Sheila Amici-Dargan

LINK

This presentation will discuss a new university-level partnership initiative that supports students to use the Bristol Skills Profile (Love 2024) to critically reflect on feedback and develop agency to improve their own skills and competencies. A recently established formal collaboration between the Bristol Institute of Learning and Teaching (BILT) and Bristol Students’ Union has enabled us to form a proactive steering group comprising SU elected officers, professional services staff, academics and nine ‘student BSP Feedback Fellows’.

Together we have co-designed activities to promote student engagement with feedback and skills development, and contextualised resources to the faculties of Health and Life Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Social Sciences and Law.  Student BSP Feedback Fellows are engaging with peers across the university and supporting them to use the outputs of these activities to reflect on their skills development using the BSP, which takes a holistic view of skills, using Barnett and Coate’s ‘Knowing, Acting and Being’ framework (Barnett and Coate, 2005). 

Our co-creation initiative aims to:

•            Increase student agency by promoting the value of peer- and self-assessment dialogue and action-planning to develop student self-regulation.

•            Improve consistency of feedback activity across faculties within the university.

•            Support students to recognise the value of feedback literacy (critical reflection) as a graduate attribute.

Our goal is for students to realise that developing skills in critical reflection will lead to a range of transferable graduate skills and enable them to become capable of seeking and generating feedback for themselves rather than relying on others (e.g. staff or employers) to provide it.  This aligns with our university vision of “enabling students to gain future skills needed to thrive in a changing world” (UoB 2022).  

We will share our experiences, successes and challenges in running this university-wide project to facilitate student engagement with feedback and critical reflection. 

Barnett, R. and Coate, K. (2005) Engaging the curriculum in higher education. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Love, N. (2024) Introducing the Bristol Skills Profile (BSP). Available at: https://bilt.online/introducing-the-bristol-skills-profile/

University of Bristol (2022) Vision and Strategy 2022-2030. Available at:  https://bristol.ac.uk/university/media/vision/university-strategy-2030.pdf

Elena McNeilly (in collaboration with Beatrice Learmouth and Hugo Steel)

LINK

The project to be presented combines qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods and is being conducted with the support of two student partners during the 2024-2025 academic year. The key participants include two groups of Year students, totaling 24 individuals, enrolled in the Guided Writing course as part of the RUSS30001 Russian Language Unit. Throughout this 12-week course, students collaborate on assigned tasks in teams of four and engage both in person and online using Blackboard as a virtual learning platform. Key elements of the course include peer feedback and formative peer assessment, supported by the tutor both online and in class. To evaluate the effectiveness and the quality of the learning process, we have recorded and reflected on students’ progress, and analysed the results of surveys completed by the students as well as the outcomes of the meetings of the focus groups. We also interviewed recent graduates who studied at Bristol and graduated between 2020 and 2024, to verify whether they have been able to apply skills developed through active and inclusive learning at Bristol. This conference paper, co-written and presented jointly by the project leader and the student partners is the ultimate outcome of the project.

The paper will consider how the project in question examines evidence-informed innovative teaching at Bristol.

The focus will be on analysing the development of the following skills:

– Proficiency in handling knowledge

– Organisational and planning skills

– Ability to work independently

– Ability to collaborate effectively within a team

– Ability to adapt to changing and challenging environments

The emphasis on developing transferable skills, in addition to discipline-related skills, not only enhances the academic experience for students but also prepares them for future career opportunities, contributing to their success and satisfaction. In this paper, we will discuss how initiatives that benefit the Department of Russian can also serve as a successful case study, benefiting the university as a whole, as they can be applied across various disciplines. Furthermore, these initiatives can facilitate collaboration among students and staff which further underscores the project’s relevance and potential impact.

Julian Kendell and Ines Mendes de Sousa

LINK

This presentation will outline work this year at the University exploring how students engage with skills development. To what extent do they see it as a curricular, co-curricular or extracurricular activity? Underpinning this is the hope to better understand how students engage with the support and opportunities provided by the University, and if they don’t, why not?

A key element of the Bristol University’s vision is to ensure that students gain the future skills needed to thrive in a changing world. And understanding the extent to which students see this as something that happens because of, in spite of, or outside of their programmes of study and wider university provision is more important now than ever, in the face of continuing questions about the value of a university education.

This project was undertaken by students in collaboration with the Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching (BILT) and the University’s Careers Service. Two Student Fellows conducted five faculty-specific focus groups with UG and PGT students, followed by a short survey to gauge engagement with specific skills development.

In this presentation, we will look at what students had to say about how they see skills development, what actions they have taken (if any), what barriers they have faced, and how these may be overcome. We ran a thematic analysis of the transcripts from the focus groups which, together with the responses to the short survey, shine a light on the extent to which students see skills development as an extracurricular or curricular/ co- curricular activity.

In the focus groups, students often talked about skills development as a process towards personal self-growth that highlighted the challenge of providing generalised institutional support to something that is personal or disciplinary-specific. And this personal level is often where students situated the most significant barriers – such as managing their time or lacking confidence. But also, rather than a disconnect coming from the perception of a lack of skills development opportunities, many spoke about being overwhelmed by choice and not knowing where to start. Perhaps, the barriers lie not within the skills development provision itself but in how we help our students to navigate it.

In their survey responses, many students indicated that their personal tutor had helped them reflect on their development, but during the focus group discussions references to these interactions were minimal, suggesting that perhaps they don’t recognise the role personal tutors play in how they engage with skills development.

A significant difference also emerged between those students who were intrinsically motivated and those whose motivation was linked to more extrinsic factors such as employability outcomes.

We will also present some of the actions we are taking following the findings and recommendations of this project, such as a series of student co-creation activities. These will seek to promote and support both student and staff engagement with skills development and support how both groups are able to navigate this vital aspect of the student experience that is often more complicated than it seems.

Jay Liu (presented by Amy Palmer)

LINK

In response to the rapidly evolving demands of the global workforce, higher education institutions must prioritize developing critical skills and competencies through authentic, real-world learning experiences. Academic publishing, particularly student-led research journals, represents an impactful educational platform for cultivating these essential capabilities.

This presentation critically evaluates the 6th BILT Student Research Journal as an innovative pedagogical tool designed to foster critical thinking, adaptability, problem-solving, and collaboration among students. The journal actively incorporates various sections, addressing prominent global issues such as artificial intelligence, climate change, geopolitics, etc.

These focused sections not only provide student authors with the opportunity to engage deeply with complex, contemporary challenges but also encourage original, rigorous scholarly contributions that bridge disciplinary boundaries. Authors benefit by developing research, analytical, and communication skills, which are essential for professional and academic advancement. Editorial board members simultaneously gain invaluable experience in peer-reviewing, academic editing, task management, and team collaboration through structured training programs, refined editorial workflows, and professional structure.

They are trained in effective peer-review practices, publication ethics, and digital publishing technologies, which collectively enhance their competencies and career readiness. Additionally, the journal uniquely enables collaboration across PhD, master’s, and undergraduate students by sharing expertise, providing diverse perspectives, and mutually supporting each other’s academic and professional development. Ultimately, the journal exemplifies a practical approach to embedding crucial transferable skills and competencies into higher education curricula for those who are interested.

By emphasising interdisciplinary collaboration and authentic learning, the initiative effectively prepares students to navigate, contribute to, and succeed within an increasingly uncertain and rapidly changing global environment.

Miyambo Kabwe

LINK

Assessments are one of the pillars of the student experience – yet some students may feel like they gain more from certain assessments than others. What I have learned from conducting focus groups, public surveys and making resources for students is that students yearn for agency, but not the kind of agency where they are completely left to their own devices with no general support from the academics teaching them. I conducted an art-based focus group this year where I got students to make art pieces that represent what the good practice of agency and choice looks like to them.

A quote that one of the art pieces said was ‘Don’t just make guidelines, be a guide’. This is a sentiment that I have heard a lot of students say across many schools. There is this fine line between students having agency while also having a guide in assessments. A colleague of mine brought up the ‘tolerance for ambiguity’ and I feel this concept can perfectly encompass what agency in assessment should be.

Students want to feel like they can experience agency that is reflective of what may await them after university, in research, industry or wherever they may end up. And that means academics being a guide while also allowing students to establish a good tolerance for change, the opportunity to apply essential soft skills, creativity and flexible thinking.

Dave Gatrell

LINK

The use of video-based formative assessment tasks designed to enhance professional communication skills is increasingly widespread in Health Sciences, with a growing number of research papers attesting to its impact on learning (Gatrell, 2022; Gatrell et al., 2024; Hulsman & van der Vloodt, 2015; Krause et al., 2022; Lai et al., 2020; Leung & Shek, 2021; Pless et al., 2021). However, whilst many existing works evaluate the effectiveness of the approach in terms of learning outcomes and student satisfaction, they do not take sufficient account of the sociocultural aspects that may influence the design and implementation of video-based formative assessment tasks, or the ways in which students engage in them. Furthermore, to date, there have been no studies exploring the role of students and education developers in co-designing, implementing and evaluating such tasks in a higher education setting.

This presentation reports on how students and teachers in the Bristol Veterinary School collaborated with education developers from the Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching and the Digital Education Office to design a video-based formative assessment task. As part of a unit focusing on professional communication skills, Year 1 Veterinary Nursing students used a video annotation tool to engage in self-reflection and peer feedback on recordings of their interactions with a client in a role-played teleconsultation, with two more experienced students (from Years 4 and 5 of the school’s Veterinary Science programme) facilitating the online process of reflection and peer discussion.

Using a framework based on the notion of expansive learning (Engeström, 1987) and Hulsman and van der Vloodt’s (2015) self-reflection and peer feedback specificity criteria, the presentation analyses data from teacher interviews, student workshops and student video annotations to highlight ways in which the tool-mediated activity system was experienced as highly interactive, inclusive, and effective in supporting students’ development of professional communication skills as well as the skills of critical peer feedback and self-reflection. It also exposes contradictions in students’ experiences of the task, and suggests how these might be resolved. It concludes by discussing how the outcomes of the intervention could be applied to communication skills tasks in other disciplines to promote active and inclusive learning.

This presentation is likely to be of value to participants who are interested in developing students’ professional communication skills through the use of video-based formative assessment – and, more broadly, those who are interested in the use of student partnerships and technology to reimagine learning and assessment.

Erika Teichert

LINK

I have designed a new mid-term assessment which follows the University’s initiative to develop creative, authentic and inclusive assessment. This mid-term assessment consists in students developing a Photographic Portfolio, accompanied by a Critical Introduction (worth 30%). The second assessment is a Comparative Essay.

This assessment was developed in the context of a new Y4 unit, titled “The Politics of Photography in Latin America”, offered by the Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies to students of Modern Languages in Spanish. In this unit, we study instances across Latin America where documentary photography has been put to the service of socio-political change and human rights activism throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. While the first half of the unit follows a chronological order, the second half prioritises thematic associations.

One of the various modes of publication and circulation of photography that we explore is the photobook. In the Photographic Portfolio assessment students are asked to construct a visual narrative or argument about a specific topic or issue. The ultimate aim is for students to construct a photographic argument: that is, to arrange your images in such a way that you allow them to reveal a story, an idea, an insight (similar to photobooks). They are allowed to choose an issue or a topic that interests them and that they are passionate about. It doesn’t need to be related to Latin America in any way, if that’s what they choose. In this way, students are asked to bring in their prior experience and own interests into the assessment. The only requirement is that they should build these through photographs (either as a digital or physical portfolio) and that their Critical Introduction must reflect on their use of photography as well as the issue they have chosen to address.

Importantly, students were allowed to use digital manipulation software, including AI to produce AI-generated images as the basis of their portfolio. The requirement, however, is that they then use the Critical Introduction to reflect about the “state” of photography amidst the development of AI.

Students have been incredibly engaged with this assessment, and I have recently given them feedback on drafts of their portfolio. The results of what they have created has been incredible. They have poured themselves into their projects, often addressing difficult, personal and challenging narratives. They have also written deeply insightful reflections about their experience constructing a visual, rather than written, argument. Crucially, this assessment enables students to develop skills relevant to visual literacy and communication. It also enables a deep reflection of the complexity that lies behind our photographic world, where we consume photographic images every day without much thought.

In this presentation I would like to present the assessment from a pedagogical perspective, accompanied by my students’ own testimonies and perspectives of what they have gained from this assessment, as well as what they found challenging. I would also like to share some examples of what students have created.

Esther Ng

Link unavailable

Artificial intelligence (AI) is breaking the traditional moulds of education and moving into modernisation. Despite its benefits and potential for academic research and analysis capabilities, AI has been criticised for its role in worsening inequalities in education through the perpetuation of bias.

My project aims to highlight the limited student-focused research on AI’s impact in changing how we view teaching and assessment in university and the importance of including student perspectives in shaping their academic experiences. The exploration of student insights highlights the need for AI policies that acknowledge varying educational needs. Additionally, student anxiety around AI is growing, highlighting the importance of education and awareness to foster confidence in its ethical and equitable use.

Since starting in October, my initial research included an interactive survey gathering opinions on AI followed by a focus group exploring AI’s role in education. The insights gathered were compiled into an interactive report, which was shared with the University of Bristol student body and staff. The next phase of the project will involve hosting a hackathon, where students will work with students within their faculty and design an AI-powered assessment to make them critically evaluate the issues of AI in education.

This presentation will focus on research findings from throughout the project to inform changes to our current educational landscape to better equip students with navigating AI, and how a student-centred lens improves the outcomes of students from a diverse range of backgrounds through the utilisation of different research methodologies.

Claire Hudson

LINK

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is developing at pace, and the successful integration of GenAI in higher education (HE) teaching practice largely depends on the awareness and expertise of staff. A full understanding of the risks and opportunities of using GenAI for teaching, learning and assessment – from the perspective of both teachers and learners – is essential for developing practice and policy. In alignment with BILT’s 2024/25 theme focusing on AI teaching and assessment, this research explores the integration of GenAI in teaching practices to determine how these tools are currently being used by staff at the University of Bristol.

In this presentation, we will present data from a University-wide staff survey exploring the following key questions: How are staff currently using GenAI in their HE teaching practice and how effective are the GenAI outputs created for these educational activities? What do staff perceive as the benefits of using GenAI in HE teaching practice, and what are their concerns or barriers? We will share the best practices derived from our research data and highlight common challenges; revealing the areas where further research, staff training or University policies are needed.

Lin Ma
Link unavailable

Breaching academic integrity in higher education assessments is a serious issue, and statistically, international students are more likely to be subject to academic integrity investigations. However, the rise of open access generative artificial intelligence (AI) has altered the nature of such investigations in significant ways.
First, widely used AI detection software, such as Turnitin, has led to numerous false accusations that negatively impact not only international students but academics who systematically reported and suspected coursework for unclear reasons. This has resulted in extraordinary time and resources to investigate and, in often cases, dismissals of cases due to the lack of evidence.
Second, the increasing presence of AI has led to disparities amongst students, especially in terms of the ethical or potential use in essay-based assessment.
Together with student contributions, this research captures a changing moment in the use of AI and its controversies that are likely to change the fabric of everyday teaching and learning in higher education. We argue that it is this moment that the conception of academic integrity must be rethought, not through negative penalties and severe consequences, but through the lens of student-centred learning and AI-appropriate assessments.

Angela Parry-Lowther

LINK

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education presents both opportunities and challenges, particularly in maintaining academic integrity while equipping students with workplace-ready skills. This presentation introduces a new innovative MSc Marketing assessment by Angela Parry-Lowther, the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Business School. Students are able to use AI to create marketing content but must first apply academic theory with industry research to guide their campaign, ensuring academic rigour throughout. Students then present their work supported by a 10-minute narrated PowerPoint, ensuring critical academic engagement. This session explores how AI can be embedded in assessment to enhance learning while preserving academic rigour, offering a model that balances innovation with integrity.

Proposal:

Introduction

Higher education must adapt to AI’s growing role while safeguarding academic standards. This presentation showcases an assessment model that enables students to develop a marketing communication campaign informed by academic research and industry insights, before using AI to generate the final content.

Students choose one of three formats:

•            Social media post

•            Blog

•            Digital Newsletter

They must then submit a 10-minute narrated PowerPoint, explaining the academic theories and industry analysis underpinning their campaign. This ensures AI is used as an enhancement rather than a shortcut, embedding critical thinking and analytical skills.

This approach aligns with the conference theme Education for a Changing World by integrating AI into assessment while maintaining academic integrity. It also fits the Reimagining Assessment sub-theme, demonstrating a forward-thinking method that blends AI with academic rigour.

A New Approach to AI-Integrated Assessment

This assessment focuses on how students apply academic knowledge and industry insights before using AI to execute their ideas. It ensures:

•            AI is used purposefully – Students must establish a theoretical foundation before using AI.

•            Academic integrity is upheld – The narrated presentation ensures they demonstrate understanding of key concepts.

•            Workplace-relevant AI skills – Students learn to use AI strategically, reflecting industry practice.

This method ensures students develop both digital and critical thinking skills, making them better prepared for AI-driven workplaces.

Balancing Innovation with Integrity

This approach addresses key challenges around AI in education by:

1.           Maintaining Rigour – Students must justify how academic theory and industry insights informed their AI-generated content.

2.           Developing Workplace AI Skills – Rather than banning AI, this model teaches responsible use, mirroring industry needs.

3.           Enhancing Learning – The narrated presentation format encourages reflection and articulation, supporting diverse learners.

Key Takeaways for Participants

Attendees will gain:

•            A structured model for integrating AI into assessment while maintaining academic integrity.

•            Strategies to align AI use with academic research and industry practice.

•            Insights into how narrated presentations enhance learning and assessment validity.

Conclusion

AI is reshaping professional industries, and higher education must prepare students accordingly. This model ensures students develop AI literacy within an academically rigorous framework, strengthening both their theoretical understanding and industry skills. By attending this session, educators will gain practical insights into integrating AI into assessment while preserving academic standards.

Daniela Dietrich

LINK

Co-creation is rooted in constructivism and a process that allows integration of student voices from a diverse range of backgrounds in higher education practices. Producing guidance for a continuous assessment that involves teamwork and the creation of a recorded presentation, I am aware that guidance written by me only addresses those points that I deem important and/or difficult.

I therefore embarked on a project where I worked with student partners to co-create assessment guidance that better reflects student’s needs and integrates a range of different views. In this presentation I will report on this project and share my suggestions for best practice in this area.

Satadru Mukherjee

LINK

In this BILT educational development project, six 2nd year BSc Economics and Finance UG students have been collaborating with me to design the group coursework of the core Year 1 Probability, Statistics and Econometrics unit in this program. The project offers students agency in assessment design and student collaborators are developing their study skills, assessment literacy, digital literacy, employability skills by contributing to this assessment design. In this presentation, we will document the process of co-creation by sharing student experience and the output achieved as a result of this collaboration.

The project was advertised to all 2nd year UG Economics and Finance students as an excellent opportunity to contribute to the evaluation of their learning and become an enabler of authentic assessments which is a priority in the University Assessment and Feedback Strategy 2022-30. Students who were interested and able to commit to 8-hours of work (4, 2-hourly meetings) during the term could sign up to the project. 6 students who volunteered became part of the study and were employed into the project through the University’s TSS system. Recruiting students became a month-long process ending at the start of 2024 TB1 assessments. We revised the timeline of the project to the TB2 of 2025 to run it in one term. Students were informed about adjustments/changes made to the project at every step. I used feedback from my critical friend in building the project and I share updates about project development.

The collaboration began in January 2025, and in our first group meeting we discussed the aims of the project, ways to create a statistical question examining news articles. Additionally, we evaluated the 2023-24 group coursework in this unit, the aim of each question, the marking criteria, student experience of working on this assessment. Students shared their perspective on what seems to them an appropriate marking criterion for a question. Further, they shared themes they would like to work in this project which eventually became the assessment topics. The first topic studies the impact of Covid on labour market outcome in the UK. The second topic analyses the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis on socio-economic outcomes.

In the second group meeting, we developed each theme (by discussing relevant articles on the topic). Students worked in pairs, on their own to create preliminary questions. At the end of each session, student’s shared their reflections using an online form. This has been used to document the student co-creation journey. In these diaries, students shared that in the first meeting they appreciated hearing everyone’s perspective and voicing their opinions. They enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate and found the first meeting productive. After the second meeting, students shared they liked the use of statistical methods to practical scenarios, and enjoyed creating questions. They contributed to how a question could be made meaningful and impactful and thought the questions they came us as group are worthwhile to investigate.

Gemma Ford, Sally Dowling and Karen Rigby

LINK

A growing body of evidence supports student partnership and co-creation of assessments in HE to promote deep learning (Zarandi, et al., 2022), but there is a paucity of studies investigating enablers and barriers to assessment co-creation within the postgraduate space. Adopting an “assessment as learning” approach, where students are engaged in the assessment process as an integral part of the learning, our study aims to explore the attitudes and experiences of students on the Reproduction and Development Masters programme, in the negotiation and thus co-creation of marking criteria. The criteria were co-created and then used to assess their performance in a group case-presentation during teaching block 2 (February 2025).

Students were already familiar with the UoB marking rubric, introduced to them during teaching block 1, and were provided with a pre-recorded briefing session as an overview to this activity. A facilitator-led workshop supported students in their understanding of marking as learning criteria. The whole class was given at least one week to negotiate, agree, test (practice with pre-recorded presentations from previous years, filmed and uploaded to Blackboard) and finalise the marking scheme. All students peer assessed and provided feedback on case-presentation performance using the co-created mark scheme.

Learner reflections on their experience in co-creating assessment criteria were explored using semi-structured focus groups, facilitated by an independent student research assistant. Responses have been transcribed and will be analysed using inductive thematic analysis (currently underway). Our BILT conference presentation will report on the results of our analysis. To our knowledge, this is the first study to enable MSc student partners to co-create a marking scheme using the new UoB marking criteria.

Bethan Charles

LINK

200 Engineers. 20 inefficient buildings. 1 Net Zero goal. The University of Bristol has pledged to become net zero by 2030, meaning we need to drastically cut carbon emissions across the campuses. A key part of this will be retrofitting buildings with efficient energy systems, including renewables such as solar panels. This monumentous task falls on the University’s small Sustainability Team. They have a vast amount of energy data on Bristol’s buildings, but not enough time to process it.

Enter the unit, Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Future.

This new unit, first run in 2023, saw engineering students design sustainable, renewable energy systems for new and existing structures, including Queens Building. Students used their skills to estimate and match the building’s electricity demand with renewable energy. But why not use real data?

In 2024, we piloted a Living Lab between Engineering and the Sustainability Team, where students used real energy data on 20 of the university’s buildings. They created detailed energy models and proposed designs to retrofit buildings with renewable technology and implement energy saving measures. Students had the chance to experience working on real-life challenges in an example of authentic assessment, while the Sustainability Team gained valuable analysis on their extensive data. We’ll discuss the successes and the challenges of creating this project, and how we plan to develop it in the future.

Fatima Lopez Castellanos and Kellys Sikabbwele

LINK

This paper presents the case of the group summative assignment implemented in the PGT unit Sustainability and Ethics in Global Supply Chains at the Business School. Students are living in an age of technological transformations, digitalisation, and globalisation, all of them augmenting complexity in our society and intensifying socioecological challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss. This inherent complex in global supply chains present the perfect scenario to get students to critically reflect on the challenges associated with implementing sustainable practices. This aligns with the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) aim to cultivate students’ understanding of the complex nature of our world, including the emergence of persistent “wicked problems,” while fostering awareness of the roles they can assume as catalysts for positive change in both personal and professional contexts (Advance HE/QAA, 2021). How can this be effectively implemented in practice? How do we prepare students to cultivate this understanding and devise potential solutions while remaining cognizant of imminent tensions? What digital tools can be used to foster deeper engagement and critical thinking to approaches to sustainable development?

Several competences and skills in ESD have been identified by scholars, some of them classified under the complexity and future (anticipatory) thinking categories (Advance HE/QAA, 2021; Bianchi et al., 2022; Grewatsch et al., 2023; Sharma et al., 2022; Šilenskytė et al., 2024; Wiek et al., 2011). Competencies within these domains have been recognised as instrumental in empowering learners to critically evaluate information and challenge unsustainable practices. These competencies are also considered valuable in envisioning alternative future scenarios and for delineating the actions required to realize these scenarios while navigating uncertainties and trade-offs inherent in sustainability (Bianchi et al., 2022). The group summative assessment presented can serve as an exemplar on how higher education can design assessments to develop and assess some of these complexity and future (anticipatory) thinking competencies. Specifically, this group assessment was designed to support the development of the following competencies: systems thinking, anticipatory thinking, critical thinking, strategic and collaborative competencies.

This paper presents insights on how the assessment brief delineated the competencies that students were required to demonstrate upon completion of the assignment. It also offered details on how students were encouraged to demonstrate these competencies. Additionally, as part of the assessment students were asked to reflect on the practical skills and/or knowledge gained from the assignment tasks, as well as the complexities of sustainability in global supply chains. We also present reflections on the development of these key competencies through tutorial activities designed to support the students’ preparations for the assessment. Further, findings from the student’s reflective blogs will be included in the presentation, once the students have submitted their assessment. Finally, we provide suggestions on how the assessment can be improved to ensure greater link between these competencies and the assessment criteria.

Kiah Tasman

LINK

This year our School have run community-partnered third year projects for the first time. These projects were led by community partners who put forward questions specific to the physical and mental health challenges faced by communities in Bristol. Students worked in groups on these challenges which included identifying a framework for assessing the accessibility of workplaces to neurodiversity, and quantifying the physical and psychosocial impacts of air pollution in deprived areas of Bristol.

Through this process students were exposed to different professional environments and expectations. They developed new skills such as event planning and advertising, carrying out citizen science and facilitating discussions of sensitive topics. These skills will prepare them for a non-research career in a way that a lab based research project wouldn’t. The data they’ve collected will also be used by the partner to inform their current work and will be built on by student projects next year.

Survey data collected from the students and partners at the end of the projects in March will show whether this type of projects is valued by the students and whether they feel more employable as well as whether they feel a stronger sense of belonging within the city.

Scott Abbott Paterson and Michelle Spear

LINK

In an evolving educational landscape, embedding Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) alongside sustainability requires intentional, reflective, and ongoing action. This presentation reflects on the development and initial implementation of a pioneering EDI and sustainability pledge at our school, designed to be both sustainable and achievable over time. This initiative, running for the first time in the 2024–2025 academic year, is led by the School Education Director and Head of School, with collaborative input from academic staff, professional services, and, crucially, students.

The pledge is structured as an evolving commitment, developed and revisited annually to remain relevant and impactful. Each year, the focus shifts to a different aspect of the educational experience or involves a reflective review of previous commitments, ensuring that the pledge itself is both dynamic and sustainable. This iterative process allows for continual growth and adaptation, fostering meaningful change through small but tangible actions.

Our inaugural year focuses on what we teach—examining the curriculum through the dual lenses of EDI and sustainability. This involves critically evaluating content for inclusivity, representation, and relevance, ensuring that our teaching materials reflect diverse perspectives and promote environmental responsibility. Future cycles will address how we teach, the accessibility of teaching spaces, inclusive assessment practices, and discipline-specific considerations, such as body donation—each contributing to a broader commitment to equity and sustainable practice.

A distinctive feature of this initiative is its co-created, interactive approach. Staff and students work together to explore EDI and sustainability themes, identifying two or three key pledge points annually. These focused actions, once formalised, become embedded within the school’s teaching delivery, driving consistent and meaningful change.

By the time of the conference, we will be approaching the completion of the first year of this initiative. This presentation will reflect on the process so far, highlighting the challenges faced and the strategies used to overcome them. We will discuss the complexities of balancing ambition with achievability, ensuring the pledge remains actionable and not tokenistic. Additionally, we will explore the benefits of pairing EDI and sustainability, recognising the interconnectedness of social justice and environmental responsibility within the educational context.

Early reflections suggest that this initiative is already fostering greater engagement across the school, encouraging shared responsibility for driving positive change. This presentation will share insights from our collaborative journey, providing practical examples of how other institutions might implement a similar, sustainable approach to embedding EDI and sustainability into their educational practices.

Nicola Rooney, Tirion Cobby, Julie Dickson, Bogdan Florea, Christophe Fricker, Craig Gunn, Sally Dowling

LINK

Assessments in higher education should be part of student learning (assessment for learning), enable demonstration of competency in skills and/or understanding for accreditation purposes (assessment of learning), and be authentic so that students are prepared for life beyond academia (Boud and Soler, 2016). Inclusive assessments achieve these outcomes in a way that is fair (by proactively minimising disadvantage through assessment), accessible, compassionate and recognizes the diversity in student learning (Knight & Ferrell, 2022 Tai et al., 2023).  As student bodies become more diverse (Marginson, 2016), universities need to adapt assessments to be more inclusive within their institutional context (Hanesworth, 2019). Although much work has been done to develop theoretical approaches to inclusive assessment (Madriaga et al., 2010), the literature is relatively scarce of research exploring the practicalities of inclusive assessment (Tai et al., 2021).  

The University of Bristol assessment strategy highlights that assessments should be integrated, inclusive, and authentic. Priority 2 of the strategy highlights that assessment and feedback should be designed for all, offering variety in assessment types, having a balance between formative and summative assessments where formative assessment builds into summative, and acknowledging the value of diverse student backgrounds. 

We have conducted a scoping review and a large-scale survey of university students to explore the perceived inclusivity of a range of assessments currently used within the university, formative and summative, UG and PG, as well as students’ views on which assessments best enable them to demonstrate their learning, and which they view as most authentic.  We have also conducted focus groups with students and conducted thematic and linguistic analysis of their outcomes. We have also considered practicality, feasibility and the experience and opinions of staff, during focus groups.

Using all these results we will produce university guidance on inclusive assessments. This session will include opportunities to discuss our draft guidance and for attendees to contribute to the university guidance, and consider how they can implement it with the programmes they teach on. 

Dave Jarman

LINK

Last autumn, 175 PGT students in the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship unit studying the User Research unit undertook self-directed, team-based, primary research, exploring the International Student experience at the University of Bristol as an experiential project to develop their user research practices.

Exploring themes including academic literacy, accommodation, career planning, finance planning, food culture, socialising, and visas, they produced a portfolio of research insights and recommendations.

Not only did this develop primary research skills (method selection, method use, analysis, synthesis, and ethical practice), it also raised their awareness of the support available and of the issues that their peers faced.

It has subsequently led to sharing these insights and recommendations with University colleagues from Accommodation, AQPO, CALD, Careers, Student Experience, Student Finance, and more. This has included students presenting to and working with professional service colleagues to see their recommendations being explored and implemented. We are now discussing how UoB departments might work with students to develop their research further as part of their Masters’ dissertations this summer.

Akinyo Ola and Lloyd Fletcher

LINK

The ‘Project Management Education with Real-World Impact’ (PM-Impact) is a unique social innovation programme. It allows students to lead and collaborate with local charities and SMEs, resulting in a real-world impact. In addition to equipping students with practical project management skills while implementing projects that benefit partner organisations, the programme allows students to translate classroom theory into real-world practice. At the same time, the partners benefit from additional capacity and opportunities to nurture a relationship with the university for sustainable, long-term mutual benefit.

The presentation provided an overview of using ‘authentic learning’ as a teaching method to apply project management knowledge and skills to real-world problems while encouraging students to engage effectively in class and with their partners to provide business solutions. In addition, it provides reflections and feedback from the students, partners, and academics based on their experiences with community engagement learning, including the benefits, challenges, and lessons.

Chloe Anderson

Link not available

Case-based learning (CBL) is currently gaining traction within medical and veterinary sciences (Alvarez et al., 2022) because it supports knowledge acquisition alongside professional skills such as communication and teamwork (Baillie et al., 2010). Bristol Veterinary School introduced small-group CBL via the BVSc Accelerated Graduate Entry Programme (AGEP) in 2019, and to the revised BVSc28 curriculum from 2023. 

The transition to student-led, competency-based education in Higher Education means that educators must adapt from “sage on the stage” (King, 1993, p.30) to “curators and facilitators of learning experiences” (Becker et al., 2017, p.34). However, the implications in terms of teaching practice are often met with apprehension and anxiety (Drew and Mackie, 2011).

A small-scale study conducted in 2023 aimed to explore the challenges experienced by educators at Bristol Veterinary School as facilitators of CBL. Findings illustrate how limitations in inclusivity from the educators’ perspective negatively impact the experience of CBL facilitation and hinder job satisfaction. Limitations in inclusivity manifest in two ways: structural barriers that restrict educators’ ability to best support students and a lack of accommodation for neurodivergent staff to perform the role effectively.

This study indicates the importance of reciprocity between staff and students within the case-based learning environment. Therefore, inclusivity needs to be considered holistically and from the perspective of both parties to foster successful teaching and learning experiences. This session will discuss the findings from the study and their implications for practice.

Lucy Wenham

LINK

This presentation speaks directly to inclusive engagement in the Higher Education classroom, drawing on research into embedding opportunity for anonymous interaction using digital technologies. It provides ideas for others to trial themselves, with minimal changes in practice, to markedly improve diverse participation in inclusive ways. Students who can fear otherization experience reduced anxiety. Second-language speakers no longer fear mispronunciation or grammatical errors. Neurodiverse students and those with a range of special educational needs are free to participate as they prefer, at their own pace. Students from across other under-represented groups, whether in terms of race, class, gender, LGBTQ+ and more, unconstrained by labelling, or having their contributions misinterpreted, or indeed overinterpreted, can engage more authentically.

The inclusive potential of embedding opportunities for anonymity came to light, through adaptive teaching over the pandemic. With the move to online learning, teachers embraced many new ways of working, as pedagogy morphed to address the changing contexts. Many online platforms offer breakout rooms, to approximate small group discussion, yet it transpired that engagement between students could be painfully difficult to facilitate. Moreover, connectivity issues could make video-participation impossible and even audio-participation could be patchy. All-too-often students resorted to written exchanges in the ‘chat’, or opted out altogether. In grappling for alternatives and exploring options, some digital technologies came into its own. These different spaces for engaged, dynamic, probing interaction emerged as a solution. Crucially – unlike chat where names are visible to all – these effective tools are entirely anonymized. Students could safely offer answers to questions, raise tentative points, ask all-manner of questions and air concerns and difficulties. They could also safely raise objections, offer alternative ideas and contribute minority opinions. A small-scale qualitative ‘reflections’ survey revealed that with this anonymized format, many barriers to inclusion melted into air.

Students recounted a reduction, or even total removal of various commonplace anxieties, notably including the fear of being labelled as stupid, or being exposed as possessing a minority view. There was no longer any pressure to meet neoliberal performativity expectations in the classroom, to be seen to actively participate, to provide the acceptable opinion, to conform to the stereotype of a good student. Stigma fell away. Social anxiety abated. The removal of pressure to contributed in a certain way in fact opened up possibilities to contribute as the students wanted, as their authentic selves. A silent environment has never been so dynamic and previously silenced voices begin to participate. Something wonderful, akin to genuine student academic freedom and situated close to critical pedagogy was afoot. In silence and anonymity there was dialogue, expression and inclusion. Subsequently, sustaining this unexpected win from pandemic pedagogy, taking these opportunities for authentic engagement through to all classes – through embedding opportunities for anonymous participation – has continued to fuel inclusive engagement for all. Student feedback across portfolios repeatedly praises these anonymous spaces for ‘hearing more voices’.

Reference:

Wenham, L. (2024). Anonymity as Freedom: Drawing Critical Hope from Pandemic Pedagogy. Curriculum Studies Collaborative Journal, 2(1), 2-12.

Sarah McLaughlin, Asim Ali and Steve Jennings

LINK

This presentation draws from a current research project exploring the learning journeys of health professions educators with dyslexia, undertaking post-graduate teacher training at a UK university. Research into undergraduate medical students has highlighted a gap in teaching and learning strategies to support students with dyslexia, particularly among educators who do not share this neurodivergence. This underscores the need to increase the representation of neurodivergent educators, to foster inclusivity and share insights that enhance teaching practices. Amid the evolving landscape of health professions education, marked by growing diversity and heightened attention to inclusivity, the experiences of postgraduate educators with dyslexia remain underexplored. While the learning journeys of undergraduate students with dyslexia have gained some attention, there is a notable absence of research on health professions educators, particularly those undertaking postgraduate teacher training. This research project ‘Dyslexia journeys’ emphasises the importance of understanding the unique perspectives and contributions of health professions educations, especially as they navigate teacher training programs. The project employs mapping as a creative method, inviting participants to visually represent their journeys and experiences. This innovative approach seeks to give agency to participants to create their data and identify salient moments in their journeys into teaching. By shedding light on the experiences of neurodivergent educators, this current research project seeks to contribute to a broader understanding of inclusivity in health professions education.