A new series of video podcasts recorded in UWTSD's Immersive Room is bringing together academics, students, and industry experts from across the university to create engaging teaching resources that can be shared across faculties.
The initiative aims to build a growing collection of digital learning resources that lecturers from any subject area can embed into their teaching. Hosted on a central platform, the videos will create a shared bank of expert insight, making it easier for academic staff to access and reuse content while encouraging collaboration across campuses.
The first recordings featured lecturers Dr Ceri Phelps and Julie Thomas from the Psychology and Business subject areas respectively, alongside a panel of external guests, including Simon Pritchard, CEO of Philtronics Ltd and Chair of Manufacturing Wales, Mark Stevenson, Chief People Officer at South Wales Police, Kevin Mort, Director of Operations at Priory and Martyn Wagstaff, owner of Springfield Advisory Ltd.
With wellbeing at the heart of the discussion, the panel explored topics including leadership, organisational culture, basic human needs, self-care, men's mental health and professional practice, giving students valuable insight into how wellbeing influences individuals, workplaces, and communities.
The podcast series has been designed as a cross-university initiative. By creating content that can be shared beyond individual modules, it encourages academics to highlight their expertise to a much wider audience while opening opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and collaboration. Students have also played a key role in the project, contributing to question development and participating in the panel discussions. Their involvement has provided an opportunity to work alongside academic and industry professionals while helping shape content for future learners.
Recorded in the iniversity's Immersive Room, the series demonstrates how the space can be used to create much more than high-quality video content. Each recording can be developed into an interactive learning resource, enhanced with visual media, case studies, quizzes, and other digital activities. This allows lecturers to use the videos as part of a wider learning experience, encouraging students to engage in diverse ways.
Ceri Phelps, Principal Lecturer and Health Psychologist, and podcast host, said:
“The conversations we have had so far have been fascinating because they have brought together people with quite different experiences and perspectives. As a psychologist, it has been a fantastic opportunity to explore the challenges around supporting well-being work and the human side of leadership, decision-making and organisational culture, while creating resources that students can revisit as part of their learning.”
Laura Hutchings, Institute Digital Lead for Education and Humanities and podcast organiser, said:
“We wanted to create something that would have value long after the recording had finished. More importantly, we wanted to create resources that academics from across the iniversity could use, regardless of subject area. These are not just video podcasts, they are reusable teaching resources that can be enhanced with interactive content and embedded into modules, helping students benefit from expertise across UWTSD.”
Simon Pritchard, Chair of Manufacturing Wales, said:
“Universities and industry have so much to learn from one another. Taking part in this series has been a fantastic opportunity to share experiences from the manufacturing sector while also hearing different perspectives from academia and other professions. If these conversations help prepare students for the realities of the workplace, then that is a real success.”
