Background to the University Lecturer Development Programme

The Higher Education Leadership and Management Programme (HELM) and Saide (Programme Coordinator) managed the Inception Phase of the University Lecturer Development Programme (ULDP). The purpose of the ULDP was to:·

• Improve teaching and learning across the whole university sector·. 
• Enhance academic knowledge and competencies of teaching and teacher support staff members. 
• Support the development of professional skills and attitudes in research and community engagement.
• Provide opportunities for higher education institutional collaboration and cooperation.

Thereby supporting lecturers to reflect on their current practices and enhance their skills in developing learning engagements, assessment, and research approaches for different modalities, including face-to-face, blended, and fully online teaching. Participants included experts from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), including an expert reference group and master trainers who will lead the future development of academic members at their institutions.

The primary objective of the inception phase was to identify the problems to be addressed to achieve the project's aims and objectives. Saide, supported by a HELM project team, designed and conducted several online interaction workshops, including:

• Induction – to identify participants and to engage with and learn about learning activity-based pedagogical designs, including learning with technology rather than from technology.
• Fundamental principles – to agree on several fundamental principles that underpin the development
• Use Design-Based Research (explained below) to identify problems related to competency outcomes for ULDP participants and develop templates for the future development of appropriate learning material for the ULDP.

Use the (above right) to choose the module you would like to explore.