Winners announced for T&L funding scheme

Projects that will explore the use of AI in teaching, build students’ skills and help promote wellbeing are among those that have been awarded funding of up to £2,500 to support their aims. 

The University Teaching & Learning Enhancement Projects (TLEP) scheme offers 'start-up' funding to encourage and enable staff involved in teaching or supporting teaching and learning to experiment and develop practice.

We are delighted to announce that this year, following a competitive application process, 12 awards have been granted to the following projects. Here are the winning projects, along with some information about them from the project leads.

Winning projects

Creating a sustainable wellbeing support journey for apprenticeship students

Andrea Tresidder (Henley Business School)

“We are excited to have been awarded the funding to create and embed a more sustainable wellbeing support journey for apprenticeship students. The resources we create will ensure that our learners are better equipped to deal with the challenges of working and studying, thus, demonstrating Henley’s commitment to improve and protect wellbeing for all of our students.”

Incorporating AI models as tools for learning and practice in the sciences: a coding-based approach

Mauricio Cafiero (School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy)

“Higher education has seen generative AI creep into our classes and assessments over the past few years, and, like calculators or Google in years past, it is likely here to stay. This funding will help us to take more control of how students use generative AI in their modules (and future careers) by teaching them where it works, where it does not work, and how to get the most out of it without cheating themselves out of their education.

“Most importantly this funding will allow us to work with a student to co-develop the material to make sure it is relevant and meaningful to them.”

A Guide to Graduate Medicine and Alternatives to Medicine

Renee Lee and Victoria Godsell (School of Biological Sciences)

“The TLEP funding presents a unique opportunity for us and our partners (students and industry) to improve the employability of our graduates by producing a comprehensive guide to Graduate Medicine and Alternatives to Medicine. Our goal is to develop a resource that will help our aspiring students to navigate the complexities of these roles with confidence and ensure that they are career-ready when they graduate.”

Learning Legal Analysis Skills: An Interactive Teaching and Learning Platform for Non-Law Students

Sau Wai Law (Samuel) (School of Law)

“This project aims to create an interactive self-learning platform for non-law students to navigate and learn the different steps involved in conducting legal analysis at their own pace. We envision this platform will create a new culture to increase engagement, flexibility, and autonomy in teaching and learning. We are thankful for the support from CQSD and excited about the upcoming close collaboration between the School of Law and the University to scale it to a wider community.”

Teaching and assessing critical thinking among international students: Beyond marketing for Internationalisation of higher education

Shabnam Kabiri (School of the Built Environment)

“I am really excited about this project, which aims to path the way for internationalisation, which is not just about marketing to recruit international students, but, more importantly, to adjust the curriculum to facilitate the mastery of skills for all, but particularly for international students. This fund will enable me to develop a new project-based assignment, integrating in-class activities with embedded critical thinking exercises, reflections on the contents produced by ChatGPT in an open way and deep discussions linking the theory with the practices in the students’ own countries.”

Using Digital Simulation to Build a Sense of Belonging in Accounting Foundation Students

Maggie Cooper (Henley Business School)

“I am excited to be able to run a 10 week business simulation with our Accounting Foundation students. I hope that this will build their practical business knowledge and foster a stronger sense of connection and belonging, which will then be reflected in improved engagement with their broader studies.”

Virtual Matters: Integrating Computational Chemistry and Machine Learning into the Chemistry Curriculum

Dr Ricardo Grau-Crespo, Dr Jessica Gusthart and Dr Mauricio Cafiero (School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy)

“The aim of the project is to develop computational exercises that can be seamlessly integrated into the chemistry curriculum. Undergraduate students will not only test these exercises but also play an active role in designing and refining them, ensuring their immediate applicability and effectiveness within the programs. The improved numerical and computational skills will prepare our graduates better for a job market that increasingly values these competencies.”

Enhancing the wellbeing of international students at SPCLS through peer support

Lydia Yee (School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences)

“I will work with Student Partners to organise peer-led support sessions regularly during the academic year where participants can share the challenges they face and their coping strategies. We will also consolidate the challenges identified to create support materials to further promote peer support in the School’s international community. Ultimately, it is hoped that the insights gained from this project will inform good practice in international student peer support across the University.”

Student use of lecture capture: supporting good practice among speech and language therapy students

Mirjana Sokolovic-Perovic and George Pontikas (School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences)

“We are interested in understanding when, why and how much students engage with recorded teaching sessions. We intend to use these insights to develop guidance on good practice for students and staff and initiate a change in practice. Ultimately, we hope that this will help students make the most effective use of these recordings."

Conservation for the Future

Victoria Stevens and Rhi Smith (University Museums and Special Collections Services)

“We are over the moon to be given this opportunity. This project engages students in the world of heritage conservation with the aim of creating a more inclusive future workforce. Student collaborators will co-create video interviews with professional conservators from backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in the sector. The videos will give students careers advice,  basic introductions to the care of different heritage materials and discuss how conservation is addressing issues of sustainability. These will be made available via a university-wide Blackboard organisation, embedded in multiple modules, and shared beyond Reading.”

Educating undergraduate pharmacy students in cultural competence using innovative video vignettes featuring case scenarios

Atta Naqvi, Sam Bizley and Shweta Ghosh (School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy and School of Arts and Communication Design)

"We're excited to start this innovative project, creating video vignettes to boost our MPharm students' cultural competence skills. These vignettes, showing diverse interactions between healthcare professionals and patients, respond directly to student calls for more practical learning tools. By embedding these videos in pharmacy curriculum, we not only meet NHS and GPhC standards for equality, diversity, and inclusion but also position the University as a leader in culturally aware healthcare education."

Early clinical experiences in Speech and Language Therapy: Codeveloping an evidence-based programme of early clinical skills teaching

Sarah Wagstaff, Milly Heelan, Afshan O’Sullivan and Joe Spackman (School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences)

“We are very excited to work alongside students to understand how experiences through clinical placements – remotely, in community groups and  in the wider community - contribute to developing early clinical skills for our Speech and Language Therapy students. We hope students will be able to evaluate their experiences and suggest ways of improving our current offering to enrich their pre-registration skills training”