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This case study of large-class teaching at a UK university focuses on the place of large-scale lectures in academics’ approaches to teaching, their use by students in their studies, and their relationship to institutional quality assurance policies. The case is a second-year module comprised of 180 students, and it includes two-hour lectures as the primary mode of teaching. The data is drawn from a range of sources including observations, interviews, focus groups, institutional documentation, and a student survey. Observations revealed largely transmissive lectures with little student interaction. The analytic framework of constructive alignment and outcome-based education is used to examine the promoted educational values and the practice experienced by students. The results are further explored in relation to two texts celebrating 50 years since publication: Donald Bligh’s What’s the Use of Lectures and Benson Snyder’s The Hidden Curriculum, Both highlight the dissonance of espoused approaches to teaching, and the realities of large-class environments. While the institutional literature foregrounds student-centred, ‘active learning’ approaches, the teacher-centred practice observed would have been very familiar to Bligh and Snyder; the principles of constructive alignment were visible only at the policy level. The implicit reward mechanisms of the hidden curriculum ensure that the majority of students succeed and are satisfied with the educational offering. The students who attended the lectures appeared to enjoy them and indicated that the primary benefits are the structure offered by live lectures and the support of the peer networks which develop as a result of attendance.

Observational studies suggest that the quality and quantity of notes taken during lectures may have limited impact on long-term conceptual understanding and learning outcomes, while the revision and review process may play a more significant role. [...]the paper suggests that a shift in focus from student notetaking to the lecture itself may be necessary. Echoing those of natural science, even biology, where early research was observational, there was then (and is still) a great deal of experimental research, but now there is an acknowledgement that individual biological components can behave in unexpected ways when combined into complex systems. To be able to claim causality the researchers had to control for as many extraneous influences as possible. [...]the majority of this experimental research required that the students take part in lectures on subjects with which they were not familiar, so as not to taint the data with any previous knowledge that individual students may have had.

The impact of lecture recordings on HE student approaches to learning Note-taking as a study-skill amongst students in Higher Education (HE) is acknowledged as a fundamental component of academic success. Intrinsic factors such as cognitive capacity, motivation and epistemological beliefs effect note-taking quantity and quality (e.g. Kiewra, 1985). However, this study looks at the extrinsic influences of the provision of lecture recordings and lecture slides. There is little published research into the impact of lecture recordings on student approaches to note-taking during lectures, although, previous studies have suggested that that the ubiquitous availability of lecture slides has a material effect on the quantity of notes-taken during lectures (Loughlin, 2015). This ongoing mixed methodology study set out to observe the influence that the availability of lecture recordings has on: student note-taking practices, revision strategies and learning outcomes. Students at a Higher Education Institution in the UK were observed during twelve, two-hour long, lectures. These lectures were recorded, and the recordings made available to students on the VLE later the same day. The whole Cohort were asked to complete an online. The usage data from the lecture recordings were then analysed and compared with student notetaking practices and module test scores. Early results from this pilot study indicate, predictably, that lecture recordings are accessed predominantly just after the lecture itself and again during revision periods. The availability of lecture recordings appears to have less of an impact on approaches to studying than the availability of lecture slides. However, the combined effect on note-taking during the lecture itself is considerable, and it is these student behaviours, which are the result of emerging technologies, that will be discussed in this paper.

This study looks at academics' perceptions of, and attitudes to, educational technologies in the context of the intrinsic and extrinsic barriers to adoption which confront them. Academic and support staff at a university in the south of England were surveyed, in part, to establish the reasons given by staff for non-engagement with Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). What emerged was a mismatch between self-reported barriers and the reality of abilities demonstrated in other areas, for instance the personal use of social media. Our study findings were consistent with those such as, Reed (2014) and Bertolo, (2008), which have indicated that staff cited 'lack of time', 'lack of equipment' and a 'lack of skills' for the failure of educational technologies to act as the transformational tool that many educators believe them capable. Yet, those same staff, in other sections of the survey, indicated far greater technical competency than would be required for most TEL initiatives. While this dissonance resonates strongly with Ertmer's (1999) work on first- and second-order barriers to the adoption of new technology amongst practitioners, we also noted a more active resistance which appears to be linked to resentment of the perceived institutional imposition of new technology, combined with professional performance metrics which fail to reward innovation in learning and teaching. We also found evidence to support the idea of a Slow Revolution (Drucker, 1999) in technology enhanced learning, wherein technology is becoming embedded in teaching practice over a number of years, often long after the hype of its original introduction and expected overnight impact. In light of these findings we discuss ways in which institutions might embrace the Slow Revolution, while at the same time attempting to address the second order barriers which hinder progress.

It has been acknowledged that the traditional didactic lecture does not always provide the ideal learning and teaching experience (Bligh, 1998). Over the last ten years, individuals and institutions have been exploring the pedagogical possibilities of providing more active and engaging alternatives. One model in particular has been influential in sparking change. The use of Active Learning Spaces (ALS) combined with team-based learning (Fink, Michaelsen & Knight, 2004) has been successfully used in initiatives such as TEAL (Technology Enhanced Active Learning) and SCALE-UP (Baepler, Brooks & Walker, 2014). This approach has proved popular in North America, and has attracted growing interest in the UK. The key benefits demonstrated have been improvements in: class attendance; retention rates; levels of conceptual understanding; pace of learning (Beichner, Saul, Abbott, et al., 2007). This ongoing comparative study set out to establish the key drivers and barriers to the development of ALS and the future landscape for classroom pedagogies that are being adopted within these innovative spaces. A mixed methodology has been adopted to triangulate the needs, expectations and opinions of three key stakeholders: students, academics, and policy makers. A series of focus group interviews were conducted with students and lecturers, and an online questionnaire completed by senior managers representing a range of UK Higher Education Institutions. The analysis of the results so far point to a burgeoning awareness amongst students and staff of the positive educational impact of newer pedagogies such as the 'flipped classroom' and 'inquiry based learning', alongside an intensifying impatience with the status quo. From the institutional perspective, aside from the financial implications, a formidable hurdle is the pressure on physical space, and thus, room occupancy rates. ALS typically reduce room occupancy by 25-30%, however previous studies have indicated attendance at lectures rarely exceed 60% of the cohort (Dobkin, Gil & Marion, 2007), and a recent evaluation of learning spaces at one HEI demonstrated a room utilization rate of just 27%. There is now a clear rationale for the creation of teaching spaces that effectively support technology enhanced pedagogies which attract, engage and retain students across the whole academic cycle. In this paper we will discuss the current results of our study in relation to critical questions around ALS and the flipped classroom, and more broadly the strategic decisions around estate management versus the demands and expectations of students and staff.

In 2010 the Mozilla Foundation established the Digital Open Badges concept as a virtual incarnation of physical counterparts such as a paper certificate or a youth organisation merit badge. Digital Open Badges offer embedded, verifiable, metadata containing information such as the issuer and award criteria. Open Badges can be used to reward learning, participation or achievement. They can be stored in various online environments, including the Mozilla 'Backpack' and social media platforms. Open Badges have been used to evidence informal learning, professional development, community and voluntary work. This study is part of an ongoing project at a UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) to evaluate the potential of awarding Digital Open Badges in different contexts across the institution. It was decided to trial Open Badges on a programme run by Learning Development staff in the Library to support high achieving students, acknowledging and rewarding soft-skills acquired as part of the programme. Central to the success of the scheme was 'buy-in' from the students themselves; in order that the Open Badges had meaning and value to the recipients, a Participatory Design approach was adopted to engage students in the development process. Participatory Design is an iterative methodology that 'attempts to examine the tacit, invisible aspects of human activity' (Spinuzzi, 2005, p. 164) and incorporates them into co-produced systems. Soft-skills are an important complement to formal education in the 21st Century workplace (Devedzic et al., 2015). Measuring and rewarding 'soft-skills' such as; critical thinking, communication, leadership and team-working, has proved problematic in the past. Key objectives were to establish a set of soft-skills metrics and, a sustainable approach to acknowledging the acquisition of those skills. This presentation will discuss the outcomes from the study, including an assessment of the sustainability of Open Badges as a mechanism for rewarding soft-skills acquisition in an informal setting.

To date, genome-wide association studies have implicated at least 35 loci in osteoarthritis but, due to linkage disequilibrium, the specific variants underlying these associations and the mechanisms by which they contribute to disease risk have yet to be pinpointed. Here, we functionally test 1,605 single nucleotide variants associated with osteoarthritis for regulatory activity using a massively parallel reporter assay. We identify six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with differential regulatory activity between the major and minor alleles. We show that the most significant SNP, rs4730222, exhibits differential nuclear protein binding in electrophoretic mobility shift assays and drives increased expression of an alternative isoform of HBP1 in a heterozygote chondrosarcoma cell line, in a CRISPR-edited osteosarcoma cell line, and in chondrocytes derived from osteoarthritis patients. This study provides a framework for prioritization of GWAS variants and highlights a role of HBP1 and Wnt signaling in osteoarthritis pathogenesis. GWAS have identified risk loci for osteoarthritis (OA), but the causal variants still have to be determined. Here, the authors apply a massively-parallel reporter assay to screen 1,605 candidate SNPs in 35 OA loci, which prioritizes six SNPs in four loci, one of which, rs4730222, is characterized in more detail.

Background Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common disease of older individuals that impacts detrimentally on the quality and the length of life. It is characterised by the painful loss of articular cartilage and is polygenic and multifactorial. Genome-wide association scans have highlighted over 90 osteoarthritis genetic signals, some of which reside within or close to highly plausible candidate genes. An example is an association to polymorphisms within and adjacent to the matrix Gla protein gene MGP . We set out to undertake a functional study of this gene. Methods Nucleic acid was extracted from cartilage, infrapatellar fat pad, synovium, trabecular bone, trapezium and peripheral whole blood from OA patients and also from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) subjected to chondrogenesis. Expression of MGP was measured by quantitative PCR (qPCR), RNA-sequencing and allelic expression imbalance (AEI) analysis. Matrix Gla protein was depleted in chondrocytes by knocking down MGP expression using RNA interference (RNAi) and the effect on a range of genes assessed by qPCR. Results MGP is expressed in joint tissues, blood and chondrocytes cultured from MSCs. There is a higher expression in diseased versus non-diseased cartilage. Polymorphisms that are associated with OA also correlate with the expression of MGP , with the OA risk-conferring allele showing significantly reduced expression in cartilage, fat pad and synovium but increased expression in blood. Depletion of Matrix Gla protein had a significant effect on the majority of genes tested, with an increased expression of catabolic genes that encode enzymes that degrade cartilage. Conclusions MGP expression is subject to cis -acting regulators that correlate with the OA association signal. These are active in a range of joint tissues but have effects which are particularly strong in cartilage. An opposite effect is observed in blood, highlighting the context-specific nature of the regulation of this gene’s expression. Recapitulation of the genetic deficit in cartilage chondrocytes is pro-catabolic.