Enhancing online engagement: workshop redevelopment for students, by students.

Abstract

PROBLEM

We present a case study describing a student-staff partnership that aimed to increase student engagement in the online, external, zoom-mediated workshops of a foundational course in modelling and programming for science students. Students enrolled externally had reported they were unclear of online workshop learning objectives, and tutors observed that online workshops were more challenging to facilitate and had and had consistently lower engagement than in face-to-face workshops. This project aimed to enhance engagement and sense of belonging for the externally enrolled students.

  ACTION

The online workshop experience was redesigned to address these challenges by implementing the concepts of nudging, expectation management and engagement from Brown et al’s (2022) conceptual framework of enhanced online learning. New resources were developed and implemented week-to-week during the semester, to receive real-time feedback from tutors and students. The project outcomes included 12 Jupyter Rise online workshop sheets incorporating signposting and explicit prompts to enhance student engagement, 12 Kahoot quizzes, 12 tutor “run sheets”, as well as the implementation and documentation of a novel strategy for a "facilitator/moderator" dynamic between the two academic staff leading the session.

REFLECTION

This project speaks to the value in empowering student partners, who developed stronger researcher identities. Student partners felt welcomed and valued, and ultimately their input enhanced the team’s capabilities and teaching impact. The student partners had professional tutoring experience, as well as the lived experience to relate to online students, and this combination of knowledge highlights the value that tutors can provide as student partners.