Teaching and Learning Showcase 2026

Sessions for 2026 will be focused around Partnerships
Teaching and Learning Showcase 2026

Teaching and Learning Showcase 2026

Sessions for 2026 will be focused around Partnerships

  • Babbage Building, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA

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Join us for the Teaching and Learning Showcase 2026 being held at Babbage Building, University of Plymouth on Tuesday 30 June. Registration is open from 09.30 for a 10.15 start.
Following the success of the event in previous years, we are excited that sessions for 2026 will be focused around the theme of Partnerships including:
  • Employers as partners
  • Education providers as partners
  • Students as partners
  • Community/general public as partners
  • Education technology as partners
A combination of workshops, interactive stands, 10-minute soapbox talks and posters (full details available below) will enable staff from the University of Plymouth and its partners to network and learn about how different areas work with partners, as well as how they innovate in teaching and learning. 
There will also be an opportunity for attendees to tour some of the innovative teaching spaces within the Faculty of Health.
Please check out the website below for further information.
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R Register your place to attend

 

Event Venue

The event take will take place in our new state of the art Babbage Building which is located on the University of Plymouth campus and in close proximity to the city centre and Plymouth Train Station. See information below 
Babbage Building, University of Plymouth
 
Programme
Tuesday 30th June 2026 - Babbage Building, University of Plymouth
09:30 - 10:15 | Arrival, registration, networking, stands/posters and refreshments
10:15 - 11:25 | Welcome from Professor John Curnow, and panel session - The University and employers working in partnership 
11:35 - 12:45 | Morning workshops (choose 1 from the below)
12:45 - 13:45 | Lunch, networking/stands, posters, soapbox talks
13:45 - 14:55 | Afternoon workshops (choose 1 from the below)
15:00 - 16:00 | Optional tours of Faculty of Health Facilities (further details below)

Morning Workshops

Session A: Transformation, Tool or Threat? AI Integration and the Future of Academic Professional Practice
Ben Sui, Becky Turner, Hannah Miles and Christie Pritchard
Generative AI (Gen AI) is rapidly reshaping teaching, learning, and assessment across higher education, and students and staff at the University of Plymouth are taking an active role in this discussion.  Students are exploring the potentially tricky balancing act of drawing on AI to support their learning, aiding them in managing their time, prepare revision materials, whilst also being mindful of the risk of over relying on Gen AI. Equally many lecturers are actively innovating, integrating Gen AI in student learning and assessment activities. This workshop will feature examples of current integration of Gen AI within lecturer’s practice - showcasing how staff are creating opportunities to critically engage with Gen AI and reflect on the implications for student learning.  

Session B: 'From Pathways to Partnerships: Designing Inclusive Skills Escalators for the South West
Dr Elizabeth J Done, Prof Verity Campbell-Barr and Dr Victoria Bamsey
How can regional partnerships design progression pathways that learners can realistically step onto and along? This hands‑on workshop explores inclusive Skills Escalators that are co‑designed with partners, and include practical actions to remove barriers to progression into work and higher-level learning.

Session C: Diverse placement models - preparing students for practice
Bradley Halliday, Christie Robinson, Danielle Munford, Shona Crick 
Discover how diverse placement models can enhance learning, increase capacity, and strengthen partnerships between education and practice. This workshop showcases three approaches spanning clinical, academic, and sustainability contexts, highlighting their impact on student learning and service delivery. You will reflect on opportunities and challenges of each and consider how these models could be adapted within your own setting.

Session D: From Research to Curriculum: The SPARC Framework for Scenario-Based Learning
Dr Jonathan Rhodes
Academics often build valuable external partnerships through research collaborations, but translating those insights into meaningful learning experiences for students can be challenging. This session introduces the SPARC Framework (Scenario Learning, Partnership, Application, Reflection, Curriculum), demonstrating how research and partnerships in defence, sport, business, and sustainability, can be translated into engaging, scenario-based teaching.

Session E: Are you being (ob)served? Reframing the Peer Review Scheme at the University of Plymouth
Dr Helen Bowstead, Dr Oliver Webb
Help shape the peer review (peer observation) process at the University of Plymouth! In this session, participants will have the opportunity to evaluate a range of peer review/peer observation models with the aim of creating a working blueprint for a developmental framework that supports and celebrates best practice in teaching and learning.

Session F: Supporting employability through students as partners: Learning Support, Careers, Curriculum
Victoria Squire, Catherine Hine, Molly Walters, Carli-Ann Wilcott and Sarah Plunkett
This workshop will explore different initiatives to engage students as partners. With a focus on supporting employability, we will consider individual learning support, integration of careers in modules and curriculum design. Participants will be invited to consider current practice and how they may be able to utilise initiatives from across the university to improve student experience and outcomes.
 

Afternoon Workshops

Session G: Transformation, Tool or Threat? AI Integration and the Future of Academic Professional Practice
Ben Sui, Becky Turner, Hannah Miles and Christie Pritchard
Generative AI (Gen AI) is rapidly reshaping teaching, learning, and assessment across higher education, and students and staff at the University of Plymouth are taking an active role in this discussion.  Students are exploring the potentially tricky balancing act of drawing on AI to support their learning, aiding them in managing their time, prepare revision materials, whilst also being mindful of the risk of over relying on Gen AI. Equally many lecturers are actively innovating, integrating Gen AI in student learning and assessment activities. This workshop will feature examples of current integration of Gen AI within lecturer’s practice - showcasing how staff are creating opportunities to critically engage with Gen AI and reflect on the implications for student learning.  

Session H: How can games help? Working in partnership to promote community and student learning around the climate and nature emergency
Danielle Munford, Prof Hilary Neve, Annie Mitchell, Geraldine James
We know that students and the public are concerned about the climate and nature emergency, yet vary considerably in their understandings of this.  In this interactive workshop participants will try out and discuss a variety of climate games designed to promote learning, engage learners and offer opportunities for action and hope. Could you use or adapt these in your setting? Come and share your experiences, thoughts and ideas!

Session I: Education providers as partners: Innovative models, seamless pathways, and collaborative ecosystems
Dr Bryan Mills, Victoria Squire, Dr Tamal Barman and Marianne Readman
This workshop draws on four academics experience of working with multiple educational partners over many decades. Drawing on this as a basis, we will explore what makes an effective external partnership, methods of facilitating co-creation, and how stronger and more mutually beneficial relationships are built. 

Session J: Designing with, not for: practical tools for reciprocal international teaching partnerships
Michael Dillon, Julie Swain, Bogdan Ghita
This interactive workshop explores how international teaching and learning partnerships can be designed with partners rather than for them. Drawing on examples of co-designed interdisciplinary workshops in India, and a recent hackathon involving students from Plymouth, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia, participants will examine assumptions about expertise, power, and mutual benefit, before developing their own early-stage partnership idea using a practical design framework. The session is aimed at colleagues interested in creating more reciprocal, context-sensitive, and educationally meaningful partnerships.

Session K: Split session: Integrating Lived Experience into the University Curriculum
Jess Otter
This interactive workshop explores the value of embedding lived experience within the University curriculum. Through the perspective of a young person sharing insights into life alongside a sibling with complex needs, participants will gain a powerful, first-hand understanding of how personal narratives can enrich learning. Showcasing teaching already delivered within SNAM, the session will demonstrate the impact of lived experience in practice. Attendees will be invited to reflect on its benefits, consider its relevance across different disciplines, and explore how similar approaches might be applied within their own areas of teaching.

Session K: Split session: Integrating Lived Experience into the University Curriculum
Christie Pritchard and Matthew Watkinson
This session explores the emerging partnership between the University of Plymouth and the Met Office to design an innovative skills escalator for foundational operational meteorologist roles. The session highlights how universities and employers can work together to create meaningful, future focused pathways that support learners, strengthen workforce capability, and address national skills challenges.

Session L: Beyond the classroom: students as partners in making distant placements worthwhile
Dr Marie Jasim, Ben-Nasser Kadar, Charlie Thompson, Lucy May, Zain Saghir, Ayo Awosanmi, Jeena Limbu, Saduni Perera
Distant placements can offer rich learning experiences, but also bring challenges around belonging, opportunity, wellbeing, and connection to university life. Using examples from student-staff partnership projects in a district general hospital setting, this interactive workshop will explore how students can help shape more meaningful and sustainable placement experiences across disciplines.

Posters

  • The Role of the Professional Nurse Advocate in higher education institutes: supporting nursing students’ wellbeing and addressing attrition - Kiri Freeth, School of Nursing and Midwifery
  • Equity in Education: Enhancing Diversity Through Digital Platforms, Anna Garrett, School of Nursing and Midwifery
  • Students as Partners in Patient and Public Involvement: Learning Through Real-World Observation, Dr William Gowers, BCNO Group
  • Allied Health Profession - related accreditation requirements for the delivery of anatomy teaching in the UK: A web-based desktop audit, John Passmore, Theo Orchard-Clark and Bradley Halliday, School of Health Professions
  • Brains Before Bots: Responsible Integration of AI in Dental Radiography Teaching, Dr Sumanth Kumbargere Nagraj, Peninsula Dental School

Soapbox Talks

  • It's not just bananas!, Isabella Francis and Sue Langford, UCSP Ltd and Sustainability
  • Teaching to Teach: Developing Medical Students’ Teaching Skills through a Primary School Teaching Week, Si Yin Kok, Amber Leach, Kathryn Birch, Poppy Gotto and Katherine Neil, Peninsula Medical School
  • Freedom of Speech, Melissa Rose, Legal and Governance

Stands

  • Building Scalable Partnerships for Widening Participation: Projects, Outputs and the Sustained Impact of ‘Engineering-4-Inclusion’
  • Centre for Teaching Enhancement and Innovation
  • Jumping Janners: Bridging Digital Play and Physical Movement through an Interactive Parkour Game
  • Shaping LLS: How Students Transformed Our Ways of Working

Event photography and video

Please be aware that some of the University of Plymouth's public events (both online and offline) may be attended by University staff, photographers and videographers, for capturing content to be used in University online and offline marketing and promotional materials, for example webpages, brochures or leaflets. If you, or a member of your group, do not wish to be photographed or recorded, please let a member of staff know.