Celebrating educational excellence in the School of Health & Psychological Sciences

Speaking about the event, organisers Lucy Myers and Professor Stian Reimers, Directors of Education Enhancement and Digital Innovation, said:

“The event was a celebration of all that’s great about teaching in the School, and it was fantastic to watch all the presentations showcasing such a wide range of work from across departments. Although Nursing came out as the judges’ winner, all the presentations were excellent, and showed the variety of innovative teaching practices that are happening across the school. ”

In addition to the Judges’ Award, there was a People’s Choice Award, voted for by the attendees at the event, which went to Psychology for the presentation ‘Research Methods workshops and Generative-AI-created video case studies’ given by Dr Seraphine Clarke, Dr Kathryn Emerson, and Dr Sonja Newman. This covered projects on the BSc Psychology programme to make research methods sessions more engaging and informative, and using GenAI to produce videos showing personalised and relatable case studies.

Professor Debra Salmon, Dean of the School, said:

“It's always such a pleasure to see the innovative approaches colleagues have been developing to enhance our students’ experience here. The event is an opportunity to recognise the dedication of our staff to excellent teaching, and there's a wealth of great teaching that is happening across the School. The efforts by staff to improve students’ education are really appreciated by our students, by colleagues, and by the university. I hope the talks inspire us all to continue enhancing our teaching practices.”

Other presentations at the event covered a wide range of themes and areas, including:

• Harnessing the benefits of ChatGPT for radiography education (Dr Benard Ohene-Botwe and Cletus Amedu from Radiography) – This project used prompts to create a range of scenarios that allow students to examine key principles in medical imaging such as the inverse square law.
• Enhancing learning through authentic assessments: reflecting Miller’s Pyramid and Harden’s Ladder (Professor Michelle Hennelly from Optometry and Visual Science) – Talk discussed the use of reliable assessments that reflect real-life experience, enabling an interprofessional education and better preparing graduates.
• Undergraduate attainment of former Foundation Year students within the School of Health and Psychological Sciences (Dr Helen Spicer-Cain from Language and Communication Science) – Presentation on research which revealed the high level of achievement among former foundation year students who have gone on to BSc courses.
• Faster marking, better feedback: How I learned to stop worrying and love Excel (Robin Lindop Fisher from Language and Communication Science) – Focused on the use of Excel to streamline marking and feedback.
• Digital education resources can be informative and enjoyable (Dr Reem Alyahya from Language and Communication Science) - Used video-based exercises (of real clinical cases), small group discussions, and a formative quiz to improve learning and enjoyment.
• UG admission process - changes adopted (Dr Marina Danielle from Midwifery) - Talked about the move to multiple mini-interviews, which is a more equitable and fair approach.
• Rubric assessment and changes to the team marking process (Yetunde Akinnuoye from Midwifery) – Discussed how rubric feedback was introduced to give students a seamless approach to learning and development.
• MSc Health Management – WHO Internships (Dr Charitini Stavropoulou and colleagues from Health Services Research and Management) – Discussed policy-related internships that exposed students to real world policy-driven questions.