SEDA Workshop – Orientation for New Academic and Learning Support Staff

Beyond Health and Safety and Fire Awareness Training!This workshop will explore the needs of academics and learning support staff when joining a new higher education institution.  It will help address key questions:·        

• How do new staff find out about the culture of learning and teaching, and the ethos of research and scholarship?·        
• How do they identify staff who will support them?·        
• What resources are available and where can they be found?·        
• What support is there for scholarship and their continuous professional development needs?

The workshop will consider strategies for providing timely information and support building on best practise and using lessons learnt from student orientation.Dr Helen Gale, Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching at the University of Wolverhampton, will set the scene based on her research into academic identities amongst early- career academics (Gale 2011). The workshop provides the opportunity to disseminate the results of research undertaken by Dr Sally Bradley and Sue Beckingham, through the support of a SEDA Grant, examining the development needs of new academic and learning support staff. Colleagues from the Higher Education Academy will share how the academy continues to support new academic staff through the range of resources, pedagogic and subject based, and activities available through the Higher Education Academy site.Programme:9:30 Coffee and tea available on arrival10:00 Welcome and background to the event10:30 Dr Helen Gale – Research findings on academic identities amongst early- career academics11:30 Coffee11:45 Workshop – Designing a Learning, Teaching and Assessment Orientation 13:00 Lunch13:45 Higher Education Academy – New academic staffsupport: What is happening? What is available?15:15 Coffee and Cake15:30 Plenary16.00:00 CloseGale, H. (2011) The reluctant academic: early–career academics in a teaching-orientated university, International Journal for Academic Development 16(3), 215-227.Supporting New Academic Staff (SNAS) database http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/snas