Higher Education Academy Computing Update - February 2012

  • Publication Date: 16-02-2012

Welcome to the newsletter

I am pleased to bring you the February issue of the Computing newsletter. You can unsubscribe from this newsletter, subscribe to other HEA newsletters, book on events, or update personal details by visiting My Academy.

If you have any comments or information that you would like to include in future editions of the bulletin, please send an email to Mark.Ratcliffe@HEAcademy.ac.uk

News

1. Special Interest Groups

I still have some funds unspent for setting up two special interest groups. If you are interested in setting one up, please send me an email to Mark.Ratcliffe@HEAcademy.ac.uk

2. STEM Conference

We are delighted with the large number of high quality submissions that we received for the conference. Despite running two parallel streams, it did mean that we had to reject almost 50% of the submissions. I very much hope that this will lead to a high quality event in April 12th/ 13th.

Register for the full conference (two days including evening dinner on 12th) for £150

3. New to Teaching

Our second New to Teaching workshop has now been finalised for 6th – 7th June at the Studio in Birmingham.   This event is specifically for Computer Science, Physical Science, Psychology and Biological Sciences. We are limiting the event to one attendee per institution. Please email any nominations to Mark.Ratcliffe@HEAcademy.ac.uk

4. Demonstrator workshop

Supporting students: a workshop for demonstrators in Engineering and Computing

Location: Loughborough UK, 21 February 2012

Laboratory demonstrators are a core part of university teaching and learning and commonly involve postgraduate students. The workshop gives an overview of the skills expected of a demonstrator and highlights common issues relating to supporting students in the laboratory. The day provides participants with an opportunity to network with peers from other institutions and further develop their own key skills and complements institutional programmes offered.

Key areas covered are: Sharing existing practice, Exploring the role of the Demonstrator, Managing expectations, Dealing with difficult situations, Marking laboratory scripts and assessing students.

This event is offered without charge, however it is necessary to book a place.

Please do not hesitate to contact Kate Everest (k.r.everest@lboro.ac.uk at the Centre for Engineering & Design) or Mark Ratclifffe at Mark.Ratcliffe@heacademy.ac.uk) if you require further information.

5. ITALICS Call for Papers

General Issue: June 2012

The first issue of ITALICS for 2012 will be a general issue. Papers are welcomed on all aspects of learning and teaching in the Computing disciplines.

Important Date:

  • Deadline for submission of papers – Tuesday 3rd April 2012
  • Notification of outcome - Friday 11th May 2012

If you are interested in submitting a paper then please contact italics@heacademy.ac.uk for the submission guidelines and template.

6. Future workshops and seminar series

We have the following events currently in planning, and a number of other proposals still to be finalised:

  • Embedding Self and Peer Assessment and Feedback in Practice - A Principles-Based and Technology-Enabled Approach - University of Ulster, 9 March 2012
  • Creating a positive and workable future for UK games and animation courses: industry and education perspectives - University of Greenwich, 2 April 2012
  • I3 - Inquiry, Independence and Information: Using IBL to Encourage Independent Learning in IT Students - University of Salford, 19 April 2012
  • Mobile Application Development: from curriculum design to graduate employability - The University of Buckingham, 15 May 2012
  • Teaching Cyber Security within the Higher Education Sector - University of Warwick, 17 May 2012
  • Teaching Agile Software Development - University of Central Lancashire, 24 May 2012
  • Enhancing The Employability Of Computing Students Through A Professional Online Presence - Birmingham City University, 8 June 2012
  • Teaching and Learning Programming for Mobile and tablet devices - London Metropolitan University, 15 June 2012
  • User experience and usability for devices and the web - Open University, 27 June 2012
  • Employment Engagement and Higher Education in a Digital Age - University of Greenwich, 4 July 2012

If you would like to offer a workshop or seminar as part of the 2012-2013 academic year, please complete a proposal form on our website  and send to: seminarseries@heacademy.ac.uk.

Publications Resources and Funding

7. HEA UK travel fund

The HEA’s UK travel fund enables staff and students in UK higher education to exchange and disseminate good practice in learning, teaching and assessment and engage with their peers. The funding may be used to help the applicant(s) attend conferences, network meetings and special interest groups that are being run in the UK.

This is an open call running throughout the academic year 2011-12.

UK Travel Fund on the HEA website

8. Teaching Development Grants

During the current academic year there is a total of £1.5 million of funding available for individual grants, departmental grants and collaborative grants on the themes of internationalisation or employability.

Individual Grant Scheme

There are two separate calls for individuals grant scheme bids. In the current phase of bidding there is a total of £315,000 available with a maximum of £7,000 per project.

£28,000 is ring fenced for new academic staff (anyone with less than five years’ experience in a full time permanent post). A further £28,000 is ring fenced for HEA Fellows who have never had a teaching development grant before.

Bids are currently invited from anyone responsible for the student learning experience who is working in higher education institutions in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or England that subscribe to the Higher Education Academy. More details can be found at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding

Collaborative Grant Scheme

Bids for the collaborative grant theme (cross institution and/or interdisciplinary) open later in February and will be directed at internationalisation or employability. A total of £570,000 will be available with a maximum of £60,000 per project. Project duration will be 18 months and must be led by a Fellow of the Academy.

Teaching Development Grants on the HEA website.

9. Academic Associates

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) continues to build a community of Associates to deliver and develop support for learning and teaching in higher education. There is still a little money left in this year’s budget so if you do have any requirements for learning & teaching work to be carried out by yourselves or others, please email Mark.Ratcliffe@HEAcademy.ac.uk.

To be eligible for this funding you must first complete the registration form on our website.

10. Change Academy 2012-13: Call now open

The HEA Change Academy is a programme which brings together cross-institutional teams and gives them the time and space to think creatively and develop a major change initiative.

It is a year-long process that includes specific development opportunities for nominated team leaders, an ongoing support network and a four-day residential providing a creative environment in which the whole team can focus on planning and developing strategies for lasting change.

We are now currently inviting teams to submit proposals for the Change Academy 2012-13. Please note that the deadline for submissions is close of business on Friday March 2nd 2012.

The HEA Change Academy is organised through a partnership between the Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

Find out more about Change Academy.

11. Other information – supplied for dissemination

Research Squared 2012 Conference

The Research Squared 2012 Conference will be held at Loughborough University on 19th and 20th March 2012.

Register online.

Evening meal and lunches are included with your registration!

The central theme of this year's conference is presentation, dissemination and publication of research findings and we warmly invite PhD students from the fields of Library and Information Science and Computer Science.

Keynote Speaker: Prof. Martyn Poliakoff CBE FRS

Invited guests: Prof. Peter Willett, Prof. John Feather, Prof. Eran Edirisinghe and other renowned academics from LIS/CS.

We look forward to welcoming you in Loughborough!

Kind regards, John Israilidis

r2lu Organising Committee

BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium

Submission is now open for the BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium - any undergraduate or taught MSc women wishing to attend should submit a 250 word abstract using the website below.

The BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium is a national one-day conference for women undergraduates in computing and related subjects. This year it will be held at the University of Bath on April 12.

  • Speakers from industry, the public sector and academia
  • A poster contest where women students from across the country
  • get to show off their own work
  • A careers Q&A panel session where students can get advice from a
  • range of different perspectives
  • Lots of time for networking, during lunch & the evening social
  • Stands from employers who are looking to employ the best women
  • undergrads in the UK

Any women students wishing to present a poster will need to submit an abstract.

All of the poster contest finalists will have their travel costs reimbursed - including overnight stays where appropriate - thanks to the generosity of Google. We will accept the best 40 or so abstracts for presentation at the conference. Deadline for submission is the end of February (midnight, 29/02/12). There are cash prizes (ranging from £500-£200) for the best posters - see the abstract submission page linked above for more information.

The day is free to attend and open to all; general registration will open in March.

If you have any questions about the event, there is an FAQ page

or you can contact the organisers on bcswomenlovelace@gmail.com

Unsubscribing

Finally, if you do not want to receive further bulletins of this nature, please drop me an email and/or unsubscribe  with this link.

Best wishes

Mark

Dr. Mark Ratcliffe
Discipline Lead, Comput
The Higher Education Academy
Mobile: 07720 968834