2019 Research and Learning Showcase, Wednesday 19 June

Our first ever Research and Teaching Showcase Day is on Wednesday 19 June and features a full day of workshops demonstrating good practice and exciting areas of activity – it will facilitate the opportunity to exchange ideas and promote collaboration across Edinburgh Napier. Please ensure you register your place for each event as spaces may be limited.

Time   Location
9.30–10.30am The Hunch Crunch…
Nick Fannin, Bright Red Triangle

You’ve got an idea and intuition tells you that it might just work! How do you find out for sure? The Hunch Crunch…

How do you talk to customers? How do you know if your idea is any good when everybody is either just telling you what you want to hear or telling you they’re not interested before they have even heard what you have to say.
This workshop will help you think about what you need to do to turn your hunch into a commercial pitch.

Book your place now!

Room 2/09 Craiglockhart
9.30–10.30am Data Science – engaging staff across the university who might be interested in incorporating data science into programmes
Mhairi McNeill, School of Computing

You might have heard of the hype surrounding data science. Data scientists supposedly have the ‘sexiest job of the 21st century’. But what exactly is data science? Is it anything new? Is it just statistics with a marketing team behind it? In this session, we’ll be going beyond the data science hype. Learn how data science skills can give students employable skills and an understanding of the world around them. You’ll learn about the many views on what data science is, get some practical experience of thinking about data and hopefully have some fun!

Book your place now!

Room C30 Merchiston
9.30–10.30am Working with the Forces!
Georgina Jamieson, Research and Innovation Office

The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) presents a whole range of exciting opportunities given that it is the largest investment in innovation funding for the last 50 years. This meeting is for staff from across the institution who have worked or are working with current/retired servicemen. In relation to this work, the group will explore opportunities around the ISCF’s Healthy Ageing Challenge. All attendees will have the opportunity to explain what work they are currently undertaking, which organisations they work with and which organisations they would like to work with. The group will then go on to discuss opportunities for collaborative working and project ideas to take forward.

Book your place now!

Room 2/06 Craiglockhart
9.30–11am What’s In Your Learning Technology Toolbox?
Dr Stephen Bruce, Information Services

Are you thinking of flipping your classroom, changing your assessments, or designing interactive learning materials? Are you aware of the technologies available to support your module’s classroom and online delivery? Come along to this session for a tour of the University’s learning technology toolbox, and get hands-on support to put your ideas into practice. You will hear how technology can support student collaboration and group work, participation in lectures, independent study, and coursework submission and feedback. So whether you are planning small blends or preparing to teach fully online, there are tools to choose from and support to apply them.
Numbers are limited for this session so please book early if you wish to attend.

Book your place now! (Numbers are limited for this session)

Room 0/09 Craiglockhart
10–11.30am Minecraft for Learning and Teaching
Dr Louise Drumm, Department of Learning and Teaching Enhancement

Minecraft is much more than a game. It is a virtual world where users can work collaboratively to explore and build the digital lego-like environment around them. It has been used in education for unstructured creative learning, or structured where learners explore anything from 3D molecular structures to an archaeological dig in St Kilda’s. This workshop will give participants hands-on experience in Minecraft, working collaboratively with colleagues in ‘serious play’, while exploring the potential use of such creative tools in different disciplines.

Book your place now (must register BEFORE Monday 10 June)!

Room B55-b, Merchiston
11am–12noon How to Get Your Academic Book Published
Dr Phiona Stanley, The Business School

This session is for late-stage PhD candidates, ECRs and post-ECR academic staff interested in publishing with academic presses. It covers the how and the why of various publishing options, focusing on monographs and edited collections. You will learn: pros and cons of book publishing (as opposed to journal articles), publishing timeline and terminology, how to write a successful proposal for eitheran edited collection or monograph, how to adapt your PhD as a monograph proposal advice on editing a collection and giving feedback on contributors’ chapters, what to expect from reviewers’ reports and some strategic publishing advice.

Book your place now!

Room 2/10 Craiglockhart
12.15–1.15pm Building a Case with Bricks
Dr Rosemary Alford and Dr Christopher Cramphorn, The Business School

This workshop introduces active learning as one means to address the need to generate student employability competences, innovation and entrepreneurship by encouraging and supporting students and graduates to be entrepreneurial. It is widely recognised that students learn from entrepreneurial storytelling (Donnellon et al, 2014). By the end of the session, we hope you will be able to:

  • Develop understanding and practice of active learning through storytelling
  • ‘Have a go’ at building
  • Explore problem solving through play
  • Enhance reflective practice

Donnellon, A., Ollila, S., & Middleton, K. W. (2014). Constructing entrepreneurial identity in entrepreneurship education. The International Journal of Management Education, 12(3), 490-499.

Book your place now!

Room 2/05 Craiglockhart
1–2.30pm What’s In Your Learning Technology Toolbox?
Dr Stephen Bruce, Information Services

Are you thinking of flipping your classroom, changing your assessments, or designing interactive learning materials? Are you aware of the technologies available to support your module’s classroom and online delivery? Come along to this session for a tour of the University’s learning technology toolbox, and get hands-on support to put your ideas into practice. You will hear how technology can support student collaboration and group work, participation in lectures, independent study, and coursework submission and feedback. So whether you are planning small blends or preparing to teach fully online, there are tools to choose from and support to apply them.
Numbers are limited for this session so please book early if you wish to attend.

Book your place now! (Numbers are limited for this session)

Room 5.E.06 Sighthill
1.30–3pm Minecraft for Learning and Teaching
Dr Louise Drumm, Department of Learning and Teaching Enhancement

Minecraft is much more than a game. It is a virtual world where users can work collaboratively to explore and build the digital lego-like environment around them. It has been used in education for unstructured creative learning, or structured where learners explore anything from 3D molecular structures to an archaeological dig in St Kilda’s. This workshop will give participants hands-on experience in Minecraft, working collaboratively with colleagues in ‘serious play’, while exploring the potential use of such creative tools in different disciplines.

Book your place now (must register BEFORE Monday 10 June)!

Rooms 2/16a and 2/16b Craiglockhart
2.45–3.45pm Show Me The Money!
Morven Fraser, Research & Innovation Office

This workshop will help you think about how to turn your research or teaching into a commercially viable proposition that:

  • customers will buy
  • will help the Schools hit their commercial income targets
  • will make you look good!

Book your place now!

Room 1/06 Craiglockhart
4–5pm Sharing best practice: partnership working between academic staff and Academic Skills team in delivering contextualised Academic Skills support for students
Academic Skills Team

The Academic Skills Advisers have been working in partnership with module and programme leaders across the institution to integrate academic skills development and support students’ success. In this session we will be ‘showcasing’ some examples of this collaborative work from a range of programmes.

Contextualising academic skills support in relation to particular assignments helps to decrease student anxiety and increase confidence (Ooms, Fergy, Marks-Maran, Burke and Sheehy, 2013). In the study by Parkes, Blackwell Young, Cleaver and Archibald (2014), students perceived support that was integrated into modules as being more relevant than support delivered solely by professional services, particularly when linked to specific assignments. Furthermore, Wingate (2006) suggests students who are most at risk of failing academically are often those who are least likely to attend bolt-on classes, demonstrating the importance of a cohesive timetabled approach to support the requisite development of these critical skills.

With the student experience, retention and wider participation high on everyone’s agendas, this session demonstrates how we can work in partnership to support our students’ journeys to success.

Book your place now!

Room 1/06 Craiglockhart