Explore all the past and upcoming satellite ‘Action On’ events here.
Looking for the Action On event resources? Explore all the resources here
Got an idea for a satellite event? Get in touch!
Explore all the past and upcoming satellite ‘Action On’ events here.
Looking for the Action On event resources? Explore all the resources here
Got an idea for a satellite event? Get in touch!
Fri 3 July 2020
This is a ‘hands on’, practical ‘tool kit’ of ideas and experiences of online teaching in order to support colleagues with the changes engendered by C-19. While most online training is generic, this will be discipline-specific and relevant to all areas of the subject – language, literature, and creative writing.
For speakers: we have a lot to get through, so please do not go over your allotted time.
For audience: we will be using the Q+A function on the webinar. Please mark questions for specific speakers @speaker (e.g. “@joansmith: who was that study you mentioned by?”) and general questions as @general (e.g. “@general: how might we assess group work online?”): we will be rounding up these questions throughout. In addition, please feel encouraged to post general questions in the breaks, and, again, we’ll discuss them in the final session when our plenary speakers will act as our expert panel. Whilst some colleagues already have significant amounts of experience in this, it’s probably true to say that most of us are just starting out on this new way of working and engaging with students, so there are no silly questions.
We very much hope that coming together will provide us with a good start to a summer of re-working our teaching. After the seminar, we’d encourage you to carry on using and sharing resources in the repository set up here: https://www.englishsharedfutures.uk/satellite-events/. At that address you can also find resources form previous Action On… events in employability and admissions.
Introduction and Chair: Robert Eaglestone, Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought, Royal Holloway, University of London
Chair: Professor Robert Eaglestone
Chair and Moderator: Professor Gail Marshall
Moderated online conversation about concerns. To draw on questions, issues raised in chat function and over the sessions.
Professor Gail Marshall
September 2019
Preparing our students for their futures is a key aspect of the role of contemporary degree courses. Perspectives on the place of employability in higher education range from viewing it as a core part of all discipline-focussed degree work, as an inevitable or accidental by-product, or as an externally imposed and ill-fitting bolt-on. English degrees, in all their forms – specialising in literature, language and linguistics, or creative writing – equip students with invaluable knowledge and skills. Our graduates are critically astute and culturally sensitive; they are analytical thinkers and agile communicators.
This event asked: what we are doing to support students in recognising, developing and articulating the skills and aptitudes they gain through our courses, what can we do better, and how? It offered a day of sharing views, insights and good practice throughout the discipline, during which we explore different ways of thinking about, ‘embedding’, ‘extracting’, engaging with and talking about employability in our courses. The event involved panels share different in-curricula, co-curricula and extra-curricula approaches to employability. The end of the event was dedicated to current and future employability priorities for our graduates, and to finding and sharing constructive positions and messages about employability in HE English.
November 2018
We’re all only too well aware of the challenging recruitment environment we’re in at the moment. Demography and Brexit don’t help: the raw figures for Q3 English Studies also show a decline of acceptances of around 5% in 2017 from the previous year, and the figures are all in decline from a high in 2010: the whole code Q was down 7.8%.[i] Worryingly, the situation at A-level is even more precarious, with a sudden precipitous decline which may have a knock-on impact on HE recruitment.[ii]
An English: Shared Futures satellite event, supported by the English Association, University English and Institute for English Studies, Action on University Recruitment for English is a one-day workshop which aims to address this situation by encouraging colleagues to work collaboratively to attract good students to read English at University. If we have more good students in the system, we will all be better off, and the presence of English in the HE landscape will be strengthened. During the workshop, we will:
[i] https://www.ucas.com/file/138151/download?token=FgkyjbUo
[ii]http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/29362/1/Summer_2017_exam_entries_GCSEs_AS_and_A_levels_in_England.pdf
[iii] See, for a US example: https://www.studythehumanities.org/toolkit