Keeping the Door Open: Curating, developing and evolving University of Edinburgh teaching in spaces and places within the city and beyond

School:  Moray House School of Education and Sport

Team Members: Robbie Nicol, Beth Christie, Dave Clarke, Catherine Dunn, Peter Higgins, Heidi Smith

Abstract

Given the pandemic, it might be ‘easy’ for University education to focus on online space as a solution to social distancing and other constraints. However, it is important that we continue to consider the potential that different spaces offer for learning: indoors, outdoors and online.

This project is designed to purposefully integrate these three contexts into an extended model of hybridity (see Hybrid Exchange). Our intention in ‘keeping the door open’ is to promote innovation by maximising creative teaching opportunities in accessible places and spaces. We will focus on how aspects of courses and programmes can be mobilised differently to; first, meet the very specific challenges we are facing this year; and second, offer a sustainable way through the Covid emergency. Our purpose is to capture the known, but also potential, places and spaces for teaching across the campus estate and the City of Edinburgh. This will become a living database for students (potential and on programme), staff (to stimulate innovative pedagogy), and community (to develop future partnerships and knowledge exchange), and to support the University of Edinburgh to realise our ambitions related to the curriculum review, learning and teaching affordances off-campus, and in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We need a project co-ordinator to help curate this information into, for example, ‘Digimap’ and liaise with the co-applicants and EDINA who will provide geo-spatial mapping expertise.

Abstract

Final Project Report (PDF) - download now