Enhancing the Student Learning Experience: The Perspective of Academic Staff

1. Enhancing the Student Learning Experience: The Perspective of Academic Staff Jo Cahill – Deputy Associate Dean (Quality Assurance and Enhancement) Jan Turner – Associate Dean (Academic Quality) Helen Barefoot – Deputy Head of the Learning and Teaching Institute

2. Project Aims • To ascertain what academic staff understand by academic quality enhancement • To gain an appreciation of the scope of quality enhancement within the Faculty • To illuminate from the perspective of academic staff the perceived factors which create opportunities for, and barriers to, the promotion of enhancement activity • To identify the skills that need to be employed by academic staff to promote the enhancement of the student learning experience • To facilitate the development of a Faculty Academic Quality Enhancement Strategy

3. Research Design and Method • Qualitative research design • Three focus group interviews with range of academic staff from Schools within the Faculty (n=24) • Semi-structured digital voice recorded interviews • Modified version of data analysis method advocated by Chenitz and Swanson (1985)

4. Findings Three Conceptual Categories: • Establishing Readiness • Developing a Work and Learning Environment • Connecting with Students

5. Establishing Readiness • No single definition • Drivers for enhancement activity Visible leadership and explicit QE Strategy Dissemination of good practice Teaching observation and/or Peer review Staff training and development IT Support and availability Student engagement

6. Establishing Readiness • Barriers to enhancement Lack of visible leadership/ QE Strategy University Processes/Policies and procedures– Staff appraisal/Performance Monitoring Workload allocation models Administration systems associated with QA Academic Administrative support systems

7. Developing a Work and Learning Environment • Staff office environments • Informal work environments • Learning environments

8. Connecting with Students • Student-staff liaison group/forum • Participation in decision making • Participatory approaches to learning and teaching • Developing feedback skills • Initiatives “the bottom line is, is it actually improving students understanding and retention and is it improving their education?” • Challenges and Constraints

9. Connecting with Students • Student feedback questionnaire • SFQ design • Timing • Context • Method of administration • Responsive – informal mechanisms • The Feedback cycle “So we have a responsibility in the way we administer the SFQ, and it does go back to like us being in partnership with the students, to work together to ensure that their feedback actually contributes to the enhancement process”

10. Connecting with Students • Continuum from Admission to Graduation “There has never been a time in which student involvement in the quality of their educational experience has been higher on the agenda” HEA Quality enhancement and assurance – a changing picture? (2008)

11. The Way Forward • Informed Faculty Academic Quality Enhancement Strategy • Feedback to Deans Advisory Group • Feedback to Academic Quality Enhancement Committee • Publication and Dissemination