After being inspired by various 12 Apps of Christmas initiatives and 10 years of running Santa’s EdVent (a play on Advent) and previous incarnations on Twitter (now X), this year, I decided to try using MyAdvent.net, a free Advent calendar website online. The process of curating this list acts as a review of the year, with some annual reports, along with new open-access resources. I bookmark the resources I want to include, then add them to a spreadsheet, order and lightly theme them, excluding a few in the process.

Scheduling 24 individual posts at noon each day was very time-consuming. The MyAdvent website automatically releases the content posted. I posted a bit.ly link to the Advent Calendar to track how many people engaged with the link, to the SEDA Jiscmail list, LinkedIn, Twitter/X and BlueSky for people to follow at their own pace. I was informed by a member of the Educational Development community the Advent Calendar would expire after 24th December, so I have decided to post all the links below.

Impact

  • 407 individuals engaged directly with the short bit.ly link from 16 countries.
  • The LinkedIn post got 638 impressions (views), 30 reactions, 2 reposts and 1 comment.
  • The Twitter/X post got 279 impressions (views), 3 reposts and 6 likes.
  • The Bluesky post got 2 likes and 1 comment. Currently it doesn’t show the number of views per post.
  • I received several emails and direct messages on social media that people have added several books to their reading lists

The full list

The full list of the #SantasEdVent24 postings on the Advent Calendar is listed below. Enjoy!

  1. Pedagodzilla: Exploring the Realm of Pedagogy Authored by Dr Mark Childs, Prof Rebecca Ferguson, Michael Collins and edited by Elizabeth Ellis (Open Access Book)
  2. Creativity in Education – International Perspectives Edited by Nicole Brown, Amanda Ince, Karen Ramlackhan. (Open Access Book)
  3. Belonging and Identity in STEM Higher Education Edited by Camille Kandiko Howson and Martyn Kingsbury (Open Access Book)
  4. The 6-D model of national culture by Professor Geert Hofstede. Geert Hofstede, assisted by others, came up with six basic issues that society needs to come to term with in order to organize itself. These are called dimensions of culture. Each of them has been expressed on a scale that runs roughly from 0 to 100. (Resources)
  5. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: A card resource for facilitating conversations and learning: Revised edition. This revised version of an equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) card resource comprises a booklet and a set of 27 cards from the University of Hertfordshire.
  6. Teaching One Pages by Jamie Clark. Essential Topics in Learning, Teaching and Assessment explained succinctly and through illustration. (Resources)
  7. LearnHigher Resource Bank—LearnHigher (part of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education) is a network for promoting and facilitating the development and dissemination of high-quality, peer-reviewed resources for learning development in the higher education sector (Resources)
  8. Creating the University of the Future A Global View on Future Skills and Future Higher Education Edited by Ulf-Daniel Ehlers and Laura Eigbrecht. (Open Access Book)
  9. The Manifesto for Teaching and Learning in a Time of Generative AI: A Critical Collective Stance to Better Navigate the Future (Resource)
  10. Generative AI in Higher Education The ChatGPT Effect Edited by Cecilia Ka Yuk Chan and Tom Colloton. A comprehensive examination of the use and impact of Chat GPT and Generative AI on higher education (Open Access Book)
  11. Learning Theories Timeline by Thomas H (Resource)
  12. Lumi H5P Desktop Editor. Create interactive content offline using this new H5P Desktop Editor (Open Source). Check out this short video on using the Lumi Desktop Editor produced and narrated by Jonathan Tulloch, Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, University of East London.
  13. Been to a Good Lecture? In this Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) article, Professors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, discuss what makes a good lecture. (Article). ASCD, formerly known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, is an education non-profit organisation founded in 1943. It’s the US equivalent of the UK Staff and Educational Developers Association, founded in 1993.
  14. 9 Things Every Teacher Should Know by Professor Dylan Wiliam (or as Professor Wiliam corrected me on Twitter when I posted this link earlier this year “9 things I wish I had known when I started teaching“) (Article)
  15. Contains Strong Language is a practical guidance exploring how we can speak more clearly and powerfully about racism. Learn which words and phrases to embrace, and which ones to replace. (Guide)
  16. Patrica Cross Academy, University of Alabama (Open Access Resources)
  17. The EDUCAUSE Horizon Report – Teaching and Learning Edition 2024 profiles the trends and key technologies and practices shaping the future of teaching and learning and envisions several scenarios for that future. It is based on the perspectives and expertise of a global panel of leaders from across the higher education landscape.(Report)
  18. The Innovating Pedagogy 2024 Report by the Open University and Vanderbilt LIVE Learning Innovation Incubator, present a further set of powerful pedagogies and innovations that hold the promise of transformative change (Report)
  19. Higher Education Digital Capabilities Framework. An open-source capability framework for higher education. 4 dimensions, 16 domains and 70+ capabilities (Framework).
  20. International Association of Facilitators Library – find the right tool for your next session (Resource Library)
  21. The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework developed by CAST to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn (Framework)
  22. Active Learning Design Tool – Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. The place to find strategies for any learning and teaching context. (Toolkit)
  23. Pay Attention! 12 ways to improve your focus and concentration span – Guardian Lifestyle. (Article)
  24. Time and workload management for academics by Dr Emily Nordman, University of Glasgow (Guide). Now switch off the devices and have a great Christmas!