Student engagement – working in partnership

Changing the learning landscape

• Developing an institutional strategy

for student engagement (support

from NUS resources)

• Understanding students

expectations and experiences of

technology – Jisc Digital Student

project

• Institutional approaches to engaging

students as partners in curriculum

design, developing digital literacies

and assessment and feedback

Changing the learning landscape

Join the Jisc supported Change Agent Network –

http://www.ChangeAgentsNetwork.co.uk and consider attending

the event for staff and students at University of Winchester

on 18-19th February #CAN2014

Explore further guidance:

Jisc guidance - http://bit.ly/1aZunJW

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/students-as-partners

http://www.nus.org.uk

Next steps…

Reflection point

Changing the learning landscape

• What approaches to student engagement

would work well at UEL?

• What existing practices can be built on?

• Key points for noting for later discussions

Using technology to enhance curriculum design

“Curriculum design and approval is one of the few institutional processes in which almost all faculty level processes and central services have a stake.” –

University of Strathclyde

Using technology to enhance curriculum design

Considered use of technology as part of the curriculum design process can help you to:•develop new solutions to address organisational, technical and educational issues•communicate in new ways with stakeholders to facilitate discussion and collaboration•access, record and capture information to inform your curriculum design •improve access to guidance for those designing and describing curricula•model, test and refine new approaches in curriculum design

Manchester Metropolitan University – SRC Project• Manchester Metropolitan University aimed to develop curricula that

were more responsive to the needs of students and employers.

They developed streamlined documentation and transparent

approval and review processes including an

innovative board game based on curriculum design and approval processes

.

Faculty-based approval processes were replaced by a centralised

light-touch review and approval system ensuring a more consistent

student experience across all units of learning. This work ran

alongside another strategic initiative, that of

re-engineering the entire undergraduate curriculum to provide a

sharper focus on formative assessment.

Student Academic Partners – Birmingham City University

Changing the learning landscape

• The Jisc T-SPARC project engaged with students through the University’s Student Academic Partners (SAP) programme as part of a review of curriculum design practices and processes.  

• SAP aims to integrate students into the teaching and pedagogic research community within BCU in order to develop collaboration between students and staff. 

• The T-SPARC project also produced a wider stakeholder engagement model which could be used when considering the development of student engagement activities.

Birmingham City University – T-Sparc Project• Birmingham City University has developed

a radically new approach to course approval that facilitates the

integration of authentic, real-world practices into formal

approval processes.

One-off, paper-based validation events are replaced by a

continuous process of curriculum development and

enhancement captured via digital media and supported through

Microsoft® SharePoint®. A rough guide to curriculum design

takes course teams through the innovative approach and digital

recording issues are addressed within the

institutional data protection policy.

"Our intention has been to move from a position where curriculum design as a process is undertaken primarily as a prelude to an end-point approval event to one that embraces iterative collaborative design from which approval cascades."

The Open University –

OULDI project• Curriculum design is an inherently collaborative activity.

Learning design tools enable curriculum designers to

model a new or revised curriculum proposal, then share

and discuss the outcomes with stakeholders.

• The Open University developed a tool providing

a compendium of approaches in learning design and built into the

design the ability to collaborate on design activities at a distance.

In addition, they have developed a set of

course mapping and profiling templates and activities to help

designers visualise the consequences of design decisions on

pedagogy, cost and the student experience.

Technology-enhanced assessment & feedback

Changing the learning landscape

‘The wide range of ways in which technology can be used to support assessment and feedback.’

These technologies may be generic (such as VLEs, wikis, podcasts, e-portfolio systems) or purpose-built (such as on-screen assessment systems and tools to support peer review)

Technology to support…

University of Westminster

Changing the learning landscape

“It has helped I think because since then mymarks have shot up.”

See Reflecting on Feedback video case study at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/digiassess

Employability – University of Exeter

Changing the learning landscape

Assessment Management – University of Huddersfield• Benefits - Students

‘There is strong evidence to suggest that not only is electronic assessment management their preference, but that those who came to

appreciate its attendant benefits then begin to see electronic assessment as their entitlement’

EBEAM final report

• Increased control and agency• Reduced anxiety• Improved privacy and security• Increased efficiency and convenience• Feedback which is clearer and easier to engage

with, understand and store for later use

Manchester Metropolitan University: Assessment Lifecycle

MMU: e-Submission

REAP principles of good assessment and feedback• Good assessment and feedback should:

• Clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards).

• Facilitate the development of reflection and self-assessment in learning

• Deliver high quality feedback to students: that enables them to self-

correct

• Encourage peer and student-teacher dialogue around learning

• Encourage positive motivational beliefs & self esteem through assessment

• Provide opportunities to act on feedback

• Provide information to teachers that can be used to help shape their

teaching (making learning visible)

• Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006)

Principle-led change

Viewpoints approach - http://wiki.ulster.ac.uk/display/VPR/Home

“Workshops succeeded, impressively, in creating change locally but, importantly, in seeding change beyond the immediate participation experience." Emeritus Professor David Nicol

Actions and next steps

Changing the learning landscape