Resources for Student Engagement during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Supporting effective student engagement during the Covid-19 pandemic will be difficult for staff and students across higher education. The NStEP Report on Institutional Approaches and accompanying Quick Guides below provide tips and pointers on maintaining meaningful lines of communication, feedback and engagement between staff and students. All of these resources are designed to assist staff and students during the crisis to find short-term solutions, while also to begin preparing for more medium-term developments in to the next academic year, recognising that the consequences of the pandemic will not be short-lived.
View and download the the resources below.
Report: Institutional Approaches to Student Engagement during Covid-19
This short Report provides guidance and tips on maintaining some level of formal or systematic approach to student engagement during the Covid-19 shutdown of higher education. The Report takes a particular focus on five key areas of decision-making where student engagement would normally have occurred regularly in formal, semi-formal and informal ways before the pandemic began. These five key areas are the module-level, programme-level, departments, professional support units, and at the institutional-level.
Senior managers, programme leaders, professional support staff and student representatives may find this Report particularly useful, depending on the context in which they are working.
View and download the Report here.
The Report is supported by a series of Quick Guides for students and staff.
Quick Guide for Effective Staff-Student Committees
View and download the Guide here. This Quick Guide can support the ongoing development and enhancement of student engagement within formal and semi-formal governance committees, including Programme Boards and Student-Staff Forums. The Guide may also inform the creation of temporary staff-student meetings during the crisis, ensuring that these formal opportunities can continue, albeit in an online format.
Quick Guide on Hosting Online Staff-Student Committees
View and download the Guide here.
Quick Guides for Staff Who Teach and for Class Representatives
Quick Guide for Class Reps – Supporting Student Engagement during the Covid-19 Crisis
Quick Guide for Staff Who Teach – Supporting Student Engagement during the Covid-19 Crisis
During the pandemic staff and students can also use our #AskTeamNStEP service to seek advice and tips on student engagement practices. Find out more and submit your query here.
Resources for Student Engagement – NStEP National Projects
In 2017, the National Working Group of the National Student Engagement Programme (NStEP) Pilot selected five national projects as a focus arising from the themes identified in the Pilot Institutional Analysis report. The objective of each project was to establish guidelines, suitable for the diversity of the sector, on the project area. These projects were as follows:
- The Role and Recruitment of Class Representatives
- The Design, Review and Delivery of Programmes*
- Student Feedback Opportunities, Data and Follow Up
- Students in formal system level procedures, strategy and decision making
- Staff Roles and Capacity Building
Each resulting Project Team worked over a period of 18 months to identify and develop the resources that the sector could utilise to develop effective student engagement practices within their staff and student contexts. In March 2019, each Project Team presented summaries of their findings and of their plans to the NStEP Conference.
In early 2020 NStEP will publish and promote the work of each Project Team, marked by the formal launch of Project Team 5’s ‘Quick Guides for Staff’ on 13th February.
*Please note that Project 4 on the Design, Review and Delivery of Programmes is currently on hold, but that NStEP is planning to publish resources in this area under our new Strategy 2019-2021.
Resources: Staff Roles and Capacity Building
The Project Team led by Cork Institute of Technology’s AnSEO (Student Engagement Office) and the CIT Students’ Union developed a series of ‘Quick Guides’ for staff in higher education. These guides provide a handy basis for assessing student engagement within your own professional context, including ways in which you might enhance your practices or those of your department.
The Quick Guides can be accessed below:
- A Guide for Senior Management and Staff in Governance
- A Guide for Academic and Learning & Teaching Managers
- A Guide for Students’ Union and Student Engagement Staff
- A Guide for Academics and Other Staff (including Lecturers, Associate Lecturers, Professors, and Technicians)
- A Guide for Professional and Support Staff
Resources: Student Feedback Opportunities, Data and Follow-Up
The Project Team led by Institute of Technology Carlow developed a report on the use of feedback in Irish higher education, examining theory, practice, and enablers to successful student engagement throughout the process.
View the national report here: Student Feedback Opportunities, Data and Follow-Up
Resources: The Role and Recruitment of Class Representatives
Check back soon for the launch of these exciting resources for the development of effective academic representation structures and processes.
Resources: Students in formal system level procedures, strategy and decision making
Check back soon to find out about the interactive projects this Team undertook!