Our Higher Education conference, which took place on 30 April 2009 at our City Campus (Peninsular House), was a great success.
Almost 100 delegates attended to network, participate in workshops and enjoy our two keynote speakers, Dr Po-Li Tan and Dr Maarten Cannaerts.
Keynote speakers
Dr Tan (Lecturer in Higher Education at King’s College London) spoke about Intercultural Issue in Learning and Teaching.
View presentation slides
Listen to Dr Tan’s post-conference reflections
Dr Cannaerts, formerly a lecturer on postgraduate courses at the Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology and now Knowledge Manager at the KBC banking Group in Belgium, gave a great demonstration of a wide range of technologies, and explored their uses in higher education.
View presentation slides on Slideshare
Watch Dr Cannaerts post-conference reflections
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Afternoon workshops
In the afternoon we had a series of workshops facilitated by members of Senior Faculty and our wider academic community. These included reflections on the Credit Crunch, and the merits and particulars of tutor observation.
Workshops
Session 1
1. Introducing Tutor Development through Observation
Facilitated by Trevor Russell, Senior Faculty Member and Sam Godden, Manager - Academic Community Development.
A closer look at the role that observations play in the ifs tutor appraisal system. The group work focused on Brookfield’s 4 Lenses model that encourages a teacher to focus on the importance of personal reflection in four key areas built around student feedback, reflecting with peers, self-reflection and the review of underpinning theoretical frameworks.
Further Information
2. Keeping up to date in the Financial Services Industry
Facilitated by Janet Hontoir, Senior Faculty Member.
This workshop covered three main issues – how far should tutors keep up-to-date, how can they do it and how much should they share with their students. Many good ideas came out of the discussions, including aiming for a balance between not keeping up with events and trying to know every detail of everything that happens and passing on the main ideas to students with suggestions for further reading.
3. Developing a Distributed Scholarly Community
Facilitated by Rachel Gosling, Director Postgraduate Programmes and Nicola Scull, Head of e-Operations.
A poster session that focused on how the ifs has used research as a tool to develop deeper a sense of academic identity amongst its staff. In this informal workshop participants were encouraged to reflect, debate and evaluate the activities undertaken.
4. Why Quality Matters
Facilitated by Suellen White, Manager - Academic Quality.
An interactive workshop using a case study to investigate and reflect on how the ifs assures that academic quality and standards of its higher education awards are maintained and enhanced.
Session 2
1. Introducing Tutor Development through Observation
Facilitated by Trevor Russell, Senior Faculty Member and Sam Godden, Manager - Academic Community Development.
A re-run of the earlier session looking at the role that observations will play in the ifs tutor appraisal system and a chance for questions and answers from tutors about what it involves.
Further Information
2. Web 2.0 – Learning and Teaching Tools
Facilitated by Joanna Richardson, Learning Technologist.
An introduction to weblogs and their potential uses in education. In particular the session considered how blogs could be used for research, information dissemination and reflection.
3. The View from Corporate Relationships
Facilitated by David Fear, Senior Corporate Relationship Manager.
A look at the importance of the corporate relationship manager role within the broader ifs context and how the academic community can contribute to success in this area.
4. Risk or Crunch? How does it feel to work in Financial Services right now?
David Potter, Senior Faculty Member
This session discussed the parties impacted by the credit crunch and how that could be followed through to their relationship with ifs. This included the way that people view the situation from a personal perspective, eg risks and opportunities. The cultures presently in financial services organisations were also considered and how these relate to education and learning.
Summary
The conference a whole has given us fantastic food for thought, in terms of how we develop higher education in the financial services in the post-credit crunch era, and how we can practically enhance the provision of our learning and teaching.
Testimonials
The two keynote speakers were excellent, well informed, up to date and highly relevant to our HE community
Geoff Saward
An excellent day, and the level of attendance (a mix of bankers, financial services practitioners and academics – all of whom have busy work schedules) demonstrates the level of commitment to the ifs, hence the depth and breadth of the rich academic community.
Andy Groves
I only wish I could have attended more of the workshops. They were all very relevant. Thanks for a great day – well done
Anna-Maria Geare
The insights into the cultural aspects of learning and teaching were illuminating and highlight the approaches taken by students from different backgrounds. Being aware of the differences will help in one’s tutoring
Michael Blott