Ultimately, it’s a place where the University community can share and celebrate stories of learning and teaching, inviting debate and discussion and sharing best practice. Here, bulletin speaks to the Teaching Matters team about what they’ve been working on.
Dr Jenny Scoles
Dr Jenny Scoles is an Academic Developer (Learning & Teaching Enhancement) in the Institute of Academic Development (IAD) and has been Editor of Teaching Matters since 2018.
What does a typical day look like?
Working for Teaching Matters is an absolute joy as each day I learn about inspiring and innovative teaching going on across the University. I work with staff and students who are interested in writing about their work. Blogging is an accessible and informal method of sharing reflections, innovations, practical recommendations, research findings and descriptions of learning and teaching practice with a target audience.
Every two months we run two series: a hot topic theme (focusing on specific events, initiatives, and important strategic initiatives across the University) and a learning and teaching enhancement theme (centring on a topic relating to pedagogical approaches, programmes, and concepts). Posts are published every Tuesday and Thursday. As Editor, I spend most of my time liaising with potential authors, supporting their writing process, and editing and formatting their post, before helping them promote it on social media.
What have you been working on recently?
Along with colleagues, I am leading a Principal’s Teaching Award Scheme project exploring the impact of blogging on colleagues’ professional development. We are particularly interested in investigating how we can attribute value to such informal practices as blogging and the informal conversations they generate, which escape measurement by metrics.
What’s your favourite Teaching Matters post or podcast and why?
One of my favourite posts is A Clean Slate by Dr Ross Galloway. I loved how much traction it gained on Twitter and I could see by the comments and likes the post received that it engaged a lot of people, which is exactly what we want Teaching Matters to inspire: A clean slate – Teaching Matters blog
Dr Joe Arton
Dr Joe Arton is an Academic Developer at IAD. He produces special podcasting and video projects for Teaching Matters, and connects Teaching Matters and The Curriculum Transformation Programme where he is based.
What does a typical day look like?
A typical day involves working with academic staff and students across schools and departments to co-create narrative-driven digital media assets (audio, video, blogs) that capture the best teaching and learning practice at the University. This includes being involved in the various processes of podcast and remote video recording, editing, and dissemination. The most challenging but rewarding part is editing raw audio with an understanding of a story arc and identifying when parts of the recordings don’t work and finding creative solutions.
What have you been working on recently?
Josephine and I have just finished producing a podcast series with Professor Emerita Rowena Ashad, Johanna Holton and Emily Sena from the Race Equality and Anti-Racist Sub-Committee (REAR). What was particularly special about this project was that the full lifecycle of the project was co-created with Teaching Matters, REAR, and academic staff and students across the University. In terms of the work that I do, it’s an excellent example of successful academic development and community building through media co-creation. Decolonising the Curriculum Podcast Series
What’s your favourite Teaching Matters post or podcast and why?
My favourite podcast that I produced was a two-part series on Student Mental Health and Online Engagement. The reason being that the podcast was a response to a critical and strategic issue raised by a number of staff in different departments across the University. Dr Catherine Bovill, the discussion facilitator, and I were able to capture and disseminate the views of a diverse group of interview subjects. I’m happy to say that this podcast has been shared internally by other Universities as an example of best practice in podcasting for academic development. Student Mental Health and Online Engagement Series
Joséphine Foucher
Joséphine Foucher is Teaching Matters Deputy Editor and Student Engagement Officer.
Her role involves supporting the editing and curating of the Teaching Matters blog: from establishing themes, to soliciting writers, to formatting and designing posts. She also works to boost student engagement.
What does a typical day look like?
I am employed through a PhD internship so I usually do one full working day on Mondays. I usually begin by formatting one or two blog posts that are meant to go live, then I’ll reach out to colleagues to discuss future themes for the blog, work on the newsletter, draft introductions to some of the series, send out emails to potential contributors.
What have you been working on recently?
We recently launched the student illustrator project that emerged after running a very successful series last year that was entirely student-produced. Students from all over the University wrote blog posts, submitted vlogs or illustrations to convey their experience with learning during the first lockdown. The illustrations were simply fantastic and made us realize that there was a wealth of talent at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) that needed to be showcased.
What’s your favourite Teaching Matters post or podcast?
A post by the teaching fellow Dr Omolabake Fakunle for our series on the The Curriculum as a Site for Social Justice and Anti-Discrimination in which she speaks candidly about a how a critical incident in her classroom allowed her to teach a valuable lesson. This is the kind of blog post we love because it balances a first-account with an honest analysis; it’s both bold and extremely insightful. We encourage blog post contributors to infuse their writing with a personal story. Learning from a critical incident.
Eric Berger
Eric Berger is a Podcasting Intern. His role involves helping solicit, edit, produce, promote and host Teaching Matters Podcast episodes. He has also recently created a newsletter, repurposing content that has left the main page of the blog in a digestible, accessible manner.
What does a typical day look like?
My main work revolves around making the podcast episodes. This involves a lot of short walks around my neighbourhood! I’ll pop on some headphones and play the initial audio a few times to understand how we can best present it. Then, I’ll do the rough edits and I’ll typically download and edit an automated transcript to ensure my understanding of the content before writing narration. This is followed by the writing and recording of my narration. If everything sounds good I’ll follow through with the rest of the process – designing cover art, obtaining permissions, crafting a blogpost and promoting the episode.
What have you been working on recently?
We’ve just wrapped the 2021 Learning & Teaching Conference Series, which featured episodes created from presentations at this year’s conference. This was an exciting opportunity to showcase powerful presentations which spanned different subjects. One thing I love about this series is the variety of conversations they beget about teaching and learning. Learning & Teaching Conference Series
What’s your favourite Teaching Matters post or podcast?
An episode from our latest Learning and Teaching Conference series. During my internship, I’ve enjoyed hearing about the Curriculum Transformation Programme from my colleagues at the IAD and think this podcast is an informative, fun introduction to the programme. I love how this episode serves as a little timestamp for the summer of 2021 – something I hope people can revisit in a few years when the transformation is in full swing. Curriculum Transformation Programme Episode
Who to contact
Jenny can help with showcasing your teaching or learning practice through the Teaching Matters site to their large audience.
Joe can help with subjects around to podcasting, video, and multi-media as it relates to Curriculum Transformation.
Joséphine can help with potential blog posts or sharing ideas for themes and series for the blog. Teaching Matters also contains a breadth of resources and staff members can contact Joséphine if they are looking for specific examples relating to a specific pedagogical topic.
Eric can help with discussing possible podcast series, whether that is starting from scratch or a finalised project.
You can get in touch with the team at teachingmatters@ed.ac.uk
Subscribe to the Teaching Matters newsletter.
Subscribe to the Teaching Matters podcast on Spotify.