Engaging Students

Planning and design of teaching and learning activities

This is a list of ideas to help you ensure students are involved in planning teaching activities and on demonstrating the quality of that student involvement.

• Create a narrative/rationale for why you are adopting each approach to learning and teaching. Use evidence from a range of stakeholders (e.g. your reflections as a teacher; literature on the use of this approach elsewhere;  student feedback).
• Check that your planned activities are aligned with the learning outcomes of the module.
• Set clear objectives for session(s). Objectives don’t always have to be based on learning gains in curriculum content/knowledge. Ask for student input on what they think they still need to learn.
• Consider measuring generic or online skills development (e.g. students will collaborate with peers in a break-out room and develop their problem-solving skills)
• Consider using measures before and after a session (e.g. a test for understanding of a topic, a question about how confident students are in their knowledge etc) to evaluate learning gain.

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Questions to ask yourself to make sure there has been student engagement

• Have students and staff worked together to co-design any learning or assessment activities (have you done any of thing things listed above)?
• Have you shown current students how previous student feedback has been used as part of your rationale?
• Have students worked with staff to assess the success of the module design?
• Can students apply what they have learned to things that matter to them?
• Have students been encouraged to take risks and to see failure as a route to learning?
• Have there been failures in the module design that offer an opportunity for improvement

Get Support:

For support with student engagement and evaluation, please contact STEER at steer@shu.ac.uk