C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity Nothing Neutral: enhancing student learning through creative projects C4C Collaborating for Creativity CETL Professor Gweno Williams, Academic Head of C4C, Professor of Creative Arts Education, National Teaching Fellow Julia Smith, C4C Project Manager 4 June 2008 University of Greenwich

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity Q. Why run creative projects in a university? A. A film-maker’s comment on passion ‘ Are we not, for most of our lives, marking time? Most of our being is at rest, unlived. In passion, the body and the spirit seek expression outside of self. Passion is all that is other than self. If passion dies or is denied, we are partly dead, and soon, come what may, we will be wholly so.’ John Boorman, British film director b.1933 (Director: Excalibur, The Emerald Forest)

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity C4C at YSJ Existing projects formed the qualifying track record and basis for a successful £4.5 million CETL bid in C4C is funded Creativity is defined in deliberately broad terms, as present and relevant in all disciplines and subject areas Project methodology operates throughout the university e.g. University Teacher Fellowships, Enquiry Based Learning Unit etc

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity C4C: Collaborating for Creativity Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Competitive innovative HEFCE initiative, with 74 CETLs awarded funding Enhancing learning and teaching in HE Largest single government investment ever in HE T&L Funds activity supported by appropriate building development-please come to visit the C4C centre to see for yourself Mandate for innovation and risk in British HE; catalyst for culture change Arrived on the HE landscape relatively rapidly What will be next?

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity Successful features of C4C An inverted pyramid of many smaller collaborative projects originating from staff passions (see poster/C4C packs for examples) Enhances the validated student curriculum Open and inclusive principles Competitive bidding process replicates real world experience Innovative and often interdisciplinary Match-funding generates responsibility and sustainability Robust and evolving project management mechanisms

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity CREATIVE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT EXERCISE Name…. Teaching passion… A preferred teaching approach…

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity Projects will: - Demand more than you imagine – indulge - Clash with existing systems and processes, financial and reporting - Look different in the middle and at the end - Disrupt Projects have: - A life force of their own – burning very brightly - Capacity to change a lot in a very short space of time - A tendency to affect more people that you anticipate

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity Key ingredients: - Core project team with individual talents -New collaborators – internal/external -Space internal/external -Appropriate actual or in-kind funding -Documentation methodology, content specific

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity … what’s in it for those collaborators? How do you find collaborators from your relevant industry? -Think small and local -Think public sector -Think long term relationship And - Don’t think discipline specific

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity Introduce your proposed Creative Project to colleagues

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity Creative project benefits for students Collaborative learning Opportunities to contribute skills, expertise and knowledge Passion Creativity Memorable learning Preferred learning styles readily deployed Multiple outcomes Personal development Confidence Fun Pride

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity Pitch your Creative Project Name: title, cost, duration, faculty/subject/module

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity Our conclusions from C4C Projects are creative, life-enhancing, fun They won’t be suppressed or go away Require flexibility, opportunism and loose boundaries Generate new ideas and innovations Multiple benefits for many stakeholders Develop a ‘project mindset’ and creative projects will follow What will your creative project be? Thank you.

C4C: Collaborating for Creativity enhanced learning opportunity Workshop Evaluation Please write down 3 good points about this workshop 3 suggestions for improving/developing the workshop. Thank you