Announcements
Welcome to the JLDHE announcements aimed at those interested in all aspects of how learning is facilitated and how it is experienced by students in higher education, in the UK and internationally. If you would like to write a news article, please email admin@aldinhe.ac.uk
JLDHE Reading Club 12 April 2023
Thank you to those who joined us for the Reading Club on 12th April 2023. We discussed Shannon Martin and Jim Lusted’s Critical Reflections on the Racialised Hierarchies of an Ethnically Diverse Staff-Student Scholarship Project Team from the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Special Edition. We were fortunate to have Jim join us to engage in the conversation and give direct insights into the topic of this paper. The discussion opened with questions on the findings of the study itself and what key learnings Shannon and Jim had taken from their work. Jim highlighted that although it is important to recognise that black student experiences are widely […]

JLDHE Reading Club 8 February 2023
A big thank you to those who came along to our Reading Club on 8th February 2023. In this meeting of the Reading Club we discussed Helen Hargreaves, Sarah Robin and Elizabeth Caldwell’s ‘Student Perceptions of Reading Digital Texts for University Study’ from Issue 24. It was great to have Sarah join us to take part in the discussions and provide further insight into her paper and research. We started with an appropriate discussion of how we all read the paper in preparation for the Reading Club – which resulted in a variety of different answers, from reading the paper digitally on a […]

JLDHE Reading Club 14 December 2022
Thanks to those who were able to come along to our Reading Club on 14 December 2022 – it was great to be back. This time around we discussed Joe Greenwood’s ‘A systematic approach to designing English for very specific academic purposes materials tailored to a specific course in the main subject of a higher degree.’ From Issue 23. We would like to thank Joe from joining us to discuss his work and answer our questions. We started the Reading Club by discussing the differences between EAP and EVSAP and the similarities with learning development in ensuring these skills are delivered within […]

JLDHE Reading Club 11 May 2022
Thanks to those who were able to come along to the Reading Club meeting on 11 May 2022, where we discussed Arina Cirstea’s paper ‘Engaging students online: an analysis of students’ motivations for seeking individual learning development support’ from March edition of the journal. The full paper is available here, the questions we used available here. We discussed the author’s definition of student engagement (which combined emotional, behavioural and cognitive aspects, see Henrie et al 2016) and unpicked some of the key findings from this small scale, mixed methods research project. We reflected on the importance and value of individual tutorials and […]

JLDHE Reading Club 8 March 2022
Thanks to all who came along to our March Reading Club and joined in our discussions of the 12 papers which make up the ‘Fostering Student Engagement’ theme of the Compendium of Innovative Practice: Learning Development in a Time of Disruption. We had a wide-ranging discussion, sparked by the different ideas and themes across these 12 papers. As with all discussions about student engagement in live online sessions, we talked about students’ use or non-use of webcams. However, we quickly agreed that this was students’ choice, and shared ideas on how students can show their engagement in other ways – using […]

JLDHE Reading Club 12 January 2022
Thanks to those who were able to come along to the Reading Club meeting on 12 January 2022, where we discussed a section of the JLDHE compendium focused on ‘Prioritising wellbeing through community and connection’ – available here. Attendees shared personal experiences of, and encounters with, different manifestations of staff and student wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our reflections were also shaped, in part, by responses in the HE sector to the spread of a new variant of COVID – which we now know as Omicron. This nature of our discussions at this Reading Club meeting served as a reminder that […]

JLDHE Reading Club 10 November 2021
Thank you to everyone who attended our November Reading Club. At this event we discussed Camilia Devis-Rozental’s and Susanne Clarke’s case study: ‘HE staff’s attitudes and expectations about their role in induction activities’ from Issue 21. We would like to thank both Camilia and Susanne for coming along to the session, their passion for their work and supporting their students helped to make for a really positive and informative session. During the event we spent a lot of time talking about the usefulness of the ‘tourist’ metaphor advanced by Camilia and Susanne in their case study. This is the idea that we […]

JLDHE Reading Club 8 September 2021
Thank you to everyone who attended the latest JLDHE Reading Club. This time we discussed Sheryl Mansfield’s article ‘Changing the face of academic skills workshops’ from issue 17 (2020). We would like to thank Sheryl for coming along, answering our questions and giving us some great insight into how she approaches and utilises flipped learning (or active blended learning) to support students to engage in learning development workshops! We started by discussing how the move to online learning since lockdown had resulted in more learning developers and institutions adopting flipped learning to support students and how this move had come about earlier […]

JLDHE Reading Club 14 July 2021
Thanks to everyone who attended the latest JLDHE Reading Club, where we discussed Nathalie Sheridan’s (Tasler) article on creative teaching in higher education. Thank you to Nathalie for joining us and being so willing / happy to answer all our questions! We were a small group this time around, which meant we were able get into really interesting and detailed discussions about Nathalie’s paper. We had interesting discussions around how Nathalie conducted her research. We were all interested in her use of Guerrilla Research Tactics (GRT) and how this added valuable insights into Nathalie’s evaluation / findings. Lee prompted an interesting […]

JLDHE Reading Club 12 May 2021
Thanks to those who were able to come along to the launch of the JLDHE Reading Club, where we discussed Sam King’s article on metadiscourse. Thanks also to Sam for attending, engaging in the discussion and answering our questions so generously and comprehensively! We were delighted to be joined by colleagues in LD from across the UK, Ireland and Canada – which made for a rich, lively discussion. Interesting questions were raised by attendees on metadiscourse and the different ways in which we teach it (or not) at our own institutions. Variations in disciplinary approaches to signposting in assignments was something we […]
