Engaging learners in their own learning is a critical challenge for educators. During the baseline process for the JISC CDD programme, projects identified evidence that the student experience is enhanced when students are fully engaged in planning for their own learning. Business process reviews and interviews with stakeholders confirm that students are under-represented in decisions about the curriculum and that joined-up curriculum processes need to be complemented by ongoing engagement of learners in rethinking their programmes of study.

This page deals both with engaging learners in their own personal learning journey, and engaging learners - sometimes representatives rather than entire cohorts - in  curriculum development initiatives and in curriculum review.

Engaging learners in their own learning journey

Engaging learners through an enriched experience can help increase motivation, levels of attainment and progression as well as retention.  Engagement can be enhanced through:

• shorter assignment timelines with rapid, relevant feedback
• a greater emphasis on formative assessment 
• authentic, relevant and complex learning tasks
• more visible and professional quality outcomes, e.g. work publicly available online
• making expectations explicit 
• greater choice about topics of study and learning pathways to defined outcomes
• the use of video, audio and photography to capture learning experiences for review
• making space for students to articulate their learning experience e.g. through reflection, (self) review and forward planning

Use of student-facing language can be critical to achieving engagement. For example, the COWL Project responded to student feedback by changing the names of their tutorials from ‘synchronous online writing tutorial‘ and ‘asynchronous online writing tutorial‘to ‘Live Online Writing Tutorial‘ and ‘Email Writing Tutorial‘. Projects in the Design programme are producing new model student handbooks and student-facing, multimedia representations of the curriculum to enhance understanding and engagement with curriculum choices.

The shorter duration of the projects contributed significantly to learners meeting deadlines.  There was a drop in the number of requests for extensions and the final assessments were able to be completed appreciatively earlier than in previous years.' (SpringboardTV)

'88% of learners felt that being able to publish their work was a benefit, they saw it as a valuable motivational tool and said that it made them work harder and more effectively.  (Student survey undertaken by 26 respondents 41% of student body)' (SpringboardTV)

'48% of respondents indicated that they had used e‐Reflect either because it gave them  extra feedback, helping to realise mistakes and prepare for other assignments or because they thought that it was a way to improve and keep track of their progress.' (MAC)

'There was some evidence to show that student engagement was higher in the studies where the DUCKLING technologies were related to formative assessment. For example, the Wimba Voice Board pilot in Education generated more student input than any of the other studies in Education.' (Duckling)

'Increased levels of motivation, engagement and group discussion were reported which are characteristics associated with successful learning... The beneficial features were linked by  participants to the interactivity and realism afforded by this method of teaching.' (Generation 4)

'88% of learners have told us that being able to upload work to the project website has led to an improvement in their motivation. They work harder, show more pride in their work and show an active desire to compete with one another to improve their work.  Student survey undertaken by 26 respondents 41% of student body)' (SpringboardTV)

'Video recording had far more influence on behaviour and attendance than had been expected, with a 98% student turn‐out, and a real interest in how video can support  learning.  Students love it, alongside the other activities within the module.' (INTEGRATE)

'I think I might have to say that this has been my favorite day so far. Its the first time during my whole degree that I’ve gone from collecting data myself to displaying it in as finalized product I created.'  (MoRSE student)

Engaging learners in curriculum development

Projects in the JISC CDD programmes were required to show learner engagement, and many attained an impressive degree of commitment and input. You can download the engaging learners template here. Projects have certainly experienced the value of listening to the learner voice and engaging learners as change agents. The INTEGRATE project had this as a particular area of focus.

For KUBE, listening to the learner voice was an important principle, and the project tried several different approaches to get learner input. Student surveys and focus groups provided useful input and feedback, but KUBE felt that the students who got involved in these activites were already ‘on board’. In an attempt to hear from the a more diverse section of students they devised an incentivized survey email campaign to new students and also established a wiki to engage students who had registered but not yet arrived in the college.

The G4 Project also responded to student feedback by changing their plans:

‘The portfolio approach for student engagement during PBL was abandoned even before the term had started, because the portfolio was perceived as too ‘clunky’ and attracted student dissatisfaction. Instead more pragmatically, we provided the kind of support which students really wanted, namely somewhere to put their notes, diagrams, and links during PBL.’

Springboard TV saw the involvement of learners as central to transforming their approach for media students

‘It was [students] who came up with the name ‘Springboard TV’. A number of logos were designed by learners on a graphics course in the Faculty, learners on the media courses then selected the one they thought best represented Springboard TV. New signage using the selected imagery has been employed throughout the media area. Music students have produced station identity music. Learners had an input in the original website. ‘ Springboard TV