Developing Higher Education Teaching Skills: Q&A with UCEM Tutor, David Hunt

Posted on: 2017-10-18

UCEM is committed to offering the highest standard of teaching to its students and, as part of this commitment, a number of our Tutors have completed CPD teaching qualifications to ensure they are up-to-date with the latest pedagogical advancements and offer the very best service they can.

Here, we speak to UCEM Tutor, David Hunt, who recently was elected Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), having completed a part-time course at Oxford Brookes University which focused on online teaching.

– What did gaining the qualification involve?

I completed an approved programme of study. It took me 18 months but you can do it in about 10 or 12 months.

I did 60 credits’ worth of postgraduate modules at Oxford Brookes University. It’s part of their teacher training.

There are a range of modules offered and I deliberately selected those which covered online teaching.

The modules I took were ‘First Steps in Learning and Teaching’, ‘Teaching Open Online Courses’ and ‘Inquiry and Reflection in Higher Education’.

– What did you learn from the course?

The most useful thing I covered was the theory behind asynchronous learning, particularly with forum groups where the Module Leader is something akin to a host at a cocktail party whose role is to try and get the guests interacting, as a conduit to learning.

– What will you take from it?

I would like to aim for teaching along the lines of flipped learning principles, by providing high-quality learning materials for students before they attend my webinars, i.e. they come to webinars armed with knowledge and are ready to discuss topics during them, rather than students attending webinars to gain knowledge.

– Would you recommend this course to other tutors?

I would. It’s very flexible and I was happy to visit the campus but there is also the option to do the course fully online. I enjoyed the experience of being a student again.

I could review lectures online afterwards in my own time as they film the lectures and live webinars.

The course advocated the standard of teaching and quality expected by students. There was a lot of theory involved relating to the online education world. The course enabled me to be one step ahead in the service I provide to our students. I am better equipped to implement new ideas in my teaching and hope my students reap the benefits of my qualification!

David is the Module Leader for the Valuation and Ethics module which is part of the MSc Real Estate programme. He has 11 years’ experience of working in the Real Estate sector in the UK, Ukraine, Romania and Poland. For more about the MSc Real Estate programme, please click here.