iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Well I guess it's literally 50/50 on the 'Is it good?' lever. +50 or -50? Either way, I'd guess that 'discuss' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. I suggest a strategy of right to remain silent, that should confuse things nicely.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

In June, I facilitated a workshop at the Assessment in HE conference in Manchester: Can we ever look forward to marking? Clickbaity title, but I do think that we need to be enthusiastic so that students value tasks outside the points/credits they'll get. assessmentinhe.wordpress.com/2026/09/28/g...

assessmentinhe.wordpress.com

Getting the balance right

In June 2026, I facilitated a workshop at the Assessment in HE conference in Manchester – a conference I strongly recommend to anyone interested in assessment. My session had a clickbait-y ti…

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Me too, fire truck manufacturer, me too.

A toy fire truck for sale in a supermarket. On the packaging is a slogan "driven by inertia"

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Good luck, again, whatever that looks like in this context.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Well, at least we still had a team to talk about it...

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Obviously it's because someone said they would do it this week and didn't get round to it as it's a horrible job, but those kind of emails on Friday afternoon should be blocked. Now that would be a good use for AI: interception!

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Every. Time. When I was an acting HoD during a reorganisation I insisted that they stop emailing people on Friday afternoon with 'updates' (usually lack of) because it left people stewing over the weekend. Same email Monday morning, no difference to HR, but team could talk about it.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

What a great idea! I'd start there.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Is there any news? All the press coverage I can find is about the email error.

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Reposted by Rachel Forsyth

Jon Ippolito @jonippolito.net · 18/08/2026

Generative AI’s per-query footprint can be small compared to flying, eating meat, or even Zoom. Until agents show up and compute goes through the roof. How I updated my AI footprint calculator accordingly jonippolito.substack.com/p/agents-are...

jonippolito.substack.com

Agents are where AI’s energy bill gets ugly

Generative AI’s per-query footprint can be small compared to flying, eating meat, or even Zoom. Until agents show up and compute goes through the roof.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Any university would be lucky to get you and your introductory course, which I know has been scrapped but I would personally love to study it, and to see students taking it. It's a travesty.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I'd say the frequency is considerably more than often! Very occasionally there are systemic barriers (admissions policies, (social) attitudes, real estate) but mostly the answer is to bring the joy back, showing that the whole university cares about educational outcomes.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

So sorry to hear about both events, how terribly sad. Easy to say kook after yourself, much harder to enact the advice, but I hope you are able to.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The late, great Professor Sir David Watson used to say the series should be included in the welcome pack for all new VCs.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Totally, and we have laughed about it regularly ever since!

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

A colleague and I once presented to an audience of 3 at an international conference: the two others presenting in that slot plus the mother of one of the other presenters. (We were scheduled at the same time as a star of the field who had standing room only for their session)

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Also, you need to factor in the costs of actually reorganising. It takes up so much headspace and planning time to move to a new structure. What stops while that is happening?

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

One of the many things that sticks with me from my truly excellent MBA in HE Management studied many years ago was the edifice complex share.google/zFc2gKK97B06... - also the subject of this book by Dejan Sudjic share.google/Gb3Ah9e6n3pD...

share.google

Edifice complex - Wikipedia

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Reposted by Rachel Forsyth

Jill Walker Rettberg @jilltxt.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

The AI-generated podcast paper is out! I generaetd podcasts from four different source documents and an PDF using NotebookLM and found that in every case it translated cultural contexts to a standard, white, American language and context. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

ALL the cafes will have filter coffee and you will not be considered barbarian :) And definitely get over to Vasa, as recommended by @benjaminjriley.bsky.social

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Whilst I fully agree this story is appalling, I question the value of the resulting products. If depersonalised materials were the future of education then MOOCs would be the only game in town already. I've contributed to two MOOCs and they serve a purpose but they are no substitute for teaching.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

So futile for the owner of the agent and so unkind to the author.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I'm not a betting person, but I might be prepared to bet on this being unpopular with students and future employers, and a quiet collapse or absorption which may not get so much coverage. C.f. NCH in 2010. Feels very unethical though: at least NCH had teachers.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Sometimes in the same programme even?

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Actually, to be complete, either nobody was brave enough to step outside the norm, or I wrote a crap report.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

I genuinely did write a report recommending this (GPA 1-5 with possibility of gradations between integers. Nobody was brave enough.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

True, but percent means out of 100. Happy to stop at 80 if 80 is the maximum mark! Then, let's not start at 40 or 50, either!

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

I don't like that either because why shouldn't all grade points be available? The classification system should have died with Burgess (2007?). I probably still have a nice report on GPA if anyone wants it...

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

And the more I work with assessment the more I think we should just have pass/fail and good quality feedback /3 of 3

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

It would be far more effective to do something with the innumerate system for calculating classifications, since having a 30% range at the top means that one or two excellent pieces of work can skew the final class upwards /2

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Hopefully @qaa.ac.uk will have something to say here, since you cannot have outcomes-based assessment paired with normative grading. Either the students achieved the outcomes or they didn't. If it's too easy to achieve the outcomes, make them more difficult. /1

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

I know, it's great to have search but I just want boolean search. Such nonsense.

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Reposted by Rachel Forsyth

Sandra Sinfield @danceswithcloud.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

what even is cheating now! Exactly that! Do have a look at Steal this poem: dogtrax.edublogs.org/2014/01/16/r... - which explored exactly that - and when we used that as a prompt for discussion with our students - it was fascinating - and their poems were too! #LTHEchat

dogtrax.edublogs.org

#Rhizo14: Steal This Poem – Kevin's Meandering Mind

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

haha I am not sure I should have put it out into the wild. We had fun making it, though. One on portfolios is coming soon. #LTHEChat

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

"Challenging enough" is an excellent maxim. No time today, but surely we should be discussing moving to pass/fail for all assessments so we can focus more on process! #LTHEChat

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Choice is essential in assessment if we want it to be fair as well as valid and secure - there are always different ways to show that learning outcomes are achieved. #LTHEChat.

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

I think there will be more space for this over time but it's an important part of the theme of today's chat: thinking about GenAI as something that is available within the educational context and not a driver for educational practices.

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Emma Duke-Williams @emmadw.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Look out for us sharing research from our 2025 students/ staff survey of AI use across Scotland - it should be being published next week on our ScAITEN website (#LTHEchat)

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Yes, I'm involved with writing policy guidelines right now and it's hard to get the focus off cheating. What even is cheating now? A university needs to be a place to explore, to test out different views, to evolve. If we start with that then we might end up with good guidelines #LTHEChat

bloomsburycollections.com

GenAI in Higher Education

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

A6: The challenge is that in order to make this choice properly, you need to have high level of understanding of GenAI - which takes commitment to acquire. ( I will again plug @samillingworth.com and my book www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do... which tries to condense for busy teachers)

bloomsburycollections.com

GenAI in Higher Education

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

...and where their limitations lie. I know this isn't for everyone, it's got to be acceptable not to want to include these products in teaching, but we can't all look away from this. #LTHEChat

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

I love the analogy...lots of people have always fallen through, but we may forget that because we focus on the successful learners who learned the rules as well as the content #LTHEChat

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Rachel Forsyth @rmforsyth.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

As ever, we can learn a lot from arts education, Paul! (Something I say a lot - all art degree shows have a portfolio or logbook for the assessor to flick through, why not other forms of capstone assessment? I learned from the best 😀) #LTHEChat

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