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In this case study, John Masterson, Senior Lecturer in World Literatures, talks about co-created learning communities and his module ‘Decolonising the Curriculum: Literature and Theory of the Global South’ (Q3309).
What I did
I was keen to offer Sussex students the opportunity to engage with their compatriots in the ‘global South’ to discuss how and why decolonising agendas might play out differently in different, contextually specific locations. Having worked at Wits University in Johannesburg prior to joining Sussex, I have important connections in South Africa, and given that the Rhodes Must Fall campaign initiated by students at UCT was the catalyst for broader Fees Must Fall campaigns in the country, I created a module that enabled Sussex students to talk to their contemporaries in Johannesburg. These conversations helped us to consider how and why literature and more critical interventions from the ‘Global South’ interrogate some of the founding tenets of contemporary theory.
Why I did it
The module was conceived at a time when the School of English, more broadly, embarked on a wide-ranging curriculum review. Given my teaching and research interests in postcolonial and/or transnational and/or global literary studies, I was keen to expand our offerings in these areas. This module embodies the commitment of the School of Media, Arts and Humanities to embedding the values of equality, diversity and inclusion in the curriculum as part of socially informed conversations with its diverse student community.
Impact and student feedback
At the heart of this module is thinking about how and why the debates we’re engaging in, in a predominantly academic setting, are both shaped by and have the potential to inform the world beyond the university. Students were able to see this by talking to their contemporaries in South Africa about how they put their lives on the line by participating in these protests on their respective campuses. By establishing these properly collaborative discussions, students began the work of unpacking/deconstructing the sense that knowledge production is the sovereign possession of those in the ‘Global North.
Challenges
The key challenges have been mainly logistical. The aim to involve students in curricular co-creation is laudable but, having run the module for three years now, there are planning implications. As it stands, the module runs in the final term of the final year of undergraduate study. The vast majority of students are, rightly, preoccupied with their final dissertation. As I don’t get to work with them until the Spring term, and reading lists need to be in well in advance, it is a challenge to square this circle. Another key issue, in terms of working with South African students as colleagues, is time, resources and synchronisation. Trying to find times that suit both Wits and Sussex students has been tricky, as has technological provision/reliability. South Africa was particularly impacted by the COVID pandemic and, having spoken to colleagues there, the HE ripple effects are still being felt in a number of ways. That said, I don’t want to give up on this collaborative aim. Given that the module is designed to introduce students to other, under-represented voices and alternative practices, the fact that I lead on it, given my own institutional and other positionality, is a rather intractable problem. It would be great to have other bodies and voices involved in the pedagogical arena itself. As colleagues and students are so stretched in terms of time and resources/remuneration, I can’t in good faith ask someone to do something for nothing. A final issue raised by students over the course of the module is the notion that it can’t live up to its name. Many have made the entirely valid point that, just because you have ‘Decolonising the Curriculum’ on your books, it is still bound by the various structures and strictures of the neoliberal institution. To what extent is ‘Decolonising’ just a token gesture? A forthcoming iteration of the module will be called, rather more generically, ‘Decolonisation and Literature.’
Future plans
I am on research leave in January, so the module won’t run in 23/24. This is perhaps no bad thing. In light of some of the challenges set out above, I want to explore the possibility of making more connections between the privileged spaces of our lecture and seminar rooms and the world beyond, both locally and internationally. I do believe the South African connection can be made to work, but I also want to consult students on how we might take some of the more theoretical questions swirling around ‘decolonisation’ into cultural and political spaces in Brighton. If there were to be more resources to hire colleagues with expertise in non-European and non-American literatures, not to mention languages, that would also allow for a more collaborative pedagogical and practical approach.
Top 3 tips
Dr Lorraine Smith
In this case study, Dr Lorraine Smith, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry, discusses how she scaffolds summative assessments for Foundation level students.
What I did
I implemented both an essay plan and draft formative assessment so that students had the opportunity to receive valuable feedback/forward to aid them in the preparation of their summative essay assessment. To do this, I utilised Grademark in Turnitin, as it seemed to be the simplest and most straightforward way for students to upload, and review their feedback as well as for the markers to work through the scripts to give constructive comments on the main areas of assessment criteria.
Why I did it
I decided to scaffold the summative assessment because I found that students were particularly anxious about writing academic essays for the first time. I wanted to provide students with lots of feedforward for their final assessed work.
Challenges
Setting this up in Canvas is simple and does not need a lot of preparation (just new assignments with dates and some instruction text) but depending on the cohort size, marking these extra pieces of work must be factored into the logistics of achieving the desired outcome. I usually use one tutor to help with marking due to the tight marking turnaround. Another challenge is ensuring that students who want to take advantage of feedforward opportunities are appropriately prepared and submit the work by the deadlines since they feed into the next part of the work and into the final summative deadline.
Impact and student feedback
Students have hugely valued the extra support at the beginning of the course, and it has also improved the quality of students’ essays and understanding of crucial aspects of academic work including paraphrasing, argument development and Harvard referencing.
Future plans
Based on its success, I plan on continuing to use this method of formative work with feedforward.
Top 3 tips
Dr Gillian Sandstrom
Gillian Sandstrom, Senior Lecturer in the Psychology of Kindness, explains the benefits for student belonging of greeting your students when they arrive in class, even if you don’t know their names.
What I did
Recent research in social psychology has found that even minimal social interaction (e.g., chatting with the barista at the coffee shop) can help people feel more connected. I was interested in whether this would be the case in my own classes, so I conducted a study on my students’ sense of belonging. Students were recruited from my second-year undergraduate statistics lab classes in two separate academic years and from a colleague’s first-year undergraduate statistics lab class. All students in each sample attended the same lecture each week but were split by the university’s timetabling system into smaller groups for lab classes. This gave me the opportunity to compare interventions. In one lab students were greeted at the door (i.e., the minimal social interaction condition), in another they were given name cards to put on their desks and in the control lab, students did not use name cards and were not greeted at the door. This was not a reduced contact condition but one that reflects the usual situation at the university.
Why I did it
Many studies have shown that when students perceive a positive relationship with their instructor, it can lead to greater persistence, satisfaction, and even better grades. We often talk about the positive impact that learning students’ names can have on building rapport, but many instructors find it difficult to learn student names, and this is even harder with very large cohorts, in which students, unsurprisingly, report fewer feelings of belonging. Thus, I wanted to find out how greeting students as they arrive in class stacks up compared to the best practice of learning names.
Impact and student feedback
I found that students who were assigned to a greeting condition reported a stronger relationship with the instructor and that this greater relationship strength predicted greater interest/enjoyment, relatedness and belonging. This intervention produced similar results to a more traditional name card condition, which is used to help instructors to learn students’ names. These findings show that even when instructors struggle to learn students’ names, they can still build rapport by greeting students as they enter class. This is a simple intervention that instructors can make in their classroom that could have a meaningful impact on the student experience.
Challenges
More research is needed to establish the generalizability of the findings. The current
study examined data gathered in only two classes at one university.
Future plans
Ideally, we would study the effects of greeting students in many classes, with many instructors, who are all blind to the hypothesis.
Top 3 Tips
What advice would you give another member of staff/department who wanted to emulate what you have done? Please give your top 3 tips for someone wanting to do something similar
You can access Dr Sandstrom’s full article here.
Nicos Georgiou, Reader in Mathematics in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and winner of a University of Sussex Education Award 2023, shares his approach to teaching tough mathematics to nervous students.
What I did
I use current and everyday problems and in-class group work to engage students on my year 2 core module, ‘Introduction to Probability’. I make my content engaging by applying rigorous mathematics to practical problems such as understanding why one should never gamble, comprehending how likely it is that an election is fraudulent, checking the production of a factory, and even producing magic tricks for parties.
I create space within teaching sessions to work through problems in groups by asking my students to do a lot of independent work. To support this, I’ve created a booklet for the module with chapters mapped to the lecture topics. The booklet includes clearly signposted questions for students to work on, from basic to the more challenging and interesting ‘cool problems’ (example recreated below), some of which we explore in class. Topics range from probability problems rooted in movie plots or TikTok trends, anime films (e.g. Kakegurui based on a manga series about gamblers and how to beat those who cheat), serious cases of statistical misinterpretation, probability modelling linked to global challenges such as climate change, and questions used in job interviews by popular graduate employers.
If it’s important students know a solution, I’ll provide it in class but, especially if a version appears in their ‘homework’, I’ll leave them to figure it out and tell them to come to me if they get stuck. The homework sheets also contain questions from basic (the material they need to understand to pass) to the more interesting, which encourages students to stretch themselves.
| Cool problem 3. The frog riddle that broke YouTube |
| Frogs in a lake are equally likely to be male or female and you cannot visually tell the difference. What is the probability that there is a female in the pair if: The pair contains a male frog You heard a frog croaking and it had the distinctive sound of a male. Assume that frogs croak with equal probability independent of their gender. |
Why I did it
Probability is an intimidating topic, even for mathematics students. It demands my students grapple with randomness which, for pattern-seeking humans, is counterintuitive. Using real-world problems makes the topic more engaging by asking students to contextualise and humanise maths.
Also, my classes are typically 2 hours long, often timetabled towards the end of a seven-hour day of mathematics lectures. Getting students to problem-solve in groups, maybe a few times each session, keeps them active and engaged. Working in groups also makes it easier for students to check their understanding with peers and provides valuable experience of group work and collaborative problem-solving. I also make sure I wander around the room while they work, which helps maintain focus and makes it easier for individuals or groups to ask me questions.
Challenges
Creating the booklet to go along with the module took a lot of time but, arguably, it also demonstrates to my students that I am committed to their success. Also, I expect my students to undertake a lot of independent study. Therefore, I set expectations early and also make clear what they should expect of me. This includes how to address me in an email (I won’t answer emails which don’t address me by name) and how to follow up with me if I don’t reply within one working day (i.e., come to my office hour).
In the classroom, it’s sometimes necessary to provide guidance on how to work collaboratively. Also, we do sometimes get stuck on a question so don’t get through all the content. Students know that they can still work through it independently and approach me for support.
Impact and student feedback
Colleagues have consulted me on my approach and applied it in their own teaching. One colleague reported that, in their module evaluations, what students liked the most was exactly what I had suggested.
That said, my approach might need tweaking to suit people’s own personality and style of teaching. I consider teaching as a performance and, although my expectations around their engagement and application remain very high, I am quite informal with my students and am happy to be interrupted. This doesn’t work for everyone so, for others, it might mean planning in more space for students to ask questions. Also, my approach isn’t necessarily preferred by all students. After all, not even Dumbledore* had universal approval.
Top tips
*Fictional. Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Famous alumni: Harry Potter.
Dr C. Rashaad Shabab
In this case study, Senior Lecturer and award-winning teacher of Economics, Dr C. Rashaad Shabab, talks about how he is using podcasts as an innovative new assessment mode at Sussex.
What I did
I offered podcasts as an innovative new assessment mode for my module Topics in Growth and Inequality, which is a completely new module that I developed last year for the Economics Department. The assignment was to present a 3-minute micro podcast on something that related to inequality in the real world that used models, insights or empirical studies covered in class. Students had access to the Audacity software package, and I posted a link to a good YouTube tutorial on using Audacity on Canvas.
Why I did it
This assessment mode came out of a discussion with Professor Barry Reilly about formulating innovative assessments that could easily be highlighted by students to potential employers. First, we wanted students to go to the labour market with an asset that they could showcase to employers on LinkedIn to set their applications apart. Second, most assessments are tiring and anxiety-inducing for students. We wanted to make an assessment that was fun and engaging. Third, during the pandemic, there was a structural shift in content consumption that is here to stay – podcasts and streaming are the new tools for professional and academic engagement and infotainment. We were not teaching these skills to our students. We wanted to fill this gap between skills and labour market demands and the skills that our students were graduating with.
Impact and student feedback
Students loved it! I could tell they were having fun while doing their podcasts. It got a wider group of students to excel than would have done using traditional assessment modes. Also, this assignment ensured that students with reasonable adjustments were not being assessed in inferior ways to their classmates. We wanted to craft an assessment that maintained its integrity for a wider cross-section of students to make sure that diverse students could engage with equally enriching assessments as their peers.
Challenges
The assessment was individual so there was some time involved in marking and providing feedback on it. However, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the podcasts as well, whereas typical assessment marking can be a bit tedious! It also meant less work in terms of designing reasonable adjustments
Future plans
I plan to keep this assessment mode for the future. The only change I have made is that I have changed the formal type of assessment from ‘presentation’ to ‘media’. This enables a 7-day late period, which I think is appropriate for this type of assessment.
Top tips
What advice would you give another member of staff/department who wanted to
emulate what you have done? Please give your top 3 tips for someone wanting to do something similar
1. Keep it compact so that students are forced to think about what is important.
2. Publish the question well in advance and give students feedback on the first draft weeks before the final deadline.
3. Encourage students to share their podcasts on LinkedIn using your module code and name as a hashtag.
Dr Andy Field, who is a Professor of Quantitative Methods and the recipient of numerous teaching awards at Sussex, talks in this case study about how he uses narratives to make his lectures engaging.
Dr. Andy Field in fancy dress
What I did
I am the Methods lead within the School of Psychology and part of that role is overseeing all of the teaching related to Psychological Methods and Statistics. Statistics within the context of Psychology can be a dry subject, so in my lectures, I often use narratives in which I feature as character who uses data and statistics to solve a problem. For example, there is an alien invasion and we explore research scenarios around testing whether sniffer dogs are able to differentiate humans from shapeshifting aliens and help us to save the planet from imminent attack. Within these narratives, I lean into the silliness by coming in fancy dress. In the aforementioned lecture, I dress as an astronaut, I have also been a wizard helping a dragon to thwart a knight trying to kill dragons based on some dubious data he’s seen, I’ve been an undead statistician ending a feud between zombies and werewolves, and I’ve helped Santa with Christmas deliveries
Why I did it
I believe that lectures are a terrible format for learning, especially considering that the average attention span is around 7 minutes. Even with advances in technology, lectures are largely passive experiences. The idea that you can teach in large groups over a long period of time is a fairly wild idea. I always strive, therefore, to convey a sense of enthusiasm to show students that what they are leaning is doable, manageable and interesting.
Challenges
The main challenge is that creating these stories and characters is a colossal amount of work, which is why I do not do it for every lecture. Another thing to consider is that fantasy situations are fun, but at some point, students have to start dealing with real world. So, although students recreate the analyses in the lecture for themselves in their smaller practical classes, there will be a transfer task where they will get their hands dirty with real-world data.
Student impact
I think that if students come out of a one-hour lecture thinking that it was not boring, feeling empowered to tackle the topic in their practical class, and feel invested in learning, then I have done my job. I see myself as an enthusiastic and kind guide who inspires students and shows them that what they are studying is achievable and worth doing.
Top Tips:
In this case study, Dr Vassiliki Bamiatzi, Professor of Strategy and International Business at the University of Sussex Business School, talks about her involvement in COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning).
What we did
Our COIL partnership was with the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). My module (which is core for International Business students but optional for others) is based on a simulation game in which students compete in groups of 5 or 6 as they make decisions about their respective companies. COIL can be incorporated in many ways, and to create a more authentic collaborative experience in my modules, students from the UNAM joined teams as consultants to offer guidance and strategic advice. The great thing about COIL is that international collaboration is easily facilitated using technology that students are already familiar with, such as WhatsApp, Facebook or Viber.
Why we did it
The Business School is keen to expand our COIL offerings. This is because cultural awareness and cultural competencies are essential in today’s world. Not all students can participate in study abroad programmes so COIL is an inclusive and accessible way for all students to deepen their cultural awareness. To highlight the importance of international collaboration, I led an additional seminar in this module on the changing workplace and the importance of global teams. We discussed the problems and challenges of global engagement in the workplace, which students experienced for themselves as they navigated language and time differences.
Impact and student feedback
Student engagement varied across both modules. Students from the University of Mexico were extremely motivated and provided detailed feedback. For those students, who are predominately of Mexican origin, the COIL initiative offered them the opportunity to connect with students from around the world and experience first-hand how global teams are collaborating and evolving. However, some of my students were not as engaged in the COIL component as I would have hoped. This is perhaps because students on the International Business course are already a very diverse cohort and are already familiar with the benefits of teamworking with international partners. While I think that the experience was beneficial for all, I imagine that it would have the most impact for modules that are not as culturally diverse.
Challenges
This was my first experience of including a COIL element in my International Business Strategy module and there were a few challenges along the way. From a student-perspective, the first challenge was that it created another barrier for international students who have less facility in English. The second challenge was the time difference; the UK has a seven hour difference with Mexico which further complicated the collaboration among the teams, despite the virtual facilities of the engagement. From an administrative point of view, it was difficult and time-consuming organising students into groups. I hope to solve this problem next time by organising our students into companies and then asking faculty at the University of Mexico to assign consultants to each company.
Future plans
I plan on incorporating COIL in future modules, but I might consider working with a European University so that there is less of a time difference, which would make it easier for students to schedule group meetings. To simplify the collaborative process, I will ask students to assign each other specific roles within the group relating to the COIL collaboration. For instance, one student might coordinate with the international consultants whilst another records the minutes. I will also include a graded assignment that asks students to reflect on the COIL component of the modules, as I believe this will increase student engagement. I am also working with Educational Enhancement to develop resources for students that will help them to maximise their experience working with different technologies.
Top tips
What advice would you give another member of staff/department who wanted to
emulate what you have done? Please give your top 3 tips for someone wanting to do something similar
1. Educate the students on the benefits and challenges of this collaboration but also on how important this experience is for their professional development. Have a guest speaker from the industry to comment on this new reality for validation if possible.
2. Allow time in class (or in the seminars) for students to reflect on their experience with their international collaborators and showcase best practices accordingly. Compare and contrast cases of high and low engagement (if available), so that it is easier for the students to appreciate the benefits of such a collaboration.
3. Work closely with the International Team, who can provide you with amazing support throughout the engagement.
A Liberal Arts student meeting at the Shard
In this case study, Dr Doug Haynes, Reader in American Literature and Visual Culture, discusses the creation of the interdisciplinary Liberal Arts BA at Sussex.
What we did
In collaboration with an Advisory Board that assembled specialists from museums, activist organisations, think-tanks, NGOs, journalism, broadcasting, PR and communications, we developed a degree that combines theory and practice across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Working with experts in different academic fields, Liberal Arts students at Sussex use interdisciplinary thinking to tackle complex problems and global challenges as well as develop skills in a range of media and methods with which to articulate their knowledge. Students also work with our external partners to transform research into practice as they design campaigns and policy initiatives, or work with museums, writers, and activists. All students also undertake a substantial final year project in the community.
Why we did it
We wanted to show the importance and relevance of the humanities and social sciences at a time when they are being increasingly devalued. And we wanted students to experience the practical applications of these subjects in order to understand their capacity to make active contributions to the world.
Studying the humanities doesn’t have to be disconnected from real life. In fact, putting the discourses of the humanities and social sciences in conversation with one another, and with real-world issues, creates new kinds of knowledge and allows for degrees to be shaped in new ways. Approaching global problems from different perspectives cuts across disciplinary boundaries and encourages students to apply concepts creatively, addressing and reflecting on the most pressing issues that face us today. In this sense, the Liberal Arts degree recalls Sussex’s interdisciplinary roots to offer a disruptive and innovative contemporary learning experience. We developed this degree with Sussex’s employability initiatives specifically in mind: our pedagogical strategies were planned in direct dialogue with our Advisory Board members from a range of sectors. Interdisciplinary learning fosters critical thinking and innovation because it asks students to synthesise ideas and consider alternative ways of acquiring knowledge, but we also teach critical and life-skills that have direct application to a range of sectors.
Impact and student feedback
The Liberal Arts degree at Sussex asks students to think outside of the disciplinary confines that they are used to from studying A-levels. Thus, at first, they can feel a bit confused as they are challenged to think in more expansive and creative ways. Yet once students feel more comfortable with this new way of thinking, they find it empowering. Students are highly motivated because they can shape their degree based on their own interests. Furthermore, the Liberal Arts degree gives an authentic purpose for learning by connecting theory to the real world.
Challenges
My background in American Studies means that I naturally take an interdisciplinary approach, but in the initial stages of designing the degree, there was some inevitable push back because our approach challenges traditional disciplinary ways of thinking and traditional ways of assessing students’ work. With Curriculum Reimagined, we hope that the Liberal Arts will become a model for disruptive, innovative interdisciplinary learning at Sussex.
Future plans
The degree is very new so we want to continue to foster interest and increase enrollment. To stay innovative and up-to-date, we want to incorporate the use of portfolios as an assessment mode. Portfolios provide a more flexible approach as they will allow us to offer a wider range of assessment modes in the future and to ensure that frequent metacognitive reflection is central to our students’ learning experience.
Top 3 Tips
Dr Carli Rowell at the Sussex Teaching Festival
In this case study, Dr Carli Rowell, senior lecturer in Sociology at Sussex, shares her experience of co-creating a Sociology module with first-generation, working-class students.
What I did
I worked with first-generation, working-class Sociology students to co-create the module ‘Class, Culture and Conflict: A View from the Inside’. Students were involved will also aspects to the module design, from helping to choose topics, selecting content material and crafting the assessment mode. Importantly, the students helped me to bring in material from outside the University in an attempt to better understand class inequalities within the UK from the perspectives of working-class people.
Why I did it
I wanted to co-create this module with students because class continues to be talked about within the discipline in an overly top-down way. Despite the inclusion of more working-class academics within Sociology, class as a conceptual tool central to sociological thought is taught through the gaze of the privileged academic in the ivory tower. I thought that co-collaborating with working class students studying Sociology at Sussex would be a great way to centre the working-class voice throughout the module, not just in terms of the issues and things that it looks at, but also in terms of the material that it engages with and draws upon.
Impact and student feedback
Designing this module with students made them feel that their experiences and life history are valid and worthy of academic, sociological enquiry. It allowed students to reflect on their own experiences and connect theories discussed in the module to their own lives.
Challenges
I was attuned to the ethical issues that can arise when seeking to draw upon subjective experiences of social class within HE teaching and assessment. To address these issues, I emphasised that although I was asking students to situate themselves in terms of the class landscape and how they have been affected by class, they did not need to share these insights with everyone. I also encouraged students to be mindful of the language that we use when it comes to class since there is a lot of derogatory language that surrounds class and class-based issues. I wanted to create a safe space, so I approached the subject of class as a potentially sensitive topic.
Future plans
I have recently been awarded funding from Education and Innovation Fund for the project ‘A View from Within: Pedagogy, Practice & Possibilities’. The project, drawing upon student conducted focus groups, and an end of project dissemination event project aims to have a positive impact on the learning experience of all students, by influencing the teaching practice and curriculum design of those working in higher education at Sussex and beyond. It aims to encourage others (beyond the discipline of sociology) to adopt the pedagogical practice of taking “a view from within” as a way of fostering HE curriculums that are inclusive of working-class knowledge(s) thus reflecting the larger society in which UKHE operates within and challenging the classed politics of knowledge production.
Top 3 tips
