 Hello, everybody, welcome to the session. Last parallel session of the day, so energy. I'm chairing the session. Karina is presenting. And the session is Working and Writing in the Presence of a Period in an Online Space, Facilitating Submissions to Achieve HAA Accreditation. Question mark at the end there. There it is. Scrolling across the screen from NASDAQ. We've got 20 minutes, same as the other parallel sessions. And then with around about five minutes to go, we'll have time for a bit of Q&A. So do comment, say hi, question throughout. In the text chat, I'll keep an eye on that and pick up on that at the end. But other than that, Karina, I'll hand over to you to present. Thank you. Lovely. Thanks, Dave, for the introduction. Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining me, joining us today in this nice, warm-wetted list here around Milton Keynes. I am presenting about this little scholarship project. So I want to thank the fastest scholarship of teaching and innovation in the Faculty of Arts and Social Science for providing us a small grant to conduct this little project. And my project partners are Malik and Paige, just to acknowledge their support and contributions. So what I have for us today, I give a little bit about the background and the rationale for the project. Why did we need to do this? About the project itself, some phases about the writing partnership, results so far, and the next steps. So you may have been with me, I was presenting at 2 o'clock, so I probably gave enough introduction about what a HEA fellowship is, so I'm not going to approach that part of it. But it is important to highlight where we are at, why we are here. It seems that the higher education sector has been driving the need of a HEA fellowship recognition as an indication of institutional excellence in teaching. So we all now have to do, from time to time, the TEF report and HEA fellowships are recognized there, are reported there. So like many institutions, you have developed some approaches to encourage more people to apply for their recognition for their fellowship. We do have an institutional scheme, an internal scheme, which is fully online and accredited, which is called Aplaud. This is a short name for a very big, short acronym for a big name. But the problem is that Aplaud is a big scheme, support lots of candidates across lots of all our faculties and many units, because it's not only teaching, it's about our colleagues that support learning across the institution as well, so it's about supporting them. But because it is a large scheme and we have lots of candidates, we don't tailor support, unfortunately. We have several cohorts, three cohorts per year, and we deliver three workshops per cohort, and they go through some steps of the process. And that's it. So without this tailor support, some candidates don't finish, don't complete, postpone submission, or withdraw from the scheme. So we have been in contact with some faculties to then support us and provide, to provide that additional support if they can. And one of the faculties is supporting us through a small scholarship project. So they are looking into providing that further support, even to invest into this, which is fantastic. So in this one, this particular project I'm going to report today, it is about developing, helping these candidates to continue motivate and help each other in pairs within the same faculty remotely. Like I said, about the project, what is this about? So it's about helping colleagues to complete and achieve their fellowship. It is about pairing them within the same faculty because it's much easier and the project is funded by that faculty. So it's about providing them that additional support and structure to work in pairs. This work is underpinned by existing research on academic writing groups and commitment to others to work. Particularly, we're working with an accountability partner. Apparently, it suggests that working in a social presence of others, increased motivation, persistent and successful completion. So we were really excited by the existing literature to do this project. It is an 18-month project and involves two cohorts. So one has finished, that's why we are presenting some of the data today. And another one has started on the 1st of August. And we will run an evaluation after that. So after the two of them finished, so we then run a full evaluation of the project to get things going and see capture progress and their feedback, candidates feedback on the project and how we can improve phases. So this is about pairing colleagues. So it's about pairing two, preferably two, colleagues from the same faculty to work on their applications. And we divided the process in three phases. One is about familiarization, get familiar with the paperwork that is required. Because if you don't know, to apply for a HTA fellowship requires some paperwork, some understanding of the UK PSF and develop your case around those standards and framework. We as a scheme have also our own paperwork and requirements. So it's important that candidates are familiar with the bigger picture, with the process itself. The second phase is about to get it written. That's the hard part. Is to make time, carve time to actually write. And we all have this problem not only for fellowship but for any of the writing. We needed to do because we are very busy. And then the final phase is about finishing off. So about editing, references, sanity, the mentors to have a look and provide feedback. But I really wanted to focus on phase two, because it is challenging. So and I found that this picture really tells the story of the challenge that can be to get started with our writing. It's not always easy. And that's why we decided to develop this little project. And in particular, to develop this little structure for to help colleagues to write. So at this point, colleagues will be already paid. So they attend information session who are interested. So we invite everybody from the faculty to attend a session. And then we explain what it is and the time commitment. And ask who would like to get engaged. Then we pay them or they pay themselves during the session, the information session, because it's very informal. And they sometimes get to know each other. Or sometimes they already know each other from the same faculty. So then we pair these candidates. And these candidates then receive an information pack that includes this structure. And this structure is the foundation of the pairing writing groups. So we ask them to buy by the time they start, they need to be connected together. So they sit down for 10, 15 minutes to prepare and unload, to make a commitment even, to get to know each other sometimes, develop a rapport, and then have the sprint, 20 minutes for writing, to sit and write the sprint. Then after the 20 minutes finish, then we ask them to spend five to 10 minutes to reflect, share their progress and motivate each other and continue for another 20 minutes. So after maybe two sessions of 20 minutes with five minutes in the middle, maybe you have a longer break. So this approach, it's not new. So you may be familiar with the Pomodoro approach or write right now approach. So this is a mix of these two to fit our colleagues in this particular program. So together with the information packed and with the documents we sent to them, we also give some tips of how they can, they can get ready for this. So we ask them to arrange a meeting and book in their calendars and really enter that in their calendars. We ask candidates to pick a day and time wisely that really suits them. For example, it wouldn't suit me if I pick on Monday because Monday morning mostly is a day where I deal with paperwork, emails, admin, so that wouldn't work for me. So be strategic on the day that is really suitable for you. Give this meeting the same respect as any other commitment in your work calendar. We tend, a lot of us, not all, but a lot of us and I am guilt of that too. My things, our things can always wait. We prioritize everything else, but my promotion or my paper or my claim for HAA fellowship can wait while other things come. I've done many times this with study leave, for example. So yes, and they will be running against a timeframe, a deadline. So we ask candidates to really commit to the calendar, to the book, to the calendar commitment they made. Agree on what you are going to do with your partner and set the 20-minute timer. It's available as an app. So if you look for a Pomodoro approach, Pomodoro app, Pomodoro timer, you will find as an app and can help you to keep on time, including the five minutes break. So I use it, I use it for some of my tasks as well. So mute any distractions like email. So turn your emails off, right with the mic muted. So by then they will be in a meeting, like a Teams meeting or a Skype for business or Zoom meeting. So they will be in the presence of each other online, but in their own home, as we do now. And we ask them to mute the microphone and even sometimes to turn off the camera. But be there and then once the time finishes, the 20-minute finishes, then they turn on the camera and the microphone and have a chat and a reflection. So because the social presence matters, it's very important, is your accountability. Keep each other on the meeting agenda because some of them in their value, in the little questionnaire we sent to them, some of them said that they actually, some didn't even talked about their claim. They were just like, it was just nice to catch up, which is good because a lot of our colleagues now, mostly now because of the pandemic, are disconnected from each other. So it is important, it was for them, important to catch up and share practice. It's still valid by sharing practice, but the intention was to get the results and bring your necessary supplies. Chocolates, coffee, water is always good to have with you. These are real needs. Results so far. We, in the previous cohorts, 17 colleagues from this faculty were registered for the scheme, four joined formally and two informally. Yes, it was a small number of people. All who joined the trial submitted their application. We were very pleased, but we were even happier when all were successful. So this was really good, a good result from the first way we were trialing this. It is, is this evidence that this works? Probably not. It's this evidence that their reputation, absolutely yes. So absolutely yes, has petitioned to help people to keep on track, motivate, submit and even be successful. More results, so we have asked them if they think the writing with a partner has helped them to progress the application and some of them said that it did considerably help them. So we were happy with that, but again, numbers are not big, but it's promising. There has been impact and this one is beyond the completion of application and being successful. The person said there is a huge element here of sharing good practice, swapping ideas and learning from the ways different subject areas work, because even though they were from the same faculty, they were in different schools and different disciplines. So it was really good way to communicate a good practice across colleagues. So that's it from me. Thank you. If you have any questions you can send to the team or you can look for me. My contact details are also on the website and the conference website. So happy to share these slides and continue this conversation. I'm stopped sharing here. Dave, I, that's all from me, but would like to hear from colleagues too. Yeah, lovely. Thanks for that. Thanks for running to time. It's pretty quiet in Chatland. I think everybody's really, really hot. It's 28 degrees here. It is hot. Which would be so fine if it was like mid-August or late July, but it's just confusing. So, I want to ask... And we were on holidays in a beach, for example. Not here. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's not the ideal scenario for... No. Look, so if people do have any questions, do post them to the chat now. But I want to ask about how people, if you've got any information on how people responded to the kind of actual moment of sort of co-writing and whether they found that, I mean, it's something that I quite enjoy because if I know there's somebody in that space with me then I'm more likely to concentrate and do some actual work. Did people find that the actual being in the same space together and editing each other's words or whatever, did they find that easy to do or strange or pressured? I mean, obviously it must have been a success if you got everybody through because we run HAA fellowship scheme at my institution and a lot of people find it very difficult to crack on and do it. It's quite an iterative process. So how do people find the sort of practice of co-writing online? Because there's nothing quite like it offline. No, I've joined a writing retreat this year and the facilitator just ran this. It was the Pomodoro approach all the time for the whole morning, three mornings in a row. And we were all writing different things but the commitment of being there and feeling like, oh, I needed to produce something, it's quite something. So there is a lot of pressure there. So I just wonder if colleagues have joined writing retreats online. Yeah, it's not something that I've done that for me. It's always just being with colleagues but it's worked pretty well. I guess what it is is that as soon as you know that there's somebody in that sort of shared document with you and you're chatting to them, then you kind of up your game, don't you? Concentrate a little bit more, you get a little bit. I mean, I know you've got that kind of, what's it called, the Pomor, I can never pronounce it. Pomodoro, it's like a pizza. Okay, so you've got the pizza technique because I think there's a string to that because you're switching off distractions, aren't you? You've got this inherent sort of structure. But so I can understand how that helps with focus. I mean, I'll find any excuse not to write. It's one of the reasons that I haven't published that much. So, but I think, I mean, I guess that that must be working that kind of accountability to somebody else that's very iterative and very in the moment. Yeah, yeah. Oh, thanks. So we've had a comment here. Yeah, it is good for time management overall, isn't it? Yes. I don't think I'd ever stick to it though. There's a comment from Coco there. Yes. Oh, okay, rogue in a rogue way, which I read as a rouge way, which was strange for a second. Yeah, I don't know. Is it rogue or is it just helpful? I think one of the things that we've started to get good at over the pandemic is find ways to be co-present and to co-work whilst not being physically co-located. You don't actually have to be in the same room to be in the same place, if you see what I mean. So I'm a big fan of these kind of methods that actually, because my feeling is as soon as there's two people in a shared document, the document changes from a tool to a space or a place. And certainly the most enjoyable moments of work that I've had over the pandemic have been working in, like shared documents or shared padlets or shared Myro or mural spaces. Yes, yeah. Karla has also said that, now I've just, before I comment on Karla's Coco, yes. So if you can find a colleague, if you can find a colleague that also are going into, are interested in their senior fellow, try this method, even if it is just in the beginning, it really helps to focus. And because it's about your practice, you can really just write. You don't have to do it. You will need references eventually. You will need a reference to back your scholarship. But because it's your practice and you can dump a lot of ideas down. We don't much worried about typing and errors and anything. So if you can dump as much as you can 20 minutes and then check again on them, on each other, it probably, it could help. It could help, you never know. It has helped some people. And we have even a bigger group now engaged in the new cohort. Karla has mentioned about a PhD writing retreat that is done online. Thanks, Karla, for sharing that. Again, time is lots distracted because when we are online, when we are at a distance, so we can get lost, we can get distracted, we are very busy. So it's good, we can get lost. Well, we can, there is so much work, we can get lost. So, but we can then focus on a task for a period of time because as you know, that you will be contacting your colleague or then you will regroup with the retreat people, for example, and then have to talk about your progress. But also because you wanted to do something productive. You wanted to use that time in a productive way. Well, there's something really interesting about this that's just struck me looking at the discussion because coming from the University of Arts London, I think what it is is it's a form of creative anxiety. It's like the distress of the blank page, isn't it? And one of the things that people do in life drawing is they force you to do very, very, very quick drawings. So they'll say you've got 30 seconds to do a drawing or a minute to do a drawing because sometimes it's better to just put something down than nothing down. And I can see how the co-writing and the accountability to come back and talk because it's worse to have nothing to talk about when you come back than it is to have something that's not quite right to talk about, isn't it? And you know, we do the same for our students all the time. We kind of, we encourage our students to say, hey, show us your work in progress. Let's discuss it. Truth is, it's really hard. It's quite distressing. And actually you need a bit of a structure around that to help you to do that. But I think any of these processes, especially around writing, are really, really useful if they encourage you just to get started because any writing process is draft and edit and edit and edit and edit. And once I learned that even the most brilliant writers don't get it right first time, but they draft and edit and edit and edit and edit, I thought, oh, maybe I can do this. Yes. So I think for me, just, I think for me it would be really useful if we saw writing as a creative practice rather than as an academic practice, it's both because then you wouldn't feel quite so weird about being anxious about it. Because if I gave you a canvas and a load of paints and I said, but something, you know, that's quite a sharp moment, isn't it? But when we open up a blank word document apparently, that's not a big deal. I think it's a big deal. I think it's the same, you know. And Adebsi, is that my correct spelling your name? Pronounce your name, Adebsi, Adebsi. Anyway, we don't feel bad. We all make excuses like Dave was saying for not writing. So we all make an excuse. And when I block time for study leave, for example, something else comes up, dang, I'm doing something. So it's always easier not to write, isn't it? It's always easier not to write. But yeah, we are under a lot of pressure. And but this type of, that's why it's key to get a partner in the same level, like for example, the fellowship. It's good to get a partner because you are not going to show this. It's not the final product. It's really some ideas down. And by having someone appear, it really helps you to reflect on what you did. And sometimes talk about our teaching practice in this case, but any other work, talking about our work really helps us to reflect. Reflect on what we've done and what can be added and maybe it doesn't need to be added. And get some ideas down. It does help. It does, I use it. I use it from time to time, not just for writing. When to get my to-do list ticked, I get, okay, 20 minutes for this task. I'm going to, it's like someone else mentioned here in the chat box for time management in general. It's good. Great, okay. Well, thank you for that. Thanks and thanks for the contributions in the chat from people. And thank you for bringing that, that will be precise presentation that you did in just under 20 minutes. So you must have got into the habit. We better wrap up there. I have my Pomodoro on. Yeah, there it is, there it is. We better wrap up there so that we've got time to take a little break before the keynote starts for, but great to see people. And yeah, thanks very much. Cheers all. Thanks everyone. Thanks Dave for sharing. Thanks everyone for your contributions.