Laura Sbaffi (Unfair Means Officer) and Skye Xin Zhao (Introductory Tasks Lead) are the winners of the University of Sheffield 2022 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Learning and Teaching for the Digital Innovation category. The Vice-Chancellor’s Award is a prestigious and highly competitive award that is designed to encourage, promote and celebrate good practice across the university. As a department, we are very proud to have our staff members winning this award.
The award has been awarded in recognition of a suite of resources and support developed since 2020 to support students’ academic transitions and enhance their understanding of Academic Integrity-related concepts, policies, and practices. The resources are a key part of the Information School’s early intervention strategy to provide positive and proactive, and sustained support to students in their academic work.
Engaging students as partners, Laura and Skye have developed an online module incorporating a suite of interactive resources based on student feedback and supported by the University of Sheffield's digital learning team. These interactive and inclusive resources include introductory videos about the student handbook, Academic Integrity concepts, and extenuating circumstances information; gamified scenario quizzes on Academic Integrity, an online booklet on Academic Integrity with examples and cartoon illustrations, and a FAQ document. A series of four synchronous online sessions are also offered to students throughout the academic year and delivered by Laura and Skye. The sessions are student-led, covering topics suggested by students via online polls to inform the design and content of each session. Student evaluation has been highly positive on a yearly basis. Student feedback has been used to enhance the module to provide sustained and tailored support to the students.
The design principles, implementation approaches, and evaluation results of the online resources have been shared widely with colleagues across the University of Sheffield, including at Telfest, in presentations to ELTC and SCHARR staff, and in an Elevate blog. Laura and Skye have also presented their work at the Advance HE annual Learning and Teaching Conference and are now working on developing a video game for students on unfair means principles and common pitfalls.
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