Working with students as partners on the Personal Skills Award Ellen Shobrook, Project Development Officer

What is this session all about? “This session will explore ‘partnership’ approaches to student engagement on the Personal Skills Award, and explore how students are recruited to work with us in a variety of roles, to support the development, delivery, and quality-assurance of the programme.” Brief overview of the context Understanding ‘engagement’ and ‘partnership’ Our experiences of taking a partnership approach Considering the challenges and critiques of the approach

How does this session fit into the conference themes? Learning (from our experience) and Developing (new and innovative practice) 1.Reviewing PDP policy in terms of current institutional priorities. 2.Effective PDP or e-portfolio practice (what does this look like, within and outside the curriculum, and how do we know)? 3.What do students value about/in e-portfolios? 4.Open Badges, and other forms of micro-credentialing. 5.The formative use of the HEAR, and how this might relate explicitly to PDP practice and graduate attributes. 6.New thinking on staff and student engagement

Some context The Personal Skills Award (PSA) is the University of Birmingham’s extra-curricular award scheme Over 1,600 UG students (and growing), undertaking over 220 activities on-campus, delivered by 3.9 FTE staff 3 distinct pathways (Foundation, Activity and Modular), plus an ‘Advanced’ option Celebrating 10 years of delivering employability education and providing recognition for student achievement!

Discussion point… What do you currently define as student engagement?

Engagement The concept of student engagement has existed for a number of decades. The meaning has evolved over time and has been applied to any of the following: time spent on a task; quality of effort; student involvement; social and academic integration; good practices in education; and learning outcomes. The term covers two domains relating to: improving the motivation of students to engage in learning and to learn independently the participation of students in quality enhancement and quality assurance processes, resulting in the improvement of their educational experience. QAA Quality code – Section B5: Student Engagement

Participation of students in QA & E on the PSA Feedback forms End of year evaluations Meetings with the External Examiner Focus group approach for new projects

Motivating students to engage in independent learning Structurally: Optional Choice of pathways Builds on their activities Pedagogically: Less ‘teacher-led’ (teacher-talk) and more ‘student-led’ activities Discussion and shared experience is key Group-work tasks (including formative peer assessment) in class Practical assessments (‘mock’ applications)

What about partnership? “Partnership is about investing students with the power to co-create” “Partnership is an ethos rather than an activity” - A manifesto for partnership (2012) “Partnership is a process not a product. It is a way of doing things, not an outcome in itself” - Framework for partnership in learning and teaching in higher education (2014)

What about partnership? “Partnership working with the students' union (or equivalent) helps to ensure that student views are taken into account in the design, implementation and ongoing running of an Award” - Recognising achievement beyond the curriculum (2014)

From engagement to partnership… improving the motivation of students to engage in learning, to learn independently, and to support others in their learning the participation of students in quality enhancement and quality assurance processes the co-creation (design and delivery) of learning, for the benefit of both their own educational experience, and that of their peers

Discussion points… What would (does?) partnership look like in your area / institution? How could partnership work in relation to PDP initiatives? What might partnership look like in relation to developments like the implementation HEAR? What types of responsibilities need to be transferred to students in a partnership model?

Learning from our experience – what we did Included more peer-review assessments (formative and summative) PSA Student Ambassadors (delivery of inductions) PSA Student Presenters (delivery of workshops) PSA Digital Project Assistant (co-creation of learning materials and a new programme pathway)

Learning from our experience – what we learnt Students who have been through the programme and benefitted want to help others and share their learning Students don’t need as much guidance as you might think – set them a challenge, not a task Students are incredibly creative, and know what will engage others and meet the learning objectives It can be daunting to let go of control It can be time-consuming, and it does cost money!

What we produced (1) Sam Jones PSA Digital Projects Assistant pzo9prXrk

What we produced (2) Team role-play simulation game PSA (Foundation) Deal with conflict in teams a_DhrdabQ

Discussion points… What are the challenges in implementing a partnership approach? Are there barriers to partnership for certain groups of students? How do we ensure partnership is representative? Could adopting a partnership ethos create its own problems?

Challenges and critique? Partnership is problematic because it has a specific legal meaning Partnership is just the new way of describing what we are already doing It’s just rhetoric - designed to counteract the ‘students as consumers’ discourse Students don’t actually want to be partners, they want ‘value for money’ and view the degree as ‘product’ not ‘process’ Regarding students as equal partners in educational design and delivery undermines our own professional practice Students can’t be expected to know what is best for them Working with individual students on individual projects is not representative, nor a fully embedded ‘partnership’ approach

Some resources Jeffries-Watts, S. (2014) Look both Ways: Exploration into the Impact of Student Feedback on the Development of the Birmingham Personal Skills Award. Lifewide Learning & Education in Universities and Colleges [Online] HEA (2014) Framework for partnership in learning and teaching in higher education NUS (2012) A Manifesto for partnership QAA (2012) UK Quality Code, Chapter B5: Student engagement QAA (2013) Recognising achievement beyond the curriculum

Thank you! Please get in touch! Ellen Shobrook – Tel: