feedback – Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching Blog

Putting the ‘Ex’ in Exams?

July 16, 2020September 8, 2020 Toby Roberts

I didn’t finish Uni quite how I thought I would (to put it mildly). Ignoring, for now, the slightly terrifying world I’ll be graduating into (which is something I’m getting quite good at), one big … Continue reading

News

Evaluating your teaching practice

July 8, 2020July 14, 2020 Dr Aisling Tierney

Evaluation isn’t one thing to everyone. It takes place at different points in the curriculum and can be valued in many ways. In this blog I provide an overview of good practice for evaluating your … Continue reading

Teaching Stories

Feedback in an authentic context

March 12, 2020March 12, 2020 BILT

So, I will be honest, I have been dwelling on this blog idea for a while now, and the reason I haven’t written it is because I was stuck. I was struggling to come up … Continue reading

Humans of Bristol University

Humans of Bristol University: Emily, Maya, and Tom.

December 3, 2019January 21, 2021 Owen Barlow

Spotlight on ‘Voicing Vulnerability’

It’s lunchtime on Woodland Road. The autumn skylight floods in through the bay window at the Multifaith Chaplaincy. The meeting space is bustling with a few members of staff and dozens … Continue reading

Teaching Stories

The Office: Episode 6

October 31, 2019September 25, 2020 James Norman

‘All kinds of feedback’

A few months ago, I was sat in a conference when I got an email from one of the heads of department asking me if I was around. Without thinking, I … Continue reading

Student Voice

Why I am Making a Zine about Assessment

March 11, 2019August 11, 2020 BILT

Zoe Backhouse is a BILT Student Fellow and fourth-year Liberal Arts student.

I’m making a Zine about assessment at Bristol uni. This Zine is going to be creative, visually-engaging and, most importantly, fun!
Zines are great ways to bring narratives together from different types of people. I’m talking to students and academics across campus to understand how they experience assessment at the moment and what they want to change for the future. Assessment is important to us on more than just a pedagogical level. Talking to Physicists last month, I learned a culture of self-certifying where students feel so pressured by stacked deadlines that they tactically decide which exams to opt out of and re-sit in summer. At the same time, the Physicists also had more of a sense of community than any students I’ve come across in Arts. Their lab assessments, group projects and tight-knot relationship with alumni – who frequently post help for problems on their giant Physics Facebook group - has brought together a huge Physics family. Assessment can unite and divide us!
I want to understand more about why assessment is so important for how we experience university, both as teachers and learners. What concepts are currently discussed in the Higher Education sector that we should be taking on at Bristol? What good practice is already happening here that more people should know about? And how can we make the most of our student body, campus and vibrant city to improve how we assess and feedback?
The Zine will consist of drawings and paintings submitted by students, snippets from conversations with academics, quotes from student focus groups and easy-to-read articles condensing theory in HE. It will give academics and student reps ideas on what’s currently being debated and what methods we can move as we become a more pedagogically-focussed university.
Hopefully this will also be an opportunity to introduce Zine as a more mainstream method for presenting information and effecting change! We’d be behind the USA where universities are already harnessing Zinemaking as a way to teach – and learn - from their students.
Have some thoughts on assessment you want included in the Zine? Know someone who would be good for me to talk to? Want to contribute a doodle, cartoon, sketch or piece of creative writing responding to the theme of assessment? Email me at zoe.backhouse@bristol.ac.uk to be involved!

Zine [definition]: some sort of publication, usually mass-produced by photocopying (in some cases scanned, put on the net, or copied via fax) on … Continue reading

Image of the outside of Dolberry Building in Langford Campus

Education Enhancement Funds

The LeapForward Project

October 12, 2018December 18, 2020 BILT

Dr Sheena Warman was the lead academic on her project, ‘LeapForward’, for which she was awarded a Catalyst Fund from BILT for 2017/18. The project summary and conclusions can be found below – if you … Continue reading

Education Enhancement Funds

Building Confident Engaged Researchers Through Active Partnership and Problem Based Learning

October 12, 2018August 21, 2020 BILT

A Teaching Innovation Grant was awarded to Dr Chris Kent and Dr Jess Fielding for the academic year 2017/18 – you can find a summary of the project they undertook with their grant below. If … Continue reading

Image of Chris Rust delivering workshop symposium

An interview with...

An interview with… Chris Rust

August 21, 2018April 30, 2019 BILT

We spoke to Chris Rust, Professor Emeritus of Oxford Brookes University and author of ‘Assessment Literacy: The Foundation for Improving Student Learning’ and numerous other publications on assessment and pedagogy. Chris was BILT’s first visiting … Continue reading

An interview with...

An interview with… Naomi Winstone

March 27, 2018January 22, 2021 BILT

This interview is with Naomi Winstone, who presented an excellent seminar on maximising the impact of feedback in March 2018. Naomi has helped to implement a new feedback system in Surrey and has had huge … Continue reading