Dr Christopher Little
Learning Developer and Teaching Fellow
Keele Institute for Innovation and Teaching Excellence
Editorial : An Introduction to JADE - Student Edition
I have the pleasure , once again , of welcoming readers to this special edition of Keele ’ s Journal of Academic Development and Education . This edition of JADE comes from the annual JADE Student Learning Undergraduate Research Conference , now in its fifth year .
Largely due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic , 2020 has thrown up some unique challenges - namely , putting on a conference in the middle of it all . We had to make a decision relatively early on whether to host a fully online conference , wait out the pandemic and rearrange a date for a face-toface event or adapt . We chose to adapt and opted for an online showcase from a small selection of our undergraduate presenters who had been accepted to present at the 2020 JADE Student Learning Undergraduate Conference . We had around 40 student presentations planned and , understandably , many chose to defer their presentations until the 2021 event .
Each year , the intelligence , creativity and determination of our undergraduate community blows me away and this year has gone way above and beyond that . Many of the students who took part in the showcase have chosen to write their papers up into full academic papers , which you can see in this edition . What will strike you is not only their excellence but also the ways in which they represent the diversity of Keele ’ s curricula and student body . I am confident you will love each paper as much as I do !
I ’ m keeping my editorial brief this year but would like to thank my colleagues in KIITE for their ongoing support in producing the online showcase and this journal , specifically Sam Lesniak and Samantha Mottram for their support and excellence in all things web ! 2020 has been an unprecedented year and we wait
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