What do a mentoring project, web-based learning system, psychology conference and online electron microscope have in common? They are all winners in this year's honorary graduates awards for innovative teaching.
The awards provide the University with a chance to recognise innovation and excellence in teaching. This year four projects were deemed to be of an exceptional standard and there were two group and two individual winners.
Lorna Stevenson and Alison Fox from the Department of Accountancy & Business Finance, and Kathleen McMillan from the Learning Enhancement Unit, Centre for Learning & Teaching were awarded for their Mentor Accountant Project (MAP). MAP is a mentoring scheme which pairs 'at risk' first year students with second or third year mentors.
Lorna said, "We were delighted that our project was recognised in this way. This year we have continued to develop the project by using our first mentees of two years ago as mentors. We look forward to reviewing this year's students' experiences."
Dr Richard Parsons from the Learning Enhancement Unit in the Centre for Learning & Teaching was awarded for his web-based student assessment system. He said, "The award has been important for illustrating the interest and potential of the online self and peer assessment system I have developed. It has taken a number of years to get the program to this point, and even since the presentation of the award, it has been developed further incorporating useful suggestions from staff and student users. The system is proving reliable and gaining increased interest nationally and internationally as lecturers realise the importance of peer assessment skills for students and develop exercises that utilise this innovative form of assessment."
Dr Suzanne Zeedyck from the Department of Psychology was recognised for her work on the First Annual Scottish Undergraduate Psychology Dissertations Conference, which she initiated and developed. She said, "It is a pleasure to have the Dissertations Conference acknowledged with this Award. It is always a joy to be in the presence of so many students who are on a high from the risks they have taken in presenting their work in public. Now that the Conference has graduated from a Dundee event to a national one, it will be interesting to watch it grow and change."
'Online access to an Electron Microscope' was the project that won Nick Hine, and Andy Judson from the department of Applied Computing and Alan Prescott from the School of Life Sciences an innovative teaching award. This project enables students to access a microscope remotely - enabling them to handle a piece of equipment that is central to vocational practice. Students can book sessions on the microscope from an on-campus computer lab or from their own computers at home. The risk of damage to the instrument is reduced because the students do not have access to all the operation functions, so they have a real experience of the delicate balance between various functions that is necessary to explore a mounted sample.
Nick Hine said, "Our work on this project has enabled us to become part of an international research network, with researchers in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Germany and Portugal, all working on 'remote' experiments. We have already been in talks with the faculty of engineering about developing this type of remote technology for their students and there is potential to use it effectively with many other groups in the University."
For more information about this year’s innovative teaching awards, see www.dundee.ac.uk/learning/qau/qualindex/goodprac.htm