The British University in Egypt, Office of the Provost, held its 1st Teaching and Learning Symposium on March 5-6, 2023. The Symposium was designed to underscore the University’s strategy of being a student-centered university.
Professor Guy Daly, Provost, welcomed everyone and said “The Symposium is so timely as we are currently developing our new “Teaching, Learning and Student Experience Strategy”, refocusing and reprofiling the University internally and externally. It provides an opportunity to softly launch our draft Strategy and invite our community to engage with its development, as well as to learn and share the excellent pedagogical practices and innovations that are occurring across the University, and to network with each other as a university-wide community of academics and professional administrative colleagues and, in addition, to hear and engage with our students and their perspective of how we do and facilitate their learning”.
Our two keynote speakers were Professor Hesham El Askari who presented on the “The Road Map of Interdisciplinarity to Transdisciplinarity through Collaborative Research” and Professor Catherine Harper who discussed the “Principles Emergent from the Continuing Development of the Draft of the Teaching, Learning and Student Experience Strategy for The British University in Egypt”.
A total of 43 academic staff members across our 11 faculties delivered sessions, sharing their best practices through presentations and workshops on topics such as, interactive learning, flipped and all-inclusive classrooms, gamifying classrooms, engaging students, showcasing various learning tools, using databases, virtual learning, bringing joy to classrooms, social-emotional learning, empowering students, artificial intelligence (AI), simulation activities, collaborative working, activity-based module design, project-based learning, storytelling, the power of positivity, digital and authentic assessment tools, employability skills, capacity building and empowering staff and students.
In addition, our students delivered a key session: “Student talks: Immersive Learning Experience”. This featured students from a number of faculties talking about both curricular and extracurricular authentic and immersive learning experiences that they found empowering to their roles as life-long learners, global citizens, and future professionals.
The symposium was chaired by Dr. Gihan Osman, Senior Advisor for Teaching and Learning Innovations.