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TIPS Community

 TIPS stands for ‘Teaching, Innovation and Practice Sharing' post it with a light bulb on it

As a place where colleagues help colleagues, the TIPS Community of Practice is a supportive group for anyone involved in teaching and developing others, in facilitating learning and in dealing with the everyday challenges of education practice. TIPS was founded by academics and educational developers in 2020 to create a single point of exchange for staff at a time when solutions to teaching where developed locally and there was no space to share them centrally.
Since then, TIPS has grown to over 1000 members across the University of Leeds and the online community space on MS Teams has 400-600 active users daily. It is the one-stop shop to find out about events and development opportunities and there are dedicated spaces to ask for advice or to learn more about key topics in HE teaching and learning, such as assessment and feedback, active and experiential learning, GenAI, sustainable education or inclusive practice. In 2024, our impact on the institution has been recognised with the University Teaching Award for Sustained Collaborative Excellence.
TIPS is more than an online community. It also offers a range of events, workshops and other opportunities for staff to inspire their teaching practice. We run monthly Teaching and Learning Chats discussing 'hot topics' in student education in an open forum (see below), offer events partnered with experts from inside and outside the University and edit the TIPS Blog, a collection of practice-sharing articles written by members of staff. Each article outlines a teaching intervention, design rationale, and impact evaluation strategy, and suggests how these could be used and adapted by others. It is a perfect first step into publishing about your teaching and scholarship practice. 
Click below to get connected with the largest educator community at the University and see what it can do to boost your practice.
Join the TIPS Community

TIPS Festival of Learning and Teaching (23-26 June 2025)

Explore the Festival of Learning and Teaching 2025, a four-day celebration of creativity, collaboration and innovation that brings together our teaching community. The festival also marks five years of the TIPS Community, which has connected over 1,000 educators across the University.

Explore the Festival

TIPS Teaching and Learning Chats (TLCs)

Our TIPS TLC meetings offer members of the TIPS Community a chance to connect across roles and disciplines, exchange tips, ideas and inspirations for everyday teaching practice. Each meeting focuses on a topic related to everyday teaching, encouraging participants to share experiences and support one another.

29 May 2025 - Confidence with Inclusive Practice

  • When: 29 May 2025, 11am-12pm
  • Where: Online
  • Who is it for? Members of the TIPS Community (if you're not already a member, join the TIPS Community here)
  • Meeting theme: Inclusive practice

It can sometimes feel challenging knowing where to start with inclusive practice, we can worry about getting things wrong and this can sometimes hold us back from trying new things. Sometimes we just need to give things a go and embrace that failure is a First Attempt In Learning and allow ourselves space to reflect on experiences that haven't been as successful, as well as those that are.

This TIPS TLC will give you an opportunity to connect with colleagues on the topic of inclusive practice, something that is part of our everyday practice and now recognised in the AdvanceHE Professional Standards Framework 2023 as a key professional value for HE educators. You will have the chance to reflect on your experiences and work in this area with the aim of building your confidence with inclusive practice approaches.

Sign up for 29 May TLC

The TIPS Blog

Explore the TIPS Blog for articles and videos created by colleagues showcasing their excellent practice in teaching and learning. Here, they share what they did, what it achieved, and how this might be useful for others. Use the categories below to find what you are looking for.

Student Experience

Tools for Teaching

Developing Others

Design for Delivery

View all posts from the TIPS blog

Share your practice

Anyone involved in teaching at the University of Leeds can share their examples of practice on the TIPS Blog. Read more about how it works on our guidance for authors page by clicking on the button below. Our posts are themed around four areas: student experience, tools for teaching, design for delivery and developing others.  

Share your practice