Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses

• Start date: 01 January 2001
• End date: 30 June 2005

This consortial project (with the Universities of Coventry and Durham) has been designed to support 25 U.K. higher education departments, involved in undergraduate teaching, in thinking about new ways of encouraging high quality learning. The collaborative research will be underpinned by research into the quality of student learning and how it is influenced, not just by teaching and assessment, but by the whole teaching-learning environment. It is intended to focus on five contrasting subject areas: biological sciences, economics, engineering, history and media and communications. A range of courses or modules will be identified in each subject area and the researchers will work closely with each course team to analyse learning aims and outcomes in relation to their student intake. The focus of the study will be on the constructive alignment between aims and the whole teaching-learning environment. Ways of improving provision will be explored with course teams, based on conceptual frameworks being developed through the research, and tailored to the specific subject areas. The effects of the changes introduced will be investigated and reviewed with the course teams involved. Ways of managing change effectively will be systematically identified and widely discussed, prior to extensive dissemination