Student Led Teaching Awards

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Spotlight on great teaching… Student Led Teaching Awards

The first ever Student-Led Teaching Awards (SLTAs) got off to a great start with over 100 staff and students attending the award ceremony on Thursday 11 April.

A joint venture between Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement and UEL Students’ Union, the SLTAs was launched to celebrate staff who have made a real difference to the learning and development of UEL students.

The award ceremony was hosted by Julian Hargreaves, Academic Development Manager, Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement and third year UEL students, studying for a combined honours in Advertising and Events Management, who organised the event as part of their third year project. Student Marco Almenarez spoke on behalf of the panel, “I just loved seeing teachers and students having a great time together and seeing how touched teachers were when they saw that students really appreciate their work. I'm definitely very proud about the event.”

The evening included live entertainment, food and drinks and provided an opportunity to celebrate the work of staff at UEL. In her opening speech, Ann Slater, Dean of Cass School of Education and Communities said the awards showed that ‘high quality teaching is valued’, a sentiment echoed by more than 160 students who took the opportunity to nominate staff for the six award categories.

The judging panel was made up of four students and one academic whose decisions were based on the content and quality of the nominations, such as making their students feel valued as a learner, giving helpful feedback and whose teaching always makes the student want to learn more.

Out of 180 nominations, the award winners announced on the night were:

Best Lecturer: Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, Senior Lecturer and Program Leader of Art and Culture Management

"Jennifer Otter is one of the most inspiring Lecturers I have ever had. Since my first lesson with her, I haven't ceased to look forward to every subsequent lesson. She has the ability to make every lesson really interesting, even if the subject is not particularly exciting. At the same time, I feel that her honest, straight-forward stance prepares her students for real-life situations.”

Best Personal Tutor: Heather Price, Senior Lecture, School of Law and Social Science

“She emphasizes approaching module leaders and seminar tutors for help and support both in person and via email. She also encourages the use of essay writing workshops, UEL direct, study skills staff and other learning facilities UEL provides.”

Best Innovative Lecturer: Ian Wells, Lecturer, School of Psychology

“Ian has made all lectures incredibly interesting using video clips, teaching interesting and real life topics… being more student orientated using text to communicate, Twitter to keep in touch with students outside… Ian's idea of audio recording and video recording has helped immensely.”

Best Support Staff: Alix Hanson, Skillzone Advisor

“Alix encourages students in what they are doing. She helps you move in the right direction with lots of tips and study skills information to help you progress and become successful. “

Best Feedback: Paul Adams, Senior Lecturer, Cass School of Education and Communities

“Paul often uses colour codings, highlights and bullet points to give feedback, this helps me see where exactly I have gone wrong, and use the feedback as a checklist for future coursework. Paul also offers me face to face feedback to enable me to understand my written feedback better”

Best Dissertation/Project Supervisor: Ho Chung Law, Senior Lecturer School of Psychology

“We 'met' electronically several times through Skype and also through several emails. I was surprised by the amount of learning I could achieve through Skype and it was only due to Dr. Law's patience, expertise and extra effort that I managed to grasp certain concepts which I had not heard of before. “

One particular lecturer was nominated in all award categories and was given a Special Recognition Award. Helen Powell, Senior Lecturer and Leader in Student Experience, School of Arts and digital Industries said: “an enormous thank you to all my students who make it such a pleasure to come to work every day. Well done to everyone who had a nomination today, it makes this evening very special.” All the award winners highlighted that UEL was a great place to work because of the students.

The aim of the awards was to ‘develop a popular scheme to empower students to influence teaching’ and with the fantastic turn out, this looks set to happen. Well done to all the winners and nominees. We look forward to next year!