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This project was been designed to support 28 course teams in 15
departments involved in undergraduate teaching, in thinking about
new ways of encouraging high quality learning. The collaborative
research was underpinned by research into the quality of student
learning and how it is influenced, not just by teaching and assessment,
but by the whole teaching-learning environment. The project focussed
on five contrasting subject areas: biological sciences, economics,
electronic engineering, history, and media and communications.
The project team came from the Universities of Edinburgh, Durham
and Coventry, around which the collaborating institutions tend to
be clustered. A range of courses or modules were identified
in each subject area and the researchers worked closely with
each course team to analyse learning aims and outcomes in relation
to their student intake. A focus of the study was on the constructive
alignment between aims and the whole teaching-learning environment:
in other words, on the match between the course teams' intentions
and students' everyday learning experiences.
Ways of improving provision were explored with course teams,
based on conceptual frameworks being developed through the research,
and tailored to the specific subject areas. The effects of the changes
introduced were investigated and reviewed with the course-teams
involved. Methods of managing change effectively were also identified
and discussed, prior to extensive dissemination through the LTSN
and its subject teaching centres. |
