Higher education blog

Read our blog to explore ideas in teaching and learning.

  • Belonging – what makes it and breaks it?

    The link between belonging and student success is well established. A sense of belonging was strongly associated with both academic and social engagement at university a decade ago as part of the Higher Education Academy’s . In fact, it was stated as the key variable in whether students persist with their studies and are successful. This “sense of belonging” while at university can make or break students’ overall experience and their success.

  • Camera use online – the dos and don’ts

    I recently delivered a training session on supporting teaching online where, throughout the session, none of the participants turned on their webcams. I finished the session feeling that I had been talking to myself for an hour and questioning the value of delivering the session live versus recording something for the participants to watch instead. This may be a familiar experience for many who have been teaching remotely over the last year or more.

  • Image by Christof Van Der Walt

    What could a blend of assessment types look like?

    What could a blend of assessment types in higher education look like?

    Assessment isn’t just about final outcomes. It’s the golden thread that runs through and underpins the university experience and how it’s handled affects so much more than results – it impacts on student satisfaction, retention, even mental health.

  • Ensuring your online learning content is accessible

    Ensuring your online learning content is accessible to everyone

    The World Health Organization (2020) estimate that over 1 billion people worldwide live with some form of disability. They are the largest global minority group and that number is increasing dramatically as people live longer and the number of chronic health conditions rises. In the UK alone, in 2019/20 332,300 students stated that they had a disability of some kind – that’s 17.3% of all home students. This represents an increase of 106,000 (or 47%) since 2014/15 (Hubble and Bolton, 2021).