scholarly journals Whatever it takes: Maintaining student engagement and wellbeing in unprecedented times.

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-58
Author(s):  
Laura Burge ◽  
◽  
Angelica Klein-Boonschate ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Operating Environment ◽  
Residential Services ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Support Students

When COVID-19 impacted Australia earlier this year, student accommodation providers found themselves in the most challenging operating environment imaginable. Deakin Residential Services (DRS) rapidly adapted to the continually changing landscape, taking a ‘whatever it takes’ approach to supporting students across all four of Deakin University’s campuses. Adopting a focus on ensuring members of our community were supported, engaged and informed, DRS instigated ongoing one on one welfare checks with every resident, and introduced a new wellbeing model tailored to support students through life ‘out of the ordinary;’ facilitated a comprehensive suite of virtual programs to foster community and responsibly engage students in a COVID-safe manner, and leveraged technology to keep students informed, manage expectations, and demonstrably ensure understanding, compliance and active support for key safety messages. This paper will share further details regarding this three-part strategy, exploring aspects which have been found to be silver-linings and likely to remain part of our operation post-pandemic, along with discussing some of the challenges and opportunities which have arisen throughout 2020. The authors will highlight key elements which are transferable, not only to other student accommodation providers, but also to those supporting the broader student experience within higher education.

Here Be Dragons

Big Data ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 1717-1735
Author(s):  
Paul Prinsloo ◽  
Sharon Slade
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Learning Analytics ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Open University ◽  
Student Responsibility ◽  
Student Data ◽  
General Data

Learning analytics is an emerging but rapidly growing field seen as offering unquestionable benefit to higher education institutions and students alike. Indeed, given its huge potential to transform the student experience, it could be argued that higher education has a duty to use learning analytics. In the flurry of excitement and eagerness to develop ever slicker predictive systems, few pause to consider whether the increasing use of student data also leads to increasing concerns. This chapter argues that the issue is not whether higher education should use student data, but under which conditions, for what purpose, for whose benefit, and in ways in which students may be actively involved. The authors explore issues including the constructs of general data and student data, and the scope for student responsibility in the collection, analysis and use of their data. An example of student engagement in practice reviews the policy created by the Open University in 2014. The chapter concludes with an exploration of general principles for a new deal on student data in learning analytics.

scholarly journals ValuED: A Blockchain-based Trading Platform to Encourage Student Engagement in Higher Education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aydin Abadi ◽  
Jin Xiao ◽  
Roberto Metere ◽  
Richard Shillcock
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Academic Engagement ◽  
Source Code ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Reputation System ◽  
Available P ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The Uk

The provision of higher education has been changing ever more quickly in the UK and worldwide, as a result of technological, economic, and geopolitical factors. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated such changes. The “student experience”—the interaction of students with their institution and with each other—has been changing accordingly, with less face-to-face contact. In this work, we have explored a way to improve student engagement in higher education. We describe “ValuED”, a blockchain-based trading platform using a cryptocurrency. It allows students both to buy and sell goods and services within their university community and to be rewarded for academic engagement. ValuED involves a reputation system to further incentivise participants. We describe the implementation and piloting of this platform and draw conclusions for its future use. The platform’s source code is publicly available.

scholarly journals Getting students engaged

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Race
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Education Experience ◽  
League Tables

We live and work in challenging times. Now that it seems certain (post Browne, 2010) that the fees students pay for their higher education experience will double (or worse), we can't be surprised that the emphasis on 'the student experience' of higher education will intensify. Whether students are saddling themselves with ever-increasing amounts of debt to afford that higher education experience, or whether it is parents who foot the bill, the spotlight continues to focus ever more sharply on student satisfaction, alongside all available measures of the quality of student engagement in higher education. We already have league tables in which the reflection of the student experience as gained from the National Student Survey features prominently. And with diminishing budgets for teaching, class sizes are likely to continue to grow - in those disciplines where higher education survives least scathed. So how can we meet the challenge of 'getting students engaged'?

Who sets the agenda on student engagement?

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily McIntosh ◽  
Duncan Cross
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Education Funding ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
Opinion Piece ◽  
Setting Approach ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Uk Higher Education

 The rise in UK university fees has prompted significant investment in the student experience, with increased emphasis on an agenda that promotes student engagement and partnership. Government papers, both white and green, have set out a policymaking agenda and have led to a reorganisation of the UK higher education funding structures, with the dissolution of long-standing funding bodies into the Office for Students. This enshrines chapter B6 of the QAA UK quality code for higher education with regard to student engagement and would appear to be a positive move forward. However, the Office for Students has limited student representation and this raises the question: ‘Who sets this agenda and who are the stakeholders?’ This opinion piece seeks both to highlight the necessity for a joint agenda-setting approach and to engage the community in developing a joint agenda on student engagement and partnership.

Tactics and strategies to survive ‘student engagement’, or joining the Soil Society and other stories

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
Jacqui Close
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Traditional Students ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
University Life ◽  
Non Traditional Students

In the U.K., ‘student engagement’, and the related ‘student experience’, are increasingly measured, interpreted and then marketed to students as a basis on which to choose the ‘best’ place for their higher education. This article summarises and reflects on presentations from five panel members at a conference on their experience of university life after that choice had been made. The panel included non-traditional students who embodied some of the characteristics (such as age, social class and ethnicity) that have become performance indicators in relation to widening participation and engagement in higher education. This article captures how students themselves understand a concept that occupies such a prominent, if contested, position in contemporary higher education. This analysis invites one to take a closer look at the identity work necessary for students to thrive (and for some just to survive) at university against a backdrop that tends to homogenise both ‘experience’ and ‘student’.

Rolling With the Flow

2022 ◽  
pp. 307-328
Author(s):  
Jim A. McCleskey ◽  
Rebecca M. Melton
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Online Student ◽  
Instructor Immediacy ◽  
Instructor Presence ◽  
Effective Delivery ◽  
Student Reflections ◽  
Online Instructor

COVID-19 created a paradigm shift in higher education (HE), speeding up a process that was already underway and forcing institutions and instructors to develop the competencies necessary to offer effective delivery and resources online. Student reflections on Spring 2020 suggested that institutions were not always successful in their transitions. Students saw gaps in crucial areas, including online instructor presence, social presence for instructors and peers, and instructor immediacy. The purpose of this chapter is to propose best practices for instructional practice and technology in the online virtual education space to increase student engagement, instructor immediacy, and online social presence. HE institutions must embrace or enhance a variety of techniques that will improve the student experience. HE continues its shift toward cutting-edge technology to scale, streamline, and improve student engagement and interaction while creating new ways of establishing instructor presence and immediacy.

Here Be Dragons

2016 ◽  
pp. 170-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Prinsloo ◽  
Sharon Slade
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Learning Analytics ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Open University ◽  
Student Responsibility ◽  
Student Data ◽  
General Data

Learning analytics is an emerging but rapidly growing field seen as offering unquestionable benefit to higher education institutions and students alike. Indeed, given its huge potential to transform the student experience, it could be argued that higher education has a duty to use learning analytics. In the flurry of excitement and eagerness to develop ever slicker predictive systems, few pause to consider whether the increasing use of student data also leads to increasing concerns. This chapter argues that the issue is not whether higher education should use student data, but under which conditions, for what purpose, for whose benefit, and in ways in which students may be actively involved. The authors explore issues including the constructs of general data and student data, and the scope for student responsibility in the collection, analysis and use of their data. An example of student engagement in practice reviews the policy created by the Open University in 2014. The chapter concludes with an exploration of general principles for a new deal on student data in learning analytics.

Realising Engagement through Active Culture Transformation: An Introduction to the REACT Programme

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Dunne ◽  
Tom Lowe ◽  
Stuart Sims ◽  
Wilko Luebsen ◽  
Chris Guggiari-Peel
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Development Programme ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
Research Project ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Culture Transformation ◽  
The University

The REACT programme was designed to make a significant impact on student engagement and the student experience in the Higher Education (HE) sector in England and Wales over a two-year period, from July 2015 to July 2017. The focus, in particular, was on the engagement of so-called ‘hard to reach’ students, and the programme included: investigation into the term ‘hard to reach’ and a consideration of which students are characterised in this way; a formal research project looking at links between student engagement, retention and attainment; and a development programme as a collaboration between fifteen UK universities. Outcomes from each of these were disseminated at a final conference at the University of Winchester in May 2017, where practice and findings from the programme as a whole were shared. The programme also included the creation of a website of case studies and tools for use by the sector. The programme was funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and was formally evaluated by an external team from GuildHE.

scholarly journals Developing and enacting student governance and leadership training in higher education

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mollie Dollinger ◽  
Jessica Vanderlelie
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Leadership Training ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
University Governance ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Advance Research ◽  
Governance Practice ◽  
Support Students ◽  
Future Practice

Despite increased attention placed both in and outside Australia on student participation in university governance, there remains a gap in practices and programs that help support students to contribute across various governance groups, councils, and representative roles. This practice report explores two aspects of developing student partnership in governance at a research-intensive university in Australia. We will showcase a set of rationales co-created between students and staff on why partnership should be a critical aspect of higher education policy and governance. Secondly, we will provide an overview of a specialised training program that aims to provide students with foundational working knowledge of university governance practice, policies and language to bolster engagement within their roles. We will further discuss anticipated impacts and advance research and future practice in this area by highlighting key areas that require further exploration to further student engagement in governance structures.

Higher Education Student Engagement Scale

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen C. H. Zhoc ◽  
Beverley J. Webster ◽  
Ronnel B. King ◽  
Johnson C. H. Li ◽  
Tony S. H. Chung
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Education Student ◽  
Engagement Scale
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document