Project lead: Alison Catterall (Bristol Veterinary School)

Project team: Louisa Mitchard, Sam Brown and Sarah Baille

A comprehensive bank of flipped classrooms was developed to help students prepare for animal handling and clinical skills practical classes. Flipped classroom is a type of blended learning. In the context of clinical skills, it is designed to provide students with online learning resources prior to attendance at practical classes. The initiative was catalyzed by the pandemic and the resources continue to be embedded throughout the curriculum. A team approach was used for the development of the bank and the design embraced relevant pedagogical frameworks and active learning techniques. Feedback was gathered from a small group of students who completed an online form after each practical class throughout the academic year and wrote a reflective piece at the end of the project. Instructors who delivered practical classes participated in focus group discussions. Students particularly liked flipped classrooms that were well-designed with a range of content and interactivity. The main benefits for students of the flipped approach were being more prepared and confident, less anxious, and making better use of in-class time to focus on learning skills. One of the main challenges encountered by instructors was managing a group when some students have not done the pre-work. A few other issues were mentioned including when the standardized design template was not followed and the workload involved in continuing to enhance and expand the resources. Teamwork and training were crucial to the successful production of the large bank of flipped classrooms. Our experiences have been shared with the wider education community, within and beyond our institution, through a peer reviewed publication in the Journal of Veterinary Education and workshops at national and international conferences.

Project lead: Emma Love and Lindsey Gould (Bristol Veterinary School)

Project team: Julie Dickson, Chloe Anderson, Sarah Wood, Mick Millar

Project summary: The first two years of the BVSc (AGEP) comprise a novel curriculum that relies predominantly on case-based learning (CBL). The final two years are merged with the 5-year BVSc programme. By contrast to the AGEP, the BVSc has been a traditional, lecture-based programme, though the programme has recently adopted a blended-learning approach with increased opportunities for independent learning. This project presents a unique opportunity to explore learner’s perceptions of CBL as they enter the final years of their course. The project will use student reflection at this merge point to assess the impact of CBL and inform ongoing curriculum development (AGEP) and review (BVSc).

Project resources: Learners’ reflections on Case Based Learning as they enter a blended learning veterinary curriculum - Sway overview

Project lead: Alicia Gonzalez-Buelga (School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering)

Project team: Irina Lazar

Project summary: The purpose of this project is the evaluation of the findings of a current research project named: 'Understanding and capitalising on student perceptions and experiences of blended learning'. The final aim is to embark on designing a framework for enhanced online education delivery, based on a staff/student partnership. The project will start with an in-depth analysis of the students’ perceptions of online learning from data gathered via an online questionnaire and will lead onto one-to-one interviews with first year students in Mechanical Engineering. The next steps will be (1) evaluating findings and (2) developing an action plan for enhanced blended learning.

Project lead: Sara Sulaiman (School of Anatomy)

Project team: Michelle Spear

Project summary: This project aims to:

• Recognise ways decolonisation can be considered in the applied anatomy programme.
• Evaluate how the applied anatomy curriculum is being experienced by students.
• Investigate staff and students perspectives of decolonisation with respect to student experience and curriculum.
• Identify what a decolonised applied anatomy curriculum comprise of
• Create resources and space for a dialogue among staff and students.

Project lead: Alice Robson (School of Biochemistry)

Project team: Caroline McKinnon (Human Resources), Bronwen Burton (school of Cellular and Molecular Medicine)

Project summary: Decolonisation is broadly about confronting how colonialism, Eurocentrism, and racism have shaped our world. Decolonisation and diversification of the curriculum recognises these issues in the science we teach, aiming to include a range of perspectives of people who have been overlooked. Within this project, three students, supervised by the project lead and team members, will review three biomedical units to highlight opportunities to decolonise and diversify the curriculum. This will centre on:

• Acknowledging the contribution of individuals or groups overlooked due to ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or ableism.
• Highlighting opportunities to discuss the problematic past of some of the key figures.

Project resources: Decolonising and diversifying the biomedical science curriculum - case study

Project lead: Dave Lawson and Celine Petitjean (School of Biological Sciences)

Project summary: This project seeks to continue the School’s efforts in decolonising the Biology curriculum, whereby two student partners, supervised by Dr Dave Lawson and Dr Celine Petitjean, will coordinate efforts to:

1. Bring attention and awareness of decolonisation within the School and provide a space for students to discuss it and raise concerns.
2. Explore areas in need of priority attention in the School including units, research areas, award gaps, recruitment goals, and building a robust methodology to monitor these areas.
3. Participate in the global effort to decolonise curricula at different levels (School, Faculty, University, External)

Project resources: Whose work are we teaching? Quantifying gender and ethnicity representation of researchers used in undergraduate Biology teaching content - case study

Project lead: Lucy MacCarthy-Morrogh (School of Biochemistry)

Project team: Paul Martin and Giles Cory

Project summary: This project will develop an innovative final year project for groups of 3^rd year students which will provide students with knowledge and skills. This project will run a development study undertaken by a small group of students to refine a project.  Key to this development study’s success will be evaluating it as a learning experience suitable for expansion.  Students will learn research skills, reflect on their experience in the lab, and then provide feedback and perspective with the aim to enhance and upscale this study as a Capstone project for future cohorts of students.  

Project lead: Becky Selwyn (School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering)

Project team: Joel Ross (School of Civil, Aerospace and Design Engineering) and Jude Bramton (School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering)

Project summary: The aim of this project is to evaluate the peer feedback process being used in the 1st year UG Engineering by Investigation unit, delivered to ~550 students each year. Peer feedback allows students to receive more detailed and timely feedback on each formative report than would be possible if an academic were giving feedback, and started being used in this unit in 2020/21. This project will use a combination of surveys, focus groups, and analysis of peer feedback responses to evaluate: 1) the student experience and perception of peer feedback, 2) the effectiveness of peer feedback, 3) any possible improvements.

Project resources: Using peer feedback for 1st year written lab reports - case study

Project lead: Rebecca Pike (School of Biological Sciences)

Project summary:  This project will evaluate the implementation of an assessment and feedback portfolio which was developed using a School grant in April-June 2021. This portfolio aims to improve assessment literacy and clarity for students, outline and justify the feedback process as well as mapping skills development to the assessments across the programme. The project will support timely and consistent feedback within the School by developing and implementing a marker’s handbook for HPTs, developing and implementing strategies for timely feedback, and a consistent feedback form across all units.

Project resources: Improving assessment literacy – introducing am online interactive Assessment & Feedback Portfolio to the School of Biological Science - case study