Microgrant Incubation Fellows 25-26
The Exeter Education Incubator funded 11 Incubation innovation projects in the academic year 25-26. All these projects were delivered by our educators - academic and professional service colleagues from across the University from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives.
We are pleased to introduce our Microgrant Fellows 25-26.
Ensuring Robust, Authentic, and Inclusive Computer Science Assessment in a World with Generative AI Tools
Project team: Dr David Walker
This project aims to redesign practical assessments to address the growing impact of generative AI in higher education. It will develop assessment approaches that are more secure and resistant to AI-generated solutions, while strengthening links between assessments and taught sessions to improve engagement. The project also seeks to educate students on the capabilities and limitations of generative AI to support ethical and informed use. Alongside this, it will explore appropriate integration of AI into selected assessments to reflect industry practice. Finally, it will pilot authentic, secure assessment formats using real-world datasets, peer learning, and new computing laboratory environments.
Gamification of Risk Management for Project Management Apprentices using a Prototype VR Simulation
Project team: Dr Onyekachi Onuoha and Stavroula Bibila
This innovative project is developing a Virtual Reality (VR) training prototype that gamifies risk management through immersive, industry-specific scenarios. This simulation would offer learners the digital leisure built on playful study design, providing an immersive learning experience with practical scenarios and an environment to gain skills in risk identification, analysis, response/mitigation, stakeholder engagement, with continuous monitoring. At every stage, they will need to make critical decisions that affect project success, earning points, or facing penalties. This tool will help learners apply theory in a safe, dynamic, and interactive space. The scenarios will be co-created with industry partners, academic experts, and apprentices to ensure authenticity and relevance. By combining data-powered learning with gamification, this VR experience offers an engaging, practical approach to risk management education, aligning with real-world challenges and preparing learners for project and business leadership.
AI Literacy and Responsible Use amongst International Students in Higher Education: A Change Lab Intervention (also aligned with the theme: Considering Assessment: Inclusion, Authenticity and Resilience)
Project team: Emma Sweeney, Andrea Donahy, Felicia Heard and Matt Lawrence
This project explores approaches to improving AI literacy among university students and faculties using a Change Lab (CL) intervention. Focusing specifically on international students, it examines strategies for responsible AI use in academic settings and seeks to inform how we as an institution can effectively develop AI literacy among international students and faculty members. Through the intervention, we aim to identify strategies that can be used to promote responsible use of generative AI and uphold academic integrity, whilst also leveraging the transformative power of AI.
AI Pre-processing to Improve Marking Efficiency for Labelled Diagrams (also aligned with the theme: Considering Assessment: Inclusion, Authenticity and Resilience)
Project team: Professor Barrie Cooper and Pierre de Brosses
This project explores how to effectively assess free-form student outputs such as labelled diagrams, graphs, flow charts, and process models, which are common across many disciplines. It addresses the challenge of efficiently marking bespoke or randomised responses and investigates whether generative AI tools can support this process. A key focus is the potential use of AI (e.g. ChatGPT) to pre-process submissions into structured formats to aid marking, alongside consideration of technical, ethical, intellectual property, and copyright issues. The project will develop a scalable prototype and evaluate AI-supported marking against human-only approaches to assess accuracy, efficiency, and educational value.
Version History Software for Student Assessment: A Potential Solution to Develop AI Resilient Assessments and to Support Students’ Academic Writing Skills (also aligned with the theme: Considering Assessment: Inclusion, Authenticity and Resilience)
Project team: Dr Judith Kleine Staarman and Dr Nicholas Bremner
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming academic writing, raising urgent questions about how these technologies re-shape both writing practices and the assessment of academic writing. Student use of GenAI may limit development of key academic skills such as reading comprehension, idea development and critical thinking. This Incubator project aims to support students’ academic writing using version history software (MSWord, GoogleDocs, Process Feedback), which provide detailed insights into how students draft, revise, and refine their work. We will examine how these tools can assist lecturers with assessment and marking, by demonstrating student authorship through revision histories. More significantly, we will investigate how they can support students to structure and reflect on their knowledge, thinking and argumentation through the drafting process, thereby developing key academic skills.
Inclusion of visually impaired students in practical science laboratories (also aligned with the themes: Generative AI and Data Powered Learning; Future Positive Skills)
Project team: Dr David Horsell, Dr Éric Hébrard, Dr Mike Deeks and Dr Remy Chait
This project addresses the accessibility of practical science degree modules for visually-impaired students. Could a set of experiments be designed that will ensure such students get the same level of experience of practical laboratory sessions as other students in the same class using exactly the same materials? We will embed this challenge in a Natural Sciences Group Project module where a small team of third-year students will create and test prototype tactile materials (labels, worksheet instructions and orientation information) on both a braille embosser and 3D printer for use in a core first-year undergraduate experiment. This will help us to understand how experiments involving instruments, chemicals and biological materials could work from both a safety and learning perspective for all students.
Decolonising Sustainability Education: Co-creating Inclusive, Intercultural and Future-Positive Curricula with Students
Project team: Professor Angela Christidis, Anamul Haque, Mengqi Zhang, Vinayak Sharma and Suraiya Hameed
This project aims to decolonise sustainability education in business and finance at the University of Exeter by embedding diverse cultural perspectives and student voice in curriculum design. Through student-led focus groups, story circles, and co-creation workshops, staff and students will develop case studies and learning resources that move beyond Eurocentric narratives and promote inclusive, ethical leadership. These materials will be piloted in selected modules and supported by a digital toolkit for wider use. By empowering students as co-creators and integrating intercultural perspectives, the project enhances engagement and belonging, while helping develop globally aware graduates equipped to lead sustainable and inclusive change.
Into the Archives: Developing Skills and Experience in Physical Archives
Project team: Dr Rebecca Williams, Ed Selkirk Ford and Alexandra Warminski
Archives are essential to historical research and widely used across industries. While digitised archives have expanded access, they cover only a small portion of materials and have significant environmental costs. Physical archives therefore remain crucial, yet undergraduate students often lack hands-on experience, with practical exposure typically beginning at postgraduate level. This particularly disadvantages those unable to travel independently. This project will partner with local archives to introduce students to physical collections and develop practical research skills. It will create interactive teaching materials for the Level 1 module Becoming a Historian (Extended), with potential to expand across the wider History curriculum at Exeter.
Mindcraft: Video games for transferable skills
Project team: Dr Jenny Harris, Dr Federico Palmisani and Dr Tom Ridler
Many undergraduates, particularly those from under-represented groups, struggle to develop transferable skills and a sense of belonging. This project explores whether videogame-based extracurricular activities can provide an inclusive and engaging way to address both. A term-long intervention at St Luke’s campus will involve students and staff in mixed groups participating in structured gameplay sessions. Using pre-, mid-, and post-intervention surveys, the study will measure changes in skills, belonging, and resilience, alongside physiological stress data. Co-created with student interns, the project aims to support wellbeing, retention, and skills development, aligning with Exeter’s goals for inclusive, future-focused, and digitally enhanced education.
Regenerative Outdoor-Oriented Teaching (ROOT) for Management Education
Project team: Dr Ruth Cherrington, Hollie Kirk, Jenny Tunley-Price, Dr Laura Colombo and Dr Livia Regina Batista
Regenerative Outdoor-Oriented Teaching (ROOT) explores how nature-informed, experiential learning can transform management education at the University of Exeter Business School in Cornwall. Addressing ecological and social challenges, the project aims to embed outdoor learning to develop systems thinking, ecological awareness, and regenerative leadership. Through site visits, co-designed workshops, and interdisciplinary collaboration, ROOT will identify and adapt best practices to the local context, working closely with community partners. The project supports Exeter’s Transformative Education Framework and Civic University commitments, fostering inclusive, place-based learning. Ultimately, ROOT aims to lay the groundwork for innovative curricula that promote sustainability, wellbeing, and purpose-driven leadership.
Scaling the Impact and Reach of ‘The Belonging Game’ Across the University of Exeter and Beyond
Project team: Dr Iveren Winifred (Winnie) Nyinoh, Dr Dominic Wiredu Boakye, Professor Musarrat Maisha Reza and Dr Shalinee Dhayal
The project aims to showcase and evaluate The Belonging Game as a tool to enhance student inclusion and connection. It seeks to engage staff through immersive gameplay, provide training for wider facilitation, and explore integration into curricula and co-curricular activities. The project also aims to recruit and train Student Belonging Ambassadors to support delivery and promotion, and to collaborate with external partners to extend its reach. Overall, it aims to embed the game within Curriculum for Change initiatives to strengthen intercultural understanding and foster a deeper sense of belonging across the University.
Microgrant Incubation Fellows 24-25
The Exeter Education Incubator funded 10 Incubation innovation projects in the academic year 24-25. All these projects were delivered by our educators - academic and professional service colleagues from across the University from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives.
We are pleased to introduce our Microgrant Fellows 24-25.
AI Against the Grain
Project team: Dr Amy Cutler, Dr Anna Kiernan, Dr Joseph Crawford, Professor Konstantinos Thomaidis and Professor Gabrielle Giannachi
Project: AI Against the Grain: This workshop series explores unconventional AI use in creative storytelling, engaging participants in experimental workflows that resist mainstream AI approaches. Through small collaborations, the workshops will generate lightweight, innovative projects and share outcomes via an online showcase. The initiative also serves as a "sandpit" for prototyping cross-disciplinary pedagogies, gathering student feedback on creative interest and methodologies for Exeter's new Interactive Narrative Design MA, set to launch in 2025.
GenAI and I: Developing an Online Training Module for Academics Considering (Deeper) GenAI Integration in their Teaching and Learning Practice
Project team: Dr Constantine Manolchev, Dr Ruth Cherrington, Kelly Louise Preece and Steph Comley
This study aims to develop a pedagogic framework that systematises the integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in business education. The framework will guide educators in determining the appropriate level of GenAI integration for their courses, support content creation, assessment, and learning outcomes, and explore pathways for deeper GenAI integration. This research is crucial as it addresses the gap between educators and students in the adoption of GenAI, with the goal of enhancing educational practices and meeting the rising student demand for GenAI in teaching and learning.
Meet Your New Teammate, GenAI
Project team: Professor Alex Janes, Dr Graham Perkins, Sian Robinson, Nicky Thomas, Sean Tilson and Thomas Young
Project: This project explores how students can effectively integrate generative AI (GenAI) tools as active members of their teams in group work settings. Recognizing the rapid rise in AI usage among students, the project aims to address the educational gap in guiding students to use AI responsibly and productively in collaborative contexts. The team will conduct initial research with postgraduate marketing and undergraduate accounting students, who will incorporate GenAI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude.ai) as “teammates” during group tasks. The research team will capture the students' experiences through reflective diaries, focus groups, and questionnaires, analysing key aspects like trust in AI teammates, appropriate team roles, and the overall AI contribution to group dynamics and learning outcomes.
Developing inclusive communication: peer facilitation of group work on controversial political issues.
Project team: Dr Karen Scott, Dr Andrew Schaap, Hannah Lyons, Dr Deborah Johnson, Dr Bice Maiguashca, Barbara Allen and Rae Preston
Project: Developing Inclusive Communication aims to enhance group discussions of controversial political issues among students by employing peer facilitators. These student facilitators, trained in inclusive communication and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) principles, will guide group work to address issues like gender and racial dynamics that can exacerbate division. The facilitators will help foster respectful dialogue, improve group cohesion, and create an inclusive learning environment where students can critically engage with polarizing topics while feeling supported and understood.
Forward is the new back: moving towards more authentic assessment and feedback
Project team: Dr Jenny Harris, Federico Palmisani, Dr Talitha Kerrigan, Dr Owen Tomlinson, Greg Collinson, Zoe Mia, Mia Honeghan-Bates and Dr Elena Rossetti
Project: Forward is the New Back is a project aimed at improving assessment and feedback in the undergraduate neuroscience program. It focuses on creating a feedback-feedforward framework, enhancing transparency, consistency, and dialogue between students and staff. By co-creating tools with students, the project seeks to provide more authentic, personalized, and actionable feedback, fostering better engagement and learning. The initiative will also introduce a moderation toolkit to ensure fair and consistent assessment across the program, with the ultimate goal of enhancing student satisfaction and academic growth.
Making MEaning
Project team: Dr Matthew Isherwood, Dr George Tarling and Dr Caitlin Kight
The Road Out of Town: (Re) drawing the map(s) of future positive assessment together, with curiosity and courage.
Project team: Emily Kreider, Dr Erin Walcon, Dr Jo Esra, Pam Willox, Dr Michael Pearce, Dr Caleb Lee, Dr Kara Reilly, Dr Chris Grosvenor, Dr Alex Taylor, Dr Evelyn O’Malley, Dr Bryan Brown and Antonia Edwards
Project: The Road Out of Town is a pedagogical inquiry exploring how to create future-positive, inclusive assessment methods in higher education. Focused on cross-departmental collaboration, it seeks to bridge the gap between strategy and practice, while addressing student well-being, resilience, and risk-taking in formative assessment. The project involves staff and student perspectives, aiming to design assessment as an ongoing process that prepares students for their learning journeys, rather than just an endpoint.
Community-Driven Sustainability: Empowering Psychology students to make real world impact
Project team: Professor Natalia Lawrence, Dr Katherine Ashbullby, Becky Rowe, David Parslow, Dr Hazel Mycroft, Dr Julie Pepper, Professor Richard Smith, Jo Shuttleworth and Catherine Butler
Project: Community-Driven Sustainability addresses the lack of sustainability integration in health and social science degrees. Led by Natalia Lawrence, it aims to involve psychology students and staff in real-world sustainability initiatives by partnering with local organizations. The project plans to co-create sustainability-related resources, such as staff training packs and new opportunities for student dissertations, with a focus on increasing student engagement. The initiative hopes to influence other departments in integrating sustainability into their curricula.
Devon on a Plate
Project team: Professor Harry G West, Dr Fatma Sabet, Dr Luciana Torquati, Dr Celia Plender, Dr Paul Cleave and Jed Hilton
Project: Devon on a Plate is a project aimed at teaching first-year university students how to make healthy, sustainable, and affordable food choices while fostering social connections through shared meal preparation. Through workshops, lessons, and field trips, students will learn about the environmental impact of food production, nutrition, and cooking skills. The project ultimately aims to improve student well-being and mental health by promoting better dietary habits and a sense of community, with potential scalability to benefit all incoming students.
Engineering the Future
Project team: Ceri Howells, Dr Ana Neves, Dr Peter Melville-Shreeve, Dr Vicki Brown, Emily Davies, Amber Strong, Daniel Fenton and Pete Offord
Project: Engineering the Future addresses key challenges in education by engaging secondary school and university students in collaborative, sustainability-focused projects. It promotes problem-based learning, diversity in engineering, and entrepreneurial skills while also improving representation of underrepresented groups in STEM. The program involves hands-on engineering challenges aligned with the UN's SDGs, peer mentoring, and career inspiration, with the goal of increasing interest and participation in STEM fields among young students, particularly from widening participation schools and underrepresented demographics.