Pleased to have my flipped paper accepted at the Digitally Engaged Learning Conference DEL 2021.
In the past year, academics have been supported by institutions to respond to rapid changes while providing continuity of services.
At all levels, top-down support was strictly necessary and priceless, but how often have we been approached the process of adapting to uncertainty with cooperative design together with the students?
My paper addresses the experience of addressing uncertainty with a cooperative eye, where students participate actively in the decision making around new hybrid learning experience which had to be fluid, adaptable, inclusive and remain innovative, playful, engaging.
We applied an iterative co-inquiry strategy that involves all students and Representatives to model their language and shift towards a non-judgmental environment where all voices are heard. This forged a new level of resilience both for staff and students which shows how embracing uncertainty as an opportunity and not as a challenge has scope for community growth. Collaborating with the students bought the development of an adapted pedagogy model, assessment adjustments, inclusive practices and renewed engagement.
Improving students’ condition of life and contributing to economic and social development are key aspects HE should include in its priorities during and after a pandemic.
Student agency refers to the quality of engagement of students with their environment. This involves concepts of power and will, and of course “possibilities” and “aims”. Embedding mechanisms to support students’ agency constitutes a win-win opportunity. The benefits of supporting students’ agency touch areas of great interest for HE in the UK: engagement, attainment, wellbeing, graduate outcomes, employability and inclusivity.
The areas students engage the most at university have a common denominator: improving themselves and their condition of life. Through their agency, they can also contribute to the development of others and more broadly also economic and social development (Klemencic, 2015). As students are likely to seek to deploy some influence on their educational trajectories, their future lives and their immediate and larger social surroundings, it would be very valuable considering a more collaborative approach to model the learning environments through students’ support. With this specific aim in mind, during the pandemic, we have adopted a communication framework called Non-Violent Communication (Marshall, 2015) at the BSc Creative Computing, which led to a student-led flipped class pedagogy model adapted to their needs. We measured the improvement of the quality of learning/teaching environment, engagement and wellbeing for both tutors and students.