Jumping off a Cliff ...and Bouncing
Keynote Speaker
Time: 9:35am to 10:35am
Location: TBC
Presenter: Chris Powis
Abstract:
In 2018 the University of Northampton moved to a new location, the first completely new campus in the UK since the 1960s. But it wasn’t just a move of postcode - virtually everything else changed at the same time. Our pedagogy, our teaching spaces, our offices and workspaces - you name it we changed it. This paper will consider the journey over the past eight years. What has been the impact on staff and students, how has it impacted our culture, our classroom practice, our assessment and how are we continuing to evolve in the face of AI, changing student populations and financial pressures? It was a long way down at the top of that cliff-face -did we bounce?
Profile:
Since winning his NTF, Chris is now Director of Library, Learning and Student Services at the University of Northampton with a brief covering the University Library, Student Services and central support for learning and teaching. The latter includes learning technology and our HEA accredited Fellowship schemes. He is also the university’s Teaching Excellence Awards Lead (TEAL) so is responsible for their NTF pipeline. Originally a librarian, his professional interests are in learning spaces and the role of professional services in learning and teaching. At the time of winning his National Teaching Fellowship in 2004, Chris was Deputy Director (Academic Services) at The University of Northampton based in the Department of Information Services (library, IT and media). He was responsible for academic liaison and the integration of information skills into the subject curriculum and the management of Blackboard. He is on the course team for Northampton’s Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education and teaches Information Management within the Northampton Business School. His first experience of influencing the national community of practice was through involvement in the JISC-funded EduLib project, a national project aimed at developing librarians as teachers. He continues to work on developing library and information workers as teachers, looking to embed an understanding of teaching and learning into their wider professional understanding of their roles. He is also interested in the implications of the Google Generation’s appearance in HE on the physical learning environment and in the development of online learning for information skills. He is currently part of a NTF Group project team at Northampton looking at the implications of international collaborations.