Learning Enhancement

Getting started

Learning enhancement is a continuous cycle that begins as you bring students onto your programme and modules, and your plans and designs become lived experiences. The overall goal is that your programme provides an engaging learning experience for students; learning enhancement helps ensure that your programme grows and delivers an excellent experience year-on-year.

Key questions to ask at the Learning Enhancement stage:

• How do you ensure you find space to reflect on how teaching is going?
• How do you work with students to listen and respond to their experiences the programme? Where can you act on this learning within your teaching?
• When do you need to make more formal changes to your programme?

There are many potential options to embed learning enhancement within your module or programme. These include your engagement with institutional processes as well as other reflective practices you can embed within the day-to-day of your teaching. Each of the following areas will be explored and explained in more detail in the sections of this page.

Reflective Practice

• Taking a reflective approach to learning and teaching
• Student partnership in learning enhancement
• Action Research

Module-level approaches

• Feedback Loops
• Module Enhancement
• Reviewing a module at Board of Studies

Programme (and School) level approaches

• Responding to feedback from surveys (EG: NSS/PTES)
• Making changes to a module or programme
• Revalidation of the programme

Deeper Dive

Reflective Practice

Taking a reflective approach to learning and teaching

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Reflection is an important tool in taking learning enhancement forwards across your modules and programme. It enables us to understand how and whether our teaching has supported student learning, to review evidence of the quality of teaching, and to evaluate how we can change our practice as a result.

There are many moments where reflection could be prompted in the Academic cycle:

• Prior to the start of the module or programme;
• Before, during or after a teaching session;
• Through formal and informal interactions with students or colleagues;
• Following formative or summative assessment of student work;
• Through the PDR process;
• Through the Partnerships in Education Enhancement through Reflective Sharing (PEERS) scheme, or during training and development or the Education Fellowships;
• During points in the quality assurance processes (for example: at examining boards, boards of studies, following module enhancement, student surveys, in ARE and revalidation)

While many frameworks exist for how you could approach reflection on your learning and teaching, we would invite you to consider how you can use this toolkit as a guide, particularly through the themes of Inclusivity, Employability and Sustainability, which are fundamental to how we approach learning and teaching at Cardiff University. Think for example of these questions: how do you use these themes in your teaching? How are these themes embedded in the modules and programmes you are involved in?

The subsequent sections of this page will provide some examples of how Learning Enhancement processes and practices at the University support reflection with a view to enhancing the experience of modules and programmes.

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Student partnership in Learning Enhancement

In line the approach to Student Partnership and Co-creation students should be at the centre of your approach to learning enhancement. From an early stage that means you should engage with the Student Reps on your programme to ensure you can hear early on what students appreciate and where they are experiencing challenges with your programme.

The academic cycle forms the backbone of a student’s journey through their experience of the university. This means that it is possible to prepare in advance for times of year where you can engage with students to discuss specific topics which will help embed learning enhancement through the year.

Read this intranet resource from the Student Engagement Team, which sets out how you can think about the student journey through your programme, and build an engagement timeline.

You can speak with the Student Rep Coordinator in your School to establish the best means of working with your reps.

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Action Research

Action research is a type of scholarship inquiry that is:

• Practical as it involves making change to practice
• Theoretical as it is informed by theory and can generate new insights
• Concerned with change and improvement.

Action research is a methodology; that is a framework for approaching a piece of research. Action researchers believe, or adopt a position, which says the world can be seen differently from different perspectives. They try to understand and make improvements to practice in an environment where there are probably many viewpoints. It is not viewed as generalizable, but may be shared with others who might want to engage in similar changes to practice (Boucher and Piderit 2017).

Student voice is a central form of data in action research, with semi-structured interviews, observations, focus groups, informal interviews, and questionnaires. You may also use reflections on your own practice, attainment and attendance data, observations, and artefacts (such as student assessment work or forum posts).

There are a number of distinct stages of action research, as illustrated below:

Module-level approaches to Learning Enhancement

The feedback loop

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Feedback loops help to identify areas for improvement. Generally this involves listening to students, reflecting on any issues they might raise, responding with actions, and communicating the result to your students.

The Student Voice & Experience Network have developed a series of resources for module leaders and personal tutors to use and adapt, which can help with ‘opening the loop’ IE setting expectations for the early stages of a module, and making students aware that you are open to feedback; and ‘closing the loop’ IE communicating changes made back to students.

These resources include:

• Slides, postcards and icebreakers for a first session with students themed around connecting and building relationships: 1. Connecting with Students & Building Relationships
• A toolkit for staff around resources (presentation, emails and banners) to help communicate changes made (closing the loop). 2. Sharing Updates and Successes
• A full set of emails which could be used throughout the operation of a module to listen and communicate change: Email Toolkits

Students appreciate hearing about changes that have been made based on their feedback, and understanding about the reasons why changes that can’t be made, this helps with understanding that the University is listening and take’s feedback seriously.

Outside of formal routes, you can gather feedback from students and engage in conversations using a number of University tools, for example: You could use mentimeter during a lecture or large group environment, to gather feedback or check formative understanding of a topic which can allow you to shape your delivery according to student understanding (practical examples and guidance available here: Mentimeter help – Intranet – Cardiff University. Similarly the Blended Learning Framework sets out how you can build student engagement and feedback mechanisms into the operation of a module delivered face-to-face and online: Supporting the student journey through your module – Intranet – Cardiff University.

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Module Enhancement

Module Enhancement (previously known as Module evaluation) allows staff to gather feedback from students through the system ‘Blue’ which is embedded in Learning Central – and will appear to students as a pop-up when the questionnaire goes live. The University expects that module enhancement be run for every module.

Module leaders should promote module enhancement to their students. Once the evaluation closes students will have access to a headline report for the module created with the quantitative data, and module leaders will receive an email with links to the full report for their module.

The questions asked are the same across the University: Question set.

Responding to student feedback is crucial in order to show students that their views are valued, and that we act upon feedback as a university. Module Enhancement is also a valuable source of information to consider changes you can make to your teaching, or to the approach taken in a module. Ensuring students know what happens as a result of their feedback encourages future engagement as students see the value in providing insights.

Clear and honest communication is imperative to encouraging students to share their views. Each module should inform students of the headline results any actions being taken as a result. It is equally important to feedback any areas which cannot change, and why, and experience has shown that Students’ appreciate this also.

It is expected for Module Enhancement feedback to be a standard agenda items for Boards of Study to consider and to discuss any required actions.

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Module review and the Board of Studies

On an annual basis, Module leaders should reflect on how the module ran that year ahead of a review at the Board of Studies.

Areas to consider which feed into Module review include:

• Student feedback (e.g. module enhancement data, comments and actions, student staff panel notes, or actions from working with reps)
• Outcomes of any scholarship or innovation work relevant to the module
• External examiner comments
• Outcomes from reflective sharing
• Outcomes from moderation of assessments
• Student attainment on the module including mark profiles and trends.

This webpage sets out some useful questions which might help prompt your thoughts during module review and how you present outcomes to the Board of Studies.

Where you identify changes you wish to make to the module, it is important to identify whether these fall within the thresholds of change the Board of Studies can approve, or whether these may require a University level change. Generally speaking routine changes to modules (EG minor updates to content, method of assessment and assessment weighting and general module description information) can be approved at Board of Studies, but other changes may require further scrutiny particularly where they relate to core or required modules.

Programme and School level-approaches to Learning Enhancement

Responding to feedback from surveys

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As with module enhancement at the module level, programme level surveys provide a rich source of information about how students experienced a programme and the wider University experience which can inform learning enhancement across a programme.

The Cardiff University wide surveys are:

• National Student Survey for final year undergraduates (runs Jan-April, results July)
• Cardiff University Postgraduate Taught Survey (CUPTS) (runs spring, results June)
• Postgraduate research Experience Survey (PRES) (runs bi-annually in Spring, results May)
• Graduate Outcomes Survey (results June, graduates surveyed 15 months after course completion)
• Cardiff Pulse (regular themed surveys University-wide throughout academic year)

With the exception of Cardiff Pulse, surveys are generally outcome measures, which tell us ‘how well we did’ with a particular group of students. Nevertheless the results can be used to make a significant difference for existing students where they can inform enhancements to learning and teaching. For inspiration see this example from UCL where assessment and feedback scores were improved by 26% in three years: How we raised our NSS feedback and assessment scores by 26% in three years | Teaching & Learning – UCL student engagement – London’s Global University.

Cardiff Pulse which operates in year, offers results which can inform ‘how we are doing’, and make changes which can make a difference for current students.

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Programme review and the Board of Studies

In addition to module level review and changes the Board of Studies should take a view across programmes of studies as to enhancements which may improve the Student experience across the programme.

A critical point to note is that board of studies should consider the impact any changes to individual modules will have on the programme as a whole, in addition to the cumulative effect of any previous changes. Where modules are shared by other programmes or schools (as part of joint honours for example) the impacts of changes will need to be considered for these also and risks managed and mitigated. Changes to modules should never be reviewed or approved in isolation, always consider the impact on the programme.

Some areas to consider when looking at the programme as a whole would be: (not an exhaustive list)

• Will moving an assessment date lead to bunching of assessments from other modules?
• Will changing an assessment method mean there are too many of one type of assessment?
• Do the changes impact on the programme learning outcomes? (This would require a major change)
• Would changes to weightings or credits affect the programme structure for joint honours or other programmes using the module?
• Would changes to weightings or credits affect the programme structure for joint honours or other programmes using the module?
• Do the changes affect any approval from a PSRB?
• What changes have already been approved for the programme during its lifespan? What is the cumulative effect?
• Which students or groups of students might be impacted by the changes, and how will this impact equity of experience and outcome?

Major changes

Any required changes to modules which fall outside of those allowed for approval through boards of studies, will require a more extensive and formal approval process, similar to that used for approving a new programme. The process follows the 3-stage process as set out in the ‘programme scoping’ and ‘programme development’ pages.  You should carefully consider if major changes are needed. Could or should you wait until the school undergoes revalidation? Could minor changes be used to meet the issues you have identified instead?

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Revalidation

Revalidation provides an opportunity for all schools to review their portfolio of programmes to ensure they continue to be strategically and academically fit for purpose.

Operated on a rolling schedule, revalidation allows for an holistic review of a schools portfolio, a pause for reflection on what is working and what needs improvement. The first phase is an initial review of the schools portfolio followed by a review of individual programmes and structures, undertaken by the School and College.

The initial school portfolio review will determine which programmes will be progressing to phase two and which may be put forward for discontinuation if necessary.

At phase two, individual programmes will be reviewed. This is an opportunity to make large scale changes to programmes if needed, or more minor ones. You should review past performance of the programme, recruitment data, student feedback etc. Consult with current and past students.

• What is working well? What needs improvement or updating?
• Does the programme need updating to capture recent developments in the discipline?
• Has student feedback or NSS highlighted areas for development or improvement?
• Are graduate attributes being adequately represented in the curriculum?
• Could you make the programme more inclusive?
• Is there Welsh language compliance?

The outcome of phase two revalidation may well be a programme redesign or a major change see section one of the toolkit on programme scoping for more information on this process and section two on programme design for more support on these topics.

Deeper dive

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