ExPERT+Centre

In 2005, the University of Portsmouth was awarded funding from the Higher Education Funding Council of England to establish the ExPERT Centre, a Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning in the Health-related sciences. This was in recognition of the excellent work in this field already occurring at the University. The Centre’s mission statement is: //To facilitate the adoption of new approaches to learning and teaching and to enhance the pedagogic knowledge base through the performance of educational research. By encouraging scholarship in learning and teaching, we shall enhance the student experience and support the professional development of staff and students alike.//

Therefore one of the key objectives of the ExPERT Centre is to develop new ways to support and promote learning amongst health-related science professionals and to enhance the learning experience of students at the University of Portsmouth.

The Centre has state-of-the-art facilities for developing tomorrow’s health-related scientist, as well as a range of technological resources and expertise. Many of the teaching activities that take place within the centre are intimately linked with sound pedagogic research into the effectiveness of blended learning as a means to encourage deeper learning and to foster self-confidence in skills acquisition.

Our approach to research is holistic and interdisciplinary. This means that we are not only interested in the theory but also in how it may be applied to practice and influence curriculum development and assessment. In addition, we are interested in evaluating how such changes impact on the student learning experience. Our research activities fit into a continuum from concept to impact on our students.

Our research is focussed in two areas, those of simulation and technology-enhanced learning. Underpinning the work in these areas are two cross-cutting themes of assessment and creativity. The former is concerned with the development of models of assessment, which are adapted to suit the needs of learners who are beginning, or involved in, blended learning activities particularly in relation to professional development in the Health-related sciences. The group is particularly interested in the paradigm of “valid” versus “legitimate” evaluation which is central to the complex learning experienced by students in the Health-related sciences in particular. Our research in this area also aims to understand the impact of different models of assessment on the design and management of learning activities and the motivational impact of different models of assessment.