Northumbria Conference – 9 th September 2010

 HE context of ‘learning & teaching’ viewed as:  Learners  Little opportunity to engage with the nature of the research process,  How research informs and defines subject disciplines  An Assessment that  Transformed learners into enquiry based researchers

 Structured to resemble conference submission  Constructed a review paper around a particular research topic  Initial brief (which resembled a conference call for papers), included a list of relevant topics  Students submitted using the template provided  Awaited reviewer’s comments  Constructed a poster for presentation at the conference.

 Seminar sessions used to provide feedback/guidance on draft paper  Not always well attended  Poor academic writing skills  Use Ruth Sutherland to provide guidance to students on poster creation  Use of L&T Academy to print posters  No longer possible  Organising the conference  No admin support or funds

 Assessment for Learning (AfL) conditions,  ‘emphasizes authenticity and complexity’  ‘extensive opportunities to engage in the kinds of tasks that develop and demonstrate their learning’  ‘direct their own learning’  Preparation for Individual Project  Nature of research; hypothesis, testing, evaluation, evidence, citations, etc

 Conference held in the Great Hall, Sutherland Building  Included poster presentations from CNT and Coms & PR students.  Also launched digital security service for SMEs. ▪ Regional businesses were invited to attend ▪ Feedback was extremely positive.  Proved to be very popular with the students  Offered opportunities for the students to demonstrate and display their technical skills to a wider, non-academic audience.

 “I was a bit scared when I took the option of doing a poster for the conference, it sounded more exciting than the book review but was a bit nervous about it being a real conference. I’m so pleased I did it now, I feel as if I learned loads more because it felt more important than just an assignment.”  “Presenting at a real conference makes it extra special”  “I was a bit confused at first, I couldn’t see how we could get everything into the poster from the module, it was hard figuring out what to leave off but it was so much better when we finished and saw all the posters.”

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