The Learning Technology Team would like to say a very big thank you and many congratulations to all the members of academic staff who are due to receive a NILE Ultra Course Award at the University’s Learning and Teaching Conference on Thursday 19th June.

The 2024 winners are:

• Kiran Kaur for BUS2900: Research, Trends and Professional Directions
• Abdul Hye Miah for CJS2007: Crime and Criminal Investigation
• Cleo Cameron for CJS3012: Cyber Crime
• David Meechan & Samantha Weekes for EDU2033: Education and Technology
• Erica Morris & Winnie Pui for EDUM128: Research and Enterprise for Enhanced Academic Practice
• Tanya Richardson & Candiece Spencer for EYS1118: Personal, Academic, and Professional Development 1
• Peter Goy, Candiece Spencer & Robin Sturman-Coombs for EYS2117: Safeguarding and Child Protection
• Carey Allen for PSY1011: Positive Psychology
• Alexia Achtypi & Brenna Farrow for SENM026: Understanding the Autism Spectrum
• Gus Lusack for SLS2041: Cellular Pathology & SLS1039: Biomedical Laboratory Practice

The Ultra Course Awards recognise staff who have created excellent Ultra courses for their students, and each course submitted for an award is reviewed by a panel of experts to ensure that it meets the award criteria, which are that the course:

• Follows the NILE Design Standards for Ultra Courses (https://libguides.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/staff/nile-design/nile-design-standards);
• Is clearly laid out and well-organised at the top level via the use of content containers (learning modules or folders), and that content items within top-level content containers are clearly named and easily identifiable for students, using sub-folders where necessary to organise content within the top-level content containers;
• Contains a range of content and activities for students to take part in.

In addition to reviewing the nominated courses, this year the panel also looked at students’ NILE engagement statistics to see whether courses that met the award criteria were used by students more than other courses. Comparing students’ engagement in NILE courses that received an Ultra Course Award in 2023 or 2024 against the average of all NILE courses, we found that students’ interactions with content in award-winning courses were typically just over twice the average, and that students were spending around 80% more time in the award-winning courses than the average. Clearly, there are likely to be many reasons for students spending more time and being more active in award winning courses than average, but it is, we hope, heartening for Ultra Course Award winners to know that the time spent designing and maintaining their NILE courses may have had a positive effect in this regard.

Nominations for the 2025 Ultra Courses Awards will be open from 1st October to 31st December 2024, and the winners will be announced at the 2025 UON Learning and Teaching Conference.

Information about the 2023 Ultra Course Awards can be found at: NILE Ultra Course Award Winners 2023