A Cup of TEA

Join Catherine and Mike in this podcast as they discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on higher education with Dr Dionysios Demetis, Reader in management systems at Hull University Business School.“I think we need to convince also our students that however sophisticated these tools appear to us, they are effectively computational fraudsters in text generation, and they have sort of substituted the human contextual aspect by embedding artificial mechanisms as artificial substitutes for the real thing… and the only way to do that is to put the students in the space between that!”ReferenceDionysios' latest book: The Technological Construction of Reality, co-written with Ian O. Angell. Edward Elgar Publishing, July 2024.Thank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

In this podcast, Catherine and Mike discuss playful learning with Simon and guest John.Simon Grey is the programme director for the Computer Science for Games Programming degree courses at the University of Hull and is an advocate for creating playful and fun learning experiences for students. He also runs regular board games sessions for staff to help encourage collaboration between cross-disciplinary groups.John Lean is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he leads the award-winning co-curricular experiential programme Rise. His background is in philosophy teaching and education innovation, and he focuses on using play to develop agency and democracy in university students. In his spare time he plays too many videogames, drinks too much coffee and tries to encourage a four-year old to listen to Steely Dan.Simon: “If you believe that every module has a goal and rules, voluntary participation and feedback, [then] it’s already a game!”John: “As an education philosophy, it’s about empowerment and agency and having the freedom to do things differently.” Useful links and referencesThe Playful Learning Association site is the best place to start for anyone who wants to get involved. Details of the conference on there too: https://playfullearningassoc.co.uk/John's quote "playing a game is a voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles" is from Bernard Suits' book The Grasshopper, John's favourite work on play. Simon's definition of a game is from Dr Jane McGonigal's book “Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World”and also mentioned by Simon: Ryan and Deci’s theory of motivation – self-determination theory (Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L., 2024. Self-determination theory. In Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research (pp. 6229-6235). Cham: Springer International Publishing)Thank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

In this podcast, Catherine and Mike meet Ann Kaegi, lecturer in English and Lesley Morrell, Faculty of Science & Engineering Associate Dean (Education). They are joined by student partners Ben Ryan and Emma-Rose Walters, respectively under-graduate in History and Criminology*, two of the eight student partners on their project Education for Sustainable Development Changemakers. They passionately report on their achievements last year with the support of Student Organising for Sustainability UKEmma-Rose has now moved to another institution to undertake P/G studies.... "It's important for us to understand that without an understanding of the role of humanities, the social sciences and the arts, we will not be able to pivot towards the sort of revolutionary changes in our behaviour, in our technology, in our outlook about what we need to do individually and collectively to create a more sustainable world."...… “one of the conclusions we came to is that science is what’s going to save the world but humanities is why it’s worth saving!”...Thank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

In this episode, Catherine and Mike meet Andrea Hilton, Reader in Advance Practice in the School of Paramedical PeriOperative and Advanced Practice, who talks about her experience of blended teaching approaches on the Faculty of Health Sciences non-medical prescribing course. Andrea’s teaching focus and expertise is with non-medical prescribing. This is where qualified health care professionals undertake an advanced qualification which enable them (nurses, pharmacists and some allied health professionals such as physiotherapists) to prescribe medication. Andrea has been directly involved with this course since 2006. Andrea is enthusiastic about using the virtual learning environment to support a variety of teaching and learning strategies and enable a digital pedagogical approach. She is designing her sessions to be both blended and future proofed if fully online is needed.Andrea is an active researcher in the field of clinical pharmacy/applied health research with a particular focus on prescribing and dementia. “Its’ not ‘one size fits all’! It’s almost like you want to cherry pick techniques and then… that will work, that won’t work! […] Try it, refine it and don’t underestimate time… be open to change and developing your own competence.” Thank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

In this podcast, Catherine and Mike meet Hannah Worthen, early career academic based at the Energy and Environment Institute who also teaches in the School of Environmental Sciences. She was recently awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, the application for which drew on her work developing inclusive and participatory teaching practices.Asher is a second year student in the School of Environmental Sciences just returning from a fieldtrip to Tenerife.www.queeringthemap.com was referred to in the recording.Hannah: "Just listen and be willing to learn... accept that there are gaps in your knowledge and in your experiences... there is always more work to be done and in particular if there is any work that we can do as teachers that gives students a voice, then I think that's really important"Asher: “... include trans people in the conversation, have their input rather than you think might be best for them!!Thank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

This week Catherine and Mike meet Brian Houston, Knowledge Exchange lecturer based in the Aura Innovation Centre, discussing his academic journey through research, teaching and knowledge exchange (KE).Brian is a Mechanical Engineering Knowledge Exchange Lecturer, and Manager of the Aura InventX initiative. As a KE advocate he is passionate about facilitating collaboration through the delivery of multi-disciplinary Research, Development, and Innovation projects; and bringing together the Aura Innovation Centre (AIC) facility and team, academic and technical colleagues from across the University, and external stakeholders over real world innovation challenges. He aims to increase utilisation of, and accessibility to, University Research and Development capabilities; and to combine them with academic expertise to support Knowledge Exchange initiatives, increase research impact, and to encourage progressive education.“The ethos of Knowledge Exchange is integral to both research and education […] whenever I was standing in a lecture theatre projecting to a group of students, you could generally always be confident you were the most knowledgeable in that subject in that room at that particular time. In the Knowledge Exchange domain, I find myself standing in front of public audiences and you just look into the audience, and you could have someone there with 40 years in the industry, an expert in that particular area. At the same time, he is probably there to understand what I know about the subject at that time because he is open minded to be engaging in that way. So I tend to, as a result, go into a conversation humble, expecting to understand the person you are speaking to, before you are expected to be understood... and I think that works for the other domains as well. You need to know what level of understanding of your subject students have.“ You can contact Brian on LinkedIn.InventX brochure Thank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

In this podcast, Catherine and Mike meet Clare Whitfield, Lecturer in Advanced Practice in Faculty of Health Sciences.Clare's focus is on teaching healthcare students and registered practitioners research methods and the use of research to inform evidence-based practice. Clare has over 20 years’ experience teaching research and research methods, across a range of academic disciplines, including Social Sciences and Education. She works with a wide range of student, including undergraduates, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research candidates. Clare is enthusiastic about using innovative approaches to teaching and learning and has recently achieved senior fellow of AdvanceHE. Clare is an active qualitative researcher, with an interest in teenage sexual health and pregnancy, women’s health and distance care and enjoys using her experiences as a researcher to inform her teaching practice.“i thought if I could get the students to really think about the assignment, they would start to make some connections about what we learn across the module... [an extra] way of going through an assignment…  not just ‘that’s what you are expected to do"... it’s a really important moment when students make it their own assignment… and using pictures to make things just every day where people feel they can be comfortable with the idea.” Assignment burgerThank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari

In this episode, Mike and Catherine meet with Dominic Henri, who splits his time between the University of Hull’s School of Natural Sciences and the Teaching Excellence Academy. Dom is a Senior Lecturer in Zoology whose disciplinary specialism is conservation and ecology, but whose primary focus is Higher Education pedagogy (particularly the interface between assessment, student development, and employability).In the podcast, we discuss the journey behind a published study evidencing one way of raising the visibility of diversity in STEM Higher Education. The journey starts with a conundrum of how to increase perceptions of diversity within the discipline when little of that diversity is represented directly within the teaching team. By the end, we consider how engaging with diversity is not just important for students, but can completely revitalise our own understanding of the subject and the narrative that our students take from our teaching.“What you conclude on a subject holds weight... If you say that something is good or bad or well-evidenced or not, some students are going to remember that... So how can I provide as balanced a perspective on this as possible?” If anyone would like to be part of the future of this project, please contact Dom directly via email.Study reference:Henri, D.C., Coates, K. and Hubbard, K., 2023. I am a scientist: Overcoming biased assumptions around diversity in science through explicit representation of scientists in lectures. Plos one, 18(7), p.e0271010.Thank you for taking time to listen to the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.Please do subscribe and share it with anyone you think might enjoy.Cup of TEA artwork created by Layla Jabbari