National Future Facing Learning Conference 2025

More testing times ahead? Being human in a digital world

The increased contributions of AI and other digital technologies in education are signalling change and also demonstrating the human capacity for adaptation and creativity in all aspects of teaching and learning. Of course, there are concerns about what the future might 'be' and how it might unfold, but it is important to remember that we have more power and control, as educators, than we often give ourselves credit for. In this talk, I am to consider the impact of assessment on the most important of stakeholders, learners, and what our current systems and practices mean in terms of learning and learner identity. I purposefully use the term stakeholder, not because I necessarily agree with it as an expression, but to demonstrate that this is the way that our current education systems characterise learners and their learning. It is partly this view of learners that shapes how we enact and view assessment policies and practice. I will present some ideas for how to reframe our views of assessment in HE contexts in ways that are positive, learner-centred and beneficial to us as educators. Assessment is a deeply human activity; it is a social activity and it rightly sits at the heart of teaching and learning.

Biography

Mary is Professor of Educational Assessment at IOE, UCL Faculty of Education and Society. She has over 20 years' teaching and research experience including education practice and policy, education history and testing and assessment practice. Her doctoral candidates focus on a wide range of topics related to assessment including: social media representation of testing, ethics and anxiety in testing, assessment of simulated learning in medicine, and comparative judgement.

Mary has a background in educational assessment development and awarding through work as a senior research officer in the Department for Research and Statistics at AQA, a national examination board in England. Her current research is anchored in assessment with specialist expertise in student experiences and how assessment shapes learner identity, public understanding of testing, the ethics of assessment and currently, what generative AI might mean to all our assessment futures.

Mary sits on the Research Board for Qualifications Wales, for AQA Exam Board's Research Department and is the co-convenor of the British Educational Research Association's Special Interest Group for Curriculum and Assessment. She works on a range of international and national research projects and has conducted work in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Finland, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Czech Republic and in Canada. Mary is the co-founder of IOE's Educational Assessment research group and runs monthly seminars and other public events to promote understanding of assessment in education.
Mary Richardson's UCL Profile

High-Performance Mindset with Rory Underwood: Insights from sport, aviation, and business

Today, we're navigating a world that's changing fast - whether in education, professional development, or organisational leadership. So, what can we take from the worlds of elite sport, military aviation, and high-performing teams to help us adapt, lead, and thrive?

In this keynote, Rory Underwood draws on his extraordinary journey - as an international rugby player and a fast-jet pilot in the RAF - to share some fascinating reflections on leadership, teamwork, communication, and making decisions when the pressures on.

Using real-life stories and lessons, Rory explores how we can build resilience, stay adaptable, and develop a mindset geared for high performance - qualities that are essential whether you're leading a team, shaping a learning environment, or guiding an organisation through change.

So, whether you work in further or higher education, as a private learning provider, or in the professional development space, this session is a chance to pause, reflect, and gain a few practical ideas on how to foster collaboration, encourage ongoing improvement, and create a culture where people - and performance - can really thrive.

Biography

Rory is probably best known for his international rugby career, scoring a record 49 tries for England (85 caps, 1984 - 1996) and winning7 caps for the British Lions. Rory played first class rugby at Leicester Tigers for 14 years and was awarded the MBE in 1992 for his services to rugby. Rory spent 13 years (2007 - 2020) as a non-executive director on the board of Leicester Tigers.

Throughout his rugby career Rory amassed 3,000 hours flying as a pilot in his 18 years in the Royal Air Force.

Rory's stellar rugby and RAF career has allowed him to bring niche expertise into the performance of business teams and he has a specific interest and expertise in the areas of effective communication and high-performance leadership within teams. He is an experienced facilitator, psychometric profiler and performance coach.

Rory founded Wingman Ltd in 2009, a strategy consultancy that utilises his experiences from his time within high-performance organisations and teams, and applies them to the challenges faced by CEOs, MDs and business owners as they try to grow their businesses. He incorporates his wealth of inspirational experiences, extreme human achievement and invaluable insights and translates them into practical, pragmatic tools for business strategy implementation.

Rory has presented as a thought leader on business strategy and has an honorary Doctorate of Science from Teesside University. He is a captivating keynote speaker, sharing insights on leadership, resilience, and strategic thinking drawn from his experiences in elite sport, the military, and business.

Biography

Dr Ailsa Crum is an independent consultant offering a range of services to the higher and tertiary education sectors. She has expertise in strategy setting, implementation and evaluation, can assist with policy and practice design, and is a regular event speaker and chair.

Until December 2024, Ailsa was QAA's Director of Membership, Quality Enhancement & Standards where she had responsibility for sector reference points (eg UK Quality Code and subject benchmark statements) and creating a quality enhancement offer for QAA members on topics including future approaches to learning, teaching and assessment, flexible and modular delivery and effective evaluation. She chaired the UK Academic Integrity Advisory Group and the QAA Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Body Forum, and has expertise in academic credit recognition, student engagement and digital pedagogy.

Ailsa is an alumna of the Common Purpose Global Leaders' programme which, in June 2024, included a deep dive to Kenya. She is a non-executive director with Edinburgh Napier Students' Association and chairs the Finance and Risk Committee. She has links with the European Quality Agency Network, Quality and Qualifications Ireland, the University of Limerick and the Norwegian agency, NOKUT. Ailsa's research interests include literary memoir and all forms of storytelling.

Building decision-making skills with AI-supported experiential learning

The integration of AI into the curriculum is essential, as AI literacy has become a critical skill for future professionals. While the importance of AI literacy is widely acknowledged, a significant gap remains in pedagogical knowledge among educators. Many lack the practical guidance needed to effectively embed AI into their teaching while ensuring students develop essential AI competencies.

This talk explores the use of AI-supported experiential learning through a business simulation designed for a Level 6 strategic management module. It will demonstrate how to embed simulation-based learning and integrate AI to enhance students' decision-making skills. Specifically, the session will highlight how students co-create with AI to analyse data and make critical operational decisions to effectively run a simulated company.

This hands-on approach helps students develop key skills such as AI literacy, decision-making, teamwork, and critical thinking. This innovative teaching method has been shown to increase class participation, create a more interactive learning environment, and improve overall performance. In this talk, I will also share lessons learned and provide practical recommendations for adopting similar pedagogies.

Biography

Andrew is a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management and the Programme Director for BSc Business Management at Queen Mary University of London. With extensive teaching experience in both Malaysia and the UK, he is a seasoned educator in higher education. Andrew is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a certified Management and Business Educator.

His interests focus on quality assurance and scholarship development in higher education. Andrew's work has been published in outlets including the Higher Education Policy Institute, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the Chartered Association of Business Schools, and the British Educational Research Association.

Biography

Professor Alastair Robertson brings over 30 years' experience in higher education. He currently is an independent higher education consultant having held several senior management roles in universities, including a period as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning & Teaching) at Glasgow Caledonian University. Alistair's areas of expertise encompass academic leadership and development, strategic change, student partnership and quality enhancement.

Diversity perspectives: five years of the TalkingHE podcast

TalkingHE is a podcast for higher education, bringing you perspectives and insights into the sector. Over the past five years, we have talked to those working in and with HE, including academics, researchers, support staff, consultants and senior leaders to get expert analysis of the issues affecting them. Each first Friday of the month, we explore a topic for an average of 25 minutes with one guest in a classic long term interview format. This session brings the highlights, issues and themes through vignettes from guests, with unseen extras, including how the podcast is put together and personal insights from the creator and host, Santanu Vasant.

Biography

Santanu Vasant is a Teaching and Learning Lead at a private sector HE provider, with over 20 years of experience in HE in a variety of educational development senior management roles, working in several London universities. Since December 2020, Santanu has been the creator and host of TalkingHE, a top 50 international education podcast.

Santanu gained a BSc (Hons) in Multimedia Technology and Design, a PGCE in Secondary ICT from Brunel, University of London and a master's in Education from University College London. He is a Principal Fellow of AdvanceHE and a qualified AgilePM© Practitioner.

His research interest is in the field of designing physical and virtual learning spaces. Santanu has written book chapters on the use of PebblePad e-Portfolios for Business Education in Pebblegogy (2011), Bring Your Own Device - policy and practice in higher education in Smart Learning (2015) and Academics' Understanding of Learning Spaces: Attitudes, Practices and Outcomes Explored through the Use of Social Media in Social Media in Higher Education: Case Studies, Reflections and Analysis (2019), Developing praxis through active blended learning and authentic assessment in Organisation Studies and Human Resource Management: An Educator's Handbook (2021) and Learning Design in Higher Education: Building Communities of Practice in Measurement Methodologies to Assess the Effectiveness of Global Online Learning (2022).

Lessons from aimation's adaptive culture in the age of technological disruption

As generative AI is seen as a catalyst for new teaching and learning approaches in HE, it urges universities to reinvent themselves and to adapt to these changes effectively. In this age of technological, industrial and pedagogical disruption, we posit that animation can be used a case study for resilience, adaption and innovation. From the 19th century optical toys to Disney's hand-drawn classics, from the CGI revolution to today's AI prompted content, animators have continuously reinvented their craft while preserving its essence.

We present a case study of the animation industry technique of rotoscoping, its technological disruptions, skills and its related pedagogy to offer valuable insights for HE today. Rotoscoping was developed by the Fleischer Brothers in 1915 and refined by Walt Disney. It involves tracing live-action footage to create animation sequences, and it had the potential to eradicate traditional hand-drawn animation but ultimately relied on human intervention to eradicate the 'haunted spectre'. (Thomas and Johnson, 1995: 323). Motion capture has since advanced the rotoscoping technique but still requires human intervention to avoid similar lifeless qualities. AI technologies such as Move AI promise even faster and cheaper motion capture without specialised studio equipment but faces the same criticism around authenticity as rotoscoping did 100 years ago for being a 'kind of non-artistry produced from simply duplicating live action' (Telotte, 2008. 64).

The evolution of rotoscoping with its technological disruptions, skills and its related pedagogy shows that animators have modelled adaptation, both reactively and creatively for over a hundred years. You will find evidence of communities of practice, threshold concepts, reflection in action, continuous feedback cycles and digital literacy offering valuable insights for HE today.

Biography

Katherine O'Connor is an academic, director, writer, and artist located in the North East of England, where she specialises in animation and installation art. She has produced multi-award-winning short animated films that have been showcased on international platforms. Her latest film, Potter's Mirror, received the Best Animated Short award at the Silver Wave International Film Festival in Canada and was honoured with a Jury Citation at the 44th Toman Eddison International Film Festival. This work was recently reimagined for a site-specific exhibition at the Animex International Animation, Games and VFX Festival.

Katherine's creations have been featured at prestigious events, including the London International Animation Festival, StopTrick, Stuttgart Trickfilm International Animated Film Festival, and the Hiroshima International Festival. Her films have also been broadcast on BBC Three, Yorkshire Television, and presented at the Channel 4 Rolling Stock Festival.

Beyond her filmmaking, Katherine's taxidermy installations have been commissioned by various galleries and museums in the Tees Valley region. Her academic writings have appeared in edited collections, including the recent publication The Uncanny and the Afterlife of the Gothic, edited by Manuela D'Amore.

Katherine's research writings examine themes of the uncanny and the human experience through animation, alongside issues of bias and representation within the field. These topics are further explored in her forthcoming book chapter, Pinched: A Study of Perpetual Racial Stereotypes in the Animated Form, which underscores the significance of the 'critical creator.' Additionally, she is interested in the relationship between artificial intelligence, the human and the uncanny.

Lessons from aimation's adaptive culture in the age of technological disruption

As generative AI is seen as a catalyst for new teaching and learning approaches in HE, it urges universities to reinvent themselves and to adapt to these changes effectively. In this age of technological, industrial and pedagogical disruption, we posit that animation can be used a case study for resilience, adaption and innovation. From the 19th century optical toys to Disney's hand-drawn classics, from the CGI revolution to today's AI prompted content, animators have continuously reinvented their craft while preserving its essence.

We present a case study of the animation industry technique of rotoscoping, its technological disruptions, skills and its related pedagogy to offer valuable insights for HE today. Rotoscoping was developed by the Fleischer Brothers in 1915 and refined by Walt Disney. It involves tracing live-action footage to create animation sequences, and it had the potential to eradicate traditional hand-drawn animation but ultimately relied on human intervention to eradicate the 'haunted spectre'. (Thomas and Johnson, 1995: 323). Motion capture has since advanced the rotoscoping technique but still requires human intervention to avoid similar lifeless qualities. AI technologies such as Move AI promise even faster and cheaper motion capture without specialised studio equipment but faces the same criticism around authenticity as rotoscoping did 100 years ago for being a 'kind of non-artistry produced from simply duplicating live action' (Telotte, 2008. 64).

The evolution of rotoscoping with its technological disruptions, skills and its related pedagogy shows that animators have modelled adaptation, both reactively and creatively for over a hundred years. You will find evidence of communities of practice, threshold concepts, reflection in action, continuous feedback cycles and digital literacy offering valuable insights for HE today.

Biography

Claire is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for MA Animation at Teesside University. She is also the Coordinator of Animex Screen, the international student film festival that is part of the annual Animex animation and games festival. Claire regularly publishes and presents her animation studies research papers in journals and conferences such as AnimationStudies 2.0, the Animation (In) Flux Symposium, Edinburgh College of Art and Screens, 2024 and the Animex International Research Conference 2024. She is currently Project Investigator on two live, funded projects with Innovate UK Feasibility studies for AI solutions and XR Network+.

Student centred design - framework, principles and case studies

The future skill development of learners requires educators to reimagine how we approach teaching and learning. This will involve a shift to new modes of delivery such a hyflex and hybrid learning; delivering a diverse range of teaching approaches such as immersive learning, and leveraging AI to support more personalised learning opportunities for students. This session will explore a practical framework to help you design innovative learning experiences for your students.

The session will explore the following questions:

What are the principles and standards that drive best practice in learning design?
What are the steps and questions to consider in the learning design process?
What is the role of generative AI in supporting the learning experience?
What do some best practice case studies look like?

Biography

John Kilroy is founder of the Digital Learning Institute (DLI). The DLI are the global leader in digital learning education and certification. Their mission is to improve the quality of online learning design by helping organisations build their internal capability in digital learning.

Prior to setting up the DLI, John was a digital learning consultant for over 20 years, where he advised some of the world's leading companies and universities on their digital learning strategy, content development and learning technology considerations.

Through DLI, John has been heavily involved in supporting universities to upskill their staff on the design and roll out of micro credentials to industry. John is also working with an advisory group to drive policy and standards for micro credentials in the EU.

Opportunities and challenges for AI in healthcare and medical

Biography

Bharadwaj is a GP Registrar in North West London, NHS Clinical Artificial Intelligence (AI) Fellow, and medical director at Paediatric Mental Health company, Kanjo Health. He completed his medical training at King's College, London, before obtaining a master's in health informatics at the University of Cambridge. He has previously served as clinical lead within the AI Strategy team at NHS England, and has also undertaken the Harvard HealthTech Fellowship at Harvard Medical School. Bharadwaj takes a keen interest in digital health innovation and the safe and effective deployment of AI into clinical practice and has published extensively on these topics. Furthermore, he is passionate about medical education and has previously been involved with curriculum design and development at Brunel Medical School, focussing particularly on the inclusion of digital health education within the curriculum.