Vivian Neal

Christine and Others,

I spent much of today at Learning Services at the University of Strathclyde and I've discovered that they have a remarkably similar set of services to our LIDC at SFU.  CAPLE also offers some of the same services that LIDC does, though Learning Services actually has a media design/development group, a classroom services group, an IT training group, and a group that is akin to LIDC's Educational Support and Innovation division (well, this is somewhat oversimplified - check out their Website for more details; because of the recent reorganization/renaming, the Learning Services Website is a little out of date, but I notice that this is almost standard in these units as they are continually changing. LIDC is a prime example.)  Most T&L units I've seen do not include the media development or classroom services parts, but there is ready collaboration with the people who provide these services whenever it's required.

Interestingly, Strathclyde's CAPLE, as well as their Learning Services, supports students; this is the same in most other T&L centres I've encountered. Whereas LIDC has a mandate to support staff and faculty (aka teaching and non-teaching staff), we officially do not support students directly. LIDC has made numerous exceptions, and we have ended up supporting students in several of our projects/programs to ensure a smooth and effective delivery of our other services.

I am pondering the advantages of supporting students within the T&L units and it seems like a natural fit.  Any thoughts?

 

Christine,

Hi Diane,

You said in another post, "we are planning to work with our Teaching and Learning development unit to run part of the associate tutor training and new lecturer induction in the zone - get them while they are keen!  All tutors will be invited to a series of 'Creativity cafes' in the Zone next term to explore its use."

When I visited Sussex the week before last, I was impressed with how naturally the InQbate staff worked with the TLDU staff.  Though you are two separate departments, it is notable that you gain considerably from working closely together.  Some other centres have a strong research component that is integrated with the support activities (see Chrisine's post about CAPLE at Strathclyde) and I wonder about the key characteristics that help to make each model work?

Hi Norm (and Trish too, and others also...),

Thanks for sharing information about the University of Calgary.

Sustainable funding?

It's interesting that the Educational Resources section at the University of Queensland has recently gone from a fee for service unit to a centrally funded unit - I wonder what the circumstances were for this to happen (Trish?), and if there are lessons that can be gained from this?

Welcome Trish,

Good to see you again, this time online.  It's impressive that your institution has devoted a section of your T&L institute to evalution, giving this aspect of teaching and learning activities a higher profile. I took a look at your Webpages and the third point in the Web page description of Evaluation Services is "closing the loop" to ensure that findings are  "used to maintain standards and to improve performance in the search for teaching and learning excellence."  In other situations I have heard that evaluation findings largely do not get used in practice, and though many pilots, programs, and initiatives are evaluated with enthusiasm and good intensions, the results are typically not feed back into practice.

I'm curious about what mechanisms and processes are used in the Evaluation Services section that help to ensure that the loop is actually closed?