The winners of the AHSS Digital Learning Awards (2021) were announced at a virtual awards ceremony, hosted by Prof. Jannette Elwood with special guest Prof. David Jones. This event was the culmination of a unique opportunity for AHSS staff to come forward and share just some of the wonderful things they have been doing in the realms of online and digital teaching. Over 60 nominations were received from all Schools in the Faculty and across five different categories. The winners will receive vouchers to put towards professional development, software/hardware purchases or vouchers of their choice.

Philosophy lecturer Joe Morrison and the class taking PHL3001 Issues in the Philosophy of Science have been awarded a Teamwork prize in the inaugural Queen's AHSS Digital Learning Awards.

 

Joe and the students transformed the module using an innovative co-design approach, where every component of the course was discussed and agreed-upon collectively. The Digital Learning Awards committee said: "Using a range of digital tools, this is project was a really effective example of building online community and offering a voice to students in their academic journey.” 

 

Students taking the module responded happily to the news of the award: "This is excellent news! I'm not surprised, this module managed to be very engaging pedagogically in the context of a very difficult time to be a university student. I was very glad to be able to learn so much from others in the class.”

 

Joe said “I’m delighted that the Digital Learning Awards committee, Prof. Jannette Elwood (Dean of Graduate Studies AHSS) and Prof. David Jones (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Students) had the opportunity to see some of the exciting things that Philosophy at Queen's is doing. The students deserve enormous credit; co-creation can be a challenging and nerve-racking process, but they really pulled together and did some amazing work."

 

The prize is for £500, which the class have decided to divide even between themselves as National Book Tokens.

           Joe Morrsion made this short video as part of the entry submission for the awards youtu.be/DL5d8yLzwr0 

Other category winners:

Fiona Clark (Student Engagement) for the redesign of her Level 1 language modules to better engage with a range of online technologies and facilitate and support the move to online delivery (for both staff and students).

Alan Hanna (Innovation) developed a new module to enhance his students’ digital skills. Designed with input from alumni and business professionals, the module makes use of a wide selection of carefully managed online and digital tools to provide Interactivity, enhanced feedback channels and experience using industry standard tools. 

Craig Jackson and Jonny McGuinness (Innovation) researched and implemented processes which allowed music performance students to continue collaborating on creative projects using cutting edge technology; a unique challenge as students were unable to share the same physical space due to the Pandemic. Their patience in training staff and students allowed classes to run autonomously and with great success. 

Alan Maddock’s (Breaking the Comfort Zone) increasing confidence in the realms of digital pedagogies has been evident through excellent student and staff feedback. His 6-Week Mindfulness programme met the specific needs of a discipline, which usually relies on physical cues, role plays and close proximity, through his clever use of digital tools and alternative assessment practices. 

Karen McGivern (Thank a Colleague) has not only enabled her administrative team to deal with moving out of their comfort zone and into an unfamiliar online working environment during a testing time but has embraced the challenge of the Pandemic to enhance and progress the digital proficiency and online communication channels within the School of Law. 

You can access the recording of the AHSS Digital Learning Awards Virtual Ceremony.  Congratulations to everyone involved!