Teaching and Learning

Your learning matters to us at the University of Bedfordshire. Our courses are designed to integrate the latest theoretical developments in your chosen subject area with current professional, industry or commercial practices to ensure that you have the knowledge and skills sought by employers or for further study. We continuously review and revise our courses to ensure that they maintain their currency and relevance.

You will be taught in a modern learning environment by qualified staff whose expertise is a blend of research, scholarship and professional practice at the forefront of their subject. Many of our staff are recognised by the national Higher Education Academy, for the quality and effectiveness of their teaching. Your learning will be supported by online materials and activities through BREO (Bedfordshire Resources for Education Online). BREO includes a number of tools available to staff and students for sharing, creating and developing learning including a virtual learning environment (Blackboard) and an e-Portfolio system (Pebble+).

Your learning is the key to your success and at the heart of all that we do. To help your learning skills you will be supported by your academic course team and by Personal Academic Tutors with additional help provided by professional support staff such as the Professional Academic Development (PAD) team, Academic Liaison Librarians and Careers Advisers. In most undergraduate areas we also have Peer Assisted Learning processes in place to enable you to learn from students in the years ahead of you - a process many first year students find enormously helpful.

Centre for Learning Excellence

The dedicated team in the Centre for Learning Excellence (CLE) work across the University and with partner institutions, promoting and supporting effective learning for all our students.

The CLE team enhance the student learning experience and the professionalism of our academic staff by:

• Supporting staff to develop their teaching to achieve national recognition for their excellence
• Identifying and sharing best practice in learning, teaching and assessment
• Supporting all staff to develop innovative learning and teaching approaches through our Bedfordshire Teaching Fellows programme
• Providing guidance on institutional processes, curriculum development and best practice
• Running an extensive programme of staff development workshops and seminars
• Embedding Technology Enhanced Learning in all courses
• Developing and sharing academic research into learning and teaching through our academic journal, writing retreats and annual conference.

We work directly with students to:

• Monitor student feedback on learning experiences, sharing best practice and improving where necessary
• Develop and implement the University's learner experience strategy
• Build learning approaches that increase employability

Further details can be found at the Centre for Learning Excellence  www.beds.ac.uk/cle