About the courses
Introduction to Learning and Teaching (ILT) is an introductory suite of courses in higher education learning and teaching. It is aimed at anyone who has, or expects to have, a teaching, training, tutoring or laboratory-demonstrating role, or can be taken just out of interest by staff members, including PGTAs/PGRs, at the University of Birmingham.
- Postgraduate teaching assistants (PGTAs): the introduction to the programme, ILT001, is compulsory before starting to teach. A second workshop then needs to be completed before or during teaching.
- Starting from September 2024, these short online courses are available to take on Canvas all year round and are refreshed every September.
- Each course takes up to three hours each.
- Please note that ILT010: Open Classroom will differ slightly, as this involves participant-led activities, such as organising teaching observations.
Choosing your ILT courses
- You can simply pick and choose any topics that are of interest.
- The ten courses all stand alone, but we recommend taking ILT001 first.
- If you take a total of five ILT courses, you are entitled to the Horizon Award (a certificate of attendance of at least five courses). When you have completed five or more, contact pgcertcoursebookings@contacts.bham.ac.uk to request your certificate.
- Once enrolled on a course, you will need to complete an ‘End of course activity’ to confirm completion. This is usually a discussion board or individual submission to encourage reflection. Participants are generally expected to complete the course by the end of the month they request to complete the course. For those studying on ILT010, participants are expected to complete by the end of the ‘Term’ they register for.
- Once you complete the course, you will not need to do anything. The ILT administrative teams will monitor completion and update records. PGRs will have evidence of each course they take on their transcript when they graduate.
Courses available
There are ten courses available. Please see the full list, course descriptions, learning outcomes and registration information.
Requirements for PGTAs
- You must take two ILT workshops in order to be allowed to teach as a PGTA at the UoB.
- Under the University's Code of Practice on Teaching and Academic Support Provided by Registered Students you are not allowed to start teaching unless you have taken ILT001. The only exception is if your department has authorised an exemption e.g. based on higher education teaching qualifications. You should then take your second workshop soon afterwards.
- If you are asked to teach and have not taken your two ILTs yet, your department will pay for the six hours. If you have already taken them, there is no retrospective payment. If you are not sure about your status on the training and whether or not you will be paid, you should raise this with your department/School.
- If you teach small groups in labs, we recommend that for your second workshop you take ILT002.
- If you teach seminars we recommend ILT003.
- We recommend ILT004 for anyone who will be giving feedback to students or assessing as it is useful to get you thinking before you get your department-specific training.
- Because of the importance of creating inclusive environments, we also suggest ILTs 006 (Inclusive Teaching) and 009 (Teaching International Students).