Element 10: Engagement opportunities

What is this element about?

This element is about interaction and communication. This element encourages unit coordinators to provide opportunities for students to take an active role in their learning and encourage deep engagement with learning materials and peers.

Why is it important?

As with many of the UNE elements the aim is to situate the learner at the centre of the learning experience. As a relational activity, learning involves forming connections. These connections are with other learners, with teaching staff, wider university, community and also with knowledge.

Students need to be able to learn from and within one another to be able to gain new understandings (CAST, n.d). Being able to draw on the collective that is the learning community enhances capacity to understand different ways of being and knowing in the world as well as build networks and connections that could be lifelong.

Developing social learning skills is also important for graduates as they progress in their careers. This is particularly important given the complexity of society and ‘wicked’ problems which require transdisciplinary ways of working and “distributed intelligence to frame, examine and resolve” (CAST, n.d., para 7).

This element relates to the following research and practice informed guidelines/ frameworks:

TELAS Guidelines

• 4.1. Opportunities for learner-to-learner interactions are provided.

• 4.2. Opportunities for learner-to-teacher interactions are provided.

UNE Learning Standards

• 3. Demonstrate relevance and alignment:
  Our learning experiences are designed to have a clear purpose and relevance achieved by aligning content, learning activities, feedback and assessment with learning outcomes. Our students are provided with opportunities to link what they learn to their own experiences, the workplace and the wider world.

• 5. Promote active engagement:
  Our learning experiences are designed to nurture student engagement and challenge in their learning. Learning experiences encourage in students both intellectual and emotional engagement in their studies. By taking an active role in their learning, students are rewarded with a sense of achievement and growth.

• 6. Require collaboration and interaction:
  Our learning experiences are designed to acknowledge learning as social and contextual. They are built with intentional opportunities for learners to interact and collaborate as a key part of their learning. Learning is feedback rich, builds relationships and offers ways of engaging with other learners and perspectives.

What can I do?

Some things you can do include:

• Provide group learning opportunities that are focused, guided, scaffolded and supported by unit design as well as teacher oversight.
• Utilise digital opportunities to enhance the social learning experience – this may include forums, collaborative activities such as wikis.
• Provide opportunities for peer design and development of learning resources where appropriate – for example peer generated quizzes
• Explore different pedagogical approaches such as Team-Based Learning
• Synchronous learning opportunities where interaction is a focus of the session and group size is supportive of this – for example synchronous tutorials.
• Collaboration tools such as digital whiteboards (Zoom is an option),
• Opportunities for easy chat functions such as Microsoft Teams (where appropriate), Moodle chat function.
• Designated open office times where students can ‘drop’ in virtually and/or in person.
• Plan time at the beginning of a lecture/workshop to share ‘what’s on top’ or the like as a way to make connections.
• Encouragement movement between groups so that students get to know their wider group/cohort.
• Encourage the development of group contracts or terms of engagement to help groups agree on ways to interact.

Hints and tips

Tips for enhancing learner confidence (Blog post)

Help and Support

Teaching Online @ UNE contains information of how to set up and design for group learning.

A useful resource: Team-based Learning, Vanderbilt University https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/team-based-learning/

Contact the Learning Design team for specific unit related guidance and advice: learningdesign@une.edu.au

Supporting resources

CAST. (n.d). Social Learning. http://udloncampus.cast.org/page/teach_social

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University.

TELAS Framework https://www.telas.edu.au/framework/

UNE Online Learning Standards: https://myune.sharepoint.com/sites/academic-transformation/SitePages/Principals-for-Designing-Learning-Experiences-Online.aspx