Current Students and Staff

// University News

3 Jun 2015

Teaching Innovation Awards fund student and staff ideas to enhance teaching and learning at Loughborough

The awards presented in a new event, which took place on 2 June, celebrate new initiatives and pedagogic research projects that contribute directly to the quality of teaching and learning at the University. 

This year for the first time, applications were open to all of the teaching and learning community, including students who are recognised as key partners in innovating teaching practice.

The Centre for Academic Practice, who administer the awards on behalf of the University, were delighted to see students from the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences and Politics, History and International Relations successful in gaining funding.

Competition was fierce with 13 applicants submitting projects. A total of £21,000 has been awarded this year to students and academics from 9 schools and departments.

Pro Vice-Chancellor for Teaching, Professor Morag Bell, said: “These Awards are central to the delivery of the new University strategy. They support and celebrate the creativity that underpins excellence in learning and teaching.  I would like to thank the Centre for Academic Practice for bringing together colleagues, students and members of LSU for this event.  It is an ideal opportunity for us to share and build on the imaginative ideas that underpin so much outstanding practice across the University.”

The 2015 winners are as follows:

Dr Hilary McDermott, Dr Ashley Casey, Said Ibeggazene, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences and Mr Lee Barnett, Centre for Academic Practice, E-Learning

Empowering students to develop a ‘user friendly’ framework for LEARN

A project to enhance the two-way pedagogical interaction between students and staff through the development of a ‘user friendly’ Virtual Learning Environment (i.e. LEARN).

Harry Lane, Emma Giles, Dr Emma Haycraft and Dr Hilary McDermott, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Developing a common language: Enhancing communication and feedback

A project to develop an online activity, with input from students and staff, to enhance feedback practices and promote better communication between the two.

Dr Simon Martin and Dr Daniel O’Boy, Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering

Drop-in Labs: Exploring Engineering Concepts

A project to develop a suite of ‘hands-on’ demonstrations of engineering related teaching aids that first year students can use to develop and reinforce their understanding of key concepts in their taught programmes. 

Amanda Berry, School of Business and Economics

Video podcasts (Vodcasts) to support placement searching

A project to create a library of high quality vodcasts from interviews of final year students who have returned from their placement year. The videos will be a teaching resource for academic and careers staff supporting 2nd year students embarking on the placement application process.

Kelly Morrison, Physics, Michael Walsh, Design School and Mark Snape, School of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering

Developing a student-led video library for undergraduate experimental labs

A video library that will enable students to immediately grasp the operation and aim of specific projects that would require pages of instructions in individual lab scripts.

Lee Campbell, Arts, English and Drama

Skype as a tool to enhance classroom engagement and build student enterprise opportunities

Exploring Skype as a tool for stimulating debate in areas of pedagogy relating to how it can be easily implemented into the learner environment and provide a platform to use technology creatively in their teaching. 

Dr Catherine Armstrong and Lauren Porter, Politics, History and International Relations

Developing employability and improving teaching practice: Teaching observation benefitting students and academics

This project aims to develop learning by bringing together final year undergraduates and educators in the primary, secondary and FE sectors developing networks from a range of educational settings to Loughborough to benefit the curriculum.

Karl Hurn and Ian Storer, Design School

Capturing and disseminating design expertise across large student cohorts

Students have voiced a desire to see the demonstration of technique or application of theory being captured and made available outside of taught sessions. This project proposes to evaluate methods of capturing and disseminating these inputs through the use of video and integration with existing portals such as LEARN, Review and Echo 360.

Dr Lara Stocchi, Dr Alex Wilson, Dr Chris Wilson, School of Business and Economics

Using a Community of Practice to Enhance Learning and Teaching

This project aims to identify and disseminate innovative ways of enhancing teaching practices on an on-going basis within the School of Business and Economics which complement and add to the formal training.