Sunday 12 December 2010

Tuesday 7 December 2010

HEA Consulation

I have been asked as a DMU Teacher Fellow to look at the HEA

UK Professional Standards Framework


http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/universitiesandcolleges/accreditation/ukpsf-consultation

Thoughts to follow...

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Supporting students

Excellent link for staff in higher education establishments and universities who currently, or who may in the future, support students with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism (HFA). It is relevant for all staff, but in particular for lecturers, tutors, disability officers or co-ordinators and careers staff.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

“Understanding the Thorny Topic of Policy Success”

The Department of Public Policy in the Faculty of Business and Law is pleased to announce the second of its 2010/11 seminar programme. The seminar is presented by Professor Allan McConnell, University of Strathclyde. The title of the paper is: “Understanding the Thorny Topic of Policy Success”

Review to follow....

Sunday 17 October 2010

Vision cafe - lmdp

As a table host for the dmu vision series I gained an amazing insight into the passion and engagement of dmu staff.

Friday 8 October 2010

Teacher Fellow 1

Plagiarism Questionnaire
Cohort:
• Foundation degree students (n=14)
• No recent education
• Had not received any formal training or advice on plagiarism
Observations
• All were able to provide a suitable definition of plagiarism
• Although the students spend part of their time at partner colleges all knew they were subject to DMU rules.
• 4 out 14 actively use cutting and pasting text from the internet to create a draft piece of work.
• Without knowing the tariffs for plagiarism, all suggested similar penalties to the actual ones for first and second offences

Wednesday 6 October 2010

BIOM2005 Cell culture series

BIOM2005 / BIOM2905

Cell and tissue handling techniques Lectures Series

Syllabus:

· Sterilisation methods and aseptic technique

· Media requirements

· Culture and maintenance

· Passage of cells

· Application of cell culture

Learning outcomes:

By the end of the series you should be able to answer questions on:

· How to buy and maintain cells in a sterile environment.

· How to freeze and thaw cells

· List some real examples of applications

· Discuss primary cells, immortal lines and co-culture

· Think about some problems that will cause strange results

· Be able to understand the terminology of a simple cell culture protocol

· What are the limitations of non-human cells such as hepa 1c1c7 cells

Learning method

The lecture series will be a blended mix based on media clips; these can be found on my blog , and directed comments from Dr Basten. During the lecture we will then pause the clips and discuss what we see and have time to write down the key points.

Answering the exam questions

The best advice is to try to answer the learning outcomes by listing bullet points and then expanding to half A4 of writing and half drawings, then check this against the clips and comments made in the lecture.

ECCAC Tutorial

Watch the ScreenR ECCAC Cast. Have a go yourself and then answer the following:

1. What organs are HepG2 and Caco2 cells from and why would this be important in metabolic studies?

Still not sure about something?

1. Ask your friends, watch the clips again and make notes. Try to answer the learning outcome questions. I will be happy to read any material you produce just e-mail me your work directly.

2. Don’t be tempted to hit Wikipedia and the internet. There is an enormous amount of material on cell culture available; to streamline the learning the clips and comments have been specifically chosen.

3. Please attend the tutorial and then finally do contact Dr Basten to discuss any problems you are still having about issues you don’t understand.

Feedback

Please do let me know if you have enjoyed this learning style or indeed how this can be improved.

Learning styles

The blended mix of this written anchor of learning outcomes, video clips of the basics, and research papers should be accessible to different learning styles. This PowerPoint free method won’t therefore come with any formal lecture notes as the clips can be re-visited. I am happy to liaise with note takers or if you have any dyslexic requirements.

Dr Basten's Text Books

I have written two textbooks, one on Clinical Chemistry and one of Scientific Projects.

They are free to download at:

http://bookboon.com/int/student/biochemical/introduction-to-clinical-biochemistry
http://bookboon.com/int/student/biochemical/introduction-to-scientific-research-projects

Saturday 2 October 2010

Wednesday 22 September 2010

BB Walkthrough User Enroll

I was going to create a video cast of how to enrol a user without knowing their user name. However, since BB contains so much personal information, I couldn’t.


So instead here is an audio clip!


Student APO Newsletter

School of Allied Health Sciences

Student APO Newsletter

What is an Academic Practice Officer (APO)?

A person in the School who hears cases of bad academic practice and academic offences.

The APO for our School is Graham Basten (Associate Head).

Protecting your marks: The APO will also ensure that all cases are dealt with fairly across the School. If you receive a piece of assessed work that has had it's mark reduced but you did not have an e-mail from the APO or an APO hearing, then please contact the APO as soon as possible as your work can only be reduced in mark by recommendation by the APO.


What is the Academic Offences Panel (AOP)?

If the case is too serious to be heard by an APO they will go a panel – the penalties from the panel are generally much greater than that given from an APO

Where are the rules?

It is really important that you read the rules about bad academic practice and academic offences as these could have serious implications on your study:

What is Bad Academic Practice?

• Please follow this link for details Bad Academic Practice


What is an Academic Offence?

• Please follow this link for details Academic Offences

What are the penalties from an APO?

This link explains the penalties you can expect (chapter 4): DMU Registrar

What is turnitin?

Turnitin is a software that checks your submitted work against all known work for similarities.

Self help courses:

If you are still unsure the following are excellent resources:

http://skills.library.leeds.ac.uk/tutorials/plagiarism_tutorial/

http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/resources/good-practice-guide

The following information is provided by the Clinical Sciences Library Officer Paul Cavanagh:

What should be referenced?:

You must acknowledge and credit the work of another individual or organisation used within your assignments, including:

• Published material, either in print or online, e.g.

– Books

– Articles in journals

– Information on websites

• Non-written works, e.g.

– Presentations and lecture notes – use with caution! Use published information where possible

• Other people’s work, e.g.

– The work of other DMU students, students at another institution or contracted third parties

For more information, please see the How To Avoid Plagiarism guide





For the avoiding plagiarism information, I’ve distinguished between accidental or unintentional plagiarism (where sources haven’t been cited or referenced properly) and deliberate and intentional plagiarism (where sources have deliberately been presented as the author’s own ideas).



Avoiding plagiarism and bad academic practice:

• “Plagiarism can be defined as the significant use of other people's work and the submission of it as though it were one's own in assessed coursework”

– “Bad Academic Practice can be:

– Accidental: low level duplication without citation for example errors made through carelessness or misunderstanding

– Deliberate: the passing off of ideas, data or other information as if originally discovered by the student.”

Taken from DMU Academic Regulations

DMU Vision

I have been invited to play a part in the consultation process for the new DMU vision. A number of world café events will be held next month to give colleagues across the university an opportunity to contribute. Each event will be introduced by either the VC, Professor Dominic Shellard, or Professor David Wilson. Another senior member of staff will act as MC.

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Research informed teaching

I've been asked to think about how my teaching is research informed. Here are some of my thoughts:

Graham Basten

Research area informs the academic curriculum:

1. Statement(s) on how your research influences the academic curriculum.

· All my teaching (see 2 and 3) is research informed and the subject content and outcomes at module and programme level are based on this.

2. List relevant programmes:

  • BSc Biomedical Science
  • BSc Medical Science
  • FD Healthcare Science
  • MPharm

3. List (main) relevant module titles and levels

  • BIOM 1006 Cell Biology
  • BIOM 2002 Disease Processes
  • BIOM 3001 Clinical Chemistry
  • BIOM3006 Honours Project (Module Leader)
  • Module 4584 on clinical nutrition (4rth yr pharmacy)

Research informs teaching:

1. Brief statement(s)/examples on how your research influences the teaching process (the way you teach).

  • Linking level 4,5,6 modules with a growing understanding of research, for example in level 4 we would learn how to do a literature search, level 5 critique, and level 6 design and plan work.

2. Brief statement(s) on how your research determines the fine details (as opposed to academic curriculum) of what is taught, and extent of this; it would be useful to have some examples.

  • BIOM2005: Cell Culture. At the start of the lecture series the students are given the learning outcomes, and in addition to “information” transferred by didactic lectures, these lectures also contain video clips and we review of my peer reviewed published manuscripts on cell culture, nutrition and cancer models. Over the series of lectures we refer back to the paper and debunk the complex words and phrases until the students can understand the paper. We then go on to discuss the limitations of the paper, for example the cells are already cancer cells, and invite students to then search for more papers. I believe that this gives considerable value to simple didactic lectures; it gives insight to an actual applied use of the knowledge and allows motivated students to go on and learn in more depth. This model is also used in BIOM3001and BIOM2002 where I use my folate, cancer and CVD work and papers to explain complex clinical chemistry learning outcomes.
  • Interactive lectures, i.e. in which the students use Wikipedia to determine sound data
  • Lectures where students bring the latest research to discuss
  • As stated using research to add colour and depth to lectures
  • Using the latest research to explain key learning outcomes, works well in a seminar or tutorial setting as it brings a boring outcome to life as someone has done it.
  • In BIOM3006 projects allowing students at level 5 to develop research ideas and suggest there own projects. Assessing the students via a mock research conference.
  • Maintaining an academic and research Blog

I’d be happy to discuss any of these in further detail.

Thursday 19 August 2010

Plagarism Tool

This was sent to me by Nick Allsop (DMU) and is from Leeds University

http://skills.library.leeds.ac.uk/tutorials/plagiarism_tutorial/

It may be of use to students,

Monday 2 August 2010

Great Student Feedback

Really great to get feedback like this from students, although clearly room for improvement as I only inspired "most" ;-) :

"Hope you're well and enjoying the summer.


It was really nice to see you on the Graduation day. I hope you had a good time.

I just wanted to send you a quick email to thank you for all your help over the years. It was pleasant being taught by you. I believe you are an excellent teacher and you have inspired most of us. I really appreciate all your hard work and effort.

Once again thank you sir."



Tuesday 27 July 2010

Stress Assessment

I'm part of the HLS academic stress assessment team. Today I'm attending the following:

If anyone, staff or student is feeling the effects of stress please do contact me for guidance.

Introduction to the issue of work-related stress

Overview

This qualification raises awareness of the likely sources of work-related stress. It is aimed at general workers and also serves as an introduction to the issue for more senior staff. The qualification will enable employees to contribute to strategies which combat work-related stress.

Outline programme

The qualification covers the following topics:

  • Definitions of stress
  • Stress as an occupational health hazard
  • Identification of basic workplace stressors
  • Development of basic controls for work-related stressors
  • Responsibilities imposed under UK legislation

Tuesday 20 July 2010

DoH Modernising Scientific Careers

I've been asked to join the MSC reference group from a University Alliance perspective for the NHS Employers.

Monday 19 July 2010

Plagarism workshop

Although developed by Leicester University, this OER is a great walkthrough for AHS DMU students

Thursday 8 July 2010

http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

Wednesday 7 July 2010

My PBworks

I am now a member of the PBworks library DMU learning wiki

https://my.pbworks.com/

Thursday 17 June 2010

Plagarism Site

A good site sent to me via Douglas Gray.

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Plagarism You Tube Clip

This an excellent film about plagiarism, sent to me by Nick Allsop and is from the University of Bergin

Friday 11 June 2010

Walkthrough of dietary analysis for my students

In this blog entry I have included a video clip and links to help my students manage their time and learn the basics needed to collect, handle and analyse dietary data obtained as part of their undergraduate projects.

The video below describes how to collect the data and use McCance and Widdowson (avalible from DMU library) to collate the data.





The following links show:
  1. How to input the data obtained in the video into excel.
  2. How to transfer the excel data to SPSS
  3. How to use SPSS to look for correlations
  4. How to use SPSS to look for significant differences

Tuesday 4 May 2010

Plagarism

The following information is provided by the Clinical Sciences Library Officer Paul Cavanagh:

What should be referenced?:

You must acknowledge and credit the work of another individual or organisation used within your assignments, including:

• Published material, either in print or online, e.g.

– Books

– Articles in journals

– Information on websites

• Non-written works, e.g.

– Presentations and lecture notes – use with caution! Use published information where possible

• Other people’s work, e.g.

– The work of other DMU students, students at another institution or contracted third parties

For more information, please see the How To Avoid Plagiarism guide





For the avoiding plagiarism information, I’ve distinguished between accidental or unintentional plagiarism (where sources haven’t been cited or referenced properly) and deliberate and intentional plagiarism (where sources have deliberately been presented as the author’s own ideas).



Avoiding plagiarism and bad academic practice:

• “Plagiarism can be defined as the significant use of other people's work and the submission of it as though it were one's own in assessed coursework”

– “Bad Academic Practice can be:

– Accidental: low level duplication without citation for example errors made through carelessness or misunderstanding

– Deliberate: the passing off of ideas, data or other information as if originally discovered by the student.”

Taken from DMU Academic Regulations -

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Regulations for Undergarduate Awards

My DMU students...

Ever wondered what regulations we use, you should read the following link.

It is very important that you read section 2.3.3 about late work

Friday 19 February 2010

Grade Descriptors

My Students,

If you wondered what the % actually means on your marked work along with the feedback take a look at the DMU link.

Saturday 30 January 2010

Support for students

The following site has useful links and resources for students.

Friday 8 January 2010

Free book on cancer biology and SPSS

This site contains free PDF books on Cancer Biology and SPSS, really useful to second and third year students.