Inspire - a Teaching Fellows' newsletter

Promoting excellence in Learning and Teaching, driven by Middlesex Senior Fellows of HEA with contributions welcomed from all Middlesex staff.

Wednesday 24 June 2015

June 2015 Newsletter



INSPIRE – excellence in learning & teaching at Middlesex

Middlesex University Teaching Fellows                                                                         June 2015

Welcome to the 8th issue of Inspire. It will be coming to you three times per year.
Feel free to comment on any of the individual items. [Download PDF version]
International partnerships
One of the key roles of the Centre for Academic Partnerships is to provide a central management and support service for University overseas campuses, and across a range of collaborative arrangements varying from Internationally recognised Universities, UK FE Colleges, or global business and private providers offering provision in a wide variety of subject areas. 
Challenges of teaching international students
Transnational education (TNE) has increased substantially over the last decade both in terms of partnerships with other educational providers but also in the development of international campuses.  TNE is award- or credit-bearing higher education learning undertaken by students based in a different country from that of the awarding institution. 
Student transfer from an overseas campus to UK
"The transition to the London with its relatively faster moving life was pleasantly welcome in the beautiful and new buildings with extended courtyard. I really am impressed by the beautiful new buildings with the extended courtyard. This has been a challenge but one I am happy to have done."
App-date
Voicethread is a web-based interactive collaboration and sharing tool that enables users to add images, documents, and videos, and to which other users can add voice, text, audio files, or video comments. You can talk, type, and draw right on the screen. The app gives users the ability to comment on VoiceThread slides using one of five powerful commenting options. 
7 things you never knew about overseas campuses
Mick King worked on both the home campus and overseas campus at a previous institution, which gave him fascinating insights into how people in one educational context cannot always imagine how things are in another even when under the same umbrella. Many staff may be unaware of the similarities and differences between the home and overseas campuses. 
Teaching international students
Ruth Miller, a Senior Lecturer Work Based Learning and Accreditation/H&E reports on a telephone tutorial with an overseas student on the MSc Work Based Learning who was undertaking their final project.
Conferences
A regular listing of conferences with a learning and teaching theme (including this year's Annual Learning and Teaching Conference on 9 July), plus links to other sites listing similar events.

Grounded theory (comment from last edition)
One of the most influential qualitative approaches is that of grounded theory, and it has been used extensively in education, nursing, evaluation research and organisational studies. Grounded theory questions tend to be orientated towards action and process and so are a good fit with data collection methods that encompass observations and interviews.