Mrs Laura Stott

I plan, conduct and deliver all Academic Success support within the faculty of KSA, through workshops, timetabled teaching and one-to-one tutorials. I keeps abreast of NSS and KSS metrics and am mindful of Kingston University's Inclusive Curriculum Framework, reviewing my teaching content and practice accordingly. An example of this is when I discovered, in 2019/20, that high levels of students engaging in the KSA ASC had summaries of Support Needs (SoSN); 27.8% of the students who engaged with the KSA ASC had a declared disability. I realised that I needed to adjust my teaching so that students with varied learning styles would still find my teaching inclusive and accessible. One responds to this was to ensure that in addition to synchronously delivering workshops, I also made recorded workshops available via the Canvas VLE. This was particularly for students who have processing speed difficulties, for those who would benefit from using the additional Teams Transcribe tool due to hearing issues or needing simultaneous communication streams, or for those students in digital poverty and unable to access live online sessions.

During the move to online teaching and blended learning as a result of COVID lockdowns, I attended numerous CPD events run internally by LTEC and external organisations such as Advance HE, Wonkhe@home, OfS and HEPPP UWE Bristol. The focus of the sessions was to improve my teaching methods, increase my use of technological tools to aid accessibility, participation, and inclusion, and also to internationalize my teaching materials. I now use polls and quizzes to enhance student engagement and aid with learning scaffolding during workshops. I have also moved toward using a more multimedia style of teaching by incorporating the addition of mini videos found on Linkedin Learning and TEDx.

For many years I have worked alongside colleagues during HeadStart events supporting incoming KSA Foundation and Level 4 students. I also collaborate with colleagues in Careers and Employability providing cross-faculty Academic Success sessions for undergraduates and postgraduates during the Careers Festival and the Kingston UniversityEnrichment Week..

In addition to my role at KU, I became the Safeguarding Lead Governor at a local infant school in 2021. I received professional training via the Schools Alliance for Excellence regarding both safeguarding within education and special educational needs, and have undertaken a Level 2 qualification in Understanding Specific Learning Difficulties. I have taken this broader understanding of educational legislation (such as KCSIE 2022) and processes, and learning differences, which aids me in my role at KU with adult learners. This training has given me an appreciation of the educational support processes for SEND students prior to entering HE, as well as an awareness of the range of potential safeguarding triggers and specialist advice agencies for KU students. 

Qualifications and expertise

• MA Environmental Psychology

Areas of specialism

• Environmental Psychology
• Sustainability
• Building Design for the visually impaired

Scholarly affiliations

• Environmental Psychology Dept, Surrey University

Publications

In addition to my role at KU, I effectively engage with Professional and external public/civic organisations. In 2021 I took on the civic role as ‘SEND' and ‘Safeguarding' Governor at a local school, enabling me to be an ambassador for Kingston University in another education setting, heightening KU's link with the school and parents, and raising KU's reputation and profile. I remain active within the field of Environmental Psychology, and am a member of IAPS (International Association of People-Environment Studies). I attend conferences, such as Sustainable Earth 2021, and share information about environmentally focused projects and teaching activities within KSA (e.g. the Sustainable Materials Library).

I collaborate with other Academic Success Centres within KU to exchange professional practice and share ideas and knowledge around pedagogy, improving outcomes for the students who engage with the service. As KSA Academic Success Officer, I feel the responsibility to enhance, amongst other metrics, student progression and attainment. To this end, I was part of a research team conducting an Access Agreement-funded research project examining KSA students' experiences (particularly SEND students) of online assessment and feedback. The outcome was the implementation of new consistent marking criteria and rubrics, and recommendations for staff training on VLE technologies. Additionally, I plan to conduct research examining students' potential barriers to use of the KSA Academic Success Centre (ASC). The ASC is particularly under-utilised by BAME students, and therefore research will focus on interviews with current KU students and members of the BAME Alumni Advisory Group.

I have participated in more than a dozen CPD courses since 2021 (details of some are in the Management and Teaching section below) which have directly impacted my teaching and thus benefitted the academic life of students at Kingston University. I have also engaged in training in unconscious bias, implicit assumptions, and Eurocentric teaching. 

Qualifications and expertise

• BSc Psychology
• MSc Environmental Psychology
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Safeguarding: How to Fulfil the Governance Role (NGA e-Learning course) (2022)

Professional and scholarly affiliations

• IAPS (International Association of People-Environment Studies)
• Advance HE

I run the Kingston School of Art Academic Success Centre (KSA ASC), and therefore have responsibility over the service provision and direction of this support service. I also attend and contribute to the KSA Faculty Education Committee, the purpose of which is to monitor the quality of taught provision, consider new academic developments, and develop, support and monitor policies and practices that enhance KSA's teaching quality, learning environment and student outcomes. In addition, I am an active member of the bi-monthly ADLT team meetings, which aim to monitor progress against the Faculty Education Strategy and other Faculty strategic priorities. I also aim to collaborate as much as possible with other KU student services, and for the last few years have worked with colleagues in the School of Architecture and in Careers and Employability on the 'Access to Architecture' initiative. This initiative was designed to support students with writing cover letters, CVs and preparing for interviews with Architecture practices for summer internships.

Since 2020, I have attended a significant amount of training around online teaching, blended learning, online safety and training on the Canvas Virtual Learning Environment. I have used this training to embed tools such as Mentimeter and Kahoot quizzes, Microsoft Form questionnaires, and other learning resources such as videos from Linkedin Learning, within my workshops to make the sessions more engaging. I also collate student and staff feedback regarding the KSA ASC teaching and resources, using responses to adapt and improve teaching materials and subject cover. In the academic year 2022/23, for example, a new workshop and self-help guide were produced to address the issue of student Stress Management

Increases in student demand, and the recent assimilation of students from the school of Arts, Culture & Communication into the KSA faculty, has resulted in an uptick in the KSA Academic Success Centre caseload. To address this, the centre has employed several Hourly Paid Lecturers who assist in providing students with formative written feedback for academic assignments. This has involved me acquiring new skills as a Line Manager such as using the university's Unified recruitment system, training staff, and managing a budget. Additional staff will enable more student support; an essential and beneficial use of funding. University data shows that in 2019/20 students who engaged with the KSA ASC had significantly higher progression rates at 1st attempt (73.1%) and following reassessment (98.9%) than non-engaged KSA students (66.7% and 87.9% respectively).

Qualifications and expertise

• GDPR Essentials Training (2022)
• Mental Health First Aid Adult Course (MFA England) (2022)
• KU Safeguarding Training (2022)
• KU Unconscious Bias Training (2021)
• LTEC CPD course on 'Core Technologies for Blended Learning - Enhancing Student Contribution Using Office 365' (2021)
• LTEC Developing Active Learning with Asynchronous and Synchronous Activities Training (2020)
• LTEC Accessible and Inclusive Learning Online (2020)
• Advance HE Webinar - From Emergency Teaching to Effective Online Education (2021)
• Advanced HEA webinar – Internationalising the Curriculum (2020)

University responsibilities

• Academic Success Officer for Kingston School of Art, Kingston University
• Member of KSA Faculty Education Committee

Public and CIVIC roles

• SEND and Safeguarding Governor at St Peter and St Paul School, Chaldon