海角直播

Award recognition for innovation in engaging students

A 海角直播 team has won a prestigious Pearson HE Innovate Award for an imaginative project which encourages students鈥� creativity.

The HE Innovate 2022 awards recognise and reward innovative learning and teaching in higher education. 海角直播 won the accolade for Most Innovative Approach To Engaging Students Using EdTech, for a project which uses electronic storytelling to enhance assessments.

Dr Helen Tidy, Principal Lecturer (Learning and Teaching); Dr Mark Butler, Senior Lecturer in Crime Scene Science; and Dr Tom Gibbons, Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise (Sport Studies), from the University鈥檚 School of Health & Life Sciences, collaborated on the project using Adobe Creative Cloud Express to support learner engagement.

The project was designed to support STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) students by allowing them to be more creative with the presentation of their assessment work, using an innovative digital technological approach.

Dr Butler said: 鈥淥ur project used electronic storytelling to enhance assessments, giving students an alternative to a word-processed document or a series of presentation slides to evidence their learning.

鈥淲hile reflecting on our own practice and student feedback, we realised two things. The first was overloading students with information relating to what they needed to pass the module and how they would be assessed. Secondly, we realised we also needed to build in creativity, a vital skill needed by many STEM employers.

鈥淲e underwent training with the help of Adobe, and we then made interactive web pages using the Adobe Creative Cloud Express platform. The students had everything that they needed to succeed all in one place, from built in videos explaining the marking criteria, to examples of what a good one looks like.

鈥淪tudents were trained to use the software, before they themselves used Creative Cloud Express to make their own assessments which they uploaded to our virtual learning environment Blackboard Ultra.鈥�

Dr Gibbons added: 鈥淭his project shows that we can foster a more creative approach within STEM subjects using digital capabilities to enable students to showcase their creative personalities in preparation for the job market, alongside digital upskilling.

鈥淥ur students said it was fun, creative, supportive and easy to understand. Many also strongly agreed that they felt more creative while producing their assessment.

鈥淭his project serves to show that we can foster a more creative approach within STEM subjects using digital capabilities to enable students to showcase their creative personalities in preparation for the job market alongside digital upskilling of graduates.鈥�

海角直播 was the first European higher education institution to become an Adobe Creative Campus in recognition of its commitment to promoting digital literacy across all courses and areas of study.

As an Adobe Creative Campus, students and staff have access to Adobe鈥檚 industry-leading creative and design tools and digital learning resources as part of the University鈥檚 Future Facing Learning initiative, which works to enhance digital skills and improve employability across Team 海角直播 and beyond.

Dan Ramsden, of HE Innovate, said of 海角直播鈥檚 submission: 鈥淭here was strong competition for this award which is testament to the work you鈥檝e done. Your project was a wonderful example of introducing creativity into STEM subjects and is food for thought for how others could incorporate it into their modules.鈥�