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Read our blog to explore ideas in teaching and learning.
Over the last year, together with our partners at Wonkhe, and with the help of 15 students’ unions, we’ve explored the concept of student belonging. We surveyed 5,233 students and 430 staff, and analysed over 240 monthly diary entries from anonymous student participants, multiple student focus groups, and 52 projects by sector colleagues from across UK universities.
The link between belonging and student success is well established. A sense of belonging was strongly associated with both academic and social engagement at university a decade ago as part of the Higher Education Academy’s “What works?” programme. In fact, it was stated as the key variable in whether students persist with their studies and are successful. This “sense of belonging” while at university can make or break students’ overall experience and their success.
We asked 6,000 university students and parents of school age children in four countries how young people think about themselves, their careers, and their communities. The results show how much people are learning from one of the hardest lessons the modern world has faced.
Why do we need learning designers?
I recently delivered a training session on supporting teaching online where, throughout the session, none of the participants turned on their webcams. I finished the session feeling that I had been talking to myself for an hour and questioning the value of delivering the session live versus recording something for the participants to watch instead. This may be a familiar experience for many who have been teaching remotely over the last year or more.
Challenge and opportunity for fresh investment in design effort.
In social science, agency can be defined as the opportunity or the ability to exert judgement and control over one's own work (Priestley and Robinson, 2015), but what does that look like when applied in the workplace?
Assessment isn’t just about final outcomes. It’s the golden thread that runs through and underpins the university experience and how it’s handled affects so much more than results – it impacts on student satisfaction, retention, even mental health.
In essence the difference is in the second word of the acronym!
