The Course Leader role is a key role and one that many academics undertake at some stage during their time at ARU. Course leaders play a pivotal role at ARU and inspire trust and foster a sense of belonging and inclusion.
We have created a new Course Leaders' Toolkit on The Heron and Anglia Learning and Teaching's work also involves the development of a Course Leaders' network - contact [email protected] to join.
ARU hosts an annual Course Leaders conference. This year's Course Leaders Conference took place in-person at LAB at the Cambridge campus on 8 September 2023. where we discussed our ‘big’ questions from within ARU’s course leader community. The theme was Being, Belonging and Becoming and the conference explored the strategies we have for looking after ourselves and our students. We shared and developed our practices together, using examples to stimulate co-creation activities and guidance. Our Course Leaders' network has been involved in designing the Course Leaders' conference since 2022.
All course leaders were invited to attend the in-person event, which featured two keynotes.
The first keynote was Tom Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at the University of Portsmouth, where his research includes student engagement in development of education, embedding employability into the curriculum and supporting student belonging. Tom is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Chair of the Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement (RAISE) Network.
Dr Cheryl Greyson, Senior Lecturer in Business at ARU Peterborough, provided the second keynote about her extensive experience as a Course Leader, developing students’ course identity on a new campus, as well as considering authentic assessment.
This year we heard from a range of voices from across the university, including our students, Student and Library Services, the SU and the Global Sustainability Institute
See the programme below and take a look at the presentations on The Heron:
9.30am-9.45am Arrival and Refreshments and registration activity
9.45am-10am Welcome: Professor Aletta Norval, DVC Education
10am-10.30am Keynote one: Tom Lowe, University of Portsmouth: Engaging in employability, developing student agency
10.45am-11.15am Keynote two: Dr Cheryl Greyson, Senior Lecturer in Business, ARU-P: Developing students’ course identity
11.15am-11.45am Becoming a Course Leader… and beyond
11.45am-12.15pm Parallel Sessions
12.15pm-1.15pm Networked lunch
1.15pm-2.15pm Triaging Panel
2.15pm-2.45pm Parallel Sessions
2.45pm-3.15pm Parallel Sessions
3.15pm-3.45pm Plenary: Reflections and Actions
Forums
Each Faculty convenes its own Course Leader Forums on a regular basis during the academic year. These provide an excellent opportunity to keep abreast of recent developments at ARU, and to share practice with other Course Leaders. Contact your Director of Learning Teaching & Assessment for more information on the dates/venues for Course Leader Forum meetings in your own Faculty.
AHESS – Dr Heather Lilley ([email protected])
HMS – Dr Joanne Bowser-Angermann ([email protected])
FSE – Adrian Scruton ([email protected])
B&L – Natalie Kite ([email protected])