The thematic tracks SMW-24

Universal design of the learning environment 

Universal design focuses on making everything that surrounds us (products, environment, IT-solutions/programs and services) accessible to everybody, or to most people. At European Universities, the work is ongoing, and the transition to becoming accessible in all ways is not necessarily easy. How can Universities work to make sure that everybody feels included (1.st generation students, refugees, students with disabilities, physical or cognitive, etc.)? How can the University support the employees in this work? Do we focus enough on ableism in Academia?

According to European legislation, the student`s learning environment must be universally designed. In this track we invite academic and administrative staff to discuss what this means for us, and share competence and best practices when it comes to: 

- universal design of ICT (all learning materials produced, WAD → WCAG 2.1)
- universal design of pedagogy
- universal design of the organization
- universal design of the psychosocial environment

Please note that we have excluded discussions about the physical learning environment, as we see this as an area most educational organizations have focused on for years. 

Educational Development

The educational development track will offer a meeting place for academic and administrative staff involved in quality work at their home institutions. Participants should be interested in learning from colleagues across Europe and prepared to share practices, tools, projects for educational development, and examples from their specific educational contexts.  
 
UiB will share practical examples on how we support course and programme design processes linking pedagogical research and practical methodologies in educational innovation processes, the use of digital tools and the strategic use of external funding, such as the Erasmus+ programme. Together we will explore how universities function and change as teaching and learning communities.
 

Creating a culture for an innovative administration

In recent years the University of Bergen has put a strong emphasis on service development and innovation, offering a range of learning opportunities for administrative staff. The initiative UiB Service Development has been a driving force in the delivery of a user-oriented approach, promoting a flexible organisation that is able to work efficiently in developing services and support for the teaching, research and student services. The initiative offers courses, workshops, and arenas for sharing experiences, developing best practice, and learning. This includes the Service-Innovation programme which builds on principles from design thinking methodology. More than 100 administrative employees have completed this programme since 2019.

So, join us for a week where you will get insight into how the UiB works to promote an administration that is future-oriented, innovative and have an exploratory approach to supporting the core activities of the university.
You will get an opportunity to participate in workshops to learn some of our methods and approaches, as well as meeting many international colleagues. We expect that participants take an active part in the sessions and share how your university work to develop services towards the future. 

AI in reserach management 

AI is a powerful tool that can improve the research process and outcomes. AI can help researchers and research managers to analyze large amounts of information, give better support to researchers, and to work more efficiently.

How can research managers use AI to enhance research proposal support, innovation, and quality in research?

The University of Bergen invites participants in this group to exchange knowledge and share best practices with research managers from international institutions who are using AI to do a better job.