SALT Small Project Grants 2016 / 17
Swansea Academy of Learning and Teaching is pleased to announce that, the SALT Small Project Grant Award Scheme will be returning this Autumn.
The Scheme was created to fund projects conceived to explore and implement imaginative, innovative, ambitious approaches to teaching, learning and assessment.
The aim of the grant Awards is to enable the development of ideas from concept to delivery, through small projects designed to produce evidence based innovation, with a view engendering positive evidence based change in our classroom practices.
Funding is available up to a maximum of £1500 for each successful application.
SALT Team
Since the last newsletter (a very long time ago !) our team has grown, and we have also had changes in the College SALT Leads.
Click here to see us all, in all our glory … and get our contact details.
PVC’s Blog
PVC Martin Stringer writes regularly on topics such as TEF, the Diamond Report, NSS, Inclusivity and other things. This blog is highlighted (and widely read !) on the SALT Website. Read what PVC Stringer has to say here …
Reflections of ALTc
This September Debbie Baff, Simon Gibbon and Mandy Jack attended this year’s annual ALT (Association for Learning Technology) conference which is the UK’s main learning technology conference. See their reflections on the SALT Blog. This year the conference was held on the University of Warwick Campus and the theme was called: Connect, Collaborate, Create – the full programme can be found on ALTc website.
New Programme of Support for those interested in gaining HEA Fellowship
SALT has been administering the internal route for experienced staff to apply for Fellowship(**) for one year. In striving to improve the support offered, applicants must now follow a structured programme of Information Sessions, Developing your Application Session plus 2 mandatory mentoring sessions. Applicants of Senior Fellows will need to attend 2 additional sessions to support them in their applications.
If you are interested in seeking recognition as a Fellow, then the next Information sessions are on:
- 14:00 – 16:00, 2nd November (Park Campus)
- 14:00 – 16:00, 9th November (Bay Campus)
To register, please click on the Upcoming Events part of the SALT website.
For more details about what the new programme entails, see our website.
(** Fellowship means all categories of Fellowship covered through the internal route – Associate, Fellow and Senior Fellow)
Make One Change
For the second year running, we held array of lunchtime seminars to help staff at Swansea Make One Change.
The IT month, as we fondly called it, provided the opportunity for staff share their experiences and to have a go at using some new technology to enhance their approach to learning and teaching.
- Read the Blog to see the range of ideas that were shared. Start here and work your way forward …
- Here is the Storify too where you will find lots of useful link mentioned to help and support you as you explore new technologies
Xerte Online Toolkits / LimeSurvey
Helen Davies in SALT administers both the Xerte Online Toolkits and the LimeSurvey … survey tool !
- “Xerte Toolkits” is a tool that allows you to create interactive learning resources using a variety of media.
- LimeSurvey is an online survey tool that allows the creation and distribution of online surveys. Features include the ability to add media (images and video) to questions, conditions (or branching), allowing your respondents to only see certain questions based on answers to previous questions, and it also affords you the ability to export your survey results and analyse them in software such as Excel or SPSS.
For more information and/or to request an account, please contact Helen Davies
In addition, please keep an eye on the events page for details of Xerte training that will be delivered both on the Singleton and Bay campus this semester.
Continuing Professional Development
Ensuring that you are reviewing and improving your teaching skills is key for student satisfaction as well as your satisfaction as a teacher. Perhaps you’re considering this as part of your annual professional development (PDR) review?
Not sure what to do? Can’t attend a course?
There is a range of CPD that you can do, often from the comfort of your chair. Our new CPD webpage outlines a range of formal and informal CPD opportunities, including links to some pedagogical literature on teaching, learning and assessment.
There’s also Make One Change ! What small change have you done to improve the teaching and learning for your students ? Tell us about it !
SALT Conference
Our annual Learning and Teaching Conference (the 8th) took place on the 28th June this year in the Taliesin at the Park Campus.
You can access the conference website here.
It was the biggest and best attended SALT conference to date with over 200 delegates including colleagues from Swansea and other Higher Education Institutions across Wales.
A diverse range of sessions were on offer run across six different streams with over 50 sessions including presentations, workshops, lightning talks and poster sessions.
This year delegates and presenters also had the opportunity to claim an Open Digital Badge for their contribution to the Conference. If you would like to claim yours or have any queries please contact Debbie Baff (deborah.baff@swansea.ac.uk)
