Scottish Higher Education Developers October 2018 | Page 24

ABERTAY UNIVERSITY’S NETWORK
FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
ENHANCEMENT (NetTLE)
Alastair Robertson, Abertay University
Abertay is a vibrant, modern university that brings together students, lecturers and
professional staff from diverse disciplines, professions and backgrounds. In the past,
staff collaborated internally in a variety of ways, however, there were still challenges
around identifying and sharing good practice more widely and effectively in the
university. As a result, and in order to support the implementation of our (then)
new Teaching and Learning Strategy, NetTLE (Network for Teaching and Learning
Enhancement) was created that has subsequently evolved into an active community of
practice over the past five years; “a group of people who share a concern or a passion
for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” (Lave and
Wenger 1991).
NetTLE’s monthly seminars have grown significantly in popularity and importance over
the years, and they now regularly attract 50+ colleagues (about 25% of our academic
staff) to share ideas, develop professional relationships, explore links across disciplinary
boundaries and build capacity in action research. NetTLE also offers annual seed corn
funding to incubate and develop innovations in teaching and learning. These ATLEF
(Abertay Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund) projects are disseminated both
internally and nationally at SHED, SEDA, ALT and the SRHE. In recognition of their value
and importance in the university, TLE seminars are now embedded into the university’s
postgraduate certificate in academic practice, to support early career staff and provide a
vehicle for gaining professional recognition from Advance HE.
Reference
Lave, J., and Wenger, E., 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation
(Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
20
Celebrating 25 years of SHED