Behind the scenes in the Bristol Teaching Awards
The Bristol Teaching Awards are a celebration of all the ways staff teach, inspire, and support our students in their learning journey at University of Bristol. Here’s a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how it all comes together.
Pre-Noms!
First job is to get to grips with the awards, how many, drawing up the criteria, and to develop and test the new whizzy app through which nominations are made. There is a lot of guidance to create and review as there are a vast amount of people involved in the decision-making process from shortlisting panels to data cleaners, to promotions, and of course, importantly, the announcement of the winners in June.
There is a flurry of promotion before the nomination period begins; distributing posters around the campus and student residencies, and sending out emails to the various schools, divisions and faculties to get the message out. Ensuring we capture the student perspective is paramount, so we make a concerted effort to ensure our efforts cover the campus.
Noms!
Once the nomination period opens, we are busy at the back end of the app, checking spellings, cross-checking details about the person being nominated and confirm staff members for team nominations. The nomination system asks for detail and evidence based on a set of criteria for each award. It takes time and effort to nominate, so we’re incredibly grateful for the dedication shown by everyone who takes the time to submit a nomination in the first place.
Post-Noms!
Next, there is a short turnaround to get the details out to the shortlisting panels. We don’t know how many nominations each panel will need to review until the nomination window closes. Lots of mystical guessing, excel functions and general scrabbling around ensures that each panel has enough people to spread the workload. We want to make sure that the panel is inclusive with good representation of genders, race and staff across different areas and career stages, as well as bringing in the student voice. Luckily lots of people are keen to be involved so we can fill all the panels.
Shortlisting!
A huge data set of over 1000 nominations go through several cleaning and checking exercises before being wrangled into excel ready to be exported to the panels. The panels need to know several key pieces of information as well as being able to access the data clearly. Colour-coded spreadsheets make an appearance to help highlight what people need to do.
Once the data is prepared it’s time to send it to the shortlisting panels. There is a different panel for each award. Shortlisters score the evidence provided for each nominee, mapping it back to the award criteria. Some people receive multiple nominations so this can be quite a lengthy task. The shortlisters take the task very seriously which we really appreciate. Each nominee has two reviewers to make sure that scoring is fair.
The panels meet to rank their top three nominees, providing us with the reasons behind their decision making. The shortlisters often remark on what a privilege it is to read about the different ways in which people contribute and enhance students’ experience. They have a tough job. I do not know how they manage to choose out of so many wonderful people, but they do.
After final reviews we contact the shortlisted nominees to let them know. This is a wonderful part, as we frequently receive enthusiastic emails in response, highlighting the significant impact these nominations make and how proud staff are to be shortlisted.
Let’s celebrate!
We’re currently into full-on planning for the celebration event. This year we’ll have student performances from the Salsa and Pantomime societies, and the Knitting society are providing decorations for the tables. We are delighted that this year the event will be hosted by Nicole Antoine (Undergraduate Education Officer) and Timber Hill (Postgraduate Education Officer). We also have a number of students presenting awards alongside staff members so it feels like a truly collaborative event between students and staff. We’ve also tried to improve our sustainability and impact by sourcing locally grown flowers and buying our supplies from local businesses; certificate frames are being made by Niche Framers and the bags and gift boxes are coming from Stationery World on Park Street. No Amazon for the BTAs!
At the event, winners will be unveiled and presented with a certificate and silver lanyard for their staff pass, while one winner will be awarded a prestigious golden lanyard as part of the Vice Chancellors Award for Education. For the last few years, we have also enjoyed including the announcement of the CREATE Awards as part of the celebration event. These awards recognise those who have crafted exceptional portfolios, demonstrating innovative, inspiring and transformative teaching practice. Additionally, we celebrate all the winners’ achievements with a beautiful wildflower meadow at Royal Fort Gardens, adorned with a plaque listing the names of all the award winners.
Working on this project is truly uplifting, offering valuable insights into what students perceive as exceptional teaching, what they value, and what excites them about learning. Some nominations highlight seemingly small gestures, like remembering students’ names in large teaching groups, showing genuine care, or making time to help them, which nonetheless have a profound impact on their experience. Others showcase significant efforts, such as ensuring inclusivity in field studies, employing active and fun teaching methods, making PowerPoints or 9am lectures engaging, being passionate about teaching subject matter, incorporating real-world examples into the curriculum, supporting post-university transitions and facilitating connections with research and industry. Additionally, some nominations emphasise the importance of understanding and addressing the unique experiences of students from diverse backgrounds, including people of colour, international students, carers, and those with disabilities. Key messages are of feeling welcomed, valued, safe, encouraged and inspired.
What stands out the most to me is the overwhelming joy that permeates the entire BTAs. From reading the heart-warming reasons why students and staff nominate individuals and teams, to witnessing the immense effort put forth by everyone involved in the BTA process, to the sheer pleasure expressed by nominees upon learning of their nominations —it’s truly delightful! I’m particularly excited to see the happiness spread as the winners are announced. It will undoubtedly make all the hard work worthwhile.
