Every year in January you’re asked to think about ‘New Years Resolutions’ – what will you change? How can you improve? What can you achieve? And although this can be a great way to set yourself a challenge, it (more often than not) results in a perceived failure when it doesn’t happen.
This year, instead of New Years Resolutions in January, we’re asking you to look back on 2023 and reflect on your best achievements of the year. We’re sure that every person reading this can name at least one thing they’re proud of this year – even if it is something you believe to be quite small!
Some members of the BILT Team have kicked things off in the comments below – please share yours and let’s celebrate all the brilliant things we’ve done together!
One of things that makes me proud is how we engage with students. I was lucky to run a series of focus groups with students across faculties on their thoughts and feelings on AI and its impact on their learning experience. We’ve taken the findings to internal decision-making groups and showcased them externally too, culminating in an academic paper that’s just been submitted. Phew! I was also delighted to run the Introduction to Higher Education Teaching course earlier this year with hundreds of learners – the next run of the course features a brand new Lab Demonstrators session which we are excited to roll out!
When I look back over 2023 I feel quite contented with the year – it wasn’t quite as eventful as the year before when I bought a house but I did start a new role, my daughter turned 18 and sat her A levels and I also had a milestone birthday so there was still a lot going on! Sometimes I think making sure you maintain sufficient energy to be able to enjoy your evenings and weekends is an achievement in itself. Professionally I have created and published my first SharePoint site and am learning lots about roles and responsibilities at the University which is really interesting. Looking ahead to next year there are definitely workplace skills I would like to develop but if I’m honest my priorities are my home and family, making time to do some creative writing and also to play the piano more.
In summer 2023, we launched a new community of practice in Bristol Medical School called ‘BMERG’ Bristol Medical Education Research Group. We our hugely proud of the work that staff and students have put into this so far with over 30 blogs, 5 staff profiles, publishing workshops, online writing retreats, a journal club and external speakers!
Whilst the group is set up and run by staff in the Medical School, all UoB staff and students are welcome to subscribe to the blog, join our Microsoft team and come to our events, as there is much to be learnt from cross disciplinary conversations.
For more information please email the co-leads Sarah Allsop Sarah.Allsop@bristol.ac.uk and Steve Jennings steve.jennings@bristol.ac.uk, or our shared mailbox at brms-bmerg@bristol.ac.uk.
Read more and subscribe at https://bmerg.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/
Thank you Sarah – it’s great that you already have so much engagement with the BMERG and we wholeheartedly agree about the value of cross disciplinary conversations. We look forward to hearing more about this community.
Two things in particular have given me a huge sense of satisfaction and gratitude for having a wonderful team of colleagues this year. Firstly, the successful launch of the revised BVSc curriculum to our incoming first year cohort – over 60 colleagues are actively involved in the curriculum review, and we are excited to witness (and evaluate!) the impact the changes will have on our students. Key changes are a shift to case-based learning for much of the content delivery, and a shift to a pass-fail assessment strategy. Secondly, I was privileged to work with an international team of veterinary educators on a funded project exploring the identity and motivations of veterinary curriculum leaders – this project has generated two exciting papers, and I think potentially has relevance for curriculum leaders in many disciplines. Next step is to work out how to disseminate and discuss our findings beyond the veterinary world! Next year, I’m really excited to be working with the BILT Understanding Pedagogical Research Culture team, and hopefully by this time next year we’ll have some concrete outcomes from that project that can benefit our colleagues – fingers crossed!
Fingers crossed indeed! Thanks for sharing Sheena. It sounds like you’ve had a very busy – and productive – year. Please keep us updated on both the impact of the revised curriculum and the progression of those papers.