Write Now

2. Write Now • Five-year HEFCE-funded Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning • Collaboration between London Metropolitan, Liverpool Hope, and Aston Universities • To promote excellence in writing for assessment across disciplines • Comprehensive programme of development, research and evaluation, and dissemination of good practice • Developed from successful psychology-based FDTL4 Assessment Plus project on using assessment criteria to support student learning

3. Aims • To improve student achievement and enrich students’ learning experiences by facilitating them to become confident and successful writers • To develop innovative, evidence-based provision focussed on writing for assessment • To conduct pedagogical research to underpin the practice of the Centre, including key areas of development, evaluation and dissemination • To disseminate and embed in partner institutions and across the sector

4. Writing Centres Undergraduate writing coaches Working with staff to promote writing in curriculum design Assessment guidance packages Personalised student websites Workshop programmes for students and staff Induction resources MSc in Student Assessment Student focus groups and forums Pedagogical research Activities

5. Writing Centres at London Met and Liverpool Hope • Writing coaches • Individual consultations • Peer-support groups • Master classes • Online and hard-copy resources • Personalised student websites

6. Student Writing Coaches • Paid student mentors, linked to specific subjects • London Met: Psychology, Humanities and Film, Design • Liverpool Hope: Psychology, Law, English Language, Special Needs Education • Aim of the scheme: • To assist students in the improvement of their writingand in gaining confidence as writers and as participants in the discourse of their academic disciplines

7. MSc Student Assessment • Modular, research-based course exploring assessment issues in depth • Flexible, e-learning approach with short residential sessions • Full-time, part-time, short course options • Enrolment for individual modules, with intermediate exits of PGCert and PGDip • APEL for PGCert in TLHE • Designed for educators and staff developers in FE and HE, in the UK and abroad, including external examiners and those responsible for managing assessment

8. MSc Student Assessment – Course Aims • The MSc aims to provide: • A systematic understanding and critical awareness of current issues and new insights in the field of student assessment • A clear understanding of why particular assessment practices are adopted and maintained, and why change can be hard to implement • A critical analysis and evaluation of a range of assessment techniques for effective student learning to enable you to design and apply those most appropriate in a given context • Conceptual understanding that enables you to evaluate current research and advanced scholarship • A critical analysis and evaluation of techniques applicable to your own research or advanced scholarship, to enable you to carry out and publish pedagogical research related to your own practice

9. Write Now Research • Symbiotic relationship between evaluation and research at the core of Write Now CETL activities, through: • Action research • Qualitative & quantitative measures of efficacy of writing interventions • Student participation in study designs • Large-scale research project: • New lecturers’ perceptions, beliefs and approaches to assessment, marking and feedback • HEA project: • Staff and student perceptions of the quality of feedback on assignments in large UG courses • Mini-research projects and PhD studentships • Biddable funding and competitive awards

10. Contact details • Dr Katherine Harrington, CETL Director k.harrington@londonmet.ac.uk • Chris Beaumont, CETL Deputy Director beaumoc@hope.ac.uk • Dr Katerina Koutsantoni, CETL Administrator k.koutsantoni@londonmet.ac.uk • Information on Write Now will be available soon at: www.writenow.ac.uk