Education Services were thrilled to launch their first roadshow event earlier this week to demonstrate the range of support they can offer.
The roadshow, which ran from 10am-2pm on Monday in the Centenary building, featured a guest talk from the Vice-President of Education and Student Experience, Professor Deborah Gill.
The event took place in B100/4013, and featured stands dedicated to the services offered by Education Services, including media content, digital literacy and curriculum design.
Speaking after the event, Deborah said:
“Digital and technological infrastructure are pivotal to our plans to develop a contemporary education here at Southampton.
Our Education Services team are central to helping us make the right decisions and doing the right things for the right reasons.
We need to get people closer together to share good practices and identify areas where practice can be improved, working collaboratively to make it better for students, teachers and the university.”
Professor Deborah Gill, Vice-President (Education and Student Experience)
Bobbi Moore, Digital Education Lead for CHEP (Centre for Higher Education Practice), and Assessment Consultant Simon Walker both presented at the roadshow.
Simon, whose presentation focussed on the challenges of assessment and teaching in the post-Covid and AI-infused era, lauded the importance of an in-person event to allow networking and the sharing of ideas.
“Those casual conversations you can have in-person are so important. That’s something we can often forget – sometimes it’s too much trouble to go into campus now, but the value you get from [in-person conversation] is great.”
Simon Walker, Assessment Consultant
Amongst the stands demonstrating the services offered were Digital Learning’s Alison Ormesher and Jonathan Lightfoot.
Alison and Jon, both Learning Designers, hosted a stand on Digital Literacy and Professional Development, discussing resources such as LinkedIn Learning and the Jisc Discovery Tool, a self-assessment tool for improving your digital skills.
“I would really recommend the Jisc Discovery Tool, either with a cohort of students or just as a staff member! It’s a valuable way to self-reflect on your digital skills.”
Alison Ormesher, Learning Designer
Multimedia Developers from Digital Learning also demonstrated their wide range of kit, from 360 cameras to drones.
“We specialise in producing educational resources aimed directly at our students. Our expertise lies in anything from video production, animation, 360 tours and photography.
Events like today’s Roadshow are invaluable, since we get to showcase the wide range of media outputs that we produce.“
Sofy Bazzini, Multimedia Developer Team Lead
Digital Learning’s Luke Searle, Anna Ruff and Dr Melanie Seddon also hosted stands at the Roadshow, discussing the VLE awards and Curriculum Design respectively.
“I feel extremely positive after speaking to a number of academics today who are looking to innovate their own practice and also disseminate that across other places at the university.
It’s a real exciting time to be a member of the Digital Learning Team.”
Luke Searle, Learning Designer
“We’re hoping to work with faculties to approach curriculum design with fresh eyes. We’re going to think about lecturing less and engaging more, so we can support the student journey and bring more engagement into their course.”
Dr. Melanie Seddon, Senior Learning Designer
Matthew Deeprose, also a Senior Learning Designer, ran Accessibility Consultations at the event and said:
Today’s roadshow event has shown the amazing depth of experience and expertise that Education Services offers the university.
While there are numerous challenges to improving Digital Accessibility, there are just as many ways that we can engage with our University collleagues to take us further on this journey.
Head of Education Services, Dave Key, whose address opened the event, said:
“There were a good range of presentations that were able to show the attendees the breadth of what education services does, and the way we work with other teams around the university.
If you weren’t able to attend, please feel free to watch the presentations online, or come and speak to us!”
Our intern Melike Ozzengin shared her perspective on the event in the blog post Digital Learning Intern – the Roadshow event.
Digital Learning
You can contact Digital Learning to find out more about the services provided via ServiceLine (serviceline@soton.ac.uk).
