Inaugural Education Day at Imperial College focuses on innovative learning and teaching

Event to promote excellence and discuss new methods of attracting students and teaching strategies - News

Monday 8 December 2008
By Naomi Weston

Innovative teaching methods were explored last month at Imperial College London’s inaugural Education Day.

The event promoted excellence in teaching and learning and brought together people from across the College to discuss developments in teaching methods and how to attract the most able students. It provided an opportunity for Heads of Departments and Heads of Faculties to share ideas and look at creative methods being adopted in other areas to engage with and improve student learning.

Education Day was pioneered by Julia Buckingham, the Pro Rector for Education at Imperial, and was organised by the Centre for Educational Development. She said:

“In a place renowned for its excellence in research, like Imperial, it is very important to show all the good teaching that takes place in the institution and make sure that there is cross-fertilisation of good practice and ideas. This is one of the main aims behind the Education Day. It has been the first, cross-College event, to bring people together to talk about learning and teaching, and this is an important achievement.”

A series of lectures took place throughout the day given by Imperial academics celebrating innovative teaching. Subjects covered included Envision and how the Faculty of Engineering are improving engineering education. Dr Anthony Bull, from the Department of Bioengineering, gave an overview of Envision. Set up in 2005, it aims to provide engineering students with real life experience and practical projects relating to industry. One of its flagship projects is Imperial Racing Green, which involves students designing and manufacturing a fuel cell hybrid vehicle. The project enables students to gain valuable hands-on experience.

In addition, Dr Roger Kneebone gave a lecture on the use of simulation in teaching medicine. He discussed his use of patient focused simulation, which involves attaching artificial skin for example to a person acting as a patient, enabling the student to practice taking blood at the same time as talking to their patient.

Rector Sir Roy Anderson, opened the day’s event by talking about the importance of high quality teaching and learning at the College. He said: “Students, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, come here because they know they will learn from the leaders in their field, and gain direct access to the latest findings and technologies.”

He added: “We need to ensure that we are constantly being creative about the way that we deliver education, as attitudes are shifting and students today have different expectations of the learning experience.”

The event also looked at communicating science and the importance of training future scientists and science communicators. Professor Lord Robert Winston, Professor of Science and Society at the College, gave a lecture on the challenges of communicating science. He looked at the relationship between scientists and the media and how this can be both beneficial in order to get messages out to the public as well as detrimental with misleading headlines and inaccurate reporting.

Using video clips from his BBC1 series ‘Child of Our Time’, he showed how using devices such as case studies and human emotions to illustrate complicated scientific processes can be a useful way of explaining processes.

Over 30 posters were on display at the event illustrating many of the different initiatives departments and academics have introduced to their courses. Varying teaching methods presented included a clinical e-learning programme with e-lectures, video podcasts and online quizzes enabling students to identify gaps in their knowledge.

Four prizes were given out by Professor Buckingham to the researchers who produced the best posters to reward them for their innovative ideas.

John Conway and Dr Philip Ramsden from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, along with Tina Rowe and Bang Nong from the Faculty of Engineering, were rewarded for their roles in developing METRIC, an interactive maths resource aimed to help first year engineering, physics and chemistry students develop their maths skills.

Metric was originally developed for schools but is now used at the College and is available online enabling students to study at home. There are various exercises for students and they can receive direct feedback on how they can improve their results.

John Conway says: “The main benefit to students is that they can take ownership of their work and learn outside the classroom. We have had very positive feedback. The students like it because it is visual and involves quizzes to test their knowledge so they can refresh their skills before exams.”

Pramudith Sirimanna, an undergraduate from the Faculty of Medicine, and a team of academics from the Faculty of Medicine, won for their work on helping medical students prepare for operations and medical procedures.

Pramudith talks through the winning poster

The team came up with the idea of mental practice which involves training medical students to run through procedures in their minds to help them perform more effectively. They conducted a survey of 20 medical students to find out if mentally preparing for a procedure in advance makes students perform better. Using the example of a gall bladder removal operation, students who talked through in their mind the steps they needed to follow beforehand were better at performing the operation in a virtual reality training theatre.

“Once a medical student learns a new skill, visualising it and practising it in their minds helps them build up their confidence and have a greater knowledge of the procedure,” explains Pramudith.

The full list of winners for the poster competition is:

• John Conway and Dr Philip Ramsden from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Bang Nong and Tina Rowe from the Faculty of Engineering, for the 2008 online version of Metric.
• Dr Jane Saffell and Emma Salter from the Faculty of Natural Science on their poster entitled: Evaluation of Different Research-Based Modules in Biochemistry and their Influence on Students' Perceptions of Bioscience Research.
• Pramudith Sirimanna, Dr Sonal Arora, Rajesh Aggarwal, Dr Nick Sevdalis, Alice Moran, Dr Roger Kneebone and Professor Ara Darzi, all from the Faculty of Medicine, for their poster entitled: Mental Practice Enhances Surgical Performance in Novice Laparoscopic Surgeons - A Randomised Controlled Study.
• Elaine Walsh, from the Graduate Schools, for her poster entitled: Cold Micro-climates and Cultural Mishaps: The Perils of PhD Life for Overseas Students.

In addition, on Monday 24 November the Rector awarded Imperial staff with the Excellence in Teaching Awards, which celebrate high quality teaching. Staff were congratulated for showing innovation in the design and delivery of learning activities.

A full list of the winners is:

• Dr Mitch Blair, Medicine
• Dr Richard Dashwood, Materials
• Dr Helen Dowker, Physics
• Dr Leroy Gardner, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Dr Kate Hardy, SORA
• Dr Klaus Hellgardt, Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology
• Dr Roger Kneebone, SORA
• Professor Geoffrey Smith, Investigative Science
• Dr John Tippins, Life Sciences
• Professor Dimitri Vvedensky, Physics
• Professor Dominic Wells, Neurosciences and Mental Health

Three of the award winners were also named Imperial's 2008 Teaching Fellows. They are:

• Dr Steve Cook, Life Sciences< li>Professor Karim Meeran, Investigative Science
• Dr Lynda White, Mathematics

Education Day was held on 26 November 2008. For more information about the Centre for Educational Development please see: www3.imperial.ac.uk/edudev/cedevents/educationday