Campus Talks by Times Higher Education

An expert in student-centred instructional design talks through the process of creating effective university courses, including the potential of artificial intelligence to support feedback and revision

When course design is undertaken backwards, learning outcomes become the starting point, then assessment and finally classroom activities. The aim is to create a learning environment where students feel motivated and engaged. 

But what are the key considerations for creating effective modules and units and the indicators that show this has been achieved? 

For this episode, we talk to Daniel Guberman, a senior instructional developer and assistant director of student-centred pedagogy in the Center for Instructional Excellence at Purdue University. Guberman is co-author, with colleagues Emily M. Bonem and Chantal Levesque-Bristol, of Designing Impactful College Courses: Applying Self-Determination Theory to Unleash the Potential of Autonomy-Supportive Learning Environments (Routledge, 2026). He brings to this conversation a keen interest in grading protocols and insights from Purdue's long-running Impact instructor development programme.

To learn more about course design for a new age, head to the latest Campus spotlight guide.

To book a place at the Innovation & Impact Summit 2026 in Seoul on 17-19 November: Book tickets | THE Innovation & Impact Summit 2026.

A world leading data visualisation expert talks about leading the global Human Reference Atlas initiative and how collaboration enables researchers to think far bigger

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“Oftentimes it's said that if you want to go fast, you go alone, but I don't think you can go far this way. If you want to go far, you have to go together.”

So states Katy Börner during this episode of Campus Talks, in which we ask her about her ground-breaking project aimed at mapping all the anatomical structures and human cells in the human body, the Human Reference Atlas (HRA).

This project relies on the input of thousands of researchers across multiple disciplines from all over the world, including several other ambitious physiological ‘atlasing’ efforts which are working in parallel to the HRA.

The Victor H. Yngve Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Information Science at Indiana University, Katy is also a founding director of the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science (CNS) Center and she is a curator of the international Places & Spaces: Mapping Science exhibition.

She explains how she developed such an interest in data visualisation work and why she has embraced an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research throughout her career.

 

To find out more about the Human Reference Atlas:

Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP): 3D Human Reference Atlas construction and usage

Human Reference Atlas introduction and training

Upcoming events for those interested in the Human Reference Atlas

Whole Person Physiome Jamboree, August 24 to 25, 2026

Human Reference Atlas, Human Phenotype Ontology, Whole Person Physiome and other EU efforts hackathon, August 27 to 28.

 

To book a place at the Innovation & Impact Summit 2026 in Seoul from 17 to 19 November: Book tickets | THE Innovation & Impact Summit 2026.

Outreach is the way in which universities share their research and expertise with groups beyond the institution. Think school visits, science demonstrations, workshops, campus tours, online resources, summer school or festivals. These activities are often aimed at widening participation and inspiring children, teenagers and others – no matter their background – to pursue higher education. 

And it is works. The Higher Education Access Tracker service found that UK students eligible for free school meals who engaged in intensive outreach were up to 48 per cent more likely to progress to higher education.

For this episode, we speak to Lorraine Coghill, who is the deputy director of science engagement at Durham University. With a PhD in biomedical and clinical laboratory sciences, she has over 20 years’ of educational engagement experience, working with schools, universities, science centres, festivals, and educational and community organisations in the UK and Europe. She also contributes to national and international engagement initiatives, including Project Earth, and serves as co-chair of the Space North East England Skills and Outreach Group. Durham’s Stargoal project, which brings together football, physics and gender representation in sport, won the Partnering with Schools category at the 2024 Odgen Trust Outreach Awards. 

To learn more about the secrets of successful university outreach, head to our latest spotlight guide.

In a globalised world, and the increased internationalisation of higher education, multilingualism can be a key strength for universities. The ability to communicate in more than one language has cognitive and learning benefits, as well as boosting communication skills, employability, cultural awareness and an open mindset.

So, how can universities, which often host speakers of scores of languages, capitalise on this skill set?

For this episode, we talk to Anwei Feng, a professor in language education whose research and extensive publications focus on bi- and trilingualism with a particular interest in Chinese minority languages. He is chair professor of multilingual education in the School of Education and English in the Institution of Asia and Pacific Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Feng, who speaks Mandarin, English and several Chinese dialects, has worked at universities in China, Qatar, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK, where he did his PhD. He is a key founder and vice-president of the Chinese Society of Multilingualism and Multilingual Education and is co-editor, with Bob Adamson, Zhen Li and Christine Lee, of Nurturing Glocal Talents: The Role of China’s Transnational Higher Education (Routledge), which will be published later this year.

For more advice and insight to support student success in the multilingual classroom, head to the latest spotlight guide on Campus.

A behaviour change expert explains what is required to shift a whole campus community towards more environmentally sustainable habits.

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To reach net zero, institutions need to shift the behaviour of their whole campus community towards reducing their carbon footprint and making greener daily choices. This means changing long established habits among thousands of diverse students and staff. How can universities do this without becoming too dictatorial?

We asked behaviour change expert Esther Papies, a professor at Radboud University in the Netherlands, to explain what drives successful behaviour change and therefore what strategies universities need to employ to reduce their overall emissions and create greener campuses.

Esther’s research examines the social and psychological processes in the transition to healthier, more sustainable and more equitable choices, particularly relating to diet. She has published extensively on the motivations and barriers for reducing meat and dairy intake, the motivation for climate action among privileged individuals and emotional experiences relating to climate change.

She provides a clear break down of what is needed to support long term behaviour change in favour of more sustainable lifestyles and shares advice on how to overcome inevitable resistance to altering long held behavioural norms such as meat eating and driving cars.