CoPs are situated within the broader context of landscapes of practice and specifically in this context within the creative landscape, where divergent CoPs may collaborate extending their own practice (Wenger-Trayner et al, 2014). Individual courses created their own CoPs, and these were situated within a broader creative landscape (Pryko et al, 2019), comprised of courses within the two schools. The university swiftly implemented alternative learning and teaching methodologies, creating online interactive experiences. New pedagogies were implemented for studio practice-based disciplines; culminating in a digital showcase. Interpretations of CoPs differ from face to face to online, synchronous to asynchronous; their analysis needed to be nuanced (Baran et al. 2010). The courses adapted collaboratively in order to think together if these new communities were to be successful (Pryko et al, 2016; Sadiq, 2021). A retroethnographic study reviewed the experiences and their impact on the digital showcase. The focus groups and semi-structured questionnaires created themes relating to participants’ experiences and the success of the digital showcases, specifically highlighting that physical and hybrid events (Marshall et al. 2015) were favoured
This paper explores three-key issues related to the digital transformation of co-curricular interdisciplinary challenges within a UK higher education institution during the COVID pandemic. It is widely accepted that university graduates must be work-ready with an integrated skill set in addition to discipline specific knowledge to enable them to respond to complex societal challenges. The Creative Connection at Staffordshire University developed a framework using phenomenon-based learning to bridge discipline gaps, develop interconnectivity and enhance learning through 21st century skill development leading to work-ready graduates. Phenomenology provided an epistemological grounding for constructing knowledge of the new world using an interpretive constructionist philosophy. Through responding, reframing, and rethinking, during the COVID lockdowns the Creative Connection was moved into a digital environment which enabled interconnectivity to be taken to a new level with far reaching impact for student learning and skill advancement. The study presented showcases the pedagogic transformation and learning derived.
At the start of the global covid-19 pandemic, it became immediately apparent that no one individual or institution had mastered all the required skills for a smooth, seamless transition from on-campus teaching to online learning. This article takes an action research approach, drawing upon the lived experience of autoethnography as a methodology to interrogate the approach of the School of Art & Design at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) to managing the challenges in the transition to lockdown learning. This article outlines the important role the School played in supporting this re-visioning for the future of blended learning at an institutional level, outlining the change management approach undertaken at NTU, and highlighting the resulting innovation that emerged as we re-visioned studio-based pedagogies for an online and blended learning landscape.
In March 2020, the United Kingdom Covid-19 response created a huge challenge for the creative sector within higher education. With staff and students in lockdown, facilitating the study of practice-based subjects from home, without access to specialist equipment, became difficult. In response to this challenge, staff at the University of Huddersfield employed an innovative approach; demonstrating how students could build their own equipment at home from basic household items. This paper gives a personal account of this innovative approach to lockdown teaching, which has resulted in a wider re-thinking of our teaching practice. Adaptation to changing circumstances led to the evolution of teaching delivery. We include a rationale for our analogue approach and reflections on how our findings may be applicable to teaching across the creative sector and beyond.
Work-based-placements are routinely considered a key element of many universities’ efforts to increase graduate employability. Marrying the academic development of students with success in developing graduate and professional skills, presents challenges in terms of efficiency, development, overseeing meaningful experiential learning, and wider benefits. In this short paper, I reflect on a community engagement (CE) programme at the University of Chichester’s Institute of Sport, and present multiple benefits that I believe have arisen through its implementation. These range from the expected advantages of community collaboration, increasing practitioner/vocational competence and student engagement, to others such as the pragmatic benefit of increasing employability prospects for the students. Of note, reference is made to the way in which other HE staff and programmes could promote similar good practice, and there are a number of key steps (including pitfalls to be avoided) outlined that offer a framework for possible replication.
