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UCL Life Learning funds eight new short courses
7 December 2015
This summer, the Life Learning team launched its first round of investment funding aimed at helping new UCL short courses get off the ground and existing courses to be developed. Eight projects from across UCL will be funded as a result and their development is already underway.
UCL 2034, the Education Strategy 2016-21 and the Global Engagement Strategy, commit the university to develop its Life Learning activity. This includes short courses and CPD for career advancement and personal or professional development. The Life Learning team was set up to support staff and help the university become recognised as a global provider of short courses and CPD.
Finding ways to overcome barriers to course development
Feedback from staff showed that one of the major barriers to developing short courses was funding. The team is aware how valuable even a small amount of funding can be, as they invested in two projects during the 2014/15 financial year:
1. Deafness, Cognition and Language (DCAL)’s online deaf awareness course, to be launched in early 2016. Life Learning funded the filming of videos and the backfilling of project management time.
2. The English department’s development of CPD training courses to support their Englicious project - a free online learning tool for teaching English grammar in primary and secondary schools. Life Learning funded academic time and video production.
The Life Learning team secured funding for the 2015/16 financial year to allow them to launch an application process in June 2015 and help distribute the funds to new short-course development projects across UCL.
A huge range of applications received
The team were very impressed by the range, quality and number of applications received. In total, 35 applications covering all four faculties (see below) requested over £600k of financial support in total for back-filling academic time, instructional designers, marketing and other requests.
After lengthy deliberation, eight projects were chosen to receive kick-starter funds from £15,000 to £25,000.
The eight projects, outlined below, cover a variety of subjects and delivery methods. Some are face-to-face but many use UCL’s externally facing virtual learning environment, UCLeXtend and offer either blended or fully online short courses.
The funded projects
| Department | Topic | Format | Led by.. |
| Translational Research Office | A series of courses in therapeutic drug discovery starting with antibody targeted therapies | Online via UCLeXtend | Dr Mohammed Jaffar and Dr Judy Hayler |
| Institute of Ophthalmology in partnership with Moorfields Eye Hospital | Updating clinicians on the latest developments in retinal diseases | Online via UCLeXtend | Dr Oren Tomkins-Netzer |
| Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR) | A series of courses targeting different audiences concerned with disaster recovery and managing risk | Face-to-face | Fatemeh Arefian |
| Institute of Neurology | A course designed to educate the multi-professional teams situated in hyperacute stroke units with the latest knowledge and techniques | Blended learning via UCLeXtend | Dr Sumanjit Gill |
| Institute of Child Health in partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital and Harvard University | An international blended learning opportunity for paediatric clinicians to update their skills in a variety of modules | Blended learning via Harvard’s online learning platform with face-to-face workshops delivered at UCL | Prof. Paul Winyard |
| Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering | Life-cycle assessment (assessing the environmental impacts of products and technologies) and its application in the real world | Blended learning via UCLeXtend | Dr Aiduan Borrion |
| A joint project from the Bartlett and Infection and Division of Immunity (SLMS) | A course in biosafety design for healthcare settings | Online course (via UCLeXtend) with supporting summer school | Prof. Andrew Edkins and Prof. Tim McHugh |
| Division of Medicine | The latest knowledge on technology, clinical trials and other issues in biomedicine for investors and other financial professionals | Face-to-face | Dr Ross Breckenridge |
Support from the Life Learning team
The project leads met for a kick-off workshop on 25 November, covering the support and advice they would receive from the Life Learning and E-learning environments teams on costing and pricing, online learning, marketing, learning design and evaluation. The projects leads are now working closely with the both teams utilising resources as appropriate and looking forward to delivering their courses over the coming months.
The Life Learning team will share progress, lessons learned and other benefits with the UCL community so more short courses can benefit from this process.
The next funding opportunity
The Life Learning team is planning to make a further funding call in summer 2016.
Contact the Life Learning team if you have any questions or need any support in designing and delivering short courses and CPD.
Read more about Life Learning and our services.