Daily updates from the Learning Resource Centre - all staff

One of the NCL initiatives from the lockdown period which has been hugely beneficial to staff cross college has been the daily updates provided by both Laura Dougan and Dale Lonsdale, in the Learning Resource Centre. 

Without fail, they provide us all with some amazing links to articles, covering a surfeit of interesting and helpful news stories.

They really are diverse and I am sure that all members of the Humanities teaching teams have used a number of the stories in their teaching, such is the currency of the information. 

Just looking at today's links (20.1.23) shows the breadth of helpful content that could be used in our teaching, especially as the Communication and English curriculum areas are so wide ranging.

The links from today can be seen below. 

Thank you so much Dale and Laura for providing us with such interesting news stories.

'Blue Triangle is a fantastic option for secure employment' | Daily Record | social care, Paisley

Scots chip shop launches deep fried creme eggs | Daily Record

Animal charity Blue Cross guidance on how to keep dogs warm and safe during winter freeze | GlasgowWorld

These are some of the resolutions we make long before new year | GlasgowWorld

Five big problems the NHS in Scotland needs to fix | BBC

Scotland flu deaths: Highest weekly number of flu deaths recorded for 20 years | The Scotsman

Joint call for Scotland’s colleges and universities to address inequalities | EHRC, SFC | includes link to report

A BBC Alba An La news piece about the farms which aired on 10th January 2023. | SRUC | short video

Polling shows Scots want ban on dog racing | TFN

Pro-Palestine activists force closure of Edinburgh weapons factory | TFN

Overwhelming support for autism tsar | TFN

Poorest Scots being left behind, health charity warns | TFN

Revealed: the shocking growth of obscene wealth and extreme poverty | TFN

Westminster’s Section 35 block on Scottish law fundamentally undermines UK democracy | Believe in Scotland

" We've put together an updated information & resource page for care leavers & care experienced young people ..." | CELCIS retweet, Young Scot

Open Letter Sees Spotify Demand Clamp Down on Apple | DIGIT

5 Overhyped Trends in Tech to get Over in 2023 | DIGIT

E-commerce: What Does 2023 Hold for Online Retail? | DIGIT

New Ruling to ‘Free the Nipple’ on Meta Platforms | DIGIT

Holidays up to 70% more expensive amid cost of living crisis | Which?

ISA ISA Baby: Assessing the Government’s policies to encourage household saving | Resolution Foundation

Half of nurses say they are paid badly; just a quarter feel well-paid | YouGov

Britons’ views of Qatar remain very negative following 2022 World Cup | YouGov

BBC Science Focus Magazine

Music News Daily Update

Music Week Morning Briefing

Nature Briefing

Project Scotland Newsletter

Lanarkshire language learners invited to new conversation cafe - Khadija Hadji

Please see below the link to a wonderful news article centring around some great work from our colleague, Khadija Hadji.

Lanarkshire language learners invited to new conversation cafe - Daily Record

Run by Khadija, the free conversational cafe was set up help speakers of other languages to learn English, running fortnightly at Summerlee Museum in Coatbridge. So far, around 20 people have attended, including a number of refugees from Ukraine who have moved to North Lanarkshire.

Khadija has previously run a similar conversation cafe at the Coatbridge venue prior to the Covid lockdown and has now relaunched it to help language learners improve their English and communication skills.

In her interview with the Daily Record, she went on say: “It’s been very popular already; there are people in the group from Ukraine, Poland and Pakistan, and it’s all about practising language skills, mingling together and doing something in the community. There are people from Ukraine who have travelled from other parts of North Lanarkshire to come to the sessions, which is amazing; it’s a hub where we can focus on speaking about culture and what people want to say. The new arrivals from Ukraine want to meet and to speak with locals as they’re interested in the culture and the sounds of the Scottish accent and dialect, so everybody is welcome and we’re reaching out to the wider community to join in".

We all applaud Khadija for this amazing initiative and expect it to be even more popular now that the national press has run this most deserving story. Fantastic.

Each session includes free tea, coffee, cake and biscuits thanks to donations from Tesco in Coatbridge, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons at Glasgow Fort and Lanarkshire firm Tunnock’s.

Well done, Khadija (pictured right).

Tech. College, Denmark visit to Coatbridge (7/12/22) - various NCL representatives

The team were delighted to receive a visit from Danish lecturers on December 7th, 2022, welcoming a delegation of colleagues from a College in Denmark, specifically, Tech College, which is in Aalborg.

Tech College is very committed to sharing experiences with other educational institutions and experiencing their approach to professionalism and pedagogy, both in Denmark and internationally. 

TECHCOLLEGE is one of the largest business schools in Denmark, offering a wide range of vocational education and training (VET) for young people who want to qualify in vocational areas similar to the curriculum activity offered at New College Lanarkshire.

NCL was represented on the day by Robert Allan, Sinead Lithgow, John Gould, Fiona Thomson, Calum Crosbie and Mark Hetherington. It was anticipated that Sharon MacGregor would join us too, via Zoom, but alas the link was not in operation on the day. Best plans and all that!

The session was well received from our new friends and a great deal of discussion ensued around the following topics:

• Historical context of Scottish FE and education provision locally (an innovative, entertaining and informative presentation delivered by John Gould from the Cumbernauld campus). Delegates were particularly impressed with this detail and delivery. Well done, John
• Sharing intel on what each College provides, the constituent groups, academic awards, political landscape
• Demonstrating Infopoint and the function of
• ESOL in the curriculum
• Displaying resources from the Humanities Department
• Discussion of  the Communication and English curriculum - the pitfalls and delivery of
• Educational blogging
• Danish English education
• Assessment delivery
• The role of SQA 

Delegates from both institutions were treated to a lovely lunch at the Coatbridge refectory, where topics of conversation ranged from where to taste haggis locally to formative assessment ideology and what constitutes traditional festive fayre in the respective countries to travel experiences in both Scandinavia and Glasgow.

We were joined by colleagues from the International Office too, who mentioned that there could be some overseas exchange possibilities to Aalborg in the near future, and I am sure there will be no shortage of volunteers when this has been firmed up, in order to strengthen academic links even further.

All in all, this was an extremely positive exchange of professional discourse and it is certain that strong collegiate bonds have been formed as a result of everybody's industry and engagement on the day. The College food wasn't too bad either!

The link to the Danish College is found here: TECHCOLLEGE

Closing the loop (post assessment) - Mark Hetherington

Reflecting on the presentations.pptx (slideshare.net)

If you click on the link above, you will see a method used where learners are given the opportunity to reflect on their own performance in a summative assessment (in this case, Level 6 Dental Nurses who had just completed their oral presentation task) and some assessor observations too.

This helps the students going forward, in an attempt to reinforce what they have done well, and what could be improved for future deliveries.

This short, reflective session is used in conjunction with one-to-one oral feedback already delivered regarding their assessment performance. 

Learners are encouraged to provide constructive commentary on their peers too, which can be of great help as they often make subject specific comments, rather than the general ones provided by the lecturer. Thus, everybody is involved in the learning, teaching and assessment process.

Innovative ideas for the future

The team has been discussing a number of possible new ideas for delivery starting in August 2023.

Some of the innovative ideas / proposal to address the needs of our learners (although just at the discussion stage presently) include:

• Journalism, provisionally with a working title of 'NQ Sport and Entertainment Digital Journalism'
• National 4 English
• National 5 English
• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Creative Writing
• Social Media Literacies H7EB 45  
• Event Organising F3PN 12 
• Poetry
• Preparation for SWAP Programmes
• Writing, speaking and 'effective communication skills'
• Workplace communication short courses - confidence building
• Women returners to education
• Intro to Literature which can be combined with a Communication unit (Level 5) as a precursor to any students hoping to progress to a Level 6 course where Communication (NC) FA1W 12 is to be part of it.
• A Highers Programme delivered over two years, primarily for the Adult Returners’ constituent group.

Feedback using blogs - Mark Hetherington

The team are committed to delivering meaningful, helpful and detailed feedback to our learners at all levels. 

We all disseminate this information in a number of ways, such as using Turnitin, e mail, one to one in person, via Zoom, detailed checklists, clear annotation on scripts, using questioning techniques in class, verbal feedback post oral presentations / discussions, amongst others. 

Variety is key, but the importance of providing feedback remains central to our philosophy, always.

Here is an example of some self-critique from a SWAP STEM class taught by Mark.

NCL SWAP Science 2022-23: Reflecting on your learning to date

NCL SWAP Science 2022-23: Congratulations - assessment one success, part two!

NCL SWAP Science 2022-23: Congratulations - assessment one success, part one!

Good practice - most recent EV visit - SQA

The Communication and English team have received a lot of positive feedback from recent SQA Qualification Verification Reports. Below is a series of comments disseminated by the SQA External Verifier for verification group 001, which outlines the variety of work undertaken by members of the teaching team.

• Teaching and Assessment Plans are in use with all classes, and these provide clear information on scheduled work throughout the year. Feedback on assessment evidence/checklists was detailed and supportive throughout, giving learners ample guidance and opportunities to discuss their progress with assessors.
• A wide range of literary texts is being used in the teaching of FA58 12, and all texts studied are at a suitable level. Essay questions are clear and allow candidates to work effectively towards achievement of the unit’s performance criteria - the avoidance of straight “lifting” of Higher English critical essay questions in favour of a more specific question type is commended.
• Vocationally relevant and topical materials are being used in many assessment instruments for FA1W 12. The use of thematically linked materials for assessment is effectively engaging specific cohorts: for example, Access to Nursing students are given a vocationally relevant reading assessment on Parkinson’s Disease, which then provides useful source materials for an Outcome 4 discussion assessment on genetic testing Outcome 2 discursive essay. The department also prepares candidates well for writing reports within the context of Higher Education study: learners are given guidance on report writing using a model for HE reports produced by several universities.
• Students on the SWAP Access to Nursing course are able to reflect on their learning and gain deeper knowledge of many aspects of their learning ‘journey” via a very impressive and engaging blog created by their assessor. The blog not only provides candidates with an opportunity to reflect on and develop their knowledge and skills, but also allows the assessor to provide an overview of learning and build a very cohesive group ethos.
• The centre received a High Confidence rating, with all quality criteria securely evidenced. It is clear that a great deal of work has gone into creating assessment materials following a development visit prior to the EV visit. The skilled and experienced staff team was praised for the effort involved in ensuring that all assessment materials were fit for purpose with appropriate standards applied when making decisions on candidate evidence. Internal verification procedures work well.

Harvard Referencing Generator - Stephen Colbert

At the start of the 2022-23 academic session, Stephen located and shared a really helpful and user-friendly website on the important topic of Harvard Referencing.

It is anticipated that all members of the teaching team are now using this magnificent resource with their respective learners. Referencing has been improved across all levels as a result of using the following link: Free Harvard Referencing Generator - Harvard Style (uwslondon.ac.uk)

The resource has been developed by colleagues at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS).

Referencing generators using alternatives to Harvard, such as Vancouver and APA are also noted within the website.

Below is a screenshot of how the home page looks.

A guide to sampling activity - Fiona Thomson

Fiona Thomson, IV for verification groups 339 (Core Skills Communication) and 001 (HN Communication and English) recently created a short, user-friendly and accessible document for members of the team on the important subject of sampling.

The document provided all members of the teaching team information and definitions on the following areas, amongst others:

• Sampling
• Moderation
• Standardisation
• Verification
• Quality Assurance
• Reasons for assuring quality and timelines
• College QA forms

The document was e mailed by Sinead to all team members as a refresher point and also housed in a folder on the M/S Teams page.

A little about what we do at NCL

The Communication and English teaching team deliver a range of courses and units cross college. The main focus of teaching can be divided into the following areas:

• Delivery of Core Skills (Communication) and HN (Communication) units on a large number of vocational Programmes
• Higher English through the Highers and evening class programmes
• Regular evening classes delivered to HN Engineering cohorts
• Strathclyde University Engineering Academy provision
• Occasional commercial courses

Specifically, we teach the following SQA Units:

• SCQF levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 Core Skills (Communication)
• Communication (NC) and Literature One - when taken together, this provides a qualification equivalent to a C pass at SQA Higher English
• Introduction to Literature
• Communication: Practical Skills (HN)
• Business Communication (HN)
• Research Skills (HN)
• Academic Skills - modular and non-modular
• Higher English

It has been a longstanding conviction, and a cornerstone of the team's professional practice, that effective learning and teaching must be flexible, innovative and harnessed to the need to develop a full range of capacities in learners. We believe Communication and English provision has always been responsive to the need to develop vocational skills and to undertake an integrative and more inclusive approach to learning.

Our learning, teaching and assessment strategy helps our students to be successful, confident, responsible and effective. Our learners engage in a lot of work that is self-reflective, addressing a number of interesting themes, such as sustainability, employability and citizenship, for example.

We provide a unique service at both the Coatbridge and Motherwell campuses, which is open to learners who have been unsuccessful in their assessments in semester one / block 1 or 2. This enables learners to be reassessed, sometimes by a different lecturer, to help them achieve their Communication Unit. This service is not a mechanism to take all three assessments though. Lecturers will provide the assessor with information about the student to ensure they are supported fairly and accurately. This has proved to be a very helpful initiative across a number of years. As always, learners are provided with detailed feedback on their assessment / re-assessment performance.

The teaching team are committed to develop successful areas of best practice in teaching. As a team, we feel we have been dynamic in trying to develop an integrative approach to learning that is genuinely meaningful and valuable to learners.