The upcoming workshops are listed in this table. Abstracts for the workshops can be found below. Where recordings are available the session will be linked.

7 Oct 2020	Using Google Sites to create digital teaching and learning materials Phil Martin, International Pathways College
22 Oct 2020	An Introduction to Inclusive Design Lou Stringer, Learning Enhancement Team, ASO
2 Nov 2020	York Management School Undergraduate Buddy Scheme – Process and Reflections Caroline Chaffer Jo Hawksworth Jane Neal-Smith, The York Management School
17 Nov 2020	Supporting the transition to academic writing in HE Alex Benjamin and Alex Reid, Department of Psychology
27 Nov 2020	Individual Arrangements and Inclusive Practice for Practical Learning & Teaching: Teaching Labs, Placements, Outreach and Field Trips  Julia Sarju, Department of Chemistry
28 Jan 2021	Year in Industry peer support project Jenny Pollard and Tamsyn Kiss Department of Environment and Geography
19 Feb 2021	Diversifying and Decolonising the Curriculum Jess Penn, Inclusive Learning and Teaching
1 Mar 2021	Peer Assisted Learning Michael Thornton, Department of Economics and Related Studies
22 Apr 2021	Decolonising the Curriculum – Interactive workshop Zaynab Seedat, PhD Student and Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of English and Related Literature and Kate Walker (Music, Sheffield)
12 May 2021	Developing Independent Learners Sandra Jeffrey and Louise Rudd, International Pathways College
19 May 2021	Lecturing Dialogically: Reinventing the Lecture using a Creative Practice Model Ben Poore and Rebecca Benzie, Department of Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media
24 May 2021	Structure, communication and transition; a whole cohort approach for years 1 and 2 in the pivot to online learning Sally Quinn, Department of Psychology
3 June 2021	Teaching Critical Writing James Lamont, Module Leader, Academic Support for Education, IPC. David Anderson, Tutor – Language and Study Skills, IPC.
14 June 2021	Working with students to develop Covid teaching plans – the student engagement experience in Biology Richard Waites, Department of Biology

If you want to find out more, or if you have any suggestions for future workshops, please contact us on learning-and-teaching-forum@york.ac.uk.

Abstracts

Using Google Sites to create digital teaching and learning materials
This workshop provides an overview of a project currently underway on the University’s Language and Study Skills module, which is using Google Sites to create a new digital, classroom based learning experience for students. The project looks at ways in which teachers and course writers can use Sites to bring together a range of teaching technologies in one unified space, where students can work through activities, access digital media and carry out research. The workshop will be of interest to practitioners looking to exploit the independent study opportunities afforded by new teaching technologies, while maintaining the benefits of an interactive classroom environment. We will also look at how the idea of a unified space for digital teaching and learning materials can help bring order to the chaos that can sometimes be felt in response to the sheer volume of new learning technologies that continue to become available. The current project has used Sites to create a combined digital coursebook and VLE, which has been piloted with a small teaching team since September. We will review some of the feedback so far from students and teachers that have been involved, share some lessons learned, and look at ways in which the platform can be adapted for other courses. We will also discuss how Sites works in relation to similar platforms such as Xerte. In keeping with the workshop format, the session will be interactive, with a trial of the pilot site available for those with devices.

Inclusive Design for Dummies
Do you want to make more inclusive materials, but aren’t sure where to start, don’t have much time, or aren’t really confident using a computer? This workshop is for you! This introductory workshop will explore some of the barriers that students might face when accessing module materials; problems reading, understanding, seeing or hearing resources. We’ll then identify some simple and easy to use strategies to avoid barriers and make teaching materials more inclusive. In the last part of the workshop, you’ll get the chance to try out the strategies. This is an introductory session aimed at teaching staff new to inclusive design principles, but of course, everyone is welcome. Please bring a laptop or other device you can edit Google Docs / Slides on.

Supporting the transition to academic writing in HE
The transition to Higher Education presents students within the first year with a number of social and academic challenges. One of these is understanding and meeting the expectations for academic coursework at university. This task is not a simple one, or one for which students feel prepared, and can be a significant source of anxiety. This interactive workshop will highlight some of the ways in which we can support our students in the transition to academic writing based on ongoing work as part of the Academic Skills module in the Department of Psychology.

Individual Arrangements and Inclusive Practice for Practical Learning & Teaching: Teaching Labs, Placements, Outreach and Field Trips 
Students with declared disabilities make up approximately 10% of our UK undergraduate population1. We must ensure that these students receive an equitable, high quality education and fair assessment.
This workshop aims to facilitate discussion about how to design inclusive of practical teaching activities, such as teaching labs, outreach, and field trips, for students with disabilities. Case studies will be shared to give examples of good practice here at the University of York. Participants will be asked to consider practical teaching activities they are involved with (or take place within their department); what are the elements of good inclusivity practice, would the assessment give an equitable experience, how might the assessment be adapted to accommodate students with disabilities, can/should any of these adaptions be provided to the whole cohort? 
The workshop will highlight the importance of including students with disabilities in decisions which affect them, anticipating needs while treating students as individuals, and providing an equitable learning and assessment experience. 

Peer Assisted Learning
We explore the development and early stages of the Peer Assisted Learning Scheme in the Department of Economics and Related Studies, which was designed specifically to support two modules in Probability and Statistics.

Decolonising the Curriculum – interactive workshop
This workshop explores the timely theme of decolonising the curriculum in contemporary higher education. Following an introduction to the topic, participants will work through a series of collaborative exercises in which they reflect upon their experiences as students/teachers to date and identify concrete ways in which to bring about a more equitable system for all. After this session, participants will be equipped with a basic knowledge of the current debate and issues surrounding decolonialism, action points to bring about positive change, as well as a network of fellow change agents within their subject areas.

Lecturing Dialogically: reinventing the Lecture using a Creative Practice Model
The effectiveness of lectures for learning continues to be a subject of contention. Some argue that the lecture is unfairly maligned and that it includes a wide range of approaches, many of which can be highly effective. Others point to worrying evidence that lectures have inherent problems of synchronicity and pacing, decrease student engagement, and compare poorly to student self-study. In a recent project in the Department of Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media, we addressed the question of whether a dialogic approach to writing and presenting lectures could enhance student learning in the first year of a BA Theatre programme. The project focused on the experience of ‘liveness’ in the lecture room, rebuilding a set of first-year lectures from first principles to enhance student engagement, dialogue, inclusivity, criticality and knowledge retention. A key element of the lecture design was matching form to content, offering physical enactments and embodiments of key ideas and inviting students to help shape and direct the lecture. The findings showed that use of a dialogic pedagogy and creative practice in lectures improved lecture attendance and active participation and created memorable talking points that fed into the seminar discussion and dialogue that followed, as well as into written assessments. In this workshop, we discuss the challenges of introducing a dialogic approach to HE teaching, and how this can be developed from classroom-based teaching into other learning environments. We explore the wider implications of our findings for reimagining lectures as creative, participatory events in other disciplines.