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Dr Lucy Tallents wins teaching innovation award

Dr Lucy Tallents is a winner in the ‘Higher Ed Online/Hybrid’ category of the 2015 Teaching With Sakai Innovation Award (TWSIA), for her newly-developed course in ‘Conservation statistics’.

Sakai is an open-source Virtual Learning Environment, and is known in Oxford as WebLearn.  The Teaching With Sakai Innovation Award recognises excellence in teaching and learning, and highlights work that aims to enhance the students’ educational experience through the innovative use of technology based on sound pedagogical principles.  Award winners have demonstrated that their course is designed to engage and challenge students, promoting deeper understanding and enhancing their motivation to learn.

Lucy developed ‘Conservation statistics’ as a short postgraduate-level course taught entirely online.  Wildlife conservation practitioners from all over the world study together part-time to enhance their professional skills without interrupting their valuable work on the ground.  Participants refine and critically evaluate their own conservation research, learning new techniques to visualise and analyse their field survey data using free, open-source software.  They are encouraged to reflect on what they’ve learnt, and apply their new skills to their on-going conservation work.  Hosting the course online enables participants to collaborate across cultures, regions and professional backgrounds, enhancing their understanding of global conservation problems and solutions.

This online course is part of the WildCRU’s endeavour to broaden international access to our expertise in wildlife conservation, and it sits alongside our face-to-face Recanati-Kaplan Centre Postgraduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice.  Lucy’s award confirms the WildCRU’s contribution to the University of Oxford’s world class reputation for education.

Lucy says:

“I use Sakai’s diverse teaching tools to develop engaging learning activities and to foster the development of a supportive learning community.  We focus on real-life conservation research questions, and the skills needed to tackle them.  This problem-based approach gives participants the opportunity to collaborate, learn from each other, and develop their own professional judgement whilst being encouraged and supported by an expert.  Although I’ve still got much to learn and experiment with in Sakai, it’s fantastic to receive this encouragement to keep aiming high!”

Lucy a post-doctoral researcher at the WildCRU, and her face-to-face and online teaching has been supported by a grant from the Recanati-Kaplan Foundation since 2007.  She earned Fellowship of the UK’s Higher Education Academy in 2011, and is a strong advocate of online learning to build capacity in wildlife conservation skills.  She has been invited to present her work at the Open Apereo Conference in June, and will also talk at this year’s International Congress in Conservation Biology in Montpellier in August.

You can find out more about the Teaching With Sakai Innovation Award at https://www.apereo.org/twsia.