Externally Funded Projects

An important part of LATEU's work involves collaboration with other UK HE institutions through participation in nationally-funded projects. LATEU also strives to be part of the wider world through collaboration with partner institutions in European-Union funded projects. In addition to supporting our reseach interests, these projects also provide opportunities for exchange visits that promote cultural understanding.

Current Projects

Employer Engagement Initiative 

 

National projects

Evaluation of Design & Implementation Tools for Learning (EDIT4L): was a project funded by JISC from May 2006 until August 2007, to implement and evaluate existing learning design tools in the context of teaching staff development at the Universities of Southampton and Warwick, and nationally. Ultimately, EDIT4L was about improving the quality of learning and teaching at all levels within tertiary level education by demonstrating that, in appropriate learning scenarios, improvement is both possible and viable for busy educational professionals. The final report and more information are available from the project website.

Contact: Paul Riddy

Teaching Citizenship in HE (POLIS): is a 3 year project funded by the Higher Education Funding Council's Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning to support the development of citizenship education at university level. The project team is developing a series of on-line learning activities which can be incorporated into existing curricula for students of politics and cognate disciplines. In so doing, it is drawing upon expertise in the fields of learning design & technology, political science, information literacy and personal development & career planning.

International projects

Network for European Tertiary Level Educators (NETTLE):  is a 3 year Thematic Network funded by the EU under the Socrates Erasmus program.  The project is looking at approaches to the development of teaching staff educational skills, in tertiary level education, across Europe.

NETTLE started with the questions “What skills are necessary to become an effective and efficient teacher working within HE ?” and “What practice is there which supports this development ?” Through iterations of research and development, NETTLE has been harvesting the rich diversity of approaches across Europe to develop a draft development framework. This provides broad descriptors for guiding the educational skills development of teachers in HE. In parallel, institutional case studies have been collated to illustrate in-context use of educational skills development. The framework, case studies, and associated competencies list are available for download from the web site.

Through its outputs NETTLE contributes to the establishment of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010, action line 7 of the Bologna Process, specifically contributing to both the mobility of staff and students and the “quality of teaching staff”. The latter forms one of the standards produced by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) in 2005. NETTLE is taking this further through building links with appropriate national and international bodies, and exploring the interest in establishing a European wide association for accreditation of educator skills. In this increasingly competitive and market driven environment, the quality of teaching and learning support provided by institutions is likely to increase in importance, and the combination of outputs and activities arising from NETTLE have the potential to make an important contribution to the quality of education across Europe.

Contact: Paul Riddy