Project lead: Satadru Mukherjee (School of Economics) 

Project summary: The project aims to co-create summative group assessment engaging students as partners where year 2 undergraduate students will collaborate in creating a portfolio of group coursework for their year 1 cohort in a core unit of Probability, Statistics and Econometrics. The project will offer students more agency in assessment design, add more diversity to their assessment, provide student collaborators the scope of developing and showcasing work skills/digital skills, strengthen their sense of belonging with the discipline and the university. The project, through continuing this practice, aims to promote a culture of co-creating assessments within the school and beyond.  

: A pilot study exploring the experience of PGT students implementing the new UoB marking rubric 

Project lead: Gemma Ford (Bristol Medical School) 

Project team: Sally Dowling (Bristol Medical School) 

Project summary: This project aims to explore the attitudes and experiences of MSc students in co-creating a new marking scheme, using the University of Bristol marking rubric, to self- and peer-assess case based learning presentations. The factors that enhance and support this learning experience, and the barriers for students, will be identified. The project will discover if students recognised this ‘assessment as learning’ approach as a valuable and meaningful learning experience, and if engagement with assessment criteria as learning outcomes was considered useful for developing and enhancing transferable skills and graduate attributes. 

Project lead: Holly Powley (University of Bristol Law School) 

Project summary: The purpose of this project is to explore student views on agency and choice in formative assessment. The new Structure of the Academic Year (SAY) and the introduction of semesterisation within the Law School presents opportunities for further innovation in assessment. On the LLM programme, this has resulted in greater student choice in formative assessment.   Utilising feedback from student surveys and focus groups, this project seeks insights into student decisions surrounding assessment choice and how this evolves over a semesterised programme. This will facilitate reflection on the student experience and inform future decision-making on assessment from a programmatic level.  

Project lead: Christopher Pesterfield (University of Bristol Business School) 

Project team: Xiaoting Luo (University of Bristol Business School) 

Project summary: This project aims to develop a better understanding of what international students think of alternative forms of learning and assessment designed to develop skills for the future, i.e. for careers or further study. Through this research the project aims to better understand whether international students feel the forms of learning and assessment they receive in the Business School are appropriate for their futures, and if not what alternatives might be put in place.

Project lead: Danielle Guizzo (School of Economics) 

Project summary: This project explores the ways in which student research can be used as a form of assessment to support the teaching of Economics. By exploring the development of original research papers by students in two undergraduate units, History of Economic Thought (Year 2), and Philosophy of Economics (Year 3), the project seeks to better understand how student research and scholarly co-creation can support their pedagogical development and contribute to a well-rounded education in Economics. The project will be carried out jointly with student consultants to better understand and inform how such form of assessment can be implemented in Economics programmes.  

Project lead: Joel Ross (School of Civil, Aerospace and Design Engineering) 

Project team:  Anna Baker (School of Civil, Aerospace and Design Engineering), Becky Selwyn (School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering), Francesca Pianosi (School of Civil, Aerospace and Design Engineering), Ian Laird (School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering) and Josh Hoole (School of Civil, Aerospace and Design Engineering) 

Project summary: Engineering by Investigation (EbI) is already a BILT case study for Active Learning with very large classes, and this project aims to drill down into the student experience and develop a rich evaluation on their experience of this different teaching approach.  There are two key aims:  

• To evaluate students’ satisfaction and experience with this pioneering teaching approach 
• Evaluate the inclusivity of active learning in EbI, including the full breadth of EDI categories (although engineering presents a particular opportunity regarding international students)  

: with the objectives outlined by the University of Bristol in The Bristol Skills Profile. 

Project lead: Elena McNeilly (School of Modern Languages) 

Project summary: The purpose of the project is to facilitate ongoing pedagogic research and produce quantitative and qualitative data to show whether the recently redesigned curriculum addresses the goals set out as part of the UoB strategy. The project will assess if the transferable employability skills acquired by students match their Bristol Skills Profile.  The project also aims to determine whether knowledge and competences developed by Year 4 students of Russian by the end of their studies at Bristol meet the expectations of employers, thus enhancing the career opportunities for our graduates.    

Project lead: Anca Dobrescu (School of Psychological Science) and Jessica Fielding (School of Psychological Science) 

Project team: Elizabeth Back (Disability Services), Jay Davies, Katy Burgess, Peter Allen (all School of Psychological Science) 

Project summary: In 23/24 BILT funding enabled the team in the School of Psychological Science to run a novel project investigating the inclusivity of in-person regular low-stakes testing. The project processed and analysed data from 400 students from the academic year 2022/23, developing procedures for safely handling, analysing and storing student performance and special category data. To ensure the project is sufficiently powered to address its key questions, the project now plans to embed historical data, from 2018-2022. The project will obtain pseudo-anonymised disability records from Disability Services, linking this to the performance data to identify if there are differences in performance between students with and without disclosed disabilities. 

Project lead: David Rogers (Bristol Medical School) 

Project team: Andrew Blythe, Jo Hartland, Jo Howarth (all Bristol Medical School) 

Project summary: This project’s aims to better support the learning and professional identity development of neurodiverse medical students in clinical spaces through: 

Understanding the current published literature for supporting neurodiverse students, & identify areas of development for application to clinical contexts. Understanding the barriers that neurodiverse doctors & students encounter requesting &/or implementing reasonable adjustment in clinical contexts. Co-developing with neurodiverse medical students & doctors a resource describing forms of reasonable adjustment in clinical spaces. Producing guidance for educators & colleagues supporting the professional development of neurodiverse doctors & students

Project lead: Sally Dowling (Bristol Medical School), Nicola Rooney (Bristol Veterinary School) 

Project team:  Bogdan Florea (Library Services), Christophe Fricker (School of Modern Languages), Craig Gunn (School of Psychological Science), Julie Dickson (Bristol Veterinary School), Tirion Cobby (Bristol Veterinary School) 

Project summary: This project will draw on the findings from an Associate project completed 23/24. It will synthesise findings from a scoping review and from the findings of a university-wide survey and focus groups with staff and students. The project will develop guidance which will be practical and acknowledge programme specificities. The project aims to make it applicable to UG and PG, professional and non-professional programmes and will have appropriate caveats and/or clauses to encompass all. Guidance will address both academics and professional services staff involved in administering assessments. It will also incorporate the views of professional networks, such as the academic integrity network.  

Project lead: Sarah Allsop (Bristol Medical School) 

Project summary: Basic Life Support is delivered as a compulsory part of the undergraduate medical programme curriculum. It is taught as a near peer led scheme with students involved in the planning and delivery of the training at every stage. The latest manikins are for the training but these are reflective of a generic adult, and do not give students the experience of performing CPR on manikins with breast tissue or of individuals of varying size. This project will explore the effect on student confidence and participation in CPR when using manikins with breast tissue and on obese adults.  

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

Project summary: Following from a 22/23 BILT-funded project looking at how to make teaching and assessment more neuroinclusive, this ongoing project will take a deeper dive into the experiences of large and small group working, taking into account the viewpoints of both neurodivergent and neurotypical undergraduate students. From this, the project will produce a resource for students to support collaborative active learning for all.   

- assessing the long-term impacts of community in an undergraduate cohort following a residential field course

Project lead: Emily Bell (School of Biological Sciences) 

Project summary: The academic year 24/25 will be the final year of data collection for this project which has been funded by BILT for two years previously. The study aims to investigate student experiences following a residential field course at the start of a degree programme and their sense of belonging to both their degree cohort and the wider university.  Emerging themes analysed from the first year of data suggest that attending such a trip can help students in developing social relationships and removing barriers of talking with staff. The trip also supported the creation of a meaningful study environment and demonstrated a perceived level of care and respect for the students from the school and staff involved.

Project lead: Dave Gatrell (Bristol Institute for Learning and Teaching) 

Project team: Asim Ali (Bristol Medical School), David Morgan (Digital Education Office), Gemma Irwin Porter (Bristol Veterinary School) 

Summary: This project aims to investigate the co-design and implementation of video-based formative assessment tasks to support students in Health Sciences programmes in developing their interpersonal communication skills. These tasks will engage students in the process of learning through peer feedback and self-reflection, working in groups, using a video annotation tool (Mediasite) to comment on and discuss specific aspects of recordings of their practice. It is hoped that students and teachers will experience this active learning approach as more inclusive and authentic than traditional approaches in its focus on widening opportunities for practice and constructive feedback, and promoting self-directed learning and collaboration.  

and can staff training co-designed with disabled students improve these?   

Project lead: Kiah Tasman (School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience) 

Project summary: A quarter of our students have a disability. Study support plans highlight areas of learning in which the students need reasonable adjustments made, with many of these relating to small and large group active learning. However currently there is a lack of consistency in how these Study Support Plans are utilised, leading to an inconsistent support for disabled students. This project aims to identify how teaching staff currently utilise these SSPs, what student expectations are for how SSPs will be used and what adjustments they view as most beneficial. This information will be used to create training for staff. 

Project lead: Hafsa Zaneb (Bristol Veterinary School) 
Project team: Emma Love, Julie Dickson, Sheena Warman (all Bristol Veterinary School)  

Project summary: Case-based learning (CBL) has been implemented in BVSc programmes in three formats:   Traditional, whole-cohort, teacher-led approach to CBL (1st four years of five-year BVSc, up to 2022 intake); Small group, 7-step CBL approach (AGEP BVSc since 2019) ;   Small-group, 7-step CBL approach (five-year BVSc; starting 2023).

How these formats are supporting our students in developing professional identity, is currently unknown. This project seeks to unpack the conceptions of professional identity held by BVSc students in their early years, with the aim to have the findings inform the program team of the impact of different program formats on BVSc students’ professional identity development.  

Project lead: Anca Dobrescu and Greig Dickson (School of Psychological Science)  

Project summary: This project will conduct a series of student-led workshops to inform the development of content and delivery of an optional short course. This course will focus on nutrition, subjective well-being, and online misinformation. The workshops will engage a diversity of students (across years of study and disciplines) to co-design this course. The course will be advertised to all students at the University of Bristol, and aims to equip students with critical thinking skills, promote mental well-being, and enhance understanding of nutritional science. An important aim of the course is to also empower students to better identify and counteract online misinformation.  

Project lead: Alison Oldfield (School of Education) 

Project team: Christy Fisher; Kerrianne Orriss, Rosey Crow, Tim Worth (all Library Services)  

Project summary: This project aims to support students to develop critical understanding and considered use of AI technologies within their university studies. It intends to collaboratively develop activities and resources that enable students’ critical engagement of AI applications within and beyond assessment. Importantly, it will develop these activities by building on current students’ concerns and questions about the role of these technologies across their university studies.  In addition to developing student-facing activities, this project would also increase understanding about student needs regarding AI and their preferred means of delivery (e.g. via courses/centrally offered; form of support; mode of communication.)   

Project lead: Aslak-Antti Oksanen and Lin Ma (both School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies)  

Project summary: The emergence of open generative AI has led to a surge in AI-related academic integrity investigations. In 2023-24 ALSS faculty panels, about half were concerned with international students from places of fast high-tech social development. Nevertheless, their perspectives remain underrepresented and sometimes stigmatised. Taking seriously international students’ voices, this project aims to identify understanding and fair practice of using generative AI for best learning outcomes. Through surveys and focus groups, this project will de-mystify international students’ AI usage. It will identify and disseminates best practices to co-produce evidence-based institutional policies for fair and supportive use of AI in the higher education context. 

Project lead: Jessica Roy (School of Policy Studies) 

Project summary: Teaching programmes across the School for Policy Studies engage students with content which may be sensitive and traumatic. How such content is delivered can act to include or exclude students from teaching, learning, and assessment. To enhance student inclusivity and engagement, this project aims to develop School wide guidance for staff on meaningful ways to prepare students for such content. The project will do this by conducting a series of focus groups and questionnaires with students and staff about their views and experiences. The project’s findings, as well as the guidance developed, will have relevance to programmes across the University.  

Project lead: Marion Prat (School of Economics) 

Project summary: The use of Large Language Models (LLMs) has become ubiquitous among students, yet their capabilities are rarely incorporated within course designs, and little is known of the students’ perspective on LLMs. Coding skills allow students to perform data analysis and simulate models, which helps foster a deeper understanding of economic theories. It is also an area where LLMs perform well and have the potential to be leveraged to provide interactive and personalised feedback to students. This project will evaluate how the use of LLMs can be successfully embedded into a second-year core economic course to facilitate the acquisition of coding skills as well as learning.   

Project lead: Rob Thatcher (School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience) 

Project summary: The purpose of this project is to develop a custom AI Chatbot that can present pharmacological data to simulate a drug development programme for undergraduate teaching.  The project aims to demonstrate that a chatbot trained on a database of hypothetical drug compounds can present data in an interactive manner similar to a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ branched scenario. The AI tool will be used for group activities where students must query the chatbot to obtain the information needed to arrive at a drug candidate. While specific to pharmacology, the project will act as a prototype for developing AI-based small group teaching of other subjects.