QAA Good Practice Knowledgebase case study The University of Sheffield: Student engagement in enhancement Theme Student engagement Sub-themes Learning and teaching Feature of good practice as identified by Institutional Review December 2012 (quoted directly from the review report) The involvement of Student Ambassadors for Learning and Teaching in the processes for enhancing the quality of the student experience. Context In 2006, the Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences (CILASS) launched a Student Ambassador Network. Students worked individually and in small groups preparing and running workshops, producing materials and films, and feeding into departmental learning and teaching. In 2010 CILASS ended, leaving a legacy of successful case studies demonstrating the importance of staff-student partnerships in learning and teaching development. Learning and Teaching Services (LeTS) (link opens in new window), a centrally-based professional service, continued the good work of CILASS, understanding that actively involving students in learning and teaching enhancement was a crucial element in achieving a high quality academic experience. One faculty recruited a set of student ambassadors to work on learning and teaching projects, and other faculties intended to follow suit. In order to bring all of this experience, planning and good practice together, a Student Ambassador Coordinator (now Student Engagement Adviser) was recruited in 2011, tasked with creating an institutional network of student ambassadors to work on learning and teaching enhancement activities. After consultation with staff and students across the University, the Student Ambassadors for Learning and Teaching (SALT) scheme was launched. The first cohort of students was appointed in May 2011, formally beginning their role in September 2011.
Description of good practice Management and Structure The SALT scheme is managed by the Student Engagement Adviser in LeTS, but it is a truly collaborative venture in the sense that it requires staff support from various parts of the University. The scheme arose from consultations with staff members from across the University. Faculty Directors of Learning and Teaching, Students' Union Officers, staff members from the Careers Service, Learning and Teaching Services, and Outreach were given the opportunity to share their experiences and thoughts on staff-student partnerships and how they might work in their particular area. Students who were participating in existing schemes were also consulted, particularly those who were already undertaking ambassadorial roles in a learning and teaching context. It was immediately evident that due to the different priorities, structures, and timetables of the five faculties that a 'one rule fits all' approach would not work. Instead, a network model was adopted which allowed for a level of consistency in terms of group formation, roles and responsibilities, but also provided flexibility in terms of project themes, practicalities (for example meeting times) and communication. The network model allows dedicated, specific, relevant and high priority work to be carried out with the mechanisms in place to share good practice where necessary. In practice this has meant the appointment, on an annual basis, of a faculty team of SALTs for each of the five faculties, plus an institutional team who work on a cross-cutting theme (for example student integration). The institutional team acts as a progression route for SALTs continuing after a year, and also allows for university-wide student engagement on a particular topic. Please see Fig. 1 for a diagram of the structure. Aims The ultimate and overarching aim of the SALT scheme is to engage and work in partnership with students in the development of the processes, structures, strategies and activities which underpin learning and teaching enhancement at the University of Sheffield. From the very beginning of the scheme, the themes of the SALT projects have been closely linked to priorities in the institutional Learning and Teaching Strategy (LTS) (see Fig.1). As faculties adopt the strategy, staff members have been able to work with SALTs on particular topics which are most pertinent to their faculty at that time, ensuring SALTs are always deployed on high priority tasks which will have the biggest impact and be of the most benefit to their students. This has led to SALT, and student engagement in learning and teaching more broadly, being a key facilitator for achieving the LTS aims. It is also in keeping with the legacy of the CILASS project which demonstrated the effectiveness of working in partnership with students on learning and teaching development.
Fig. 1: diagram of the SALT model. Operation Students are appointed to the role each May, trained in June and formally start their role as a SALT the following September. The recruitment process involves an application form and a group interview before one student from every academic department is appointed. Project briefs are developed by the faculty towards the end of each academic year, so that the SALTs are aware of their project theme at the time of training. The themes of the projects are pre-set to ensure that the students are working on high priority and relevant tasks; the SALTs are free to design their own projects within this. They are supported by staff to come up with a project plan and encouraged to choose their own outputs and plan their own time. This ensures the scheme remains student led and that the students have ownership over their project, yet it still retains the focus and thematic investigation that the faculty is interested in. As previously mentioned, SALT represents true collaboration not only between staff and students, but also between different staff members. SALTs are supported and trained in their role by the Student Engagement Adviser, yet dedicated project-focused support comes from both faculty support staff in Learning and Teaching Services (LeTS) and academic staff within departments. This 'triad' of support ensures that SALTs have access to staff with expertise in many different areas: helping them with personal development; inducting them
into the faculty; clarification of learning and teaching issues and; understanding the academic processes and systems that underpin learning and teaching. SALTs are paid an hourly rate and work between three and five hours a week. Each team has a Lead SALT who chairs the team meetings, ensures staff members are kept up to date with progress, and sits on the Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee (or the relevant institutional working committee). Usually the teams meet once a week and then carry out tasks individually or in smaller sub-teams. The role is flexible to allow for differences in timetables and workload, and the students are only expected to work during term-time. Students and staff remain in contact throughout their project: faculty staff members meet regularly with their respective teams; the Student Engagement Adviser meets individually with the Lead SALTs and also holds meetings twice a semester with all of the Lead SALTs. This arrangement has a number of benefits: all students have regular contact with at least one member of staff; Lead SALTs are given the appropriate support to be able to manage the extra responsibility they have and; communication between the different teams is facilitated through the group Leads meetings. Through SALT, students are able to develop new and existing skills, work in inter-disciplinary teams with students they might not otherwise have met, increase their knowledge of the institution outside of their discipline and see through a whole project from idea to implementation. Clear progression routes exist so that students can stay on as SALTs after a year and continue to develop - they can move into the institutional team or take on a Lead position. At the end of the year, SALTs are invited to disseminate their year's work to staff and students at a special showcase event, and each team writes a project report which is shared with the faculty and beyond. Past Projects Examples of past projects include: 1. an academic peer mentoring scheme for dual honours students in Arts and Humanities 2. an inter-professional learning event for students in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health to promote multi-disciplinary working
3. an academic transitions website for Engineering students with hints, tips and guides for before they come to University, while they're studying and preparing for after 4. a Staff-Student Symposium for Social Sciences, where students and staff came together to debate issues such as employability and share learning and teaching good practice 5. peer-to-peer advice sessions for Science students, giving information on module choice, research placements and postgraduate study 6. designing and implementing a new pan-faculty interdisciplinary research module in Arts and Humanities 7. research into student integration between home and international students including running focus groups, conducting interviews, delivering a Higher Education Academy seminar and conference session 8. creating a languages booklet with key phrases for use in medical and healthcare clinics 9. creating a video about 'what I wish I'd known' before starting University to help incoming Science students 10. developing a skill-set of Social Sciences students to aid articulation of skills and improve the cohesion of the faculty. The internationalisation project (project number 7) recently won a 2013 Student Employee of the Year On Campus award, and the Arts and Humanities interdisciplinary module (project number 6) has been given the 2013 Higher Education Academy Student and Staff Partnership Award. The projects have covered strategic themes such as communities of learning, employability, internationalisation, research opportunities, personal and academic support and learning outside the curriculum. Key features ensuring success As previously mentioned the 'triad' of staff support is essential in ensuring the SALT role remains an example of effective and authentic student engagement. The most successful projects have involved true partnership in the approach from students and staff - all using their particular expertise, knowledge and passion to drive forward the different aspects of the project. The support, willingness and enthusiasm of staff members involved in the development of SALT have played a pivotal part in turning the scheme into a workable and influential platform for students to make a real difference. Support from student engagement staff members (in this case the Student Engagement Adviser) is also crucial to ensure the students are appropriately trained and understand their role, the broader learning and teaching context and that they are deployed appropriately within the faculties or institutional themes. Faculty staff members play a vital role in inducting their teams into the faculty, so that students understand the culture of the environment in which they will be working. For students to be confident, empowered and effective in their role they must understand the culture, context and scope of their role. A delicate balance of student ownership and staff guidance has been one of the more challenging yet significant success factors. Projects need to both be interesting and owned by the students, but their outputs must be useful to the faculty/institution for staff to fully support and engage with their work. By giving students too much choice in terms of project theme it can overwhelm them and actually restrict their activity. However by being too prescriptive, the students may feel powerless and the partnership dynamic is lost. By having the project theme prescribed but allowing students the freedom to explore the topic and be creative within that topic, all parties are gaining a valuable and worthwhile experience.
Linking its projects directly to the Learning and Teaching Strategy priorities ensures the SALT scheme is firmly rooted in the progression of learning and teaching activity within the institution. It gives a clear remit and purpose to the network and, as long as project outputs are embedded and shared, it can continue to provide rich and varied contributions to thematic development and enhancement. Finally, the students themselves are of course the most essential element of all. Without genuine student interest in learning and teaching development, and authentic engagement with these topics, the SALT scheme would be redundant. Evaluation SALTs are sent an annual evaluation questionnaire to give their thoughts on the scheme. They are asked about their personal experience including achievements, challenges and skills development. They are also given the opportunity to suggest improvements, communicate their satisfaction with staff support, and detail where and how they feel they have made an impact on or a difference to learning and teaching at the University. An annual review takes place with key staff members who have been involved in the project, namely the Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching, faculty support staff and the Student Engagement Adviser. Through these discussions, staff members are able to reflect on the outcomes of the SALT project, identify areas requiring improvement in terms of staff support and student training/induction, and consider potential project themes for the next cohort. SALT teams are each asked to write up their project as a formal report. These reports are presented to the Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee by the SALTs; a discussion takes place around the achievements, challenges and overall experience. The students are able to outline recommendations for further action which have arisen from their projects, which they feel the faculty should take forward or consider. All of these discussions, reports and evaluations are collated to form an annual review of the scheme which is presented at the Enhancement and Strategy Sub-Committee (a subcommittee of the institutional Learning and Teaching Committee) for comment. From September 2013 a steering group, bringing together colleagues and students from across the institution, will be set up to guide the development of existing student engagement opportunities, including SALT. This will provide a greater steer for the scheme in terms of its future impact and focus. As the scheme continues, there are three key areas which require development: communication; embedding and engaging diverse groups. Having established good communication within the teams, it is now important to establish clearer and more robust mechanisms through which good practice can be shared from one team to another and throughout the institution. With over ten different projects having already been completed, another consideration is embedding project outputs and outcomes, ensuring the legacy of these projects remains. Where resources such as websites, videos and handbooks have been created it is vital to ensure that these are publicised and made widely available. Where research into a particular area has taken place, the results and recommendations need to be considered in any further work undertaken. Finally, although SALT is naturally diverse in terms of its student members, there is work to be done in ensuring barriers to participation are addressed. One potential avenue for
development is investigating flexible opportunities to engage, so that students who have pressured time commitments (for example student parents) are able to contribute to projects on a more informal level. This will form part of a larger institutional body of work considering how the University can engage diverse groups in all learning and teaching opportunities. Further information www.qaa.ac.uk/institutionreports/reports/pages/ireni-shefield-12.aspx www.sheffield.ac.uk/lets/student/salt Amy Jeffries Student Engagement Adviser a.e.jeffries@sheffield.ac.uk 01142221209 The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education 2013 Registered charity numbers 1062746 and SC037786