Message from Dr Shan Wareing new SEDA Fellowships Co-ordinator

Fellowships co ordinator.

I’m introducing myself as the new SEDA Fellowships Co-ordinator, a role I’m delighted to take on, as a chance to promote and support this really important area. I only appreciated how important SEDA has been to me when I put my National Teaching Fellowship application together this year. Using the application to review my work over the last 16 years made me realise how profound SEDA's role in my own professional development has been.

I will be the first point of contact for anyone thinking about applying for Associate Fellowship, Fellowship or Senior Fellowship, so give me a ring (020 7514 8051) or drop me an email (s.wareing@arts.ac.uk). 

Information about the new scheme is now available on the SEDA website under Fellowships.  The recent changes hopefully make the scheme easier to join and have streamlined the processes for gaining professional recognition at the level that’s right for you at the moment.  We’re seeking feedback so drop me a line if there’s anything you want to ask or tell me about the scheme.

I had my first phone call this week with someone interested in applying for the Senior Fellowship – a very enjoyable half an hour talking about educational development work and how the Fellowship scheme might fit into future plans.  I’m really looking forward to working with the community of SEDA Fellows at all three levels in the future.

SEDA UPDATE

• The Universities White Paper says, ' We encourage higher education institutions to publish anonymised information for prospective and existing students about the teaching qualifications, fellowships and expertise of their teaching staff at all levels.' HEFCE will lead on this and respond by April 2012. SEDA is keen to be involved in the consultation and would welcome your views.

• SEDA exec has been asked to contribute to another Times Higher article on qualifications to teach in HE so look out for the usual arguments for and against once again :)

• We have had lots of high quality applications for the posts of tutor and course leader of the new Supporting and Leading Educational Change Programme. The panel will be able to announce results  very soon. Thank you to all applicants. The programme will begin in October.

• SEDA Summer School starts next week.This programme is always positively evaluated by participants and we wish all involved best wishes for another successful 'school'.

• SEDA website front page is being revamped over the summer. We hope you'll like it. We have added a news section and will add twitter and blog links. Thanks to all those who responded to this blog with such suggestions.

• SEDA PDF - Are you looking for a flexible CPD programme for particular groups of staff in your university that you can adapt while providing national recognition? Find out how more and more universities are using the SEDA Professional Development Framework http://www.seda.ac.uk/professional-development.html?p=3_1_5

• After a fantastic response to the call for papers, rregistration is open for:

  16th Annual SEDA Conference November 2011

  Using Technology to Enhance Learning

Announcements - Sir Michael Barber to join Pearson as Chief Education Advisor

Announcements - Sir Michael Barber to join Pearson as Chief Education Advisor

Lots decided and debated at the SEDA exec away day at Cumberland Lodge

2 days of SEDA discussion has resulted in plans for:

• this blog
• a whole year of activities to celebrate SEDA's 20th birthday in 2013. Liz Shrives is co-ordinating a group but is keen to hear of any ideas or offers of help. liz.shrives@btinternet.com
• a project to review membership packages
• formal links between the co-chairs and vice chair and key bodies like UUK, QAA, AUA etc. Also to ensure that we link with key bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
• a project to review all SEDA leaflets and marketing material
• SEDA preparations for the Universities White Paper and the HEA report on UKPSF
• launching a new SEDA course: Supporting and Leading Educational Change
• SEDA protocols for working with external bodies

Lovely accommodation ,great food, lively debates,a bracing walk at 7.30am and lots of discarded post its and flip chart paper! We welcomed new exec member Yaz El Hakim from Winchester and shared our current challenges and opportunities. What a range of experiences across the sector!

Other SEDA news:

• Shan Wareing University of the Arts appointed SEDA Fellowships co-ordinator
• New SEDA course Supporting/ Developing  Work-based Learning has been successful with its first co-hort
• Great response to the call for papers for the November SEDA conference
• Lots of requests for SEDA to be a partner in JISC bids after JISC recognition of success of previous WORK-WITH -IT SEDA JISC Project
• SEDA Writing Retreat is once again proving popular
• The annual SEDA Summer School is coming up soon
• As co-chair I have had meetings with QAA and Educational Competencies Consortium
• Caroline Stainton co-chair attended the AUA Gala Dinner

Help required!
Fiona Campbell and Celia Popovic invite participants for their research into what works in conferences. We are researching the impact of participation in educational development conferences on changes to academic practice. We need your help to identify what works, why it works and what processes at conferences make a difference to individual and institutional practice. Conferences are popular and are usually valued by participants, but they are also expensive and time consuming. After several years’ experience planning and organising national conferences with SEDA and local events in our own institutions, we feel it is timely to identify what works best. To date there has been surprisingly little research in this area.
We are seeking conference organisers willing to engage with our research. Participating conferences agree to circulate our online survey. We will follow-up willing participants three months after the conference with an online interview to a randomised selection of respondents to find out if any impact has resulted, to what extent the conference participation prompted this and what else has enabled or prevented hoped-for change. We will provide a summary of responses to each conference organiser, and will share the full anonymised results with the sector after the conclusion of this work in May 2012.
If you are organising a conference and are interested in taking part, please contact Fiona (f.campbell@napier.ac.uk) or Celia (celia.popovic@gmail.com)