Dr. Mairead Brady

Dirk Lindebaum is a Senior Professor at Grenoble Ecole de Management and a Visiting Professor at the University of Alberta School of Business. He currently serves as the Editor in Chief for AMLE - Academy of Management Learning & Education, a four star journal. Dirk obtained his PhD from Manchester Business School and has been a member of AOM since 2010. He is currently part of the Organization and Management Theory and Critical Management Studies Divisions. He is curious about "values" as meta-theme in his research, particularly in relation to theory building, learning, technology, and emotions at work. His work regularly appears in journals of international distinction, and he is the author of the book Emancipation Through Emotion Regulation at Work. Despite his theoretical pursuits, the practical relevance of his research is regularly recognized in news outlets, such as the Financial Times, New York Times, BBC Radio 5 Live, Wirtschaftswoche, Daily Mail, Independent, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Additionally, he has published several practitioner-focused articles in MIT Sloan Management Review, one of which has been accepted into the Honor Roll of the Responsible Research in Business and Management network (RRBM), a distinction that his research serves the greater good.

Prof. Blackburn recently retired from the Kenan-Flagler Business School (KFBS) at the University of North Carolina. He will examine two different issues affecting business school education. The first issue focuses on the ways in which the current model of business schools may or may not be fit for the purpose they hope to achieve. If their current model does not fit, are they prepared to change? And, if so in what way(s)? The presentation will question the underlying assumptions that business schools must conform to various external bodies and suggest changes to our current model. He will also explore various challenges to making these changes including the current ranking processes that often drive specific but limiting perspectives on school-wise changes. The second issue will expand on this through engagement with a model designed with some in their paper, 'On academic rankings, unacceptable methods and the social obligations of business schools'. This paper suggests a new model for business schools that is socially responsible, transparent, flexible and has a highly representative rating (vs. ranking) approach. This paper asks academic institutions and ranking organizations to reflect on and embrace the strategic use of multidimensional alternatives that more faithfully serve prospective students, parents, and other key stakeholders. This work is particularly timely given the recent turmoil among US law schools, some of whom have announced that they are no longer willing to participate in the US News and World Report Law School rankings. This will provide the backdrop for debate and discussion for/against business school rankings and ask who should drive the agenda at business schools - ranking agencies or business schools.

This project applies a comparison-based approach to feedback generation and use which is transformative in nature and of immense value to both student learning and to teaching practice. It recognises students role as partners in assessment practices and invites them to take more control of their own learning. The project recasts the student as central for self-regulated learning and facilitates them in generating and using feedback. This approach is based on comparison processes of students' current work products such as written drafts, presentations, or other deliverables, and that of peers and/or lecturer generated comparison products. Traditionally, input from lecturers has been privileged as the most important form of feedback for student learning. Considerable work has also investigated peer generated input as a useful addition or alternative to lecturer feedback. In contrast this project focuses on designing comparison processes that increase and enhance the generation of inner feedback, especially from sources other than the lecturer. Applying cutting edge research from world wide experts such as David Nicol the instructional design focuses on comparison processes used in a reflective manner to help students' self-generate formative feedback in a way that places students at the heart of this central learning process.

In this seminar, Professor David Nicol presented a new framework and toolkit for feedback and assessment in higher education (HE). His presentation centred on different ways of engaging with students and supporting the development of many of their core self-regulatory attributes. He explored the theoretical underpinnings of his framework and argues that the traditional understanding and use of feedback in academic context hinders the creation of an optimum feedback environment to enable and support student learning. Prof. Nicol explored the transformative value of integrating and empowering students in feedback and learning processes. In particular, he emphasised the role of student's self-regulatory attributes to help them develop informed judgments on their own learning and their learning needs. This workshop took a design, development, implementation and evaluation perspective to guide academic-led operationalization of this practice.

This project assumes an academic perspective to the adoption of technology for/as/of assessment. Assessment is viewed from two perspectives - as a measurement and record of learning, ultimately for accreditation (summative) as well as assessment as a tool for both teachers and students to evaluate and progress learning (assessment for learning). A further development assessment as learning focuses on the student as an actor in the assessment process, setting success criteria, peer and self-assessing, and using these activities to progress their learning. This project will produce a systematic literature review, meta-analysis and guide to best practice on technology-enhanced assessment of/for/as learning in HE. The literature review will integrate a quantitative focus through a meta-analysis of (quasi-)experimental studies with a qualitative focus on case study, ethnographic and other research approaches to ensure a balanced and critical assessment of the measured outcomes of assessment practices but also the lived experiences of students and staff involved. The review will encompass well established and emergent technologies and focus on reliability, validity, inclusion, media modes, feedback type and timeliness, learning and motivation interactions, staff and student usability, etc. A range of technologies will be explored with an additional and unique focus on interactive multi-modal learning environments, digital game-based learning as well as interactive class technologies for formative feedback that is integrated and contemporaneous with teaching. The literature review will be used to derive best and next practice guidelines for staff that also address the sustainability of implementation and management of technologies within the higher education sector. To supplement the literature review, deriving from the review of studies in the Irish context, the study will capture experiences of good practice in Ireland through videos of practice and interviews with academics engaged in this area.