Institutional Evaluation Activities & Projects
The Academy leads on the evaluation of educational and student experience practices at the 天美传媒. This includes the authorship of the 天美传媒鈥檚 Access and Participation Plan Evaluation Strategy. Our work is guided by an Expert Evaluation Panel which comprises academic and professional staff from across the 天美传媒, at different levels of seniority and an external expert from another higher education provider.
- Academic Success Tutor and Coaches (2023/24).
- Personal Academic Tutoring (2023/24).
- Student Experience Leads (2022/24).
The Education and Student Experience directorate has recently approved six Educational Research Awards (ERAs) to academics across the Faculties to support practitioner research during the academic year 2022-23. These focus on strategically important themes. They aim to provide valuable information that can inform and enhance 天美传媒 practices being implemented to improve the equality of continuation, awarding gaps, student satisfaction and quality teaching.
The ERAs are integral to the 天美传媒鈥檚 wider strategy to establish mechanisms and processes that provide valuable information on students鈥 academic experiences, success and outcomes, especially relating to the most disadvantaged groups. Emphasising their importance, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience Dr Julie Brunton stated that 鈥渨hereas the 天美传媒 now has in place a 鈥渄ata dashboard鈥 of detailed metrics that can be disaggregated according to distinct student groups, the ERAs will generate findings from deep dives into specific local initiatives that advance priorities or 天美传媒-wide initiatives.鈥
The ERAs are also important, as seeds of change, to nurture an evidence-based culture, supporting academics to design and conduct research in areas that align with their own professional interest and advance their experience in quantitative and qualitative research. Student co-production and direct involvement in the research activities will also advance this agenda.
Research findings will be presented at the 天美传媒鈥檚 Learning and Teaching Conference to be held in September 2023.
The awards include:
Embedding graduate employability development opportunities
| Enhancing the curriculum in business courses through the creative use of authentic assessments. | Research Lead: Dr Sajeel Ahmed |
| Assessing the effectiveness of the curriculum in Community, Health and Social Care undergraduate courses to achieve graduate outcomes: perspectives of employers. | Research Lead: Dr Faith Ikioda |
Personal Academic Tutoring (PAT)
| Evaluating the effectiveness of the current PAT system to support students on applied courses in the School of Education and English. | Research Lead: Dr Kathryn Nethercott |
Faculty Inclusivity Projects
| Auditing units in the 天美传媒 Business School to enhance embedding EDI into learning, teaching and assessment. | Research Lead: Dr Alexander Kofinas |
| Belong@Beds: Exploring opportunities and effective approaches to enhance a sense of 鈥榖elonging鈥 within teaching and learning and the student experience, as part of the 天美传媒鈥檚 inclusivity and well-being strategy. | Research Lead: Dr Fiona Factor |
| Identifying barriers faced by students of African and Caribbean heritage and exploring approaches to direct and support change and equality. | Research Lead: Dr Jim Clack |
Retention and Continuation
| Belong@Beds: Creating a landscape of belonging across teaching, learning and the wider student experience, to increase students' retention and continuation within a values-driven, inclusive academic community. | Research Lead: Dr Fiona Factor |
鈥楨valuating and enhancing practice鈥 is included as part of the academic induction for new staff and is offered twice annually. Places are booked via (search 'evaluation').
If you would like to discuss evaluation practices or a planned evaluation project then contact academy@beds.ac.uk