CHMLS Educational Excellence Hub

The College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences is comprised of three departments that cover life sciences, clinical and health-related subjects across a number of disciplines.

The Department Health Sciences conducts teaching and research in several areas of allied health professions, nursing, social work, public health, health promotion and health economics, delivering high quality professional and public health education in line with the University’s mission “to bring benefit to society through excellence in education, research and knowledge transfer”.

The Department of Life Sciences teaches courses in Biomedical Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences. Psychology and Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences. With a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary research and a commitment to excellence in research informed teaching, we aim to push the boundaries of understanding our environments, human health and performance.

Brunel Medical School (BMS) opened its doors to the first class of students taking a 5-year undergraduate degree in Medicine leading to the award of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). BMS are among the few medical schools in the world to use Team-based Learning (TBL) as the main method of classroom instruction, replacing traditional lectures with structured team-centred activities that help you learn, discuss and remember the necessary knowledge.

We teach and train 4000 students and have around 300 academic and professional and support staff in the College. Our vision is to be a College that is distinguished by excellence in education and the learning experience, that conducts world leading research, and ensures its activities have a real impact on human health. The CHMLS Educational Excellence Hub brings together all staff to bring this vision to life. 

Our key aim is to continue nurturing and fostering a community which supports all staff to deliver innovative and inclusive teaching and assessment. This is a multi-faceted process that will span years and will involve several objectives including: 

Promoting collaboration and communication among staff. We encourage staff to work together and share best practices, ideas, and resources, many of which are transferable between disciplines. We hold regular meetings, journal and discussion clubs, symposia and other professional development opportunities to facilitate this. 

Encouraging innovation and experimentation. We provide opportunities for staff to share experiences of experimenting with new teaching methods and technologies long with novel modes of assessment. We are particularly interested in active learning pedagogies and authentic assessments. 

Fostering a culture of inclusivity. We encourage staff to consider the diverse needs and backgrounds of our student body and to create an inclusive learning environment. Along with the CHMLS Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee we aim to provide training and resources to support inclusive teaching practices. 

Creating opportunities for scholarly activity. We encourage colleagues to engage in scholarly activity and to share their research with their colleagues in a supportive environment prior to publication. We strive to promote a culture of inquiry and continuous improvement of our educational provision to maximise benefit to our students.

Our purpose is to improve the practice of teaching, learning and assessment in higher education. We have various broad and intersecting themes of work including:

 Active Learning Pedagogies

 Assessment Practice: Authentic Assessment, Assessment for learning

 Assessment Security and Academic Integrity

 Feedback Literacy and Feedback Practices

 Preparing Students for the Future – Transferrable and Interpersonal Skills

 Professional Development of Staff

 Social Responsibility

 Student Engagement

 Projects include:

Pelvic health professionals' recruitment challenges - service evaluation (brunel.ac.uk) 

Addressing educational inequities through co-production of inclusive learning (brunel.ac.uk)

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14 July 2022 - Education Hub Launch.

21 July 2022 – Reading & Discussion Club.

Faculty Beliefs about Intelligence Are Related to the Adoption of Active-Learning Practices | CBE—Life Sciences Education (lifescied.org)

podcast.

Teaching for Student Success: Faculty Mindset: A Hidden Bias That Impacts Student Success on Apple Podcasts

26 October 2022 – Journal Club – Nigel Davies - Assessment tools in Interprofessional education – systematic review.

https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14453

10 November 2022 - Nick Worsfold and David Tree - Authentic Assessment.

Verónica Villarroel, Susan Bloxham, Daniela Bruna, Carola Bruna & Constanza Herrera-Seda (2018) Authentic assessment: creating a blueprint for course design, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43:5, 840-854, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2017.1412396.

29 November 2022 - Seminar: Understanding the ethnicity degree awarding gap.

The CHMLS EDI-committee and Education Hub are hosting a seminar from Dr Billy Wong from the University of Reading at 1pm on the 29^th Nov online via Teams entitled: “Understanding the ethnicity degree awarding gap”

8 December 2022 - Journal Club - Academic misconduct and detecting plagiarism - Nick Morris.

Elkhatat, A.M., Elsaid, K. & Almeer, S. Some students plagiarism tricks, and tips for effective check. Int J Educ Integr 17, 15 (2021).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-021-00082-w

17 January 2023 - Journal Club discussion forum - Implications of a Twitter thread - Joanna Bagniewska and Tom Miller will lead a discussion on the reasons behind non-attendance, as well as potential solutions.

Twitter thread by Dr Peter Olusoga from Sheffield Hallam University: Dr Peter Olusoga on Twitter: "Dearest Students, I don't want to hear a single word of complaint from you EVER, about ANYTHING. #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter https://t.co/Gjnt7nO45F" / Twitter

25 January 2023 - Seminar by Dr Lisa Jackson on 'Creating, supporting and sustaining educators - is there a secret recipe?'

Dr Lisa Jackson is the Director of Medical Education at Brunel Medical School.

31 January 2023 - Prof Olwyn Westwood will be leading a discussion on.

Teresa McConlogue (2015) Making judgements: investigating the process of composing and receiving peer feedback, Studies in Higher Education, 40:9, 1495-1506, DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2013.868878 (https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.868878)

Peer feedback is not only a means of facilitating our students in their assessment for learning, but also a transferable skill that will be required in the World of Work. It would be great to hear ideas and have a discussion on how this might be applied to the respective disciplines across CHMLS, and more widely, in other departments within Brunel.

6 February 2023 Education Symposium.

Talks on Active Learning, Authentic Assessment and EDI initiatives but there are also slots available if you have an education issue you’d like to lead a discussion on!

9 February 2023 - Designing Inclusive Assessments webinar.

INRAP WEBINAR: Designing inclusive assessment: opportunities and challenges.

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