Mark Bagley is a Professor of Organic Chemistry in the School of Life Sciences. Mark delivers many of the taught modules in Synthetic Organic Chemistry as part of the Chemistry degree programmes offered by the University and leads a vibrant research team in the School. Mark also serves as Degree Convenor of the Chemistry BSc and MChem UG programmes.
What I did
As part of a major review of our undergraduate Chemistry curriculum, I developed a new Level 5 module on ‘Researching and Communicating Chemistry’ which uses a 100% portfolio assessment designed to help students articulate their transferrable skills and experiences in a way that is relevant to future employers. This is one of a number of expressly skills focused modules woven through our new undergraduate curriculum, developed in collaboration with Kaz Field, our partner Careers and Employability Consultant, to scaffold students’ disciplinary and transferrable skills development from year one onwards.
Why I did it
Feedback from the Chemistry PSRB, the Royal Society of Chemistry, at our reaccreditation visit in May 2019 emphasized the need for a shift from our very academic focused curriculum to a more skills-oriented approach to match the shifting needs and expectations of employers and Chemistry graduates nationally. This coincided with a School wide curriculum review and an expansion of the remit of university Careers and Entrepreneurship Consultants at Sussex to support Schools to embed employability in the curriculum. One outcome of this was the creation of an Embedding Employability Steering Group, guided by Kaz, and comprising cross school membership. We quickly recognised that, while we were already teaching our students a wide range of skills, our students really needed them to be scaffolded through the curriculum and also needed our help to recognize and articulate them, for example in CVs and interviews.
How I did it
The module is assessed by a 2-minute presentation, and a skills portfolio submission. The portfolio comprises a self-assessment of competency in employability skills (conducted in week 1 on which students were required to reflect at the end of the module), a CV and interview (with marks and feedback provided by CV360 and BigInterview respectively), a group poster and essay, and an individual chemical data analysis task. Students were given the chance to deliver a formative, 1-minute, flash presentation and to submit an essay draft. I also mapped out for them the many activities they would undertake through the semester which they could draw on as evidence in their portfolio (an example is provided below).
The CV and interview elements were supported by sessions delivered by Kaz, who also contributed a workshop on effective team work which helped launch the group assessments. Finally, I attached to the group essay a Buddycheck peer evaluation which made it possible to easily to adjust marks easily for individual group members based on their peers’ ratings of their contributions to the project.
How it went
The module ran for the first time last semester and went really well (of course there are tweaks to be made). I could see the students were nervous going into the module, especially about their oral presentation skills. This was despite, when it came around to it, them being capable of giving very high-quality presentations. They were also nervous about the career skills assessments, despite having been taught about writing CVs and preparing for interviews in their first year and being familiar with skills focussed portfolio assessments, having completed lab skills focused versions in their first year. It was also clear from reading the students’ competency self-assessments that they tended to under value their existing transferrable skills (such as oracy) and had a real lack of confidence using the skills language.
By the end of the module, it was really nice to see that most students showed significant improvement in their self-assessment and confidence levels. In fact, at the end of the semester we ran an informal session in which students were asked to step up to give a flash presentation on their group’s poster, and many of those who volunteered mentioned they’d hated public speaking at the start of the module but now actively enjoyed it! It was also clear in the portfolio submissions that the module had helped them develop a language to describe their skills, which was beneficial for future employment.
The biggest surprise was how dysfunctional many students were at working in teams. While some groups functioned well, others really struggled with communicating and working effectively together. This included working to deadlines and managing the responsibility of working for a team. It was clear that, while non-attendance likely reflected wider issues with engagement, the students who didn’t attend Kaz’s introductory workshop were those most likely to struggle with the group task. Having attached a Buddycheck peer evaluation to this assessment meant students were able to score their peers’ contributions to the group assessment against a range of criteria. This meant those who contributed least got a lower mark, and vice versa, which mitigated against some freeloading behaviours. Interestingly, because students also scored their own contributions to the group, the same pattern of under confidence could be seen, with many giving themselves lower scores than they received from their peers. The automated feedback from Buddycheck compares self-scores with those from their peers so will, I expect, have boosted many students’ confidence in working in groups going forward.
Student feedback demonstrated that they liked that the module was dynamic, that it felt relevant and was taught enthusiastically, but I think they hated the fact they were being taught skills rather than in depth chemistry (which would be less relevant for most career destinations). This is despite me having packed in a lot more hardcore chemistry teaching than they seem to have realised! Nevertheless, many have said it was their favourite module and they have developed important skills.
I think they also came away with a wider understanding how skills development is embedded in their degree and how many of the activities we get them to do build on, or support, activities in different modules, which bodes well for when they come to complete the NSS!
Future practice
Next time I think we’ll trim and focus the introduction to team work session to give students more time to get on with the activities, which might include asking them to designate a leader whose role it will be to keep them on track. I also plan provide more guidance on how to communicate with each other and organise the activities of the group. I’ll also be much clearer with them what’s likely to happen if they don’t engage; that students who don’t meet with their peers will likely have their contributions scored poorly which will affect their mark. But also, that students who give that little bit extra can also be rewarded by the team ad see their marks increase, which is important because you need people with enthusiasm to help drive the team forwards.
I also want to get the groups up and running much more quickly, so will require them to plan out and timetable their future meetings and activities after the introductory session. I’m also going to make the groups bigger (up to 6-7 in a group, rather than 4-5), to account for drop out.
Top tips
Plan out skills training sessions, session learning outcomes, and the structure of the portfolio well in advance and take advice on all aspects, especially with your partner Careers and Employability Consultant, as they have lots of really valuable experience to offer.
Buddy check is a really powerful tool but can be a bit intimidating at first, so I would advise people to be cautious and to take advice from people who’ve used it (e.g. the Educational Enhancement team).
Be certain to review any reasonable adjustments to ensure students are able to perform to the best of their ability in the multifaceted nature of skills training and assessment.
Allocate sufficient staff resources to govern and guide the students, as well as mark their portfolio assessments as skills training and evaluation can be resource intensive.
On 13th March 2025, final-year History students from the University of Sussex spent a day by the sea visiting the Towner Eastbourne. The day offered students a valuable opportunity to work together and reflect on how the skills and knowledge they’ve developed throughout their course can be applied beyond the University.
The day began at 9am at Brighton train station. At first, things were quiet—everyone was still waking up and gathering their thoughts for the day ahead. But during the 30-minute train ride to Eastbourne, the atmosphere became more relaxed, and conversations started to flow. As the day progressed, energy and engagement grew—highlighting the value of stepping outside traditional teaching spaces.
At the Gallery, students explored the exhibitions and went behind the scenes into the archives, gaining insight into how the organisation operates. The students had a room of their own at the Museum, allowing them to come together, share ideas and reflect on what they had seen. This space was also used for short workshops and talks for the students, introducing them to various aspects of object collection and community engagement.
Student room, where there were workshops and where we shared ideas and reflected on what we’d learnt throughout the day
The day was organised by Professor Lucy Robinson and Associate Professor Chris Warne and formed part of a broader effort to help students see how the study of history shapes public life—and how they, as historians, can contribute to that work by bringing their discipline expertise and skills into the wider cultural landscape. The visit was part of Do It Together (DIT) Digital. Lucy explains:
DIT Digital is a really important part of how Chris and I work. It’s part of a wider collaborative research and impact project with the Subcultures Network and the Museum of Youth Culture (MOYC). We want our students to benefit from how universities connect with the wider world beyond the lecture and seminar room. We want to weave teaching into all of our research and public work, providing students with real world experience. In this case for example, DIT Digital will feed into our event that we are organising as part of the Brighton Festival for the University’s Festival of Ideas. Students will be our collaborators in the project, developing an ethics application, designing a collections forms, and working with the public at the events to collect objects for the MOYC’s archive.
Quote from Prof. Lucy Robinson.
In preparation for their work at the festivals, the visit encouraged and trained students to think about how to record, interpret, and present historical objects to people—and how community-facing institutions like Towner play a key role in this process. As its name suggests, Towner is a space designed for the town; a place where art and everyday life intersect.
Capturing and sharing objects digitally
One of the aims of the day was to help students explore how digital tools can be used to document, share, and interpret historical objects. George Robinson and I introduced students to Padlet, which enables students to capture historical material in a variety of formats.
Students using Padlet to capture and curate objects
Padlet allows users to record content directly or upload media from their phone or device. Each object entry can be complemented with links to relevant external sources, such as podcasts, journal articles, or YouTube videos—enriching the historical context with multiple perspectives.
Students also explored how to curate their Padlet boards, transforming them into either:
a deep dive into a single object, layered with media and supporting content.
a digital museum, echoing the store at Towner, where viewers can explore a diverse collection of objects across time periods and themes.
Importantly, Padlet also allows for community engagement. It can be an open access resource where members of the public can:
contribute objects, stories, and images
reflect and comment, creating a dialogue around shared histories
co-curate collections, encouraging shared ownership of cultural memory
Behind the scenes: The Towner store
A highlight of the visit was a tour of Towner’s art store—a temperature and bug-controlled archive space. The tour was led by Liz Corkhill (Skills and Opportunities Producer at Towner). Part of Liz’s role is to extend the gallery’s collections to the wider community, and she shared her knowledge of the collection, offering fascinating stories about the wide array of objects held by Towner.
Liz showing students the store at the Towner
Among other things, students discovered that:
Only 18% of the works at Towner are by women, and the gallery is actively working to improve representation. (This figure, notably, is still higher than the National Gallery, which currently stands at around 1–3%.)
The Towner houses the world’s largest collection of works by Eric Ravilious.
A well-run art store is all about organisation—where objects are carefully categorised, clearly labelled, and correctly stored.
Art, archaeology, and everyday objects: The Findings
It was excellent to hear about The Findings—a public art project by artist Verity-Jane Keefe, exhibited at Towner and across Eastbourne.
The project responded to the recent excavation of a significant Bronze Age settlement at Shinewater and Langney (near Eastbourne). Keefe’s work bridged archaeology, art, and everyday life, exploring what it meant to find, hold, and interpret objects from the past.
Her installation featured large-scale brass sculptures, cast from everyday objects unearthed at the site—soft drink cans, bricks, pre-historic tools—juxtaposing the ancient with the contemporary. Keefe worked with local schools, businesses and organisations to select, preserve and place the found objects in public spaces across Shinewater and Langney, including shopping centres and housing estates, inviting passersby to engage with them.
Artefacts found on the archaelogical dig at Shinewater and Langney, cast in brass and on display at the Towner.
The Findings was a community project, resulting in community-made art. It was a clear demonstration of collective approaches to history, and one that reflected the ethos of both the Towner Gallery and the teaching philosophy of Lucy and Chris.
The Museum of Youth Culture
Also attending the day was Ann O’Toole from the MOYC, which celebrates the lived experiences, creativity, and everyday heritage of young people in Britain.
Ann showing students artefacts from the Museum
Students were invited to engage with this idea of everyday heritage by bringing in their own objects that spoke to personal or cultural stories of youth. These were items like a parent’s 1980s Psychobilly leather jacket, a photo at a festival that represented notions of collectivism and nostalgia, and an Acid House CD that had been listened to by both the student and their parents at different points in history, heard through different perspectives, experienced in different ways. These objects, just ordinary things, represented cultures, politics and ideologies of the youth in Britain. Having been scanned by Ann, these objects are now part of the MOYC’s digital collection.
As each student scanned their object/s so that they could form part of the MOYC archive, Ann explained the importance of metadata, ensuring that objects are recorded correctly and can therefore be adequately searched for and understood by the public via the database.
Connecting with Ann was a valuable experience for the students, many of whom followed up with her afterwards to explore volunteering opportunities at the MOYC. After engaging with the students and supporting them in recording objects, Ann shared some key advice about working in the industry. She emphasised the importance of building connections, explaining that it’s often the people you know who help you find job opportunities. She encouraged students to take advantage of internships and volunteer roles—even if just for a few hours—as these experiences not only help develop industry skills and knowledge, but also clarify personal interests and preferences. She also noted that some institutions, like the MOYC, even offer payment for volunteer work.
What did students gain?
I’m sure that each student gained something very individual to them. Here are some of the things I observed:
Insight into how historical knowledge can shape careers in heritage, museums, archives.
Practical skills in digitisation, curation, and creative presentation.
A deeper understanding of how community history and public engagement are central to the work of museums and galleries.
On the train home, one student said it had been incredibly helpful to meet people like Ann from MOYC andLiz from the Towner—to hear about their roles and learn how they got into their careers. Another reflected:
It’s great to talk to professionals, get their advice, and see behind the scenes in this kind of work.
Another student commented that the day had boosted their confidence in engaging with cultural spaces and noted that, while it was nice to have this at the end of their degree as a culmination of their hard work, they would have benefited from more opportunities like this throughout their course.
Next Steps
As an Academic Developer, the day inspired me to help strengthen the connections between the University and cultural institutions like the Towner. This experience was really enriching for the students, not only in terms of enhancing employability, but also in supporting student confidence, satisfaction and wellbeing by applying disciplinary knowledge to life beyond the University and seeing the positive impacts in can have on the community.
Dr. Gillian Sandstrom is an Associate Professor in the Psychology of Kindness in the School of Psychology. Gillian worked in industry for 10 years as a computer programmer before discovering positive psychology. This led to pursuing a Masters in Psychology at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), where Gillian developed a smile-and-wave relationship with a lady who worked at a hot dog stand. During her PhD studies at the University of British Columbia, inspired by this relationship with the hot dog lady, Gillian started studying interactions with weak ties. Her work since then has focused on the benefits of minimal social interactions with weak ties and strangers, and the barriers that prevent people from connecting. After completing her PhD, Gillian worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Cambridge before taking on a lectureship at the University of Essex.
What I did
In my teaching, I use a method called Lecture Comprehension Checks (LCCs) to gather rapid student feedback. This is a simple but effective technique that allows me to understand what students are learning, where they are struggling, and how they feel about the module material. At the end of each lecture, I ask students to fill out a small slip of paper answering two or three key questions. Depending on the subject I am teaching, these questions may vary, but they always focus on comprehension, engagement, and areas for improvement.
For example, when I taught undergraduate statistics, I asked:
What did you learn today?
Are you still confused about anything?
Are you completely lost?
For a module on positive psychology, I was more interested in student engagement with the content, so I asked:
What topic did you find most interesting?
What was the least interesting?
What would you like to learn more about?
More recently, in my Social Connection and Disconnection module, I used similar questions to gauge student learning and encourage suggestions.
Why I did It
The primary reason I use LCCs is to be responsive to student needs. Rather than waiting for formal evaluations at the end of the term, this method allows me to make real-time adjustments to my teaching.
I also find that students appreciate being heard. Many have commented on how valued they feel when they see their feedback shaping the course. When they express confusion about a particular topic, I dedicate time in the next lecture to address it. If they highlight a particularly engaging topic, I make sure to expand on it in future lessons.
I pair this with another practice to build rapport with students. At the end of class, I stand at the door to collect the slips, which allows for a moment of personal interaction with each student. These brief exchanges enhance engagement and help me show students that I care.
How it works
At the start of each lecture, I distribute small slips of paper. Students can write on them at any point during the class and hand them in as they leave. I deliberately use paper-based feedback rather than digital surveys because of the response rate. I experimented with a QR code survey, but not a single student used it. There’s something about the physical act of writing and handing in a paper slip that encourages participation – maybe there’s a bit of peer pressure when you can see others filling out their slips.
The key elements that make this method effective include:
Anonymity – students are more honest when they can provide feedback anonymously.
Simplicity – the slips contain only a couple of questions, making them quick and easy to complete.
Routine – because this happens every lecture, students become accustomed to it and engage more actively.
I read through all the responses as soon as possible, usually right after class. This allows me to identify common themes and areas of confusion. If multiple students are struggling with the same concept, I dedicate time in the next lecture to revisit it. I also make small, real-time adjustments to my teaching methods based on their feedback, and I make sure to tell students what changes I’ve made.
Impact and student feedback
The impact of LCCs has been overwhelmingly positive. Students appreciate having a direct way to communicate their thoughts, and I have been able to improve my teaching based on their input.
Some of the specific changes I have made due to student feedback include:
Adding more group discussions – initially, I used Padlet for anonymous contributions, assuming students would prefer it. However, after receiving comments about how much they enjoyed in-person discussions, I phased out Padlet and encouraged more verbal participation.
Adding takeaway slides – a student noted that they found the summary slides at the end of the lecture to be helpful. As a result, I began systematically adding these at the end of each sub-section of the lecture, not just at the end.
Clarifying graphs with bullet points – after feedback that some graphs were difficult to interpret, I started adding brief bullet point summaries next to them.
Beyond structural improvements, LCCs also humanise the classroom experience. Students sometimes share personal reflections or stories related to the lecture content. For example, after discussing social networks and “six degrees of separation”, a student excitedly told me about two friends who had a “Bacon number” of two. Another student connected a discussion on kindness to cultural practices in their home country.
During one class session, a student left during the break and handed their LCC to me as they left. When I read it after the lecture, I discovered that the student had used it to explain why they had left early: a difficult personal/family issue. Luckily, I teach a small enough class that I was able to figure out which student wrote the LCC, and I was able to reach out and offer them support.
From my perspective, the emotional impact of reading these responses is also significant. Teaching can be draining, but knowing that students are engaged, enjoying discussions, and valuing the course content is incredibly motivating. I often look forward to reading their comments as soon as I can.
Top tips
Keep it simple and flexible – ask only one or two questions, and encourage students to share whatever is on their minds
Show/tell students how you have used their feedback. They want to know that it is worth their time, that you are really listening and open to their suggestions.
Pair this practice with a moment of connection as students leave class. I stand at the door to collect the LCCs, which gives me a chance to make eye contact and exchange pleasantries with every student.
NOTE: I’m currently using this technique in a final year optional module with 60 students, but I have used it in classes of several hundred students too.
Dr. Eljee Javier is an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in English Language Teaching at the University of Sussex. She is the Course Convenor for the MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL and works extensively in transnational education and intensive English programmes.
Dr Eljee Javier
What I Did
The Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) project was developed to support international students during their postgraduate studies, particularly in the period after formal teaching had ended and dissertation work had begun. The initiative provided structured, student-led study groups focused on academic writing and peer support.
The PASS facilitators were international students themselves and were trained to lead the sessions. The participants worked collaboratively on their writing project, such as a small section of a chapter, or an outline for rewriting their conclusion. The aim was not to provide proofreading services but to create a space for discussion, clarification, and mutual learning.
Sessions included structured activities such as exchanging a paragraph of their writing with a fellow student (not necessarily from the same discipline), asking specific questions for peer feedback, and encouraging students to reflect on their writing skills.
Why I Did It
The idea for PASS stemmed from discussions with MA students who expressed feelings of isolation after teaching had ended. The absence of structured classes made it challenging for them to stay engaged and connected with peers. While the University already offered academic writing workshops (via ELAS) and individual tutoring, students sought a more communal, interactive approach to undertaking their dissertations.
PASS aimed to bridge this gap by fostering a sense of academic community among international students. The sessions were designed to be informal yet purposeful, allowing students to build confidence in their writing and academic communication skills in a supportive environment.
How It Worked
Four international students were recruited as PASS facilitators. They were responsible for organizing sessions, booking rooms, and promoting the initiative. Facilitators received training on session management and peer learning techniques. They were not expected to teach content but to guide discussions and problem-solving exercises.
Each session had a clear structure, including icebreakers, guided discussions, and peer feedback activities. Students brought a paragraph of their writing to share and discuss with others.
A small budget was provided for snacks, helping create a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere. Facilitators coordinated room bookings and promotional efforts within the student community.
Impact and Student Feedback
The initiative was well received, with an average of 15-20 students attending each session. Key benefits highlighted by students included:
A supportive, low-risk environment for discussing academic challenges.
Improved confidence in writing through peer review and discussion.
A sense of community and belonging, reducing feelings of isolation.
Enhanced ability to articulate writing challenges and seek appropriate support.
Two main criticisms emerged:
Students expressed a desire for PASS to run throughout the year rather than just during dissertation season.
Some students initially expected proofreading services, requiring clearer communication about the session’s objectives.
Lessons Learned & Recommendations
For educators or departments considering a similar initiative, here are key takeaways:
Identify and train student facilitators well in advance ensures smooth implementation.
Work closely with administrative staff to streamline room bookings, budget allocation, and session planning.
Clearly communicate that the sessions focus on collaborative learning, not proofreading.
Consider offering PASS sessions year-round to support students at different stages of their studies.
Focus on small details, such as providing a variety of culturally inclusive snacks, contribute to student engagement and comfort.
Future Plans
Based on positive feedback, there is potential to expand PASS, integrating it into departmental support structures. Future iterations could:
Extend the model to final-year undergraduate students.
Work closely with academics, who could then recommend these events to the students who could really benefit.
By fostering a peer-supported learning environment, PASS has demonstrated the value of informal academic spaces that complement existing university resources. The initiative highlights the importance of student-led learning in building confidence, academic skills, and a sense of belonging in higher education.
Geoffrey Makstutis is Head of the School of Design at West Dean College, one of the University of Sussex’s partner institutions. He holds degrees in architecture from the University of Michigan and the Architectural Association and a postgraduate qualification in teaching and learning for higher education. He was formerly the Course Leader for BA Architecture at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London; where he also led several research projects and acted as a PhD Supervisor. He has taught and lectured at institutions around the world and as Subject Lead for Construction, Art, and Design Media; with Pearson Education, he led the development of higher education qualifications across these different subject areas.
Geoffrey is a published author of two books. “Architecture: An Introduction” (2010) and “Design Process in Architecture” (2018). He has also authored numerous articles on architecture, construction, media and education. He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Architects Registration Board, a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Building Engineers, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
A key experience in the studying of design subjects is the critique or ‘Crit’. Primarily used in formative assessment, this engagement between student and teacher involves the student presenting, typically, work-in-progress and then tutor and student discuss how the work is progressing. This may involve the tutor challenging the student on aspects of the work; with the student seeking to support their position. The tutor may discuss ways in which the student might consider further development. In short, the aim of the Crit is to provide the student with an opportunity to engage in an analytical discourse on their design work and an opportunity to ‘test’ their conceptual and critical approach to their work.
The most important aspect of the Crit is that it is interactive. Where written feedback is often valuable, it is received after the event and is purely one-directional (from tutor to student). While a student may have a follow-up meeting with a tutor to discuss the written feedback, which can be valuable in understanding the feedback, it is further ‘distanced’ from the work and limits how the student can apply the feedback; as they must wait until clarification can be sought. The Crit is live and feedback is continuous throughout the activity. Further, this can also be an activity that engages peers in providing commentary and critique to each other.
However, this does not suggest that a Crit can result in just a discussion. For the student, who may often be nervous about presenting their work, it is easy for key points to be forgotten in the back and forth of discussion. So, there is a need for some record of the discussion. This could be a video or audio recording, but the introduction of such media can often result in people feeling they must ‘perform’ or they become less open in their discussion; stilted in their delivery as they worry that they might say ‘the wrong thing’. Ideally, a written record of the key points of the discussion will be the most effective. Herein lies another challenge. If the tutor is making notes, the flow of their discussion can be disjointed as they seek to write what they are saying. Similarly, if the student is taking notes, they may miss important points raised by the tutor or fail to engage, fully, in the discussion; as they become focused on recording.
We have sought to address these challenges by instigating a collaborative note-taking format during Crits. This sees students working pairs to take notes for each other during their counterpart’s discussion with the tutor.
In practice, this allows the student and the tutor to be actively engaged in a discussion about the work being presented, without needing to stop and take notes. The discussion can flow more freely, without interruption or worry that something may be missed while trying to record points in the discussion. However, there are additional benefits; beyond the initial discussion.
The student pairs are encouraged to meet, after the end of the session, to review notes with each other and discuss. This encourages further peer-to-peer discussion about the work, as each can seek clarification from the other – “what do you think the tutor meant when they said…?” or “You know, the same point was made in your discussion as in mine, let’s look at our work together…” The model also provides multiple points at which students are encouraged to reflect on the feedback they have received, as they receive it, in discussion with their pair, and independently after the discussion. In this way, the collaborative note-taking approach has greater potential for students to engage in a more meaningful and evaluative consideration of the feedback.
In some cases, there may be a need for the tutor to have a record of the feedback, but this can also be based on the collaborative note-taking from the students. Tutors may instruct students to email a copy of the notes, following the peer-to-peer discussion. When these are received, the tutor has the opportunity to either file these as a record of the feedback or, if necessary, send a short email back to the student to further clarify a point in the feedback (that may not have been fully articulated in the notes) – “…don’t forget that we also discussed the possibility that you might look at…” or “…when I mentioned X, this was intended to give you another area for investigation.”
Theory into Practice
This collaborative note-taking practice fits well within pedagogic models, such as Laurillard’s Conversational Framework. In Laurillard’s framework we see how the teacher’s and student’s concepts interact and feed to peer concepts through ‘discussing’. This is what we aim to achieve through the Crit, where a tutor and student explore the student’s work and invite discussion among peers.
Our note-taking model brings the ‘collaborating’ activity, found in Laurillard’s framework, into action and; through the collaborative feedback provides an opportunity for students to explore their own (design) practice with their partner such that they build a sense of peer practice. While this is primarily focused around the sharing of design practice experience, the very nature of the activity also builds a sense of peer practice in feedback and discussion; both of which are key features of professional design studios.
Conclusion
Developing successful teaching and learning strategies is often about finding solutions that are effective for learners and manageable for teachers. While the idea of manageability may seem like a derogation of a teacher’s responsibility to support the learner, there is a difference between things that are ‘easier’ and things that are manageable. When faced with high student numbers and the need to actively engage in the review and discussion of student work, time can be a critical factor. The teaching of design requires careful consideration of a multitude of factors (conceptual development, theory into practice, technical resolution, communication, practical skill), all of which must be explored when discussing a student’s work. In such a context, the ability to engage in discussion, without distractions for the teacher and the student, is profound.
Collaborative note-taking during verbal feedback, in the Crit, provides a manageable and effective means of recording the content of a discussion between student and teacher. In addition, the collaborative nature of the activity creates a context in which students build greater understanding of their own work while supporting colleagues to develop further. In short, it’s win-win for teachers and students.
References
Laurillard, D. (2002). Rethinking university teaching: a conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies (2nd ed.). London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Laurillard, D. (2012). Teaching as a design science: building pedagogical patterns for learning and technology. London: Routledge.
The Learning Matters Podcast captures insights into, experiences of, and conversations around education at the University of Sussex. The podcast is hotsed by Prof Wendy Garnham and Dr Heather Taylor. It runs monthly, and each month is centred around a particular theme. The theme of our fifth episode is ‘creating an autism-friendly university’, and we will hear from Dr Sophie Anns (Associate Professor in Psychology).
Welcome to the Learning Matters Podcast from the University of Sussex, where we capture insights, experiences and conversations around education at our institution and beyond. Our theme for this episode is neurodiversity and our guest is Doctor Sophie Anns from Psychology. Our names are Heather Taylor and Wendy Garnham and we are your presenters today. Welcome everyone.
All
Hello.
Wendy Garnham
So, Sophie, can you tell us a little about the context of your scholarship in the area of neurodiversity?
Sophie Anns
Sure. OK. Before I came to Sussex, I did my PhD in Learning and Memory in children with complex needs with autism. And that gave me a really sort of good insight into sort of how children learn and some of that research was also applied in another study that I did with the criminal justice system, which was looking at how to interview autistic witnesses. And I thought that some of that we could really apply to how students learn at University, so when I was at Sussex, I thought, oh, you know, let’s look at that, not so much memory, but more about learning and how children learn and obviously there has been a very positive move in the theories behind autism and neurodiversity, lot more of neurofirmative approaches that are around now, which is really nice to be able to tap into, and also look at students at university and how they learn.
Heather Taylor 1:40
What issues do you see as being particularly pressing in this area?
Sophie Anns
There’s quite a few. I would say the main one is probably the rise in numbers of neurodivergent students that we’re seeing, especially in the last few years. And I’m sure you guys also notice it in your classes. It’s across the board and some of this is related to increased number of diagnosis as well. So yeah, there’s overall sort of massive increase. And I think we’re at the point where universities, as an institution, we’re just not set up for it at many levels. Practically speaking, at a sort of spatial and infrastructural level, but also the way we teach, the way we disseminate and share knowledge, the way we assess it. Basically, across the board a switch is just really, really important and if we focus more on autism, which is more my sort of expertise or sort of specialism. And if we look at sort of autistic people generally they have such a need and desire to have fulfilled and focused interests and that on paper, basically an autistic student, on paper, should thrive at university. Because of this, their abilities and strengths, their focused interest, which is what a degree actually is of course. And also, their detailed focused thinking. So, we should be able to maximize and capitalize on those strengths. Specifically, again, you know in sort of all degrees across the board, there’s going to be that element that might not have been present so much at school. So really on paper, they should thrive at university. And the sad thing is that they’re not. There’s a big gap here that we need to address.
Wendy Garnham 3:38
Yeah. I think sometimes it’s having the opportunity to demonstrate those particular skills as missing isn’t it?
Sophie Anns
Yeah. It’s enabling that and recognising it as a strength. And you know in the way we teach in the way we assess as well. I think it’s, you know, more present in some degrees, perhaps in others, just by the very nature of the discipline. But it’s something that we, yeah, could really draw out of students more I think.
Wendy Garnham
I think sometimes it’s about taking the risk in terms of changes to what we’re doing and teaching. Quite off putting I think. But doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it, but I do think that is a barrier. So, can you, on that note, give us an idea of what scholarship projects you are or have been working on?
Sophie Anns
Yeah. So, I’ve been working on a few. Probably the first one that I worked on was
as I said earlier, looking at this sort of learning in autistic students, and I wanted to look of course at well-being because that impacts hugely their studies. It’s just too huge in autism. So, I wanted to focus purely on academic learning experiences. And by that I mean sort of everything that comes into their academic learning basically. So yeah, it’s going to be what’s going on outside of their work as well. So of course, mental health is going to impact that, but it’s more looking at things like all the different learning contexts, so examinations, whether they’re in- person or online, different types of coursework and assessment. How well they do at self-directed study?
So, we basically developed a measure, a questionnaire exploring these academic learning experiences and we looked at these sort of different learning contexts and then we also looked at some other elements that we called dimensions. So, these were more around things like sensory reactivity, which is big in autism. In autism, sensory issues can be sort of hypo or hypersensitive, and that could in the learning context translate to things like what it’s like in a lecture theatre – can they actually focus and concentrate if there’s a bright light, or if someone’s eating a packet of crisps next to you, for example? This questionnaire that we created really was trying to capture these in a real sort of context. These rich contexts of experiences, other things we looked at with things like social anxiety in group learning, and things around peer support, things around mono focus, which was our sort of term for combining monotropism and hyperfocus. So, the ability to have either this tunnel vision or focusing on one thing at a time or that sort of detailed oriented processing as well. And one other thing I can’t remember off the top of my head. So anyway, we developed this measure, had huge feedback from students on that, and we’re just trying to, at the moment, validate it. We’re on our second round of revisions with the journal, so we’re hoping that’s going to be a measure that will be validated and published and that will be able to be used, obviously not just in research, but also with Student Services – they can use it on a one to one basis with students to help them answer questions about how they’re doing and look at where their strengths and weaknesses, in terms of their experiences, actually are.
Wendy Garnham 7:10
Sounds like a fantastic resource.
Sophie Anns
I hope so.
Wendy Garnham
One that will be well used, I think.
Heather Taylor
Yeah. In terms of, you know, you said you got student feedback. So how did you approach that? How did you identify students to give you the feedback? Was the uptake good, how did they feel about the experience of giving you too many questions in a row?
Sophie Anns
No, I mean, I’m really glad you asked that because it’s really important. This took actually years to develop and I started with some of my project students, my undergrad project students, getting them to think about the academic learning experience. This was a co-created participatory research design. And they were mainly non autistic at that point, but we got them to sort of sketch out what academic learning experiences for you? What do they look like? And then we involve some autistic students and we ran then a pilot study. This was just after the pandemic or sort of coming out of the pandemic. We put it online and we got hundreds and hundreds of students to take part. I think in the second round we also put it on SONA for psychology students here, but we’ve had about 1000 responses. And worldwide from other countries as well.
Wendy Garnham 8:29
It’s incredible, that many participants.
Sophie Anns
Yeah, we were lucky. I think if we did it now, we wouldn’t get so many because I think post pandemic everyone’s a bit sort of fatigued by, you know, there’s a bit of participant fatigue out there. But for then it was really, really good. But we kept that co-creation process going, so we did a pilot study first and then we did it again, we revised all the items in the questionnaire again with several autistic students, and one particularly that worked on it in her placement year. And she’s now a first author on the paper, which is great. It’s actually, you know, really beneficial for people involved as well.
Heather Taylor
I actually really like the fact, though, that it started from students. You’ve gone and got the student experience to begin with. And then, because it actually is, well, doing it that way, I know you said the majority of them are undergraduate students who didn’t have autism to begin with. But I think finding out what potentially neurotypical students are experiencing in the classroom and then thinking about, OK, it almost gives you that way to look at, is it an equal experience, you know to start from there? So I think that’s great, and it’s just so nice that the whole way it’s been very much student-informed, sort of student co-lead, its lovely.
Wendy Garnham 9:51
I think that enables you as well to get at the details, isn’t it? Because there’s a lot of very general advice, but actually something that really gets to the nitty gritty of what that experience is like in terms of the detailed experience of what’s going on in a lecture theatre. You know that I think is really useful. My next question is what impact do you hope your scholarship will have? I have one particular interest myself, in that, which is given what you found out, are there plans to develop sort of recommendations or ideas for how to support neurodiversity in the classroom as a result of your scholarship?
Sophie Anns
Yeah, quite a few. So we’ve got, hopefully, this measure is going to get validated in a research context, which would be really good. We have some universities in the States already using it in their disability services. We created an infographic which is full of recommendations and there’s a research base which is on the University Academic Development website I think already, we’re going to update that with news of figures from the actual study, but basically it’s all the same, it’s just different numbers, but you know the same thing occurred, the same findings exist. Also I was very lucky to visit a university in India this year where we’re trying to set up a partnership between our schools and I shared the infographic and the study with them and they’re going to be able to use it with their students. And then we later had this really nice sort of research conclave discussion where a few of us from psychology went over in September, and one of the sessions was about the lived experience of neurodivergent students. And there we were sort of able to sort of compare the cross cultural differences between student experiences. So that was really, really useful. And I hope useful for them and their students over there as well. We all benefited from it and it was really interesting. And then also what this study has sort of led into has being this new collaboration with Anna Franklin and John Moore who look at visual discomfort. And Claire, who’s the first author and worked on this, the other previous study, is now doing her PhD in this, and this project is going to be looking at visual discomfort in autism, but it’s going to have a focus on educational environments and she’s going to use the Sussex campus as her sort of first trial, if you like. She’s going to again involve students, it’s a participatory project, and get them to sort of go around campus and see where they experience visual discomfort and sort of take photographs of that, and create the stimuli from that and then we’re going to get those rated by students and other people later. There’s lots of aspects to this project. But I think the important thing that’s going to come out of this project is it is going to be able to inform designers and architects and get them to revise any guidelines there are around neurodiversity in spaces. So that project particularly is around, yeah, space, you know, visual discomfort and space. And some other work that I’ve been doing as well, sort of trying to get this initiative going at Sussex, looking at trying to make Sussex a more autism friend university, with that more neurodiversity friendly as a whole. So we’ve worked a little bit with the library looking at the spaces there, working with academic development on sort of staff training. Probably some other things that I can’t think of off the top of my head. I guess it sort of spanned out into quite a few different projects in a sense.
Wendy Garnham 13:38
Yeah, it sounds like the impact’s been quite diverse.
Heather Taylor
I think that the thing you said about the lights, so that is so common. I don’t know whether the student’s autistic or, I can’t remember who’s said when. But it’s very common when I go into a teaching space that they won’t like the lights, you know, want the lights off, which is fair enough. But yeah, there is quite a need for this, and it’s actually really important because I think if I just ignored them and kept the lights as they are, they would really struggle to concentrate. And like I said, I don’t think this is always necessarily autistic students, I think it’s quite common that you know, for whatever reasons it might be, these sorts of fluorescent lights can really interrupt with someone’s concentration. But I suppose that’s the way with when you’re trying to make a more neurodiverse friendly environment it does tend to benefit everyone, doesn’t it?
Sophie Anns
Yes, absolutely. And I think that’s a problem, especially with autism specifically and neurodivergence more generally is that people want a sort of one-size-fits-all tick box, this is how we solve it all. And on one side we’re never going to have that. It’s always about just trying to tailor everything to the individual but at the same time you say very rightly Heather, if we sort of tap into principles of universal design, some of the things most of the things that are going to benefit neurodivergent people is going to benefit all. So it’s striking that balance. So yeah, I think that’s really important and lighting is absolutely key. Yeah, it really. I have the same when I go into you know seminars or workshops, the first thing I do is like, right, let’s all sort out the lighting, the seating and the lighting. And you know, it’s a free for all.
Wendy Garnham
Yeah. I wonder just on that note, how neurodiverse students find outdoor learning. Just as a contrast to that indoor lighting, artificial lighting and sort of very constrained environment, whether learning outdoors is beneficial or whether there’s a sort of a similar sort of issue with over stimulation but in a different way, a different context. But that would be interesting to explore.
Sophie Anns 15:54
It’s really interesting and I think generally people would say it’s probably better because it’s natural, it’s the outdoors, there’s sort of less stimulation. But I know some students that really struggle with the wind, for example, and as we know here, it’s really windy. So yeah, there could be other sort of sensory sensitivities around. Rain. Wind. What’s happening? And it’s quite interesting because that taps into the sort of biophilia sort of theory about how we often assume that nature is best and less stressful. And this comes into some of the work that Claire’s going to be looking at around visual discomfort from a sort of more theoretical standpoint. But we assume natural is better and sometimes it. But actually, if we think about nature, it’s actually a very stimulating environment to be in. And I think there’s some research and I say this very broadly and vaguely, that says, and I’m quoting someone else here, that if you’re already stressed then being in nature is not going to calm you down and help. But if you’re not, then it will. And I’m sure it’s not as straightforward as that. I think that’s quite interesting. But I would love to, you know, personally do much more sort of outdoor teaching like you do, Wendy. But just look at the weather half the time!
Wendy Garnham
Yeah, I’ve done a walking seminar in the cold today and it was freezing. But it does just bring a different atmosphere I think to what we’re doing. So I was saying to Heather earlier, we were sitting in the seminar room – nobody wanted to talk to anybody else. Was very quiet. Very short answers to questions where you know I got an answer at all. The minute we stepped outside, they all started talking to each other, to me, I think there’s something about that idea that if you’re walking and talking the conversation flows naturally, it doesn’t feel like there’s a spotlight on you. It just creates this nice sort of atmosphere of, you know, it’s easy to talk and it’s easy to share ideas and thoughts. But interestingly, we were looking at different blue spaces on campus today and looking at how restorative they found the different blue spaces and what factors might be sort of implicated in their decisions. And so yeah, really interesting, it’ll be interesting to see what their results are
Sophie Anns
Can I ask you a question? What’s your maximum number for a walking seminar?
Wendy Garnham
Normally our seminars are about 20 students max. Today it was my smaller group, so I had seven students, but I mean, you can do it in different ways. Today we did just pairing up or a small group of three, and I gave them like a list of where we were going. They had that in advance so that they knew what the plan was, what the route was. I gave them their questions to consider at each location, so yeah, basically it worked really well because we were all moving together as one. But they were chatting within their pairs or their small groups of three, and it really did facilitate conversation. Yeah, it works. And I think you can as long as you sort of have those smaller groups within a bigger group, it works. It’s just I think trying to do with everybody talking to everyone else or just one person talking amongst the whole crowd I’m not sure that would be as effective. It’s that idea that when you’re walking, whoever you’re next to, it’s just easy to generate conversation. And even at this stage in term, there were students there that hadn’t met, or at least hadn’t worked together before that were introducing themselves to each other. And without any intervention from me, it was just naturally happening. So yeah, I think it’s something that’s quite interesting in terms of neurodiversity and how it can break down barriers. But it’d be interesting to see for, you know, autism, how the symptoms there and the experiences actually feed into that.
Sophie Anns 20:09
Definitely. I mean, I think it generally it would be really, really helpful and especially alleviating that social anxiety and sort of it takes a focus off you, doesn’t it as well. Just sort of more about chatting with the other person. And you’re out in the fresh air, which is always good, even if it’s freezing. They can also, you know, complain about how cold it is as well. Part of a bonding experience as well.
Wendy Garnham
Exactly. But I think it also takes the onus off of us as the instructor because it does sort of strip away that hierarchy. It does sort of facilitate that sort of cooperative collaborative talk. So yeah, it’s it’ll be an interesting one to explore, I think.
Heather Taylor
What advice would you give to anyone regarding scholarship in the area of neurodiversity?
Sophie Anns
I think probably one of the first things I was saying, and it’s leads back to your point, Heather, that you mentioned earlier is about including the neurodivergent students in your research, if possible or projects or work whatever it is that you’re doing. Because that’s just key in getting that, you know, co-creating whatever you’re doing with them. And if it’s research trying to do participatory research with them and, you know, putting them at the sort of centre of the activity or the task or the research, I think it’s really important. So that would be one bit of advice and I think another thing, maybe something that I found useful has been collaborating with other people, not just at Sussex, but elsewhere. If I think about that PhD, how that’s come about, that’s the sort of collaboration, which has just been wonderful. And also I think sometimes, you know, some pedagogical research I come across, sometimes can suffer a little bit, methods wise I would say, and I can say that with you two, because you’re both psychologists, know what I mean? So I think sometimes collaborating with other researchers where there might be, you know, another skill or area that’s missing can be really good. And I think probably the main thing is finding a community or other people to work with, even if again, it that’s not at your own university. And I think if anyone’s interested in doing scholarship work in neurodiversity I can recommend that they join an international community of practice – it’s called Canvas, not to be confused with our learning platform at Sussex, but it stands for let me think, the community of autism. Yeah, Community Autism Network, Virtual Association of Scholars. And I think if you Google that, you’d probably get it. It’s an international network that are all looking at, basically autistic students at university and I think that would be a really good starting point and a great thing to join. And I think it’s just finding your people and working with others and also in an interdisciplinary way, especially with scholarship and pedagogical work. I think we have so much freedom to do that and that’s one of the main areas where I actually do love this role is that, you know, I just get to work with so many different people in different sort of subject areas. Also with professional services with EE here as well as Academic Development, it’s sort of across the board really, Student Services.
Wendy Garnham 23:36
I would like to thank our guests Sophie Anns.
Sophie Anns
Well, thank you very much for having me also.
Wendy Garnham
And thank you for listening. Goodbye.
Wendy Garnham
This has been the Learning Matters Podcast from the University of Sussex, created by Sarah Watson, Wendy Garnham and Heather Taylor, and produced by Simon Overton. For more episodes as well as articles, blogs, case studies and infographics please visit blogs.sussex.ac.uk/learningmatters.
Simon Overton 24:25
This is Simon, the producer. I’m just going to jump in, I hope you don’t mind Heather and Wendy if I do. So I was very interested to understand a little bit more. You’ve mentioned visual discomfort a few times, and I’m getting a sort of a picture in my mind of what that is. We have talked, Wendy and Heather have, a little bit about sort of what I guess is audio discomfort, buzzy things and things like that. But, could you expand a little bit on what visual discomfort is and how that might impact on students at university?
Sophie Anns
Sure. That’s a really good question. And I don’t know if I can that well because I don’t really get it, lots of us don’t. I think most of us can relate to audio discomfort a lot more easily, but say with visual discomfort, it could be like now I’m looking at these bricks in front of me. So I’m looking at sort of a brick, literally a brick wall. So for some people, all those lines could be quite sort of uniform and comforting. For others, maybe the contrast between the dark colour brick and the cement in the middle would be too much, so it could be one or the other of course, but that sort of maybe the sort of things we’re going to be thinking about. I mean, I’m only going on what other people have said, so things that it’s often to do with lines. Might be staircases, corridors and obviously lighting, lighting always comes into it. And then I guess images of nature, so the trees you know, generally most likely going to be positive. But I think it’s more the architecture and the harsh lines and the contrast of the colours. With these incidents of visual discomfort, it’s not just that ‘Oh, I’m not really sure I like the look of that’, for some autistic people that can cause actual physical pain, and they might feel it as a sort of burning sensation through their spinal cord, for example. Or it means they just can’t focus in any way. You know it’s quite extreme because I think even, you know, for myself as neurotypical person, I can relate to the idea of it. I don’t really experience it, but I can imagine. But actually, you know, for autistic people and probably some other people that are neurodivergent it can translate as physical pain through the body. So it’s really important to investigate it for sure.
Simon Overton 26:35
A funny and very simple fix for one of these. So with the flickering, our electrical system in the UK is 50 hertz . So the light is switching on and switching off 50 times every second, which is faster than we should be able to see it. But a lot of equipment, camera equipment and projectors and so on, their default is America, which operates at 60 hertz. So when you have that difference, and if your camera is not set up, you will get flashing or a flickering on your phone. If you’ve ever tried to, I don’t know if anybody else tries to do this, but if you ever try to film like a train or a bus and they have the sign on the front, if your phone is not set up right, if it’s set to an American or NTSC instead of PAL, the sign on the front of the bus will flicker because it’s operating at a different refresh rate to your camera. So that’s a really easy thing to fix, you go into the settings and you just set it to the PAL setting – whether it’s the camera or projector or whatever it is, but a lot of people wouldn’t know to do that, and if someone, if a lecturer for example, has recorded a video or something or an online seminar or something like that – the entire thing – and it’s and it’s set to NTSC the entire video is going to be flickering and it’s going to be driving people like me nuts. And again I’m probably neurotypical, I’ve not really being checked one way or the other, but if it irritates me, I can imagine that it’ll be extremely frustrating for someone who is not neurotypical.
Sophie Anns
Yeah, absolutely. I just wonder if you can fix this problem in my kitchen, Simon.
This has been the Learning Matters Podcast from the University of Sussex, created by Sarah Watson, Wendy Garnham, and Heather Taylor, and produced by Simon Overton. For more episodes as well as articles, blogs, case studies, and infographics, please visit The Learning Matters Forum.
This blog is part of a series on ‘New Proposals for Digital Pedagogies’ that launches the Sussex Digital Pedagogies Toolkit.
This toolkit conceptualises new ways to think through digital teaching and learning, gathering data from members of the University of Sussex community who shared their thoughts, fears and hopes about digital pedagogy. This toolkit has been created collaboratively by a staff-student research team and uses material from a series of online workshops with members of the Sussex community, including faculty, professional services and students. Those who took part will be introduced as ‘participants’ to emphasise their active participation in knowledge production for this project.
This post will explore the challenges and proposals for teaching and learning with technologies in relation to building community, as well as some questions for reflective practice and resources to explore these ideas further.
‘Pedagogy is about human relationships.’
Workshop participant
Challenges
Throughout the workshops, participants shared that the humanness of learning is often lost within digital environments. Lower passion and attendance was recognised in Zoom lectures, with an example from Covid that online learning took away all the good aspects of School. ‘I hadn’t heard a teenager laugh in 8 weeks! Covid and online schooling took all the joy away and given them only Shakespeare.’
In this section, we will explore how digital pedagogies can change when we set the personal, the human, and the emotional as fundamental aspects of digital teaching.
Digital Logics
Breakout rooms were criticised as a failure in copying the aspects of seminars onto a digital platform. People tend to engage variably in breakout spaces.
Furthermore, Bates (2015) calls for the renovation of teaching models and a change in mindset regarding how tools are used within learning. The core component of teaching, whether online in synchronous sessions or in person, should be about facilitating discussions, and teaching materials should be used to supplement this. However, currently the value is on the materials, and discussions, especially online, are seen as ‘extra work’.
There is a need to move towards a pedagogy based on digital logics. One step towards achieving this is to have open conversations on the platforms currently used in lectures. An example was raised about online classes, with an indication that students’ turning off their cameras has become a norm. Why use an audio visual setting when many students don’t want to be seen online?
Group Work
Student feedback suggests that students are rarely enthusiastic about group work. There have been issues reported by students about the struggles of finding a time to meet and a member not showing up, resulting in uneven workloads and stress.
Whilst assessed group work might be common across the university, there is a need to think about how we can create a setting for people to want to work with each other. A topic that should be discussed is the obligatory nature or willingness to do group work.
Cohort based learning was raised as a successful example of working in small groups. It is a new trend in online learning, where cohorts are built within communities which enables people to learn together and build a community of trust. Cohorts not only help individuals within their community, but have access to wider areas of interaction with other cohorts. It has proven valuable with consumers of online learning and is expanding its influence.
Existing Tools
The creation of new tools is costly and time consuming. Therefore, there is a need to utilise existing tools, as well as train and share information around digital literacy. A range of digital tools were suggested to build community and interactivity in digital learning environments.
Gather Town
A creative virtual space where you navigate different areas as an avatar. This gives more options for liminal spaces and asynchronous interactivity than Zoom, which has become the norm since the Pandemic.
Talis Elevate
A collaborative reading tool embeddable into Canvas, which allows annotations on articles uploaded onto the interface. This enables students to add and respond to questions posted on the article, and helps them to understand difficult texts together online.
Loom
An asynchronous alternative to Zoom. Loom enables screen/camera capture with a chat room underneath. Presentations can be recorded, and it enables room for specific discussions associated with the topic.
Panopto
A tool which many teachers are familiar with, mainly used for recording lectures. In addition to screen and presentation capture, Panopto also has a space for collaborative discussion.
Padlet
A tool that offers opportunities for sharing ideas in a group and comparing work across groups. It works well in both synchronous and asynchronous environments, and across them e.g., students who are absent from a synchronous session can still contribute later.
There is a need to find a midway point between having too many and too few platforms used for online learning, which relates to setting clear boundaries between digital platforms used for personal use and for educational/work purposes. A solution suggested was creating a “My Sussex” platform used for all University related work.
Questions and Resources
How could you avoid simply replicating in-person logics in online platforms?
How could group work be embedded more consistently?
How are relationships and communities built during teaching?
What do students want from their online teaching? What tools and practices might help to build more community and liminal spaces in online environments?
Deema Sonbol is a Lecturer in Strategy and Marketing at the University of Sussex Business School. In June 2021, Deema obtained her PhD in Media and Communication from the University of Warwick, where she also worked as an Associate Tutor to support MA students. In 2015, she worked at the University of Business and Technology where she developed and led courses such as Conceptual Communication, Research and Evaluation, Brand Strategy and Marketing Management. Prior to an academic career, she worked as a Marketing Research Strategist within the communications sector.
Her research interests focus on women’s entrepreneurship, social constructionism, discourse and power, Critical Discourse Analysis, essentialism, social mobility, precarious work, and draws upon several disciplines such as media and communication, gender, cultural, business and feminist studies. Deema was nominated for three categories in the 2023 and 2024 Education Awards: Teaching to Disrupt, Inclusive Sussex, and World Readiness.
What I Did
Supporting students’ wellbeing goes beyond academic guidance, it’s about creating a safe space where students feel genuinely heard and supported. I embarked on a journey to support student wellbeing more actively by becoming an ASPIRE mentor and obtaining a certificate from the Mental Health First Aid UK programme. My primary objective was to offer guidance and approachable support for students facing personal and academic challenges that could impact their progress. My role involves facilitating conversations with students, often starting with a simple, “How are you feeling?” and allowing the dialogue to develop based on their needs. This mentorship program has allowed me to serve as a source of encouragement and to help students who might otherwise feel isolated.
Why I Did It
I believe that caring for students’ wellbeing goes hand-in-hand with academic support. Academic success is often interwoven with mental and emotional health. My approach is guided by a sense of empathy and the desire to foster a supportive, inclusive environment. I’ve found that sharing my own minor struggles, such as time management or motivation, helps in breaking down the perceived power dynamics between students and faculty, allowing for more open and honest conversations.
There is often a need for students to connect with someone who can offer reassurance without judgment. Some students, especially those with low perceptions of themselves, face significant obstacles to their academic progression. By actively listening to their concerns, I aim to empower them to take ownership of their challenges, knowing they’re supported.
Impact and Student Feedback
The feedback from students has been positive, both verbally and in written forms. Many have expressed relief in having someone to talk to who genuinely listens and who respects their autonomy in decision-making. For some students, having someone listen without immediately offering advice has been transformative, as it allows them to explore their own solutions and feel more in control.
Through both online and in-person sessions, I’ve observed that many students benefit particularly from face-to-face interactions, especially when discussing sensitive issues. These in-person sessions foster a greater sense of connection, which can sometimes be challenging to achieve in online settings.
Future Practice
I am committed to continuing this mentorship approach and intend to engage in more professional development workshops and explore new mental health resources to enhance my mentorship skills.
Top Tips
For anyone looking to provide similar support to their students, here are my top three tips:
Take initiative by breaking down the power dynamics and becoming more approachable.
Really listen to what students are saying and let them figure out what they can do to help themselves rather than being compelled to give advice immediately.
Engage in personal development workshops to listen to other colleagues’ experiences. We can learn a lot from others.
If you’re a staff member at the University of Sussex and are concerned about a student’s mental wellbeing you can consult your School’s Director of Student Experience as well as guide students to the Student Centre for support. Human Resources also offer a range of training opportunities for staff.
Sensitive topics can be full of triggers. A person who is triggered cannot learn effectively. Hence, it’s important to keep a learning environment respectful so that we don’t trespass on anybody’s boundary of safety. However, controversial and sensitive topics may come up during class discussions, and students may have strong opposing views. Because of this, it is important to first set ground rules that can frame discussions and create ‘safe but brave’ learning communities, where students are able to maintain differing opinions.
Zeeshan Tirmizi, Masters student at Sussex 2023-4
Introduction
Respectful and meaningful learning communities encourage open dialogue, critical thinking, and empathy, where all members of the community respect diversified viewpoints and all community members feel like they belong in a conversation. It is important for students to feel that they belong in their course and in their modules. When teachers take time and effort to create a safe space, it makes students feel that they can get the most from their learning environment. Being part of a respectful and meaningful learning community will help prepare students for future challenges in society. In this way, studying at university not only gives students knowledge of their subject matter, but helps them recognise that challenging and uncertain situations can provide positive learning experiences and an opportunity for growth. This blog post provides guidance on creating respectful and meaningful learning communities in your teaching spaces. It was co-created by colleagues from Educational Enhancement and the University of Sussex students who took part in the project: Supporting the International Student Experience at Sussex and Beyond.
Meet the University of Sussex students who created this resource.
Listen to Liwen describe how safe, but brave, learning communities enable students to talk freely.
Transcript
Liwen: For myself, I think brave is a scenario [where] you can talk. That no one will say you cannot talk, even though other people don’t agree with that. But you can still talk. This is other people’s decisions for that. Safe means you feel like you are not threatened. You are not forced to say those words. You just want to explain that for yourself. So, I think those things still need to exist together, I think, even though other people maybe do not agree [they] respect you.
Zeeshan explains how safe, but brave, learning communities allow people to express their opinions without fear of consequences.
Transcript:
Zeeshan: Having a safe, inclusive, and brave space allows people to feel that kind of sense of safety, that my opinion is going to be acknowledged, and I will not face any consequences for that. And it is okay to be different than others, and it is okay to hold a different opinion. So, having a safe and inclusive space would allow us to not be confined by any kind of boundaries and not think about what the consequences would be having a different perspective of things. When we are talking about learning sensitive topics, I think people mostly feel threatened to hear different things than what they have been believing. So I think it is very difficult to get over our own biases, prejudice. So having a safe space where we can express ideas without fear allows us to look at things from different perspectives which we would have otherwise ignored.
Five recommendations that can help facilitate safe, but brave, learning communities
Welcome your students into the class and make space for them to get to know one another’s backgrounds. Making students feel they are welcomed is crucial, especially for international students, who may not have the same background knowledge and networks as home students. Being from a different cultural background can make it harder for students to feel comfortable when they interact with others. You can help students feel more comfortable with one another by undertaking welcome activities that require students to work in groups and start mixing with their peers. Here are some recommendations for how this can be done across a module:
Before teaching familiarize yourself with your incoming students by sending out a short ‘Getting to Know You’ survey, and providing a space (e.g., a discussion board) where learners can introduce themselves to you and to one another.
At the start of the module pace your introductions, allowing time for the cohort to get to know one another through activities that foster understanding and empathy.
At the start of the module learn to pronounce your students’ names via taking the register and requesting that every student repeat their name back to you, so that you (and the class) can hear how to pronounce their name correctly.
Throughout the module invite students to speak with you privately, or in small groups, during your office hours.
Acknowledge your own positionality with your students. Modelling your own vulnerability as an educator is key to creating safe but brave learning communities. By acknowledging your positionaility, you are showing that it’s okay to not have all the answers.
Before teaching reflect on how your identity (e.g., race, educational background, gender, class) has shaped your teaching methods, expectations of your students, and interactions with them.
At the start of the course discuss your positionality with your students and encourage them to privately reflect on their own.
Throughout the course periodically reflect on your teaching experiences and consider whether your approaches to teaching and your interactions with students have changed over the course of the term. What has caused this change? What have you learnt from this experience?
Co-create (with students) clear class rules to maintain a structured and secure environment. You can set class rules by:
Starting a dialogue about students’ positive and negative experiences of classroom discussions (you could ask students to do this in groups and feedback in a class discussion).
Discussing what kind of learning environment students would like to foster in the classroom and what rules would protect such an environment.
Writing the ground rules into a class contract or charter and store them on Canvas for future reference.
Provide context for any challenging material and help students understand its relevance to your teaching. This can be achieved by:
Using real-world examples, objects, narratives, or multimedia to introduce the topic in a relatable way.
Providing guidelines for respectful engagement, such as active listening, acknowledging diverse viewpoints, and avoiding personal attacks.
Presenting a variety of viewpoints to encourage balanced and critical engagement.
Equip students with the resources they need to engage confidently with challenging material. This can be achieved by:
Using guiding questions or sentence starters to facilitate discussion. For example:
What might be the reasons behind this perspective?
How does this idea connect to what we’ve already learned?
Providing access to glossaries, summaries, or introductory readings to help students understand complex terminology or concepts.
Use role play and debate to put students in others’ shoes: Pippa Morgan suggests using role play activities to broaden students’ viewpoints. You can facilitate debates in which students are randomly allocated to one side of an argument. This type of activity can allow students to explore points of view that they don’t hold themselves. For example:
In a mock negotiation or debate, students must listen carefully to their counterparts to craft appropriate responses.
Following on from the debate, discuss the role of listening in the outcome of the activity and provide feedback on how students engaged.
Manage potentially emotive conversations by:
Asking questions to understand the students’ perspectives, which also allows additional time for you to choose how to respond.
Summarising the issues with the statement and state whether you agree or disagree.
Stopping conversations if they are becoming too emotive and refer to the ground rules.
Redirecting the conversation back to the initial focus of the discussion.
Some of this guidance has been adapted from the University of Sussex webpage, Teaching sensitive subjects. Please see this web page for further information.
This resource was generated from an Education and Innovation Funded project aimed at closing the international awarding gap. To help understand why this gap exists, ten international students participated in a focus group to discuss their experiences at the University. A key theme from the focus group was the importance of understanding assessment expectations and knowing what steps to take to succeed. Drawing on the focus group discussions, the students then worked hard to develop resources aimed at helping you welcome your students to Sussex. They hope you find these resources useful.
This blog is part of a series on ‘New Proposals for Digital Pedagogies’ that launches the Sussex Digital Pedagogies Toolkit.
This toolkit conceptualises new ways to think through digital teaching and learning, gathering data from members of the University of Sussex community who shared their thoughts, fears and hopes about digital pedagogy. This toolkit has been created collaboratively by a staff-student research team and uses material from a series of online workshops with members of the Sussex community, including faculty, professional services and students. Those who took part will be introduced as ‘participants’ to emphasise their active participation in knowledge production for this project.
This post will explore the challenges and proposals for teaching and learning with technologies in relation to critical digital literacy, as well as some questions for reflective practice and resources to explore these ideas further.
I don’t use things critically/strategically – I just adopt it.
Workshop participant
Challenges
There was a mix of responses in terms of participant confidence with using technology and critically accessing information online. Some participants acknowledged a sense of being uninformed when they access and collect information online. Participants feared that digital tools were already available that might make their life easier but that they haven’t yet found them or had the time to try them.
Others indicate an awareness that they tend to see information that ‘the internet chooses to show’ them so they try to vary their sources. Some felt more confident about their use of technological tools and shared an ‘obsessive’ tendency to read technology blogs and play with different software and tools.
Use of AI
People were particularly fearful of the ways in which academia was being automated, with the rise of software like ChatGPT and how AI produced content is received as ‘fact’ (Hasanein and Sobaih, 2023). Participants shared a need to try new things, as well as being critical and challenging sources that come from certain places.
They also discussed how students can be encouraged to question sources and build their own sense of digital literacy: Where did a source/data come from? Who wrote it? Is the author/source reliable? What have others said about the topic?
Proposals
Incorporating critical digital literacy was acknowledged as an important part of creating a broader introduction to life at university. Frequently considered difficult to pin down (Pangrazio et al., 2020), digital literacy is defined as ‘socially situated practices’ which are ‘supported by skills, strategies and stances that enable the representation and understanding of ideas using a range of modalities enabled by digital tools’ (O’Brien and Scharber, 2008: 67). An induction module, that students can receive credit for, was discussed, where students could engage in activities across year groups on how to navigate university, on topics like: developing their critical digital literacy; how to engage in university-style learning; how to conduct research; and how to write academically, in a project-based environment.
Questions and Resources
How do you question the platforms you use and the sources you find?
How could you try new things using online and digital tools?
How can you promote critical digital literacy in students?
How could you induct students into university structures and practices?
O’Brien, D. and Scharber, C., (2008) ‘Digital Literacies Go to School: Potholes and Possibilities’. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52(1): pp. 66–68.Pangrazio, L., Godhe, A-L., Ledesma, A. G. L., (2020) ‘What is digital literacy? A comparative review of publications across three language contexts’ E-Learning and Digital Media, 17:6.
