The Guide was tabled as part of the agenda at the first meeting of the group in 2015/16. As in previous focus groups, the feedback was very positive and it was useful to hear comments from this representative group, which
acknowledgment of the WWSRS is included along with a list of references for further reading.
Include room for staff and students to incorporate their own suggestions and provide links to case studies so that the reader can follow through for further information.
I don’t want the Guide to be too long and as it is for a reference point, I don’t think that I need to leave space for users to write in their own ideas but the text has been altered to ‘suggested recommendations’. Also in implementation, e.g. with course teams, colleagues will be encouraged to identify their discipline-specific ways of
incorporating partnership. Links to case studies have been added to the references.
Include challenges in a brief paragraph and be mindful that any change takes time to embed.
The same suggestion was made by FG1 and as the Guide was now further developed; I could see that after Recommendations, it was appropriate to include challenges. These were identified from the data and suggestions to address these can be added after further implementation.
The PDMs suggested that the following might constitute a target audience.
New staff to the institution who will be teaching or supporting learning
Course Directors
New Course Directors’ Induction
Course Teams
A particular time might be at revalidation preparation Students’ Union Student Representative training Heads of School
Learning & Teaching Coordinators
Ultimately, I would hope that all staff and students could be influenced to adopt a culture or ethos of staff-student partnership. However, the groups identified here can be targeted in a relatively short-term time frame. As an academic
developer, I have direct access to new staff, new course directors and course teams preparing for revalidation. The Guide has already been
incorporated into these workshops and resources lists. The SU are planning to use the Guide with their training for student reps. In planning for 2016/17, I will work with colleagues to identify suitable approaches for targeting Heads of School and Learning and Teaching Coordinators.
comprises of academic staff, academic-related staff, student support staff, quality assurance staff and the Students’ Union.
One member of staff commented that:
‘this is a very useful guide in terms of defining the whole idea of partnership. This has caused concern in the past in relation to what is the definition of partnership. That whole idea of the engagement brings the whole thing together quite nicely’
(Senior Lecturer, Natural Sciences discipline)
This comment was particularly interesting as this staff member is from a discipline, which in the past has been known to contest the notion of
partnership so it is encouraging that perhaps this Guide might go some way to addressing what is meant by partnership and to perhaps offer pragmatic advice as to how it might play out in practice.
A further suggestion was made in relation to the whole idea of how partnership is going to work in different contexts e.g. professional bodies involved in designing curricula etc. and how we could have student input to all these activities.
Another member of staff commented:
‘I do like the idea of the whole thing about SE because the learning landscape projects idea is about this too. Creating those small group activities even within large lectures, these are traditionally didactic lectures but there is opportunity within that, for students working with people either side of them’.
(Faculty Learning and Teaching Coordinator)
There was discussion also around how the Guide might feed into other sources of information, in particular for students. This was in relation to another project taking place and which is also being led by the Chair of this SE sub-committee. The other project is called ‘Making University Work For You’; the purpose of this initiative is to provide online resources to new
incoming students based on Epigeum (providers of online content) materials. Part of the planned online course will have elements called ‘context pods’ in which information and videos can be put under different headings. As stated by the Chair:
‘What you have in this guide would be very helpful – it relates to a lot of the material that is in the Epigeum – it presents similar information in an alternative way. This Guide can be used to inform the content of the pod and used to raise the learners’ expectations – there’s a lot of practical advice here’. Additional comments were made on the merits of having a guide that is for staff but equally where they can see what the expectations are of students.
The Head of Student Support commented that it is a really helpful guide and provides positive suggestions. One suggestion was made which relates to a recommendation made to students which advises them to familiarise
themselves with Student Support on their campus, it was suggested that the corresponding staff advice should recommend that staff take students on a tour of the campus that includes Student Support.
The SU group member suggested that we work together to see how the Guide might inform future developments of a Partnership Agreement which may replace the existing Student Charter.
Another link was made between the Guide and the on-going development of the new Ulster Student Learning Experience Principles. The Chair of the working group, present in this focus group suggested that the Guide could also inform the development of Principle 1, the Ulster Learning Model and could be another reference point for staff and students using the Principles to inform their practice.
The SU agreed with this and are keen to use the Guide in on-going development for student representatives.
The Digital Learning Development Manager made a final comment: ‘I loved all the ideas in this. One of the strongest is in encouraging active learning – this requires changing mind- sets – changing from role of expert to the role of facilitator. This also links to the learning landscapes agenda as staff will have to think about teaching in different spaces.’
A summary of suggestions and subsequent actions are outlined in Table 8 below:
Table 8: Suggestions and actions following focus group 5
Suggestions by focus group
Reflections and actions by me
Guide might be useful to address concerns in some discipline areas over the definition of partnership in an HE context.
I am aware that partnership can mean different things to different people and disciplinary differences need to be acknowledged and considered. Linking back to the last suggestion by FG4, I need to work with the faculty learning and
teaching coordinators to see how I can work with them in implementing an ethos of partnership in their respective areas.
Consider how
partnership might work in different contexts e.g. professional bodies involved in designing curricula and how we could have student input to all these activities.
Over the last five years, the SU in
conjunction with myself have encouraged course teams to involve students in curriculum design. However, this has mostly focused on getting their feedback on existing curriculum design and delivery rather than engaging students in
developing new curricula. I believe that this Guide could form the basis for encouraging this activity and I will work with the SU to implement a pilot of this in 2016/17.
Consider how the notion of partnership might feed into the learning landscape project.
As the University is currently investing in new teaching blocks at two campuses and the development of a new campus in the city of Belfast to replace the Jordanstown campus in 2019; active learning spaces are currently being designed and student and staff capacity to engage in these spaces will be a priority over the next 2-3 years. I believe that this presents an opportunity to link with this project, to inform it, in terms of developing a culture of partnership. I believe that this is
necessary before we encourage staff and students to learn in new ways, determined by the physical and digital environment. I will work closely with the Director CHERP and determine how I can be involved in ‘active classroom’ pilots in 2016/17. The Guide will be useful
to inform the ‘Making the University Work for You’
This is a great opportunity to influence new incoming students. The Chair has committed to taking this further at the next meeting of the project group where each