Second module

The second module of my PGCPHE to be completed was on quality assurance and enhancement, feedback and assessment. This proved the most challenging so far for me. Simply because as librarians we often teach outside the departmental frameworks around QA and QE, and especially lack input into module design and assessment.

I learned a lot from it, particularly in becoming more aware of the demands placed on full-time teaching staff and the work required to develop models of assessment. The portfolio required me to take part in peer observation as an observer. Watching a colleague in the health school work with a class I saw and understood more of how my own teaching followed or diverged from hers. One of the takeaways was that I do not have the luxury of forming an ongoing relationship with a cohort of students.  Each group might have only one session with a librarian teacher.

Thinking about the above, I have wondered how this impacts on teaching. We are dropped in as specialists, often outside the framework of the curriculum. We are not always embedded in the teaching team, either for delivery of teaching or for course development. Should we be? Is this something we should advocate for more strongly? This is an area I would like to explore in my final module research project.