Seeds for Solutions, How does the past inform the future? Innovation projects from 2012/13 #KATS2015

Project Title: Keele International Reflections: Developing an Online Blog on Internationalisation and Intercultural Learning
Project Leader(s): Emee Estacio and Pete Lonsdale

The growing international diversity in UK higher education has the potential to enhance intercultural learning but there is very little discussion within Keele University on how we can maximise its benefits. This project aims to develop an online blog to facilitate discussion on how internationalisation can foster intercultural learning. Students will be engaged in its development and pilot evaluation before being launched to a wider audience. It is hoped that this project can provide the foundations of an online discussion at Keele University to allow students and staff members to share their experiences and reflections on internationalisation and intercultural learning.

Keele International Reflections - Report

Keele International Reflections - Final Project Report

Keele International Reflections: Developing an Online Blog on Internationalisation and Intercultural Learning by Emee Estacio and Pete Lonsdale, Keele University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Project Title: Dramatizing Theory in Practice
Project Leader(s): Anita Mangan and Mihaela Kelemen

Dr Anita Mangan and Professor Mihaela Kelemen, Keele Management School, have teamed up with Sue Moffat, New Vic Borderlines, to create a series of drama workshops for the MA in Management and MA in International Business students. The project, called ‘Dramatizing Theory in Practice’, was devised in response to student feedback about internationalisation at Keele and it has two aims. The first to increase socialisation opportunities between international and home students and the second is to provide students with an opportunity to learn about key Critical Management Studies theories through a series of practical and experiential drama exercises.

Dramatizing Theory in Practice - Presentation Slides


Dramatizing Theory in Practice by Anita Mangan and Mihaela Kelemen, Keele University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Project Title: Get Animated! Student as Co-producer in the Development of Audio-visual Study Support Resources
Project Leader(s): Verity Aiken, Ian Ronald, Tim Hinchcliffe and Claire Slater-Mamlouk

‘Get Animated!’ is a competition for students to communicate their own understanding of how they develop as learners by using free open source software to create their own video animations to share their tips and experiences of learning to learn. Tapping into recent research that argues for a model of ‘co-production’ between student and University (McCulloch 2009), the project seeks to integrate the student perspective into study support resources in a way that captures a sense of doing ‘learning to learn’. Its legacy will be a pool of authentic student-led study support materials for both staff and student use.

Get Animated! Student as Co-producer in the Development of Audio-visual Study Support Resources by Verity Aiken, Ian Ronald, Tim Hinchcliffe and Claire Slater-Mamlouk, Keele University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Seeds for Solutions, How does the past inform the future? Innovation projects from 2012/13 #KATS2015

Project Title: Developing the Information Literacy Skills of New Students: Bridging the Gap Between School and University
Project Leader(s): Richard Waller, Peter Knight, Debbie Moss, Paul Reynolds and Georgina Spencer

Information literacy is central to the university learning experience, enabling students to locate, evaluate and synthesise information from a range of sources and thereby to appreciate the rapid and often disputed developments at the forefront of their disciplines. Previous research has demonstrated the existence of a skills gap, with students arriving at university lacking the information literacy skills required to locate and engage with advanced resources such as journals. This project will explore the information skills and strategies developed with secondary education, compare these with university expectations and develop a range of practical resources to help address the gaps identified.

Developing the Information Literacy Skills of New Students: Bridging the Gap Between School and University by Richard Waller, Peter Knight, Debbie Moss, Paul Reynolds and Georgina Spencer, Keele University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Project Title: A Year in the Life Of
Project Leader(s): Sheila Hope

“A year in the life of....” will be a collection of reflective blogs covering every aspect of University life produced by a group of students from all three years of the biochemistry programme. The blog collection will be used as a resource by the biochemistry students to help ease their progression through the programme. Followers of the blogs will be able to relate their own experiences to those of the bloggers and will benefit from seeing the different approaches to common issues. The bloggers will be able to evidence development of several of the graduate attributes.

Final Report - A Year in the Life Of

A Year in the Life Of by Sheila Hope, Keele University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Seeds for Solutions, How does the past inform the future? Innovation projects from 2012/13 #KATS2015

Project Title: Educational Egaming to Improve Student Engagement and Promote Inter-disciplinary Learning
Project Leader(s): Jamie Pringle, Luke Bracegirdle and Jackie Potter

This e-game will tap into current undergraduate so-called ‘Y’ generation interests in virtual gaming, providing a novel and complementary learning method. A multi-disciplinary approach for site investigations will be employed to deepen student’s understanding of real-world problems and their solutions. The immersive virtual egame will ensure student engagement, enhance subject knowledge and apply skills to a new situation. Project deliverables will have the e-game freely available on the internet for registered users, ability for the programmers to alter for other interested academics to utilise, disseminate results at appropriate conferences and publication of both educational and academic action research articles.

Educational Egaming - Final Project Report

Educational Egaming to Improve Student Engagement and Promote Inter-disciplinary Learning by Jamie Pringle, Luke Bracegirdle and Jackie Potter, Keele University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Project Title: Development, Application and Evaluation of Web 2.0 Technology to Enhance the Student Experience - Keele Student Bites
Project Leader(s): Russell Crawford, Andrew Morris, William Stockton and Steve Clipstone

This project will produce a series of student-generated video-based guided study resources dedicated to addressing issues impacting on student motivation in higher education. Students from Keele will help us design, create, shoot, edit and evaluate these novel resources, called Keele Student Bites, as part of an existing open-access Web 2.0 resource (Keele Basic Bites). These motivational resources will focus upon relevant issues of seeking help, keeping up with workloads, time management, organisation skills, homesickness and a host of other issues that impact on student learning, and in this way enhance the university experience for all students.

Keele Student Bites - Final Report

Development, Application and Evaluation of Web 2.0 Technology to Enhance the Student Experience - Keele Student Bites by Russell Crawford, Andrew Morris, William Stockton and Steve Clipstone, Keele University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Seeds for Solutions, How does the past inform the future? Innovation projects from 2012/13 #KATS2015

Project Title: Study Write - An Interactive Resource for Improving Academic Scholarship
Project Leader(s): Dan Harding, Scott McGowan, Emma Surman, Teresa Oultram and Alhajie Saidy-Khan

Study Write is a series of six online videos and interactive quizzes designed to improve students understanding of academic scholarship. It will:

• raise awareness of how the various aspects featured on the video underpin academic development,
• explain to students the importance of sound academic practice,
• provide examples of good practice and encourage the development of a range or related skills in writing and research
• provide an authoritative resource for students (and staff) at a distance, especially those on the KMS international programmes, and,
• enable students who are coming to the UK to study from overseas to familiarise themselves with scholarship issues at their own pace and prior to arriving at Keele.

It will enable students to:

• know the territory of academic scholarship,
• identify the different types of information source found there,
• read the “map” to find the best route from “reading and assessing” sources to “writing and referencing” (from Study to Write),
• equip themselves with the tools to enable them to plan and complete their journey (e.g. searching, reading, note taking, assessing and referencing skills), and, avoid some of the hazards and pitfalls along the way.

Study Write - Final Project Report

Study Write - An Interactive Resource for Improving Academic Scholarship by Dan Harding, Scott McGowan, Emma Surman, Teresa Oultram and Alhajie Saidy-Khan, Keele University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Project Title: Chemistry Laboratory Engagement and Assessment of Risk and Safety (CLEARS)
Project Leader(s): Katherine Haxton and Laura Hancock

The development of laboratory safety skills and good laboratory citizenship are key subject specific graduate attributes for a Chemistry degree programme. This project will design, implement and evaluate several innovative safety activities including risk awareness activities, safety focussed pre-laboratory exercises designed to test understanding as well as awareness of common safety procedures, student-led safety teams in laboratories and an ‘attitude to risk’ questionnaire to evaluate the change in attitude of students from the start of their degree through to their final year project.

CLEARS - Final Project Report

Chemistry Laboratory Engagement and Assessment of Risk and Safety (CLEARS) by Katherine Haxton and Laura Hancock, Keele University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.