Giving, but also . . . Taking -- 13th Annual Learning & Teaching conference

The Thirteenth Annual Learning &Teaching conference, was held in Sheffield, at the University of Sheffield Students' Union building on Tuesday 8 January 2019.

The conference was an opportunity for academic members of staff to come together and explore different approaches to assessment and feedback, and reflect on how they make the most of innovations in this area to support student learning.

I was privileged to participate in the conference with a presentation (coauthored with Leslie Szamosi) on the topic of "The Advantages and Disadvantages ofPersonalised Audio Feedback (PAF) at the International Faculty in the Era ofSound-Bites and GDPR: A Two Case Analysis".

Over 80 participants attended the session in question, during which I attempted to discuss the challenges of personalized audio feedback provided to students and the future of this practice in the era of GDPR.

The discussion that followed after the presentation involved almost all the attendees, sharing with each other their experiences in such type of feedback provision. Special emphasis was placed on the legal aspects of audio feedback, its ownership, given the recent developments regarding the General Data Protection Regulation and compliance to it.

As every year, attending such a conference could only lead to yielding positive results. It is a very good forum to get a feel of what other departments of the university and colleagues use as best practices.

Inter alia, below are some of the key elements that I believe I should share with you as per what the current practices are like at Sheffield:

• Submission of assignments, marking, and feedback provision is carried out exclusively through MOLE.
• MOLE has a number of features that the majority of us in the International Faculty appear not to be aware of; features that can make our lives easier along with providing more detailed and richer feedback to our students.
• Also, the Pecha Kucha presentation. An interesting way of asking students in a limited period of time (around 6-7 minutes max) to present their material. Ideal for pitching and not only. In more detail, spending a maximum of 20 seconds on each presentation slide, with a maximum 20 slides. 20x20 means 20 slides or images for 20 seconds each. In total the presentation lasts 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Here is a link to help us understand it better.

There was a lot more there, but one needs to be there to fully understand the fact that there is a gamut of practices out there that we can use in better assessing, monitoring, and providing feedback to our students.

Participating at the conference is a day full of new ideas, experiences, and innovation and I would urge every single one of us to participate in the future.

Chris Liassides

Senior Lecturer, BAED