At the start of each new academic year, BILT welcomes staff from across the university to undertake the Introduction to Higher Education Teaching course. This term, 230 colleagues have already completed the training, mostly through the face to face and live online routes.
Who takes the course?
For some, the course is a mandatory requirement, ensuring that the university provides a minimum threshold of quality for our teaching. We are also joined by lots of education enthusiasts who don’t have to be there, usually because they have a prior teaching qualification, but are keen to learn the Bristol version of what they are familiar with. This creates a dynamic environment where our participants learn from each other in unexpected ways.
Most of the cohort are those in teaching associate and graduate teacher roles (65%), 17% are Demonstrators, while the remainder are largely Research Associates and Lecturers.
The learning environment is interdisciplinary represented by Engineering (36%), Science (12%) Health & Life Sciences (20%), Arts & Humanities (12%), Science (9%) and Professional Services (1%). Many attendees note the positive impact of the interdisciplinary learning environment as they encounter new practice, new perspectives and get inspired by how others imagine the curriculum.
Evaluation
We run an evaluation survey each year and the responses are overwhelmingly positive. This year, 93% found the workshops worthwhile. Here are some representative quotes:
- The application of active learning …was very helpful and gave us great tips for efficient and effective teaching
- It’s fun, really happy and useful especially for me who just about to start teaching. The material, duration, delivery and balance and easy to understand
We often hear from new teachers that their anxieties increase as they feel the pressure to lead in the classroom for the first time. These feelings are common and can add stress to a busy start of term, so we put a lot of effort into building confidence and addressing common fears and worries. After completing the course this run, 89% felt more confident. Here’s what they said:
- I am still nervous as this my first time, but this workshop gave me the idea that it’s okay to not answer directly or confirm if I am not sure so it doesn’t have to be perfect.
- …reminded me just how lovely everyone at this university is! It’s given me the confidence that if I need help, not only can I ask for advice, but I know where to get it.
Even experienced teachers found the course helpful, with one commenting: …this gave me confidence through understanding the specific expectations of the university.
A lot of what we try to inspire is a mindset that embraces active learning, inclusion, planning and design, reflection on practice and continuous improvement. We use a reflexive approach to delivering the sessions, noting why we have chosen activities or content, and why it is beneficial, and even how it could be adapted in other contexts.
Not all of our attendees have the remit to innovate and change their learning contexts, many work under the direction of others who make those decisions. What we prioritise is reflection in these contexts, to keep an eye on what’s happening and enter into dialogue with more experienced colleagues to learn from them. It’s not just about what is happening in the classroom, but why it’s happening.
We also encourage attendees to reflect on how their behaviours and interactions with students are under their control, and they can make a positive difference even if they don’t design other parts of the learning environment. Many find the session on assessment and feedback helpful because it explores how informal feedback, like walking around the lab and interacting with students counts as feedback and is really important!
Continuous improvement
This year, we changed a lot of the format, not least because of the move to BlackBoard Ultra!
One significant change was the removal of pre-workshop reading and preparation. With the rush to issue new contracts at the start of the term and last-minute signups, plus the low completion of those activities in previous runs, it felt like something that could be dropped. Instead we extended each session from 1 to 1.5 hours long. Attendees commented that they felt this was the sweet-spot for their learning, not to short and not too long.
Another change was to move from double-teaching in small flat-bed teaching to hosting all face-to-face attendees together in a lecture theatre. This solved lots of accessibility restrictions and timetabling constraints. It also meant that we could lead by example and showcase how active learning and large group teaching can be enabled in these rooms.
Another significant update was the inclusion of content relating to Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). It was something we picked up from the feedback last year and rolled out or the first time this September. Fortunately, the new content hit the mark – just enough but not so much it overwhelmed or didn’t feel relevant.
Planning ahead
As ever, we are reviewing the feedback to see how we can make things even better for the next run. We’ll confirm the dates of the January live sessions in the coming weeks. In the meantime, anyone who wants to undertake the course can take advantage of our flexibility delivery – anyone can sign up to gain access to the asynchronous version of the course that is available all year round.
We know from our attendees that this flexibility has worked really well, when busy meeting schedules or practical distance limit live attendance feasibility.
Likewise, we offer a subset of resources including a downloadable workbook just for Demonstrators!
It’s been an exciting start to term and we look forward to inviting future cohorts to the wonderful world of teaching at Bristol!
Over to you!
Find out more about the Introduction to Teaching an our other Staff Development routes here:
Staff development | Bristol Institute For Learning and Teaching | University of Bristol
