Pre-conference workshops

Session day: Sunday, 1 of March 2026
Session time: 16:30-18:30
Facilitator: Dr Andy Clegg. Head of Academic Innovation, Centre for Academic and Digital Innovation, University of Portsmouth (UK)
Workshop participation fee: 60 euros (plus taxes if applicable)

Workshop details:
Lecture capture helped us get through the pandemic. But for many institutions it has quietly become the default, rather than a deliberate learning design choice. This workshop creates space to step back and ask a more useful question: what kind of digital learning experience do our students actually need now?

Using the University of Portsmouth’s SMART Capture Framework as a practical guide, this immersive session supports participants to rethink content capture as a purpose learning design decision – which supports student engagement and allows them to keep up and catch up. Together, the session will explore how short, purposeful created and curated digital assets, structured activities, and simple design principles can do more to support understanding, confidence, and progression than hours of recorded teaching ever could.

You will work hands-on with the SMART toolkit to audit your current practice, surface where recording policies may be working against engagement, and redesign elements of your own modules or support provision. The focus is on realistic, achievable change: approaches that help students stay engaged week-to-week, keep up when life gets messy, and catch up without feeling overwhelmed or excluded.

Rather than treating technology as the solution, the workshop puts learning first. We will look at how digital tools can support explanation, practice, feedback, and reflection, and how small shifts in approach can make learning more inclusive for commuter students, part-time learners, students with caring responsibilities, neurodiverse learners, and anyone juggling study alongside complex lives.

Participants will leave with:
- A clear set of principles for designing effective digital capture beyond lectures
- Practical examples of what “good” looks like across different disciplines
- Redesigned activities or assets they can use or adapt immediately

A framework for having more confident, evidence-informed conversations about recording policies and student expectations and a stronger sense of how digital design choices connect directly to student engagement, attainment, and experience.

Target audience:
This workshop is designed for colleagues working across the Higher Education landscape who are involved in designing digital learning. It will be particularly relevant to lecturers, learning designers, educational technologists, and professional services staff engaged in quality assurance, policy development, or curriculum enhancement. Senior leaders reviewing digital education strategies and anyone looking to revisit or update post-pandemic recording expectations will also find the session valuable.

Session day: Sunday, 1 of March 2026
Session time: 16:30-18:30
Facilitator: Himani Chugh. Educational Designer, AI Innovation, University of New South Wales (Australia)
Workshop participation fee: 60 euros (plus taxes if applicable)

Workshop details:
As artificial intelligence reshapes the world of work, higher education faces a pivotal moment. To remain relevant and valuable, universities must move beyond disciplinary knowledge and ensure that graduates develop and articulate the enduring human skills that technology cannot replicate — such as creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
This interactive two-hour workshop invites higher education educators and professional staff to explore how these enduring skills can be embedded and made visible within curriculum design, teaching practice, and assessment. Grounded in the UNSW ADA Skills Passport initiative, the workshop draws on the ADA Skills Taxonomy White Paper, which synthesises 17 global frameworks into nine research-backed skills essential for the future of learning, work, and life.
Through activities such as live polling, skill-card reflection, think-pair-share, mapping, and Skill Snap, participants will engage in both individual and collaborative exercises. They will map one or more of their course learning outcomes to the nine skills, exchange rationales with peers, and use a guiding framework to contextualise these skills for their discipline. Facilitated discussions then guide participants to translate their mapping into teaching strategies and assessments, producing a tangible artefact—a visual, skills-embedded course snapshot—to take back for further curriculum development.
The session also includes a demonstration of an AI-enabled Skills Mapping Tool developed within UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture to illustrate how artificial intelligence can enhance, rather than replace, human-centred curriculum design.

Target audience:
Higher education academics, course convenors, educational designers, and professional staff involved in curriculum design, teaching innovation, or employability initiatives.