On Sunday 21 January 2018, the Academic Staff Development Unit (ASDU) organized the second Good Teaching Conference, an annual event in the continuous staff development programme aimed at creating a culture by which all academic staff share their good teaching practices. The atmosphere was buzzing with positivity and everyone really enjoyed the Conference. There was a clear improvement from last year, and this is also clearly reflected in the academics’ teaching performance and staff evaluation. This year, some presenters “went the extra mile” with regard to creativity and innovation: the College of Arts and Science exhibited its fantastic art work; Dr Ahmed Hassan Mahmoud presented live marbling techniques and Dr Wadhah Yahya played violin in class to mix and harmonise the effect of music on the design process. There was also creativity with new presentation technologies used by many academics, to make their presentations clearer and more appealing.

A panel consisting of three members of academic staff and one panel leader, was selected to evaluate every presentation at every session, and this was based on the following criteria: (1) knowledge of the subject and providing reallife examples, (2) ability to achieve the intended learning outcome(s), (3) ability to interact with the audience and answer questions, (4) starting and finishing on time, (5) innovation and creativity in teaching.  Almost all academic staff at the University presented to a large audience, representing 94 percent attendance level – this clearly shows great commitment to high-quality teaching, to staff development and to preparing institutional accreditation.

A ceremony to award certificates was organized on 25 January 2018 as a token of appreciation to celebrate together the great work achieved by all the academic staff.