Opportunities for staff to connect discuss and learn.
Opportunities for staff to connect, discuss and learn including the Senior Fellows Network (for colleagues recognised as Senior Fellows of Advance HE), Inclusive Learning Network, Advanced Practice Exchange (APEX), Transition to Teaching at Lancaster, and scope to develop and align to new emerging special interest groups
Lancaster University is privileged to have a rich and diverse community of colleagues who have achieved AdHE Senior or Principal Fellowship by demonstrating their sustained commitment to Professional Standards for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education.
All fellows of Advance HE (AF/F/SF/PFHEA) must ‘remain in good standing’ and continue to work in line with their relevant Fellow descriptor standard, conforming with the Fellowship of the HEA Code of Practice.
One route by which experienced colleagues with leadership roles, responsibilities and/or sustained practice (eg SF/PFHEA) can demonstrate they are remaining in good standing is to actively participate in the ATLAS community as ATLAS reviewers as well as advocating and supporting colleagues progressing toward submission of claims to achieve a fellowship of any descriptor. Their support is very valuable for individual applicants, the ATLAS scheme and Lancaster University.
Lancaster University Senior Fellows Network is an initiative aiming to make a leading contribution to Lancaster’s community of educational practice, striving to raise the profile of teaching across the university, to support the highest quality teaching and learning experience for our students. membership includes all colleagues at the University that have achieved recognition as either Senior or Principal Fellows are members of the network.
Principles by which we operate
Get in touch if you have recently achieved Senior Fellowship of Advance HE recognition and wish to be added to the Senior Fellowship Network mailing list, or if you have joined the University and gained Senior or Principal Fellowship at another university and would like to be part of the network - please email us at lusfn@lancaster.ac.uk. If you would like to become a peer reviewer for the ATLAS Scheme, please also do not hesitate to get in touch with us at atlas@lancaster.ac.uk.
An open network that meets regularly, the ILN is designed to bring colleagues from across the university together to provide an opportunity to share inclusive good practice covering all aspects of the student life cycle and inclusive practices impacting on staff. Representatives from ASQ, Careers, Counselling and wellbeing, Disability and Inclusive Practice Service encompassing Educational Developers, Faculty outreach and success, Global experience, Learning Developers, Learning Technology (broader ISS), Library Academic Liaison, LUSU, LGBTQIA+ Allies, Parents and Carers, Race Equality, and Women’s Network. Faculty and Departmental administrators, academics and teaching fellows attend to share their good practice and raise issues or ask questions about inclusive provision.
The Digital Education Network is a dynamic hub for staff to meet with and engage with both one another and educational and learning technology experts to explore and exchange practice with digital education. It is an open network that does not meet, but remains connected at all times through numerous topical channels in MS Teams. It is a fantastic resource for learning technology how to guidance and support.
Join the DEN, join the conversation about digital education.
CEDA in Lancaster has put into practice a core objective of the LU Strategic Plan to “work with our … global campus teaching partner communities to maximise opportunities for greater synergies and learning at, across and from our partners.” Thus the Advanced Practice Exchange (APEX) network for staff at Lancaster and the International campuses to work together on salient educational issues. The network will provide opportunities for staff to engage with and support each other in the exploration of ways to enhance student learning on Lancaster’s programmes, wherever they are taught.
The long-term objectives of APEX are to:
Please refer to the TTL associated Moodle site with resources which is aimed principally to support academic staff who have not had previous experience of teaching in UK Higher Education before coming to Lancaster University. The Moodle site is a valuable resource which aims to help you understand the expectations regarding teaching and learning in the UK (especially useful for international colleagues) and in particular here at Lancaster.
A feature of CEDA work that can be characterised as organisational development and change, especially in providing expertise in relation to the emergent requirements for Curriculum Transformation.
During academic year 2022/23 CEDA undertook a small-scale investigatory institutional project, commissioned by Lancaster University’s Academic Standards and Quality Committee (ASQC), to explore calibration practices at Lancaster.
Calibration practice amongst marker teams is an exercise where the whole marking team complete a shared marking activity using a sample of live or historic assessment artefacts in a semi structured environment, prior to the process of marking and moderating the full cohort in the marking. The aim is harness peer discussion in order to reach a common understanding of standards and thresholds among markers to achieve greater consistency in the marking process and improve inter-marker reliability. It is a process conducted internally within an institutionally defined marking team, and distinctive from (but complementary to) moderation practices that typically take place at the end of the marking process.
Research on calibration practices offers evidence of decreased variability, improved marker team consensus and indicates improved marker confidence in making reliable judgements about standards.
This project identified similar benefits across a range of Lancaster and institutional partner contexts, resulting in the following outputs to support colleagues at Lancaster University and its partner institutions to advocate for adopting the practice of calibration amongst marker teams.
