June was a lively month for Teaching Matters exploring undergraduate experiences of learning and teaching. Ben Marder provided creative posts on the benefits of smiley faces in student communication and how petting cats can alleviate dissertation stress, while posts by Simon Fokt and Craig McMillan highlighted the interactive nature of a flipped classroom approach.
This month continues with the broad theme of learning and teaching experiences, but with a change of focus from undergraduate to postgraduate. Look out for blog posts discussing the integrity of ethics, reflecting on the PhD Horizons conference, and showcasing the Building Futures exhibition, in which MSc students re-envisioned 7 Bristo Square for effective teaching and learning in 2030, alongside sustainability and climate change adaptation. The blog will also feature a guest post, written by the keynote speaker at the University’s first Learning and Teaching Conference, Professor Amy Tsui. In this post, Professor Tsui reflects on the success of the conference, and summarises the central messages from her keynote speech.
In this issue, Teaching Matters is also very excited to present a video produced exclusively for the blog by the University’s Communication and Marketing team. Videographers spent two days filming Masters students engaging in place-based education at Woodlands, a University residential centre in the Highlands. This powerful video captures the transformative experience of learning in a local environment.
Finally, the Near Future Teaching project video post mini-series continues into its second (and final) month, with one video post published every Wednesday. In June, Michael Gallagher presented videos on humans and technology, ways of learning and creativity, community and distance, and data and automation. This month will see Michael introduce videos on lectures, augmentation and values.
Happy reading!
