry Disconnect: Development of learning content is slow and often lacks commercial input. As a result, learning lags behind industry needs.

Fabrio: Bridging the Gap

Forward-thinking institutions are already taking action to bridge this gap. Leading universities like UCL and Imperial College London are incorporating Fabrio into their engineering curriculum, recognising the need to equip their learners with industry-relevant CAD skills.

At Fabrio, we’ve developed a revolutionary platform that empowers both learners and educators to meet these challenges head-on:

• Interactive CAD Courses: Our courses are specifically designed to reduce teacher intervention and promote independent learning, allowing learners to progress at their own pace. This approach has been successfully implemented at UCL, where Fabrio is being used across various engineering disciplines.
• Real-Time Feedback: Our unique add-in integrates seamlessly with industry-standard CAD software, providing learners with instant feedback on their design work. This real-time assessment feature is a game-changer, allowing learners to identify and correct errors immediately, fostering deeper understanding and faster skill development.
• Industry-Relevant Skills: We bridge the gap between education and industry by teaching the practical CAD skills employers are looking for, ensuring learners are job-ready. We work closely with industry giants like Autodesk and RS Group to ensure that our teaching always meets the real-world needs of the industry.

By combining cutting-edge technology with industry-aligned content, Fabrio is transforming CAD education and preparing the next generation of engineers for success.

Call to action:

Help us to understand how CAD is being taught in your college or university by completing this very short survey https://fabriodesign.typeform.com/to/B5PQvfUZ. 

Join us on: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

>> Thanks for reading this AmplifyFE post! AmplifyFE is a strategic partnership between ALT and the Ufi VocTech Trust. AmplifyFE connects over 3000 professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community to share, collaborate and learn. We connect innovators, industry and educators, therefore, AmplifyFE posts may include contributions with a commercial focus. AmplifyFE’s posts are included on the #altc blog to support networking, collaboration and sharing. For more information, please check AmplifyFE’s dedicated submission guidelines.

The #altc blog submission guidelines detail who can post and the type of posts accepted to this blog.

by Dr Teeroumanee Nadan, ARLT SIG

This blog was originally posted on 10th June 2024 on Dr Teeroumanee Nadan’s blog teeroumaneenadan.com.

7th June 2024 marked the second face-to-face workshop organised as part of the “Strategic Change” 2023-2024 ARLT SIG series of events. A similar workshop was delivered at LJMU earlier this year, small group discussions on strategies for change, panel conversations (Researching on antiracism – the people and the purpose) and external engagement with LTHEchat (LTHEchat post event notes on the antiracism agenda in HE) have also taken place to drive forward change in mindset.

The workshop at the University of Bath has been several months of conversations with the EDI coordinator and HR targetted at members of the MOSAIC network.

Amin Neghavati, ARLT SIG External Engagement officer, was keen to kick-start the conversation at Bath, and despite leaving the institution in early 2024, he still supported with the logistics of the event.

About the workshop

It was a completely free workshop, and the University of Bath provided for the venue and associated expenses. The aim of the workshop was to empower junior and mid-level POC staff and I ran exactly the same format as before, that is, pre-event activity involving reflection and self-discovery, and during the workshop I unpacked the issues the staff had been dealing with. I provided details of the workshop in a previous blog. Of course, there will be a post-event follow-up, and this is scheduled for 11th July 10-12.

There is also the 3-month and 6-month follow-up that participants have signed up for. As a facilitator, I can’t wait to see the growth in staff. I appreciate the participants who showed up on the day for engaging in the pre-event and post-event online activities, they are truly dedicated to their growth.

My personal thoughts: As usual, reflection is the hardest part of the workshop as most people rarely have allocated time for reflection in their personal life or as part of their work.

Another activity that is equally difficult for participants speaking of trauma, victimhood and overcoming barriers. This is usually the part of the workshop where some participants may get defensive or start to compare themselves with other people without knowing much about the challenges that these other people face too.

A solution I often propose is to broaden their knowledge, read, watch documentaries, whatever is necessary to know about the pros and cons and all the sides and perspectives of things, in order to avoid biases.

Participants were busy taking notes, they had quite a few pages written down and as a facilitator it is really rewarding to see tangible actions coming out of the activities and to witness breakthroughs – you know the kind of “Oh, I had never thought of that”. Sometimes simple solutions are the best and remember that you cannot get something without asking for it.

Picture with participants at the University of Bath

Moving forward

I have been approached to have similar workshops at other universities. Unfortunately, this is my last event under ARLT SIG. I decided to step down as ARLT SIG Chair earlier this year, so I will not be delivering any more free workshops for universities or ARLT SIG.

I am a doer and I enjoy the action more, there is really less competition on that front. I cannot wait to continue to do what I am great at – helping students and staff grow and making the Higher Education environment a thriving space where learning and teaching are done as they should be done!

By James Kieft, Group learning and development manager, Active Learning

Since the launch of Chat GPT Artificial Intelligence (AI) has remained one of the most discussed topics within education. Just at my social media feeds and it seems like every other post mentions AI.  There is also a plethora of Teaching focused tools that are being launched that utilise AI in some way. 

In this blog post, I am going to consider if Initial Teacher training would benefit from including guidance on how to use Artificial Intelligence effectively to help teachers new to the profession better deal with the challenge of planning learning and creating resources in the first few years of teaching.  

An article in FE (Further Education) week in March 2023 highlighted the high turnover of College teachers with a quarter leaving after the first year and almost half leaving after three years. This is partly linked to workload and the time it takes to develop resources, plan lessons, mark assignments and provide feedback. 

Thinking back to when I started teaching weekends and evenings were regularly taken up with either the planning of lessons, preparation of teaching material or the marking of students work. That is without taking into consideration how tiring it is adapting to doing something new and learning how to work with the students. 

In my current role I lead on the development teachers across a group of Further Education College’s in the Southeast of England. Part of my role involves working with and supporting teachers who are new to the organisation. As is common with the sector 40% of those who join are new to teaching typically joining from industry. 

Just recently I have started delivering on our equivalent to the level 3 Award in Education and training. A course I have planned with a focus on developing skills and practical approaches they can use in the classroom. 

Within that course I have embedded opportunities where they could utilise AI to assist them in carryout certain tasks. However, I am conscious that when developing their craft as a teacher it is important that they understand processes and approaches such sequencing and chunking information and why to use them. Once they have grasped this, I then highlight how they could be used AI appropriately. 

AI can be their co-collaborator who helps with ideas generation, create draft resources or activities which they then refine meaning that they never have to start with a blank document, help them to save time.  

In addition to talking about how AI can help them save time, we focused on the importance of a well-crafted prompt. Going through what sort of information was needed to generate the best results. We then covered the importance of verifying the information generated to make sure that it is a correct and contains all the relevant information. 

The areas covered in the course include how AI can be used for: 

• Creating an assessment rubric 
• Lesson ideas and activities 
• Drafting lesson objectives with the use of Blooms command verbs 

During the lesson we go through how they can use Microsoft co-pilot and Google’s Gemini.

Google Gemini seems better for generating ideas related content, it is more creative, with a greater variety of ideas than Copilot. I also like it will give you three drafts with different worded responses.  

However, be aware that Google will use the information contained within your prompt to help develop their large language model unless your organisation makes use of the recently announced Gemini for Google Workspace for Education to keep information private as Microsoft does for Copilot.  

With Copilot I particularly like the use of the sidebar that is available in Microsoft Edge as it means that you do not need to put quite so much information into your prompt as you can have it access information on an open page, that could include a PDF course specification.  

When it comes to video there are an ever growing number of AI tools, I find useful. 

 The first of these is Twee, it has lots of useful features not just linked to video, however, the features I have used the most are video based. All you do is simply paste in the video URL from either YouTube or Vimeo, select a five-minute extract and it can then it can: 

• Create a transcript 
• Generate some questions multichoice or open ended 
• Create three summaries with only one being correct so students must choose the correct summary 
• Creates a listening exercise, in which a student is expected to fill in the gaps in a video or audio summary 

Keeping with videos Quizizz a tool most of you are familiar with has also introduced a similar feature, paste in a YouTube URL, and it will do the same thing creating multichoice questions based on the content of the video.  

On the quiz creation front AI quiz creator is a very useful way of generating quiz questions you put in the topic title and it will generate multichoice questions, you then simply add the questions you think are most relevant, and it will generate a Google Forms quiz, or you can export the questions to Kahoot or Quizizz. 

I appreciate there is a wealth of AI tools linked to video and quiz creation that I have not mentioned. 

So, in short, AI absolutely has a place within initial teacher training, we need to make sure however that staff are clear on what is appropriate use and how to use it effectively. It needs to appear in their toolkit and hopefully with them utilising it, there will have less teachers who are entering the teaching profession looking to leave within the first year. 

This post was originally published on James Kiefts personal blog.

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AmplifyFE connects 3000+ professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education. Since 2020, our network links communities of practice for digital learning, teaching and assessment. Through the partnership between the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and Ufi VocTech Trust, AmplifyFE supports professionals to share, collaborate and learn.

Co-authored by Ian Miller, Elisabetta Lando and ChatGPT.

The rise of generative AI has sparked a significant debate across the educational sector. Many teaching practitioners are grappling with the challenge of students using AI for formal assessments and presenting the work as their own, impeding an accurate assessment of the students’ abilities and understanding. However, putting a blanket ban on AI is not the solution, argues instructional technology expert Dr. Helen Crompton in April’s Active Learning SIG webinar. Instead, we need to rethink and redesign assessments to leverage the power of generative AI as a learning tool, working with AI rather than against it.

Assessments have traditionally focused on testing what students know, but there have been long-standing arguments for a radical overhaul of assessment methods. Back in 2019, Simone Bhitendijk of Imperial College stated in a TES interview that for active learning methodologies, such as the flipped classroom, to truly take off, assessments would need to evolve to reflect their interactive nature. Bhitendijk went on to say that it would “require a change in the wider ecosystem to accelerate the uptake” (TES, October 2019).

AI is indeed a significant change within the wider ecosystem. Assessments need to radically shift their focus from merely testing knowledge to evaluating the capabilities or competencies needed to apply that knowledge. Active learning methodologies, even with the use of AI itself, can offer a promising avenue for addressing some of these challenges.

Key challenges:

• ChatGPT and other AI language models can easily generate written content like essays that may get passed off as a student’s original work.
• Typical plagiarism detection tools struggle to identify AI-generated text reliably.
• AI models can introduce biases, inaccuracies, and lack proper citations when automatically generating content.
• The importance now, more than ever, is the need to explicitly embed digital critical thinking skills in all areas of education.

While not foolproof, Dr. Crompton suggests some short-term strategies to make cheating more difficult:

• Require citations and references to be included and verify their accuracy manually.
• Ask students to connect their work directly to class discussions, readings, and experiences.
• Encourage collaboration, group work, and peer feedback as part of the assignment.

Note: Some of these tactics, such as citations and references, may eventually be outsmarted by AI, so they should be considered temporary measures.

The long-term solution, however, remains one of reimagining assessment:

• Use real-world, authentic tasks like problem-solving case studies.
• Incorporate practical components and multi-stage activities that are harder to automate.
• Have students critique AI-generated content to build critical analysis skills.
• Conduct debates with AI to develop argumentative reasoning abilities.
• Use AI for mock job interviews to practise communicating complex topics.

The key is creating active learning experiences that demonstrate deeper understanding beyond just reciting information. This aligns with the concept of ”making thinking visible” (OU innovation reports, 2020), which lies at the heart of active learning methodologies (and indeed lies at the heart of this ALTSIG’s remit). However, “making thinking visible” can pose a significant challenge for educators, who often juggle time constraints and large student cohorts. Furthermore, using generative AI to create active learning assessments requires educators to master the AI tools themselves and learn to create prompts that generate assessments aligned with learning outcomes. This process will take time, and institutions must provide the necessary support for the development of these essential staff digital skills.

While initially disruptive, it might be worthwhile to look at the positives. According to some quarters, this may even be the end of essay mills. Embracing the technology’s capabilities prudently and with proper support could potentially enrich student learning in powerful new ways.

By Jane Secker and Chris Morrison

This blog post is written jointly by Jane Secker and Chris Morrison who were highly commended in the ALT Awards in 2023 for Leadership in Digital Education. The award was in recognition of the work they did during the pandemic to provide support to the higher education community on copyright and online learning issues. This included establishing the ALT Copyright and Online Learning Special Interest Group and a webinar series which still runs to date. 

Jane and Chris research, write, present and muck around together and have successfully collaborated for over 10 years, following discovering (incidentally in a Brighton beach bar) their shared passion to make learning about copyright fun, empowering and engaging.  

They tell us…. 

Last year we were jointly presented with a ‘highly commended’ award for Leadership in Digital Education. We do many things as a collaborative venture, finding over 10 years ago that we had shared interests (copyright, Star Wars, libraries, music, doing what we can to make the world a better place). But we also discovered that we had complimentary skills and values. As set out in one of our favourite books, Thomas Shenk’s Powers of Two, many creative partnerships (Lennon & McCartney, Marie & Pierre Curie, Ant & Dec – ok maybe not Ant & Dec) prove that two heads really are better than one. In our particular mix of leadership, we combine one person’s tendency towards perfectionism (looking at you Chris) and counter that with the other’s drive to get things done, tick off an action and move onto the next thing (sound like anyone Jane?). But bring that together and you have some kind of magic…. Plus, for anyone who’s spent any time in our company, a lot of bickering! 

Leadership however has traditionally been seen as an individual endeavour – that leading is about one person’s ability to create a vision and to motivate a team. However, in this increasingly challenging and diverse world, we are seeing a growing recognition that one person cannot do everything, there simply isn’t the time. And of course, we all have blind spots that we need trusted colleagues and friends to help us with. Therefore, co-chairs can be a really effective way to lead an organisation and share the load, but also amplify your message and make sure you aren’t just reflecting your own personal preferences to the detriment of your team or community.  

We were honoured to receive the ALT Award for the work we did during the pandemic and since then. It felt like a real recognition of what we had achieved and it was wonderful to attend the Gala Dinner and be applauded by the digital education community.  

It’s a relatively simple process to write an application and you can self-nominate. The key thing is to think about the impact of your work. Writing reflective pieces like for AdvanceHE fellowship and CMALT where you have to document the impact of your work, can be great to draw upon. Remember it’s not all about metrics too, it’s about how your practice might be changing and supporting others. And the award was great to include on our CVs, shout about on LinkedIn and include in our respective promotion applications. It also led to us both getting a personal congratulations from Senior Managers at both our institutions.  

So, if you think you wouldn’t be eligible for the leadership award because you don’t fit the bill of a typical ‘leader’ think again. If you work in partnership with someone else, or create and share a vision for something in learning technology in a non-traditional way then don’t be constrained by your or other people’s previous thinking. We encourage you to apply for the ALT Awards 2024 and wish you luck.  

We are now open for entries until Tuesday 11 June 2024, and we welcome submissions from individuals and teams based anywhere in the world. The awards are free to enter. Learn More.

By Jim Turner

As learning technologists, we are at the forefront of a rapidly changing educational landscape. New technologies, pedagogical approaches, and learner expectations seem to evolve at an ever-increasing pace. How can we not only keep up, but lead innovation and effectively tackle the complex challenges we face? Action learning offers a compelling solution. 

In a recent ELESIG webinar presented by Becky Quew-Jones highlighted a key principle: our rate of learning must be greater than or equal to the rate of change in order for us to maintain a sense of control and agency. For learning technologists grappling with the educational impacts of phenomena like AI, the rate of change is clearly leaving or sense of learning far behind. Action research could provide a structured way to confront through a methodology called ‘action learning’ that by bringing together diverse practitioners to investigate issues (action learning sets), question each other, share knowledge, take action, and reflect on the results. 

The basics 

Some key benefits of action learning for learning technologists include: 

• Collaborative problem-solving – Action learning sets harness the diverse perspectives and experiences of participants to deeply explore challenges and uncover new solutions. For complex, people-centered issues without clear answers, this collaborative approach is far more effective than tackling them alone. 
• Accountability for action – Rather than endlessly discussing problems, action research demands real action between meetings to move toward solutions. Reporting back to supportive peers creates positive accountability. 
• Psychological safety to accelerate learning – Action learning sets provide a safe environment to openly share struggles and quickly develop new knowledge/skills. Honest dialogue and questioning fast-tracks the learning process. 
• Links to research and practice – The cycles of action and reflection at the heart of action learning parallel the scientific method. It can serve as a systematic research methodology and also bridge research and practice by field testing new approaches. 

As learning technologists, we could employ this versatile approach for challenges such as: 

• Evaluating and implementing emerging educational technologies 
• Redesigning courses/programs for new modes of delivery 
• Tackling issues like academic integrity, accessibility, or digital literacy 
• Piloting innovative pedagogical approaches 
• Improving technology adoption and support for faculty 

 Want more details? 

The presentation offered inspiring examples of action research in degree apprenticeship programs, academic integrity efforts, and research on workplace learning. Becky has recently used this process and published an article on a particular ‘wicked’ problem at the heart of her current job role. Here is summary of that process: 

• Participants: Six representative apprenticeship ambassadors from large organizations with existing relationships with a business school for level 6 and 7 apprenticeships. 
  
• Three Action Learning sets conducted over a 9-month period. Each set lasted 2 hours.
  
  • Set 1: Investigated barriers preventing curricular collaboration between university providers and employers. “Wicked problems” were identified and categorised into initial themes. 
  • Set 2: Reflected on outcomes of issues recognised in Set 1. Facilitated dialogue to overcome barriers and identify best practices to maximize translation of knowledge. A sixth theme (senior management buy-in) was added. 
  • Set 3: Reflected on outcomes of actions taken since Set 2. Promoted further dialogue to discuss best practices to enhance work-based learning experiences for current and future practice.

• The researcher’s role was to gather the participants and facilitate the action learning sets. The participants acted as co-researchers. 

• Data was analysed using a six-stage thematic approach, including transcription, coding, collating codes into themes, reviewing themes, defining/naming themes, and reporting. The data included the cyclical process of planning, acting, observing and reflecting was followed, with the goal of improving practice. 

In summary 

By convening action learning groups around these issues, we can accelerate progress and spread innovative practices across our institutions. The beauty of this is that it doesn’t require extensive training or resources to get started. We can begin by gathering a group of engaged colleagues, establishing ground rules for productive sessions, and diving into the cycles of action and reflection. 

In a time of disruptive change, learning from different methodologies can empower us as learning technologists to not only keep pace, but to drive educational innovation for the benefit of faculty, students, and institutions.  

What to try it out?  

Becky recommended the following . . .

1.      Watch the presentation recording 

2.      Coghlan, D., 2019. Doing action research in your own organization. Doing Action Research in Your Own Organization, pp.1-240. 

3.      Brockbank, A., & McGill, I. (2003). The Action Learning Handbook: Powerful Techniques for Education, Professional Development and Training (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203416334 

4.      Pedler, M. and Abbott, C., 2013. Facilitating action learning: A practitioner’s guide. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). 

5.      Pedler, M.M., 2012. Action learning for managers. Gower Publishing, Ltd. 

References: 

Rebecca Quew-Jones (2022) Enhancing apprenticeships within the Higher Education curriculum – an Action Learning and Action Research study, Action Learning: Research and Practice, 19:2, 146-164, DOI: 10.1080/14767333.2022.2056135 

by Kerry Pinny, Interim CEO and Chief Operations Office of ALT

Writing a proposal for a conference can feel daunting, so, we have written this blog to help you submit a strong proposal for our 2024 Annual Conference (ALTC24). If you don’t think you have anything interesting to share, think again! If you’ve never spoken at a conference before, now’s the time!

We know it is challenging to gain funding and time to attend conferences. To help, we have shared advice and an example business case to help you submit the strongest case to attend ALTC24. Speaking at a conference benefits you and your organisation and can help to further substantiate your case. As a thank you, our speakers receive a discount on the registration fee for the conference! Read ‘Writing a business case to attend ALTC24’.

All proposals will be peer reviewed by two members of the Conference Committee

This year, the Annual Conference will be in Manchester, UK on 3-5 September. Co-Chaired by Diane Bennett, Teaching and Learning Manager (Distance Learning) at The University of Manchester, and Scott Farrow, Head of Digital Learning at Edge Hill University we will be “doing, reflecting, improving, collaborating”.

Submit a proposal

Where to start

Start by thinking about what you want to achieve by speaking at the conference. Are you working on something interesting and think others will benefit from hearing about it? Do you have research you want to disseminate? Are you seeking collaborators or feedback? Do you have an idea or perspective you want to share or debate?

Then, read the conference themes. Our themes were authored by our Co-Chairs and give you direction on the topics we want to focus on this year. Do you have work, research or ideas that fit the themes? If so, make a note of your initial ideas. If not, don’t worry! Participation is important to ALT, so, we include a wildcard submission type for proposals that are not directly relevant to the themes.

Hone your topic

Think about your work and research. Do you have something to talk about that will help your peers? If so, that’s what we’re looking for! What have you worked on? What are you working on? Do you have reflections or lessons learned to share? What research have you completed? Are there initial results/conclusions you can share from your research? Have you been thinking about a particular topic and have perspectives, a framework or advice to share? Do you have something you’ve always wanted to get off your chest?

Pick a session type

Once you know what you are going to talk about, you need to think about how long you will need and what style best suits what you have to say. Your abstract will need to reflect the length and style of session. This year you can choose from:

• 60 minute workshop (an interactive and practical learning session)
• 30 minute research paper or case study
• 15 minute presentation
• 60 minute ALTC radio show

A workshop is an interactive and practical session. You might include discussions, practical demos or activities individually or in groups that will help delegates to explore the topic of your session. It is important that delegates learn or take away something from a workshop. The abstract should clearly detail what the delegate will learn or take away from the session and what they will be doing during the session. A session where you talk for 60 minutes is not a workshop!

A research paper or case study is a 30 minute session for you to showcase something you’re researching or studying. Ideally, a research paper or case study will be on a published or in-progress piece of research or study. If it’s not yet published or complete, it should be at a point where initial results or conclusions can be drawn from it and shared with delegates.

A 15 minute presentation can be on any topic in any style but remember, you only have 15 minutes! These short sessions are ideal for first-time speakers.

This year we have a new session type, the 40 minute ALTC radio show. ALTC radio was a great success last year and it offers delegates an alternative format to engage with as well as offering a creative and informal session type for speakers. Share the waves with colleagues, play your favourite tunes or chat about all things learning tech!

Pick a title

The title of your proposal will be the title advertised on the conference programme, so, it’s important to choose an effective title. Delegates may decide whether to attend your session without reading your abstract!

Keep it concise, to the point and make sure to mention keywords. Funny or catchy titles are welcome too so use your imagination. Ask yourself, does your title tell delegates enough about what they are going to hear?

Writing an abstract

The abstract is your 500 word advert for your session. It is a summary of the main points that will be explored in the session. Peer reviewers will read it and base their decision to accept or decline the proposal solely on the abstract. Delegates will read it to understand what they will learn from the session and decide whether to attend.

Your abstract should demonstrate to the reviewers that you have something relevant and valuable to add to the conference. Therefore, it needs to be focused, clearly describing the value of the session to delegates and the value of your ideas to the conference itself.

Depending on the session type you choose, your abstract should address the following questions as concisely as possible:

1. What will your session focus on?
2. Why is that focus important/relevant to delegates?
3. How is it relevant to the conference theme(s)?
4. Who is your intended audience?
5. Why should delegates attend?
6. What will delegates learn?
7. What evidence or data are you going to use?
8. What are the key findings, conclusions or implications?
9. What will delegates be doing during the session?

Remember, reviewers and delegates may not be familiar with what you’re talking about or with your area of work. Avoid jargon, colloquialisms and acronyms.

If you are using data or referring to literature in your session, remember to include it in a reference list.

Avoid identifying information in your abstract where possible. To aid the double blind process and the fairness of the review, avoid mentioning names or other information that would enable a reviewer to identify you. You will be able to add that information back into the proposal later.

Proofread

Before submitting, remember to proofread your submission. Step away from your submission and review it with fresh eyes.

What happens next?

When the call closes, our Conference Committee will begin the double blind peer review process. Each reviewer will indicate whether the proposal should be accepted or declined and provide feedback. Proposers will be notified of the outcome along with the reviewers’ feedback in June. If your proposal requires revisions, you will be given time and instruction on how to make those changes. Once accepted, you will have until July to register as a speaker and your session will be published in the conference programme.

Need inspiration?

Still not sure you have anything to submit? Why not get some inspiration?

Look back at the programmes, abstracts and recordings from previous years. You can watch all of the recordings from our 2023 Annual Conference on YouTube. Read all the posts from previous conferences on our blog.

Submit a proposal

This year, #ALTC24 is heading back to Manchester on 3-5 September 2024 and we are looking forward to once again convening the Learning Technology community at this unmissable event. Learn more and register here – altc.alt.ac.uk/2024.

By Kerry Pinny, Interim CEO and Chief Operations Officer

We know it can be challenging, in the current economic climate, to secure approval for funding and time to attend ALT’s Annual Conference. One way to gain support and increase the possibility, is to submit a strong business case with your request. 

A persuasive business case outlines how attendance will benefit you, your team and the organisation, why attendance is good value for money and how it will support your continuing professional development. The example is designed to help you write your business case.

Writing a case: first steps

An effective business case will make a strong connection between attendance and the benefits the organisation will see as a result. If you have never written a business case before, start by:

1. Writing down the most important strategies, projects or challenges in your organisation.
2. Thinking about how your work contributes to your organisation’s strategies and projects or can help solve its challenges. 
3. Identifying the skills and knowledge that you need in order to contribute to the organisation’s strategy and projects or solve its challenges.
4. Considering how attendance will contribute to your career development and CPD. You could review your annual appraisal or look at the essential criteria for a promotion or role you would like to apply for.
5. Visiting the Conference website to identify and note the sessions in the programme that are relevant to your organisation’s strategy, projects or challenges.
6. Using the conference programme to Identify and note speakers, sponsors or exhibitors you would like to meet and how meeting them will contribute to your organisation’s strategy, projects or solving challenges.

An example business case

The Association for Learning Technology’s Annual Conference is one of the UK’s largest conferences for learning technology and digital education professionals. Held over three days, the conference provides a valuable and practical forum for practitioners, researchers, managers and policy-makers from education and industry to solve problems, explore, reflect, influence and learn.

The conference attracts over 350 delegates from across the UK and around the world. Delegates are practitioners from Higher and Further Education, Schools and Industry at all levels of seniority. Delegates are in a wide range of roles including learning technologists, senior/executive leaders, developers, learning and development professionals, academics and researchers. 

At present, our [insert organisation] is focussed on [insert strategy, projects, challenges that are important to the organisation]. [explain how your role contributes to the organisation’s strategy, projects, challenges]. 

[Insert a session title] will help/support [me/my team/department/the organisation] [with what?] because the session will [what info is relevant from the session abstract]. (Repeat for 3-5 relevant sessions)

I have submitted a proposal to present [insert session title and brief abstract]. Presenting this paper will [why does presenting benefit you and the organisation?].

[During the conference, will you be visible on social media, blogging, podcasting etc?]

I am keen to develop [insert your CPD/career goals] and the sessions on [insert relevant sessions] will support me [list the ways the sessions will support your CPD/career goals].

While at the conference, I will have opportunities to network and connect with delegates. I plan to meet [insert a speaker, sponsor, exhibitor or delegate(s) you would like to meet (e.g. are there speakers from other relevant organisations)] connecting with them will help/support me/the organisation by [why will meeting these people be beneficial?].

The conference represents good value for money with over 100 sessions including three keynotes, from leading experts in the sector, panel discussions, workshops and research papers. All of the sessions will be recorded, therefore, I will have access to any I cannot attend as well as a significant resource I can continue to use after the conference. Including registration, travel and accommodation, the conference will cost [insert cost to attend].

After the conference, I will [explain how you will disseminate or share what you have learned with colleagues, the organisation or external networks post-conference].

This year, #ALTC24 is heading back to Manchester on 3-5 September 2024 and we are looking forward to once again convening the Learning Technology community at this unmissable event. Learn more and register here – altc.alt.ac.uk/2024.