Seven more innovative projects have been awarded up to £5,000 in the third round of awards from the Education and Innovation Fund.
Launched in October 2022, the fund is part of our Learn to Transform strategy. The initiative aims to drive positive changes in how we deliver our teaching and learning experience by stimulating student and staff co-creation and rewarding innovation and teaching excellence.
Meet the winners
Project lead: Carli Rowell
Project title: A View from Within: Pedagogy, Practice & Possibilities
“This project builds on the module Class, Culture & Conflict: A view from within’ which was co-created with working-class students. The module […] pioneered the pedagogy of taking “a view from within” which intentionally foregrounds (a) the scholarship of (once?) working-class academics and (b) ‘non-academic’ material produced by working-class persons outside of academia.”
“[This project] aims to encourage others (beyond the discipline of sociology) to adopt the pedagogical practice of taking “a view from within” as a way of fostering HE curriculums that are inclusive of working-class knowledge”
Project lead: Jeremy Sheldon
Project title: Sussex Innovative Teaching Film
“From flowers to fallen trees, is a short student co-created documentary film dedicated to sustainability and showcasing some of the most progressive teaching the University of Sussex has to offer. Focusing on the Sussex Forest Food Garden, the Materials and Object Library and some innovative Walking Seminars, we’ll learn more about how the university, its tutors and its students are finding visionary ways to commit to transformative, innovative learning experiences. The film will be produced by Silverstone Productions, itself an innovative and pioneering media project. Founded in 2020, Silverstone Production is an independent commercial production company affiliated with the university offering substantive professional work, experience and opportunities to its filmmaking students and recent graduates.”
Project lead: Olivia Taylor
Project title: The Sussex Climate Classroom: A Toolkit for effective and empowering climate education
“We know that many young people, including our students at Sussex, are deeply concerned about climate change. While they find it an interesting and important topic, students tell us that they regularly leave our teaching sessions feeling worried, disheartened or angry. This project will test and develop a toolkit about the best ways to effectively teach climate change: critically, with rigor, but also in a way that gives students agency, empowerment and builds their skills to communicate about climate change in their future careers.
“‘The Sussex Climate Classroom’ will draw from the evidence-base of effective climate communication in public engagement and equip staff to translate this evidence to teaching methods in the classroom.”
Project lead: Verona Ni Drisceoi
Project title: Walk with me: Understanding, and Navigating, Community, Belonging and Inclusion in Higher Education
“Though the terms community, belonging and inclusion are commonplace in higher education policy and viewed as positive and required for an enhanced student experience, there is much less clarity about what the terms really mean for the everyday lived experience of students in higher education. Set against the challenges presented by increased student numbers, post pandemic trauma, the cost-of-living crisis, low attendance and poor mental health, this project, utilising walking as a research method, will walk with students to help better understand and explore what community, belonging and inclusion means for them.”
Project lead: Steven Follen
Project title: 'Making it real' - embedding sustainability and making into the curriculum
“‘Making it real’ engages students in the Sussex campus using the space to deepen their understanding of material, making and sustainable design approaches. Experiencing the landscape, sourcing and working directly with materials offers them new insights and experiences that helps enable them to be better designers producing better designs.”
Project lead: Xiangming Tao and Josephine Van-Ess
Project title: Dissertation Navigator: Steering Postgraduates to Research Excellence
“This project strives to mitigate the challenges postgraduate taught students encounter during their dissertations by fortifying research expertise, feedback mechanism, and research methodology training. We aim to provide comprehensive support to students to enhance the quality of their dissertations and promote their overall academic and research development.”
“Key initiatives include creating a research expertise database for relevant supervisor-student matching, establishing clear feedback guidelines for timely and useful input, and designing a structured research methodology training program to equip students with vital research methods and ethical guidance. “
Project lead: Sue Robbins
Project title: Develop Your English: with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
“Develop Your English is an e-textbook based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adapted for learners of English, and aimed at the global general English market. It will be published on the US Open Press platform in the Autumn. The project is at the stage where actionable feedback from colleagues and student readers is required prior to publication.”
Professor Claire Smith, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Innovation, said:
“I would like to again thank colleagues for their continued enthusiasm in submitting such exciting project proposals. These awards demonstrate our continued commitment to promoting innovative teaching and learning at Sussex, and it is fantastic that in this third round of funding we have been able to support more initiatives than ever before. Working together, we continue to innovate in ways that benefit our teaching and learning community, helping shape the future of education.”
If you are interested in applying for funding for your own project, the next round of applications will open in November. Find out more about applying to the Education and Innovation fund.