Oxford Brookes Academic Enhancement and Standards Committee has made its final (?) modifications to the draft Strategy for Enhancing the Student Experience (SESE). The two objectives of this strategy are to:
- [implement] approaches centred on critical reflection, impact evaluation and continuous enhancement of the student experience.
- [maximise] student involvement in the development of policies and practices for teaching and learning and in extra-curricular, student led initiatives.
The strategy has principles and guidelines and (eventually) will have maps. Overall the tone is a bit directive: there is a lot of insistance and requirement, but the intentions are (I believe) worthy ones.
From a PCTHE perspective some of the key messages of this document are:
- All staff who support learning will participate annually in high quality professional development (3.5.2)
- All academic staff who support learning will engage with processes of evaluation, reflection and research into pedagogic practice (3.5.4)
- The fundamental purpose of assessment will be to help students learn by providing formative feedback. (3.6.2) (so obvious but so often ignored in practice)
- Students will be expected to take responsibility for their own learning, to actively engage with feedback and assessment (3.3.1) (this is perhaps one of the key messages of the Assessment Compact)
- Students [will have the opportunity] to provide input and play a role from the outset in the development of new programmes. (4.3.4)
From a wider educational development perspective:
- [With our] internationally recognised in-house expertise in educational development, we commit to routinely carrying out impact assessment, review and revision of all significant academic development initiatives and of measures taken forward in the SESE and the consequent strategy maps. (4.4.3.1)
Learning technology messages
- [People will be] able to use technology to shape their own learning environment and interactions. (3.2.2)
- [The] curriculum will be enriched by technologies that empower students’ development as self-regulating, digitally literate learners, able to shape their own learning interactions and author their own digital artefacts. (3.4.5)
- The physical environment will be augmented by digital environments and technologies in ways which support a distinctive Brookes learning experience (3.7.2)
- The functional access, skills and practices necessary to become a confident, agile adopter of a range of technologies for personal, academic and professional use. To be able to use appropriate technology to search for high-quality information; critically to evaluate and engage with the information obtained; reflect on and record learning, and professional and personal development; and engage productively in relevant online communities. (4.1. d)
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