Editorial: oSoTL 4(1)

Vicki Dale¹, Matthew Barr¹, Mark Charters² and Nathalie Tasler¹

¹ University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
² Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK

Corresponding Author:
Vicki Dale, Academic and Digital Development, University of Glasgow, 64 Southpark House, Southpark Avenue, Glasgow, G12 8LB, UK.
Email: Vicki.Dale@glasgow.ac.uk

We have 11 articles in this Spring issue, with contributions from across the UK, and Canada. We are delighted to welcome Mark Charters from Glasgow School of Art who has joined our editorial board. As always, we are privileged to receive and read your valuable work, which makes a unique contribution to scholarship, enhancing learning, teaching and assessment practice across the higher education sector. The articles herein span the themes of scholarship, inclusivity, assessment and feedback, outdoor pedagogies, and international postgraduate learners’ induction into UK higher education.

First up, Nerantzi and colleagues demonstrate a characteristically creative approach in exploring open scholarship voices; they contrast Grimms’ Rapunzel – socially isolated within their own institutions, from Disney’s Tangled – engaging in transformative scholarship and communities of practice across institutions.

Finkel-Gates presents a study of student preferences for HyFlex learning and related academic performance. While most students prefer a blend of remote and on-campus participation, students from deprived backgrounds demonstrated a clear preference for online engagement. Performance data was more nuanced.

Abegglen and colleagues consider digital inequality through a critical pedagogy lens, drawing on the works of Freire and hooks. Despite the government rhetoric of ‘Technology Enhanced Learning’, issues of digital inequity persist. The authors outline an initiative (‘Digital Me’), which promoted digital creativity and the development of digital skills from a genuine learning perspective.

Inclusivity is also a theme of Stripe’s work, who documents the development of an inclusivity audit for higher education. The toolkit includes a suite of surveys applicable to programmes in any discipline.

Graham and Lindsay explore student partnerships – highlighting the need for a transformative – rather than tokenistic – approach, particularly in relation to including the voices of marginalised students.

Assessment challenges are the focus of Otermans and colleagues’ work. Their study revealed that students prepare differently for alternative forms of assessment – with some forms of assessment promoting a deeper approach to learning. While procrastination can provoke feelings of guilt, delaying assessment preparation to nearer the deadline can be a motivating strategy. Peers also play an important role in preparation for assessments.

Assessment is also the focus for Stevenson and colleagues’ work – they explore content versus writer focused written feedback, and its impact on students’ emotional response to the feedback, the attention they pay to it, and its perceived usefulness. The authors conclude that constructive (negative) feedback should be focused on content, while reinforcing (positive) feedback should be personalised towards the writer.

Ecopedagogy in business education is the subject of a ‘bimblecast’ by Offord and Marciak. Join them as they walk through the West of Scotland lowlands, and reflect on wildlife, place, and aspects of outdoor pedagogies including safety.

Jones and Sheridan outline a study conducted into international postgraduate students’ perceptions of an induction resource, highlighting the need to make resources available in advance of induction, clarify expectations of students’ learning, and provide support outside the classroom, to equip them for groupwork, active learning, and criticality.

Integrated Programme Assessment (IPA) is the subject of Tree and colleagues’ work, who examine it in the context of four different higher education institutions. This approach helps to reduce overassessment and promotes authentic, relevant assessment. It has also enabled curriculum transformation promoting interdisciplinary learning, enabling the development of graduate skills.

Once again, a sincere thanks to all our authors for sharing your work with us.