Dr Christopher Wiley organizes Study Day on Teaching and Creativity in Popular Music and convenes roundtable

Dr Christopher Wiley organized a Study Day on ‘Teaching and Creativity in Popular Music’ at the University of Surrey on Saturday 10 June 2017, bringing together some 25 higher education academics from across England.

The day comprised a combination of paper presentations and innovative teach-in workshops, in which facilitators presented aspects of their teaching techniques in performance, songwriting, and production in genres ranging from musical theatre to hip hop.

Also included was a central roundtable discussion (pictured, below) on the subject of ‘Pedagogical Practice in Popular Music Teaching in Higher Education: Creative approaches and continuing challenges’, which Dr Wiley convened and on which he spoke about the challenges of designing an undergraduate module on genuinely contemporary popular music (specifically, Adele’s 25 album) in the absence of an established scholarly discourse on which to draw.

The event was held under the aegis of the London and South-East England 21st Century Music Practice Research Network founded in 2016 between 20 higher education institutions, as one of a series of study days framed around its six headline themes.

Further information is available at the website for the Study Day: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/department-music-media/research-department/popular-music-teaching-creativity

The full programme for the event is available here: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Study%20Day%20on%20Teaching%20and%20Creativity%20in%20Popular%20Music%20(programme).pdf

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Dr Christopher Wiley delivers internationally broadcast webinar for Turning Technologies on student response systems

Dr Christopher Wiley gave a webinar on student response systems and innovative teaching practices on Wednesday 28 September 2016, 2-3pm EDT, as part of the ‘Explore Innovation with Turning Technologies’ Fall Webinar Series.

Entitled ‘Using Student Response Systems: Creative Applications, Advanced Features, and Tips for Getting Started’, Dr Wiley’s one-hour webinar was broadcast in North America as part of Turning Technologies’s ongoing programme of educational events.

Dr Wiley has been a Distinguished Educator with Turning Technologies since 2012. During his time in this role, he has addressed many audiences both nationally and internationally, and, last year, published a report on using response technology in higher education teaching.

The flyer for the webinar may be viewed here: https://www.turningtechnologies.com/pdf/content/ExploreInnovationWebinarWiley.pdf

Dr Christopher Wiley publishes Higher Education Academy report on Using Electronic Voting Systems in the Arts and Humanities

Dr Christopher Wiley has written a report entitled Using Electronic Voting Systems in the Arts and Humanities, published by the Higher Education Academy as part of its newly launched Innovative Pedagogies series.

The 8,000-word funded report discusses a wide variety of ways in which electronic voting systems (EVS) may be embedded within arts and humanities teaching, drawing on a range of examples from Dr Wiley’s own academic practice, as well as offering advice to educators who may be considering the introduction of EVS in their own teaching.

As a National Teaching Fellow, Dr Wiley was one of a number of Higher Education practitioners across the UK who were recently invited to contribute to this series of publications.

Through his innovative work on the use of electronic voting systems in Higher Education teaching, Dr Wiley has become a Distinguished Educator with Turning Technologies as well as delivering presentations at conferences across Europe (Ireland, Greece, Germany, and Denmark) and at six UK universities in the past two years.

Dr Wiley’s full report may be freely downloaded at the following link: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/dr_chris_wiley_final.pdf

The abstract may viewed be here: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/using-electronic-voting-systems-arts-and-humanities

Bibliographic citation 

Wiley, Christopher. Using Electronic Voting Systems in the Arts and Humanities, Innovative Pedagogies series. York: Higher Education Academy, 2015. Available online at <https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/using-electronic-voting-systems-arts-and-humanities>.

Update: Dr Wiley’s report was featured on the Turning Technologies blog on 20 July 2016. The link to the post is as follows: https://www.turningtechnologies.com/blog/2016/07/Audience-Response-Systems-Arent-Just-For-STEM

Dr Wiley also contributed an invited blog entry to the Turning Technologies UK website on 2 August 2016. Entitled ‘Three Creative Ways to use Audience Response Systems’, it may be read here: http://turningtechnologies.co.uk/blog/2016/08/Three-Creative-Ways-to-

Dr Christopher Wiley is featured on the Turning Technologies website and Surrey Research Insight blog

Dr Christopher Wiley has recently been profiled in an interview on the Surrey Research Insight blog as well as a case study written by Turning Technologies.

Turning Technologies’ feature on Dr Wiley’s pioneering use of electronic voting systems (EVS) in arts and humanities teaching, ‘TurningPoint in the Arts: Electronic Voting Systems as a Springboard for Student Engagement’, was published on their website on 14 April 2015. It discussed various aspects of Dr Wiley’s use of EVS in higher education teaching including multiple-choice questions that test deep-level understanding, game-based learning employed alongside flipped classroom techniques, and the technology’s moment to moment and demographic comparison features.

Surrey Research Insight (SRI), which manages the open access repository of academic publications for the University of Surrey, interviewed Dr Wiley in a blog post entitled ‘SRI talks to Dr Christopher Wiley’, which appeared on 1 May 2015. Dr Wiley spoke about his published work on Michael Jackson (which is available on open access), his interests in musical theatre and film music, and his current research on literature and music and on student evaluation of teaching.

The full texts may be viewed at the following links:

Surrey Research Insight: https://surreyresearchinsight.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/sri-talks-to-dr-christopher-wiley/

Turning Technologies: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/pdf/content/INTLCaseStudy-UniSurrey-DrWiley.pdf

Dr Christopher Wiley graduates from the MA in Academic Practice programme at City University London

Dr Christopher Wiley graduated with a Master of Arts in Academic Practice from City University London at a ceremony held at the Barbican Centre, London on 28 January 2015.

Dr Wiley was awarded the MA in Academic Practice with Distinction in October 2014, having studied the degree on a part-time basis from 2008 alongside his lecturing positions at City University London and latterly at the University of Surrey.

Dr Wiley’s areas of study on the programme included Learning, Teaching, and Assessment; ICT in Higher Education; Curriculum Development; Personal Tutoring; Research Supervision; and Academic Leadership.

Pictured below: Dr Wiley with his fellow graduates from the programme, Sally Thorpe (centre) and Emily Allbon (right), both of whom are staff members at City University London.

Dr Christopher Wiley convenes Learning and Teaching enhancement event at the University of Surrey

Dr Christopher Wiley organized a Learning and Teaching enhancement event for academic staff across the School of Arts at the University of Surrey on 14 January 2015, following the Symposia that had taken place in September 2014 and January 2014.

In a change from previous events, this one adopted a seminar-style format. It combined a discussion forum on the School’s Personal Tutoring system, facilitated by Dr Wiley, with a training session on module descriptors and programme validation co-facilitated by two members of the University’s Directorate of Quality Enhancement and Standards.

Over 30 academic staff were in attendance representing the range of disciplines encompassed by the School, including Music and Sound Recording, Theatre and Dance, Film and Digital Media Arts, and the Guildford School of Acting.

Dr Christopher Wiley organizes second Learning and Teaching Symposium at the University of Surrey

Dr Christopher Wiley convened a second one-day Learning and Teaching Symposium for academic staff across the School of Arts at the University of Surrey on 15 September 2014, as a follow-up to a related event that had taken place in January.

Themed around ‘Inspirational Teaching: Sharing Practice’, the event included two sessions by invited speakers and two discussion workshops facilitated by Dr Wiley (one on sharing good practices in teaching, the other continuing previous conversations on assessment and feedback), as well as a roundtable comprising three current students who presented their views on inspirational teaching.

The Symposium was attended by over 30 full-time and Associate staff ranging from long-standing lecturers to those who had only started work at the University that day, and representing a wide variety of different arts disciplines.