Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching

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Teaching is often a lonely affair. Let’s share more of our teaching ideas with colleagues, including Senior Tutors!   Senior Tutors come into play when our students are struggling. Is this ...

Members of the BILT and CEP team had the opportunity to attend the recent Advance HE Assessment and Feedback Symposium, entitled: ‘Shaping the Learning Experience: Innovations in Assessment & Feedback’.  ...

News Student Research Journal and Festival 2024 The 5th BILT Student Research Journal is now open to Editorial Board Applications and Abstract Submissions! The Journal is student-run and published once ...

Dr Jo Hartland (they/them) Jo is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Education and a Deputy School Education Director, they were recently nominated by the University to apply for the Advance ...

Last week we hosted the first in our popular series of interactive lunchtime workshops, Show, Tell and Talk. Kicking off this academic year's series was a very busy session on ...

Educators across institutions say it’s reassuring to put your teaching practice into words. What is it about sharing that helps us gain confidence?  I’ve spoken with teaching staff across a ...

The Bristol University Press got wind of our research into what students think about AI in higher education and invited me to present on a panel at their recent event ...

News Meet the Student Fellows We are so excited to share that five new Student Fellows have joined our team! They have each written an introductory blog to share a ...

Hello!  My name is Isabelle, and I am one of the Student Fellows working for BILT, where we are undertaking various projects pertaining to important and pressing topics. I am ...

This blog is written by visiting PhD researcher Priscila Gonsales. She presents steps to respond to AI alongside a review of a recent report by Education Internacional. The blog will ...

Hi! I’m Robynne and I’ll be the BILT student fellow for the ‘Designed for All’ Assessment Activities theme. I’m currently a PhD researcher at the School for Sociology, Politics, and ...

Those who know most about climate change have the biggest carbon footprint. What does sustainability education have to look like in order to be effective?   For academics, the news are ...

Measurable results in predefined categories versus out-of-the-box approaches along non-standard routes – faultlines in universities are often hierarchical, but there is a way out.   “Students love it because it’s different!” ...

You will never teach the same class in two different rooms, says Greek philosopher Heraclitus (sort of). The flow will be so different. So here’s a few things we can ...

In my previous blog I explained how metaphors offer a way of making that which is unfamiliar or hard to understand appear more familiar and knowable. In this blog, I’d ...

As many of you will be aware, October is Black History Month. Every year, the same question emerges – why are we only choosing to recognise Black history in October? ...

To many of us in Modern Languages, literature seems almost made for teaching. Here’s why.   People outside the Arts are sometimes disdainful of subjects that never seem to arrive at ...

This is a third-year optional unit led by Rosie Nelson in SPAIS. This unit offers an introduction into relevant issues and theory to explore contemporary sociological conversations around minoritized sexualities and ...

In June, I attended the Assessment in Higher Education International Conference #AssessmentConf23. It was a jam-packed two-day programme of speakers, combining traditional keynote and research presentations with masterclasses, mini-keynotes and ...

Ready to innovate, an enthusiastic teacher was met with silence and confusion by his students. Here’s how sociologist Dietmar Wetzel responded.   ...

BILT Student Fellow Dominique Duff interviewed colleagues from four units across the University to share their authentic assessment practices in this blog miniseries. This is a first-year unit designed to ...

Welcome back! We hope you all had a restful and enjoyable break and are enjoying the lovely late summer sun we are having this week. News Student Research Journal: Issue ...

There is no shortage of teaching tips and tricks, and many of them are tried and tested. But the reason why they work is not actually inherent in them ...

Back in the Autumn term of 2019 I ran a unit on Timber Engineering. Rather than give lectures I decided to make the unit more authentic by inviting students to ...

What does it mean to experience the aesthetic? How is that experience accumulated? How does it feel? And how does knowledge of what came before help us to understand a ...

In 2019, I became the unit director in Economic Principles, a compulsory unit for first year undergraduate students in Accounting and Finance. Even though students are highly-skilled and the entry ...

This will be our last Briefing for 2022-23 and we hope you will enjoy reading the excellent decolonisation zine from Student Fellow Evelyn Miller, two insightful blogposts about authentic learning ...

'Decolonising the curriculum, and our institution as a whole, is an essential part of the University of Bristol's civic responsibility. It is an ongoing process of learning and unlearning which ...

A series of short workshops suitable for new Programme Directors or existing Programme Directors seeking a refresher. ...

After the Computer Science in the City Showcase event on the 3rd of May, Hannah Cowell (Engaged Learning Adviser), Peter Oliver (from the ILO), Luke Sweeney (Project client, KWMC) and ...

After its first iteration of running as a CEL-based project, Dr Jess McCormack, Applied Theatre (Unit Director), Hannah Cowell (Engaged Learning Adviser), Sarah Rogers from Hillfields Library and students CJ ...

Five ways to support first generation students at Bristol Please click on the download button for the full infographic. For further details about supporting first generation students please read the ...

It was fantastic to see the Bristol Teaching Awards ceremony return to an in-person event for the first time since 2019. With over 1000 nominations received this year it was ...

The CREATE Outstanding Portfolio Awards were introduced in 2022 to recognise the outstanding practice showcased by academic and professional services colleagues on the PGCAP and HEA Fellowship Scheme. Assessors on ...

Offering autonomy and creativity in presented group work for year 1 healthcare students. Discover the aims, impact and future of the conferences. External Examiner Feedback …opportunity for student to collaboratively ...

BILT Annual Conference 2023 Building community and belonging in a challenging and changing world. As part of the build up to our conference, BILT have been writing blog posts exploring ...

What Africa Can Do For Europe Wow, where did the last three months go? Last time I posted was in February, back then we were part way through the process ...

Not all evaluations are created equally. Research demonstrates that students can be biased in their feedback for a variety of reasons. What we do with this information could impact both ...

Welcome to our 100th BILT Briefing Ros O'Leary, Head of BILT and Associate Professor in Learning and Teaching Since launching in 2017, BILT – an academic-led institute instigated by Judith ...

We are happy to announce the winning presentations this year's Student Research Festival sessions, wellbeing, decolonisation, sustainability and posters. The judges were impressed with the exceptional quality of all presentations ...

Read the Blog Post The Bristol Model: How Social Sciences and Law Provided an Authentic Research Experience to Undergraduates? For further details. ...

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering  The Practice The MSc in Digital Health is a new taught programme in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bristol. One of ...

Student Research Festival We held our first in-person Student Research Festival on Tuesday 25th April at the Global Lounge, Senate House. It was great to listen to undergraduate and postgraduate ...

There have been calls within and beyond the University of Bristol to ‘decolonise the curriculum’. Decolonisation is defined as ‘an active process of critical scrutiny of our curricula and teaching ...

Why do you teach? The answer may lie in your philosophy of teaching. More specifically, the overarching values and beliefs which guide you as an educator. I believe that an ...

Highlights from the UK Service Learning and Community Engaged Learning Network webinar, 8 March 2023. In this blogpost, Hannah Cowell shares inspiring stories from the UK SL/CEL Network Webinar hosted ...

Bristol Teaching Awards Over 1000 nominations were cast in the 2023 Bristol Teaching Awards (BTA). Thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate individual members of staff and/or ...

Where do students go to learn about ChatGPT? TikTok has the answers. Its search functionality and algorithms drive traffic where traffic wants to go, into the depths of user-driven interest ...

Over the past two years, the three Biomedical Sciences Schools have been working to decolonise and diversify the curriculum. This has involved working in partnership with students to review our ...

Decolonising the curriculum, and our institution as a whole, is an essential part of the University of Bristol's civic responsibility. It is an ongoing process of learning and unlearning which ...

Radical Engineering Press I’m going to be honest with you. This is less a blog about book writing, and more a holding post. Over the course of the last week ...

My focus is on inclusion. For many years, in several academic contexts in the Netherlands and most recently in the UK, I have done a lot of thinking about the ...

The BILT Annual Conference for 2023 is centred on the theme of 'Building community and belonging in a challenging and changing world'. One of the phrases that is sometimes heard ...

"The traditional college essay is dead," were the words of Stephen Marche[1] about how the traditional/conventional teaching methods will be “disrupted from the ground up” by ChatGPT. As Marche (and ...

Since our last BILT Briefing, International Day of Education has been celebrated. Dr Aisling Tierney shared her reflections and thoughts about why education matters. Share why it matters to you ...

This week, AdvanceHE released a report on how they are updating their professional standards framework, the UKPSF. The framework covers all areas of values and competencies that are essential for ...

The Faculty Employability Team consult and advise academics in embedding employability into their curriculum through activities such as authentic learning.  The Team have been busy working with academic colleagues developing ...

As BILT associates, we’ve spent the last year or so thinking about how we can help students with a diverse range of needs transition into university life. While others in ...

Find out about our Education Development Projects taking place in 2022-23. To view as a PDF please download the document by clicking on the download arrow. ...

As I write, the International Day of Education is being celebrated across the world. It’s the perfect time to reflect on why education matters to our students and to us ...

Write for us! We are looking for new authors for our popular BILT blog. We enjoy new posts about learning and teaching and are very keen to hear about your ...

Louise Howson talks to Andy Wakefield a senior lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences about how learner generated digital media benefits both students and teachers.  Listen to the entire ...

Louise Howson talks to Hadi Abulrub a senior lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering who explores the literature around programme level assessment and how this should be encouraged. Listen ...

Louise Howson talks with Beke Zwingmann a lecturer in the University of Bristol Law School who explores comparative pedagogy and its influence on teaching and learning.   Listen to the entire ...

Happy December. This is the last post of the year. It was supposed to be the last post in the series, but as you know, if you’ve been following this ...

We are delighted to share nine new education for sustainability case studies from a range of faculties and schools across the University. Do you have a case study to share? ...

Anything can inspire our teaching, including our favourite TV shows. I was positively dazzled when a dear friend shared a link to a teaching and learning tome I never knew ...

Highlights: Congratulations to our Times Higher Education Award winners. Dr Francesco Fornetti, Associate Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering at Bristol, was Highly Commended in the Most Innovative Teacher of the ...

Louise Howson talks to Emilie Poletto-Lawson a lecturer in Academic Development within the Bristol Institute of Learning and Teaching who reflects on the paper “Thanks, but no thanks for the ...

We are delighted to announce Dr Folúkẹ́ Adébísí was recently nominated by the University to apply for the Advance HE National Teaching Fellowship. I chose to do a degree in ...

Hi, my name is James and I am a regenerative practitioner. You may think this is an odd way to start the 11th blog post on writing a book on ...

Through collaboration with BILT, the University of Bristol looks to develop curiosity, persistence and a love of learning into each student’s everyday life – or at least that’s what their ...

News Our new series Show, Tell and Talk held its first workshop on developing a sense of belonging with 1st year students. It was great to meet in person to ...

Infographic providing ten top tips to start your curriculum decolonisation journey. ...

Video of the Bristol Futures Festival 2022 Explore the Bristol Futures Student Showcase to see further examples of students’ work from the open units, such as videos, articles and story ...

Domi Duff Hi everyone! My name is Domi and I’m the new student fellow focusing on the ‘Active and Authentic Teaching, Learning, and Assessment’ theme at BILT. I’m in the ...

Eva Craig Hi! I’m Eva, one of six Student Fellows working for BILT this year on several interesting and important topics. My project is focussed on embedding sustainable development into ...

Back in Welcome Week, we invited students to make a wish for their Bristol Futures by tying a ribbon onto a tree and filling in an online form (with a ...

Infographic of results from a staff and student survey. ...

Have you ever heard an educator say, “I will be spending the next three weeks marking and I cannot wait!”? I have been working in university education for over 10 ...

News Congratulations! Lucy Berthoud, Professor of Space Engineering, has recently been successful in gaining her Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, an accolade awarded to those who demonstrate sustained ...

Welcome Week 2022 featured the launch of the first Bristol Futures Festival that introduced new first years to the unique Bristol educational offer ...

News Its a been a busy week here, with colleagues taking part in Welcome Week and hosting the university's first Bristol Futures Festival. Bristol Futures Festival 2022 The festival introduced ...

A few years back I decided to run 1000 miles in a year. I created a spreadsheet. Logged every run. And it was going amazingly until July/August. I am not ...

Welcome back to all our readers! We hope everyone has had a restful and reinvigorating summer break. Our first issue of the year is packed full of good news, opportunities, ...

Dr Sarah Jones, Lecturer in Modern British History, Director of Examinations (History) Dr John Reeks, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History, Co-Director of Teaching (History) Background and Context A recent ...

Introduction to the Resonance Pedagogy series created by Christoph Fricker. Relationships matter. When we built relationships, we enable learning. If we don’t, we create aggression, frustration and indifference. So how ...

Article by Wolfgang Endres, translated by Christophe Fricker, Part of the Resonance Pedagogy series, visit the home page. How research made time for resonant relationships   Technology helps us save time ...

This Zine was created by BILT Student Fellow Kai Charles, working on the project 'Experiences of Disabled Students'. ...

It’s August. The month of time off, promised writing time, and when I imagined we would finish the book. First of all, an apology – today is my first day ...

2022 - Issue 3 of the Student Research Journal. ...

The following post is from Anthi Chondrogianni who‘s BILT Associate role is on the theme of assessment and feedback. I am delighted to join the BILT Associates on the theme of ...

News Goodbye from us for the summer We won't be posting any BILT Briefings until September so we'd just like to say a huge thank you to all our readers. ...

Information overload is a challenge for everyone in the hyper-connected world in which we live and can impact many aspects of our lives, from our general wellbeing to our daily ...

This week has been a first for me. I went on a future walk. Participants joined me as we walked around in 2050! We didn’t use a time machine, just ...

View the entire series. To begin, we want to talk to you about you. Who are you? How do you identify? What are your pronouns? As invasive as these questions ...

It’s a sunny day in Bonn, Germany, where national delegations, international agencies, NGOs, and other climate-related groups have come together. I found myself immersed in a sea of high-level climate ...

Last chance to sign up to 'The Compassionate Conference'. Our annual conference is taking place next Tuesday from 10am - 4.10pm with sessions ranging from decolonising the curriculum, sustainable education, ...

Lots of staff have struggled with engaging their students from time to time. There are oodles of ways to address this problem, but in this blog, I want to showcase ...

Hi all. For this month’s post I thought I would try and capture my progress over 4 weeks. You will see from the below that this is only 10 days ...

“The ideal teacher student relationship exists when the student is better than the teacher”, so writes the Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe. ...

Language Director in the Faculty of Arts, Department of Russian. Professor Andreas Schonle presented Elena with the Exceptional Student Support Award, a new BTA award for 2022. Here Andreas explains ...

Did you know that their resources are accessible to everyone at the University of Bristol? QAA membership is available for free to staff and students in a wide range of ...

If April was about not giving up, May is about throwing in the towel. I’m done. Now let’s be clear, I’m not done with writing a book in a year, ...

"Global Lounge consistently provide excellent community building opportunities for international students, whilst also, as evidenced recently with their Tea & Talk ...

"The technical team have done an outstanding job this year to provide lab and workshop induction sessions for nearly 700 first year engineering students. ...

Vice Chancellor's Fellow in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School "Carolina makes research exciting and stimulates collaborations. Thanks to her, I've met many wonderful people in my research ...

Senior Lecturer in Science Education (Biology) in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, School of Education "[Neil] always makes time for his students, to provide us with support in ...

Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, Department of English "Not only does [Laurence] go above and beyond in the teaching space, but he also ...

Deputy Student Administration Manager in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, School of Management "Kay has provided outstanding support, for both staff and students, enabling the delivery of excellent ...

Graduate Teacher Level 2 in the Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Psychological Science "Marin has not only made my life immeasurably easier, but has also helped to make research ...

Graduate Teacher Level 1 in the Faculty of Science, School of Physics "[Mr. Yuan] not only taught me basic knowledge (in-situ high temperature XCT) and helped me to be familiar ...

Graduate Teacher Level 1 in the Faculty of Engineering, Department of Computer Science "[Ethan] helped me a lot in Imperative and Functional Programming unit, more specifically in the functional part ...

Social Sciences and Law, School of Management "It is rare to find a group of academics so committed to and passionate about innovative teaching methods, ...

Faculty of Health Sciences, Centre for Medical Education "[Hadi and Chloe] have gone above and beyond to deliver teaching for us that is appropriate but interesting as well as supporting ...

Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Biochemistry "These leaders have engaged student curriculum developers to review units from across the UG programmes in the Faculty of Life Sciences. This work ...

Lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, University of Bristol Law School "Thank you Matthew for being a source of support and guidance and inspiring interest and curiosity ...

Lecturer in the Faculty of Science, School of Chemistry "Dr. Chris Adams has made all of the first years in chemistry feel welcomed into the school. Before Christmas, he was ...

Senior Teaching Fellow in the Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Biochemistry "I don't know how [Giles] manages to make stats (which should arguably be awful) engaging and easy to ...

Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering, Department of Engineering Mathematics "The way that [Chanelle] teaches creates an amazing environment to learn in as she will make sure everyone is comfortable ...

Lecturer in the Faculty of Life Sciences, School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine "I leave Bronwen’s lectures feeling confident that I understand the content and actually look forward to revisiting ...

Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering "[Judes] lectures are always dynamic, linking ideas to real life examples and concrete application of them, with regular questions prompting ...

Clinical Lecturer in Restorative Dentistry in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Bristol Dental School "Dr Desai is the personification of going above and beyond for all students and staff. ...

Reader in Probability in the Faculty of Science, School of Mathematics "Márton always delivers his lectures in a very interacting and engaging style, and he teaches many of the theorems ...

News Tickets now available to book for BILT annual conference - The Compassionate Conference Our annual conference this year takes place online on the 28th June and will explore how ...

Lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies "she has consistently created a safe, supportive, and encouraging learning environment for all students ...

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Return to The Compassionate Conference page. Presenting a novel assessment and feedback portfolio for students in the School of Biological Sciences - Dr Bex Pike (Lecturer in Biological Sciences) Lack ...

Return to The Compassionate Conference page. Decolonising and Diversifying (D & D): Slaying the colonisation dragon within STEMM curricula  Alice Robson a.robson@bristol.ac.uk; Senior lecturer, School of Biochemistry.Bronwen Burton Bronwen.Burton@bristol.ac.uk; Lecturer, ...

Return to The Compassionate Conference page. Building self-awareness, and resilience with a Core Unit for 1st year students - Angela Parry-Lowther (Senior Lecturer in Management) Starting university is a challenge ...

News Nominate someone for a Bristol Teaching Award - this weekend is your last chance! Nominations for the 2022 Bristol Teaching Awards close at 9am on Monday 11th April! If ...

It’s just happened again. Someone asks me what I’m working on and I explain that I’m writing a book about regenerative design. The inevitable next two questions come: First, what ...

News Bristol Teaching Awards nominations are now open! We are so excited to share that nominations for the Bristol Teaching Awards opened on Monday! In our first 24 hours we ...

As a secondary school teacher, and now also working as part of the University of Bristol’s BILT team, I’ve spent a fair amount of time reflecting on different experiences of ...

Three years ago, veterinary anatomy lecturer Julie Dickson applied for a Discretionary Seedcorn Funding to kick off a student-run Anatomy Club in the Vet School. A student committee was set ...

There are three weeks left to sign up to present at our annual conference in June, focusing on hopeful, compassionate and effective approaches to teaching. We want to showcase teaching ...

Get involved Call for papers: 'The Compassionate Conference' We're looking for colleagues to submit abstracts by 14th March, for our upcoming BILT annual conference, focusing on hopeful, compassionate and affective ...

 Call for Contributions Guidance ‘The compassionate conference’ – transforming learning through pedagogies of care. The Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching (BILT) annual conference will take place online, on Tuesday ...

With the move towards blended learning, it can sometimes feel like we’ve been living in a virtual world over the past two years, our heads jammed with thoughts about online ...

Resources Embedding Employability toolkit The Careers Service in collaboration with BILT have created this brilliant toolkit on how to embed employability within your curriculum. Illustrated with examples from inside the ...

Looking at successes and rejections This post is about James' previous book proposals – because when we write our new proposal we come with a history (hopefully mostly good) and ...

We’ve had another really busy year! Between taking on new Student Fellows, BILT Associates, growing the core team and partnering with a number of other departments and institutions with funded ...

This autumn has seen more hybrid teaching at Bristol: sessions where different students need to attend the same session online and on campus simultaneously. These sessions can be very demanding ...

Poverty, Mental Health, and the Financial Barriers Students Face As both a student fellow focussing on the experiences of disabled students and a final year disabled student myself, I often ...

A post on Sustainable Development. ...

I began University hopeful, if cautious. After a trying year in which the chronic health condition, which I have suffered from since I was twelve, forced me to study entirely ...

A guide to all those new and confusing terms in teaching and learning. From ‘lockdown’ to ‘PPE’ to ‘furlough’, the pandemic has brought with it A LOT of new words, ...

With so much activity and drive around decolonisation of education happening at the moment, we thought it was important to step back and take a look at the basics to ...

The following post is from Simon Halliday who started his BILT Associate role on the theme of evaluating of projects. I am an economist who works predominantly in Experimental and ...

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to running your hybrid sessions due to the vast difference in student numbers, room capabilities and disciplinary differences. However, there are some activities you can do ...

Hello, thanks for reading! My name is Adriel, and I’m thrilled to be researching ‘Decolonizing the curriculum’ with BILT over this academic year! Decolonization, and specifically decolonizing the university has ...

¡Hola! I’m Carlos, one of this year's Student Fellows at BILT. I will aim at embedding Sustainable Development in the UoB’s curriculum this year, which is quite a big task.  ...

Hey all, I’m Kai, a Student Fellow working on a project centering the voices and experiences of disabled students. As both a person living at the convergence of disability and ...

We are pleased to invite you to the Postgraduate Research Supervisor Symposium 2021, which is open to all staff currently engaged in postgraduate research supervision at the University of Bristol, and to those who would ...

This week's Briefing is short but sweet as we've had a busy week interviewing our new Student Fellows and (trying to...) prepare everyone as much as possible for the introduction ...

The following post is from Foluke Adebisi who starter her BILT Associate role on the theme of evaluation of projects. I joined the Law School, at the University of Bristol ...

This is the second section of the CAME tutor plan for 2020/21. Each week comprise a set of instructions and guidelines, with exercises (some optional) intended to support students through ...

This is the first section of the CAME tutor plan for 2020/21, spanning week 1 in October 2020 to end of December 2020 (week 11) ...

The following post is from Bex Pike who started her BILT Associate role on the theme of Assessment and Feedback. A friend that I persuaded to speak about her career ...

The following post is from Christophe Fricker who started his BILT Associate role on the theme of Assessment and Feedback. My teaching is an ongoing inquiry into the various forms ...

The following post is from Suzanne Collins who started her BILT Associate role in supporting students transition to University in August 2021. In 2017 I joined Bristol in what was ...

The following post is from Simon Gamble who started his BILT Associate role in supporting students transition to University in August 2021. For the past five years I have been ...

“Hi My Name is James And for 12 years I designed buildings.” This is how I normally start my lectures, almost regardless of topic. However when I started one of ...

The following post is from Emily Bell who started her BILT Associate role in supporting students transition to University in August 2021. I first joined the university back in 2012 ...

Our time as Student Fellows has come to an end and I have to say it’s surreal to be writing my sign off post when it feels like only yesterday ...

This blog touches on the move away from examination-based assessments to longer ‘timed’ essays and replicas that it has become necessary to move to this year, and its implications on ...