The start of a new year. Although there are jobs to do, there is also a little time to reflect and plan, what were the wins and challenges of the last year, what is the workload looking like and what are the key jobs to prepare for the coming year?
What does this mean for academics, technical staff and professional services? With marking imminent, now is a good time to reflect on recent teaching. How effective was it? Why didn't the students do as well this year on that bit? What would make it easier or more efficient in the future? These questions naturally lead to plans, and since a blank page can be daunting, perhaps considering current best practice or recent teaching innovation might be helpful. In the future the network created by CEE will be able to help answer this question, for now maybe you want to ideas for a new feedback strategy, want to utilise experiential teaching or want inspiration for student projects in for sustainable labs.
In the longer term, a successful CEE will require planning personal and collaborative scholarly outputs, and preparing for these now. The options for scholarly outputs are numerous, but a good place to start is a local (Practical Engineering Education 24) or international (UK & Ireland EERN) conference presentation. The University of Sheffield is a member of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), have you considered presenting your work at the next SEFI Annual Conference to give it a global platform? If you don't feel your work is ready for that, why not develop your ideas by writing a blog? Choose what is right for you, but most importantly, take your time to reflect and plan.
At the end of last 2023, the launch of the Centre for Engineering Education (CEE) was an exciting and significant development, and it presents opportunities that will require both reflection and planning to make the most of.
First of all what is it? There are many people doing great teaching and educational work at Engineering at Sheffield, and CEE will allow this excellence to be recognised, shared and developed. In other words, CEE will engender a community of educators, supporting all staff in the faculty who teach to improve teaching, its impact and reputation as educationalists. It is an exciting place to be because it includes Automatic Control Systems Engineering, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Civil and Structural Engineering, Computer Science, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, as well as Interdisciplinary Programmes Engineering and Multidisciplinary Engineering Education. It's exciting because these administrative entities are essentially groups of interesting people with great ideas and differing perspectives, who are enthusiastic about engineering, science and research.
CEE is at an early stage, and there will be much work required to make it a success, but there is already support for the development of Graduate Teaching Assistants (and Open Educational Resources), work that is built upon a long standing appreciation of GTAs and the work they do to support excellent teaching and learning. In fact, celebrating people and their achievements is a core aim of CEE and there is already much to celebrate through collaborative teaching awards, HEA recognition of teaching quality and Individual Teaching Awards.
CEE is at an early stage, and there will be much work required to make it a success, but there is already support for the development of Graduate Teaching Assistants (and Open Educational Resources), work that is built upon a long standing appreciation of GTAs and the work they do to support excellent teaching and learning. In fact, celebrating people and their achievements is a core aim of CEE and there is already much to celebrate through collaborative teaching awards, HEA recognition of teaching quality and Individual Teaching Awards.
The award winning MEE team
In the longer term, a successful CEE will require planning personal and collaborative scholarly outputs, and preparing for these now. The options for scholarly outputs are numerous, but a good place to start is a local (Practical Engineering Education 24) or international (UK & Ireland EERN) conference presentation. The University of Sheffield is a member of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), have you considered presenting your work at the next SEFI Annual Conference to give it a global platform? If you don't feel your work is ready for that, why not develop your ideas by writing a blog? Choose what is right for you, but most importantly, take your time to reflect and plan.