Projects

Project lead

Simon Archer (School of Veterinary Medicine)

Contributors

Simon Lygo-Baker (Surrey Institute of Education)

Project outline

Introduction

To support evidence-based practice, teaching and learning of research methods has become integral to many health sciences programmes. Effective learning of research methods is facilitated by student engagement. With a focus on student-centred learning, flipped learning has been suggested as an approach to increase engagement and promote higher level learning. However it is unknown how best to motivate students to engage in the prior independent study required for effective flipped learning, and this is particularly relevant to subjects that create anxiety like statistics. This proposal will provide students with evidence of potential learning gain (if any) through a focus on altering how they study research methods. The aim is to test the hypothesis that engagement with research methods course material prior to attendance at dedicated real-time webinars for discussion within a flipped learning framework improves the formative and/or summative exam scores achieved by veterinary students. It is recognised that an appropriate confirmatory study may not be possible within the confines of the resources available. Therefore, the specific objective of this proposal is to conduct a pilot study, that tests the same hypothesis on a small sample of students, specifically to provide knowledge of the likely ‘effect’ sizes to inform the sample size requirements of larger scale confirmatory research.

Materials and methods

The target population is third year veterinary students. The specific study population is 150 students enrolled on the 2021/2022 offering of the Veterinary research and evidence-based veterinary medicine at University of Surrey (Module code; VMS3008). Flipped learning of research methods took place during Semester 1 in 2021/2. Interaction with students occurred in weekly real-time webinars where students attempted multiple choice questions and received feedback on their responses. Students were required to login, such that default access statistics from Surrey Learn and Panopto were recorded, and can now be collated for each student on a weekly basis. Measures of engagement will include proportion of all available content items visited, proportion of lecture recordings accessed, and total time spent viewing lectures. The outcome of interest will be student-level proportional scores achieved in the formative multiple-choice quizzes and summative exam scores.

Data visualisation and analysis will use R. Analysis will consider different parameterisation of measures of engagement. For all outcomes described, univariate and multivariate analyses of student-level data will use standard approaches to the chi-squared test and logistic regression respectively.

Ethical considerations

This study uses observational data available to the PI as module lead. This data is generated solely by student engagement in required course activities, and does not include personal information. Arrangements for access to course materials and activities is the same for all students.

Individual students will not be identifiable to third parties in the results. The study will be logged with the University of Surrey Self-Assessment Governance and Ethics for Humans and Data Research.

Project value

Flipped learning has been adopted as a resilient approach to providing inclusive teaching but evidence is lacking on how it should best be applied to encourage engagement. Achieving pedagogical excellence is dependent on applying evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning. Therefore, the ability to demonstrate the efficacy of flipped learning in terms of learning gain would be useful to inform how/if this approach should be developed in the future. It could also justify the approach to students to influence learning behaviours.

Project lead

Andrew Hulton (School of Biosciences and Medicine)

Project outline

Following discussions with senior colleagues, I will attempt to improve student engagement within modules and increase staff-student interaction. In order to achieve this, I plan to introduce the concept of a Student Leader or Leadership Group within a current semester 2 module (BMS2075 Performance Analysis; one student volunteered already) and evaluate the effectiveness of this, or further idea’s in how staff and students can engage better.

With the lack of face-to-face teaching that some current year groups have experienced, I feel this has resulted with a reduction in staff-student interaction and I have certainly felt that semester 1 lacked any meaningful engagement.

I envisage the Leader or Leadership Group to be a route that students can take if they feel they are not comfortable to approach me directly, and vice versa, I can garner opinion on teaching ideas and tasks prior to conception by utilising the Leader/Group to discuss these and gain feedback. Within the module, there are several practical’s that are open for discussion and are able to be tailored to the students’ needs and this is an area I would like to exploit further, which may create a slightly different outlook each year.

I will attempt to gain feedback from three sources. The academic, the student leader/group, and the class. I will preform a simple questionnaire with the class on their thoughts of the initiative, followed by a focus group that will also include the student leader/group and the academic to discuss together the positive, negatives, and ideas to improve.  

It is the hope that this initiative will foster relationships and create an effective learning environment.

Project value

This project and the information gained from the evaluation can help assist the development of innovative, learning environments, both on and off campus, by listening to the students with an attempt to add and amend content within the module. With a student leader or group, it is hopeful that any student feedback or concerns can be provided and acted upon in a more timely fashion to make changes that will directly help the current cohort, rather than wait for the MEQs at the end of the semester.

I also hope that by using the Student Leader or Group it will support the development of students feeling able to share their opinions, independence, and build networks with other students and staff.

Project lead

Jackie McBride (School of Health Sciences)

Contributors

Dr Wendy Grosvenor (School of Health Sciences), Emily Winter (Professional Lead for District Nursing, Procare Community Services), Emma Budd, (Clinical Lead, East Waverley, Procare Community Services)

Project outline

Healthcare service delivery is increasingly complex due to growing demand on services, ageing populations, longer life expectancy and global fiscal challenges. The current model, which relies heavily on secondary care over burdens hospitals, contributes to extensive waiting times and creates barriers to accessing health services (World Health Organisation 2016).

Recognition of these limitations has shaped future health policy planning, resulting in shift of focus towards delivery of services in primary and community care. In response to this undergraduate nursing programmes and clinical placement sites must ensure nursing students have high quality community nursing exposure during their programme to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and skills necessary to work a healthcare system that is moving towards a community focus.

Students’ experiences of community placements will not only influence their perceptions of this working environment but will affect their

motivation to learn and achieve their learning outcomes (Dickson et al., 2015). Therefore, high quality practice placements are in the interest of academic staff, community practitioners and students alike as good learning environments promote optimal learning and skills acquisition (Doyle et al., 2017).

To promote optimal learning for students in their community placement, Procare developed an innovative community rotation for adult nursing students. The aim of the rotation programme was to support student nurses to develop a good understanding of different areas of community practice and gain a holistic picture of a patient’s journey. To achieve this, students were allocated to spend time with different nurse specialists and allied health care professionals. Rotation also supported exposure to a broad range of clinical and leadership styles together with different

ways of working. Students were involved in the co-design of the rotation programme. The objective of this collaborative study with practice, is to explore the experiences of pre-registration adult nursing students of this innovative community-education placement.

A qualitative study using focus groups will be undertaken, and themes will be generated deductively from the research questions, and iteratively from transcripts.

Participants will be recruited from adult nursing cohort; focus groups (FG) will explore the subjective experiences of community placements. 2 student focus groups, 16 adult nursing students.

An inductive approach using thematic analysis using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six steps will be used to analyse data.

Timeline

• February: University REC approval, complete self-assessment. Advertise researcher (Unitemps)
• March: Recruit participants, recruit researcher, start narrative review of existing literature of community placements
• April – May: complete narrative review, use themes to support focus group guide
• May: conduct & transcribe FGs
• June - FG analysis initiated
• July- Complete FG analysis, write/submit report,
• August – Nov write publication, apply to present – conference; present to Faculty Cluster (Long Term Conditions)

Project value

Community nursing placements play an increasingly important part in pre-registration nursing students learning experience as health care delivery continues to migrate to community care settings. Nurse education programmes and health services must ensure that adult student nurses are exposed to high quality community placements that provide suitable learning experiences for students to acquire the skills and knowledge required for the health service of the future.

There has been limited exploration of community experience from the perspective of pre-registration adult nursing students. As potential key service providers, it is important to identify factors which influence how pre-registration nurses view primary care placements in the community and as a potential career option. The quality of pre-registration practice learning experience is highly influential on career choices at the point of qualification. Fifty per cent of learning takes place in practice, community providers have a crucial role to play in supporting future nurses to work in the community.

The project is student-centred as they will inform future development of community placements. with an emphasis on practice-based learning.

Project lead

Wendy Grosvenor (School of Health Sciences)

Contributors

Laurence Drew (School of Health Sciences), Simon Downs (School of Health Sciences), Nicky Secrett (School of Health Sciences), Lisa Blazhevski (School of Health Sciences), Annette Davies(School of Health Sciences)

Project outline

The prevalence of dementia is rapidly increasing (Prince et al., 2013), with healthcare systems internationally unprepared to meet the demand for care generated (Australian Government Department of Health, 2015, Chow et al., 2018, Department of Health, 2009, Health Labor & Welfare Ministry, 2015). An important component of this response is building the capacity of the future workforce (Alzheimer’s Disease International, 2019, World Health Organization, 2017).

Time for Dementia (TFD) is an educational programme developed for undergraduate healthcare students to address limitations which lead to poor care outcomes for people with dementia and carers (Banerjee et al., 2017). It involved students visiting a family affected by dementia in their homes over 2-years. Through these relationships, students develop skills, positive understanding, and attitudes to dementia (Banerjee et al., 2021, Grosvenor et al., 2021). Virtual TFD visits were developed due to the Covid pandemic in 2020 and replaced face to face TfD visits in people’s homes.

Virtual visits involve groups of 8-10 students who ‘visit’ virtually with a person living with dementia and their carer to share their experiences of living with dementia. The visit is facilitated by the Alzheimer’s Society who help to support the focus of the visit – for example, symptoms that led to seeking help, diagnosis, experiences of health and social care, adaptations made to home environment.

A qualitative approach underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm will explore the effect of virtual visits on students’ knowledge and understanding of dementia. Peoples’ experiences shape our understanding of a problem, and through narrative means, greater insight can be gained from their perception of their own reality.

Participants will be recruited from S21 cohort of students who participate in TfD virtual visits.

Focus groups (FG) will explore the subjective experience and effect of virtual visits on students of nursing and paramedic practice.

• 1 focus group, 5-10 adult nursing students
• 1 focus group, 5-10 paramedic students
• 1 focus group, 5-10 mental health nursing students

An inductive approach using thematic analysis using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six steps will be used to analyse data.

Findings will help to inform future development of virtual visits and address a gap in the evidence of the effect of virtual visits involving service users with dementia on students’ knowledge and understanding of dementia.

Timeline

University REC approval (self-assessment form completed).

• March: recruit participants, advertise and recruit researcher (Unitemps), start scoping review of existing literature of virtual educational visits involving service users
• April – May: complete scoping review and write up for publication, use themes from review to write focus group guide
• June – July: project team conduct & transcribe FGs, complete thematic analysis (researcher to support)
• August – September: write/submit report of findings, write publication, apply to present – conference, present results to faculty (learning lunch). Poster – display findings of the study in Kate Grainger.

Project value

The School of Health has taken a progressive approach by implementing an important innovation driven by the pandemic to develop dementia virtual TFD programme of visits. As far we are aware it is the first study to explore virtual visits with people with dementia in healthcare education; addressing a gap in the evidence. Virtual visits support the faculty’s education strategy’s emphasis on practice-based learning, supporting students’ experience of learning from ‘experts by experience’.

The project aims to explore the effect on students of virtual visits, supporting the universities values of supporting innovation and service user engagement.

It will explore the impact of an intervention which aims to promote how they think differently and more critically about living with dementia to support them to meet their needs and positively impact on society as future healthcare practitioner.​ The project is student-centred as results will inform future development of virtual visits. with an emphasis on practice-based learning and service user involvement.

Visits are a way to make education more socially accountable, broadening curricula to involve the expertise of service users. Although the virtual visits focus on dementia, this could be used as an exemplar for visits involving service users with other long-term conditions.

Project lead

Eleanor Ratcliffe (School of Psychology)

Contributors

15 students will be invited to join the project as research participants.

Project outline

Background and aims

The topic of restorative environments (settings that facilitate psycho-physiological recovery from everyday stress and fatigue) is a significant component of environmental psychology teaching at Surrey. Nature is emphasised as an ‘ideal’ restorative environment but growing literature suggests that cities can also be restorative and pleasant. Teaching also emphasises two key theories in the area (attention restoration theory and stress reduction theory) that have received significant criticism in recent years. To keep pace with these developments there is a need to encourage students to think critically and innovatively about this topic. Creative activities such as model-making or world-building can enhance learning by helping students to express theoretical concepts in physical form, think critically about those concepts, and make links between theory and practice. This project uses a model-making framework in order to:

1. Increase understanding of the types of environments in which restoration may be possible;
2. Explore what applied examples of such innovations might look like; and
3. Identify theoretical concepts that might explain why.

Method

N = 15 final-year UG/PGT psychology students will be asked to participate in an exploratory model-making task, conducted over Spring vacation (11-29 April 2022). Participants will be invited based on enrolment in Semester 1 PSY3072/PSYM137 modules (Key Questions in Environmental Psychology), ensuring that they have a baseline level of knowledge regarding restorative environments.

Participants will be asked to imagine a restorative environment within a city, and to construct their vision of this setting within a shoebox. They will be provided with a box, cardboard, glue, and paints as initial resources, and can supplement these with their own supplies if desired.

Participants will be asked to complete free-response questions about their understanding before and after the three-week task. They will be asked via online questionnaire:

• What places comes to your mind when you think of a restorative environment? Write down as many examples as you can.
• What is it about these places that makes them restorative? For example, what properties/physical attributes?
• Which theories do you think explain the links between those properties and restoration? What are the strengths and weaknesses of these theories?

Responses will be content analysed and compared pre- and post. It is expected that, after the task, participants will generate more examples of restorative environments, and that responses about theory why places are restorative will be longer and more diverse.

During the three-week task, participants will be asked to keep notes in an online or physical diary format about what they are doing and why, supported by photos or sketches. Data from these diaries will be content and/or thematically analysed to examine links between the design process and theoretical understanding of restorative environments, including key moments of insight, critical thinking, or advances in understanding.

During a final plenary session participants will be asked to “show and tell” about their environment boxes. They will be asked for their feedback on the design task, and whether and how they feel it has affected their understanding of restorative environments.

Project value

This project is important to test the utility of creative model-making as a tool to enhance students’ critical thinking and ability to innovate within the field. If evaluation shows that students’ understanding of, and critical engagement with, restorative environments practice and theory improves after the design task, this can be implemented within environmental psychology teaching (e.g., PSY3072/PSYM137) in the academic year 2022/23 as an evidence-based pedagogical strategy.

The project addresses the Faculty’s strategy aim of supporting students to achieve “excellent critical, analytic, creative […] capabilities”. Specifically, it uses a design task that integrates theory and practice in order to achieve “an evidence and research-based approach to acquiring, questioning, and generating new information”. Through creative, practical tasks it addresses Aim 1 (ambitious programmes) in order “engage students as active learners” and “utilise physical […] resources designed to facilitate and enrich learning”.

Project lead

Andrew Hulton (School of Biosciences and Medicine, Department of Nutritional Sciences)

Contributors

Angus Uren (Lead Student), Harri Cizmic (School of Biosciences and Medicine), Dr Ralph Manders (School of Biosciences and Medicine)

Project outline

Due to the inception of hybrid teaching, and reliance on digital media and online content to support students, I have employed activity guides, based on previous work from Professor Naomi Winstone, across my modules. Acting as a module map throughout the semester, the activity guide illustrates the weekly topics and learning objectives, with literature links, short video clips (academic questions answered, TED talks, movie clips), and tasks. There are also links into the specific sections within the modules SurreyLearn site, enabling students to navigate the site quickly and effortlessly to ensure they find the correct content for a given week or session.

The activity guide was primarily designed to add additional content to support hybrid learning and facilitate further student engagement in the topics. However, it may also support inclusivity by supporting students who may not be as digital native and find it difficult navigating through our virtual learning environment. Therefore, all content is accessible through hyperlinks on one platform. Further, to improve student engagement and inclusivity multiple methods of information is available from simple videos to more detailed literature, using a variety of sporting and/or scientific examples throughout, with clear attempts to use a balanced mix of expert speakers within the videos (gender and ethnicity), illustrating further diversity and to inspire all students.

Positive feedback for the use of the activity guides have been received via MEQ:

• Organisation of this module on SL and through the activity design tool (Very handy to have the link to those extra resources) was great
• Organized, helpful resources such as scientific journals to help us with our understanding.
• Out of all modules studied this semester this one seemed to be the most well organised

However, no formal evaluation has taken place to understand students’ opinions and interactions with the guides. Are students’ indeed using these, if so, why, if not, why not? Can we look to build on the positives from the activity guides and evolve these further, or if they are not used to a great extent, can we explore other options that would support their learning or develop the guides further with further student/staff partnerships.

To enable us to achieve this we aim, we will produce a questionnaire and offer this to the students taking BMS2071 or BMS3069 at the end of semester one. These questions will be used to assess the use of the guides and student perceptions. From these results, we would then hold focus groups in a semi structured format to delve deeper into the response from the questionnaire. We hope to receive feedback from these focus groups to either improve and evolve the activity guides or create additional materials that the students feel may support learning further.

Project value

A key component of the universities mission statement for education is to provide talented and motivated students from all backgrounds and nationalities an outstanding education. Further, it emphasises the importance to support our students and create the conditions for all to realise their goals. We believe these activity guides can support learning, creating further conditions for success, that can ultimately promote a university priority which is to drive the student experience.

The activity guide will host additional content to prepare students for their main weekly learning content, but also review and integrate their understanding with further resources and tasks. Ensuring this additional content is inspiring, challenging and thought provoking, we can provide a learning environment that supports the universities objectives. Building on the hybrid education model, these dynamic, digital, and practical guides can be embedded in existing practice showcasing the innovative and inclusive approach for student study and support.

By evaluating these activity guides with the involvement of strong staff-student partnerships, we can ensure the outcome and evolution of the guides are student-focused and providing outstanding educational support.

Project lead

Cathrine Derham (School of Health Sciences)

Contributors

Simon Bettles (School of Health Sciences), Jackie Mcbride (School of Health Sciences), Claire Tarrant (School of Health Sciences)

Project outline

Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) allow competency assessment of clinical and communication skills through direct observation. A fresh approach to OSCE assessments is required for the new undergraduate  programmes in nursing, midwifery and paramedic science and thus the intention is to work in partnership with students to ensure an improved and appropriate assessment.

It has been well established across the sector, that student experience surveys frequently indicate dissatisfaction with assessment and feedback (Pitt and Norton 2017).  By inviting senior students to  help design this year 1 assessment, it is anticipated that a clear, meaningful, effective and  authentic examination can be created.  Students will also be in a position to advise about particular difficulties their peers might have in complying with the requirements of the examination that might not be obvious to the academic team.

A series of workshop with students will be held to discuss and agree upon each stage of the formative and summative assessment process, which will include: the nature of the assessment ‘stations’,  marking criteria, the format of feedback and guidance which will be made be made available students.

Every attempt will be made to ensure a representative sample of students, to ensure the assessment and OSCE process does not inadvertently disadvantage any group of students or lead to attainment gaps. Through engagement with students in this way, we aim to develop the assessment process and design to ensure inclusive cultural competence and practice.  This will be achieved by ensuring the activities students are involved in are small, manageable in the time identified and will take place online. This will ensure the opportunity to take part in this partnership work is attractive to all.

All parties are likely to benefit from partnership working through an increased a sense of belonging, engagement and motivation (Mercer-Mapstone et al., 2017).  Partnership working also enables students to develop graduate attributes and gain employability skills. For staff it also provides opportunities to develop aspects of the educational and student experiences which can support promotions, fellowship applications and awards.

Project value

Within the School of Health Sciences there is a strong ethos of listening to the student voice through various forums. This project seeks to build upon current practices and initiatives to encourage partnership working through a collaborative  process, where all participants have the opportunity to contribute to curriculum development, as inclusive assessment practices are co-designed with  students. This will help to develop  a culture of shared enterprise and a position of greater collaboration. It is envisioned that this will encourage others to work more collaboratively to  enhance educational practices  and the wider student experience.

The University’s  Education Strategy identifies an ambition for an inclusive educational experience, where pedagogic and curriculum development engage students as partners. This project offers opportunities to achieve this strategic aim by encouraging a student-centred culture of transparency, openness, shared understanding and ownership. The  corporate strategy identifies values which underpin the concept of students as partners: respect, ambition, collaboration, integrity and excellence.

‘ We will embed the practice of co-creation in shaping our pedagogic practices: Identify pedagogic activity to encourage engagement and co-creation with students, including the creation of digital materials and curriculum development activity’.

Project lead

Dr Abel Ekiri (School of Veterinary Medicine)

Contributors

Dr Giovanni Lo Iacono (School of Veterinary Medicine), Dr Martha Betson (School of Veterinary Medicine), Dr Simon Lygo-Baker (Surrey Institute of Education)

Project outline

Background

In veterinary medicine education, specifically in teaching of veterinary epidemiology, there is little data on student engagement, yet we know that student engagement with learning or course content in and outside class contributes to good practice in undergraduate education and is critical for student achievement and for continuation of studies to completion (Chickering & Gamson, 2002). The contribution that students make towards their learning is crucial to student success in their studies (Krause and Coates, 2008) and student engagement has been linked to positive academic outcomes including academic performance and persistence in school (Fredrick et al., 2004; Carini et al., 2006; Pascarella et al., 2010).

“Animal in Society 2: Concepts in Epidemiology and Public Health, VMS2008” is an introductory course in veterinary epidemiology and public health offered to second year veterinary students at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Surrey. Through my previous experience, initially as a student (veterinary student and postgraduate student) and later as a teacher of epidemiology, I am aware and have observed that epidemiological concepts can be difficult to understand, take time to understand, and that veterinary students sometimes struggle to connect the concepts to the clinical elements and may not attach the same level of relevance as they do for clinically orientated modules. These experiences combined with my current teaching experience on this module (VMS2008), anecdotal observations, and feedback received have led to a fundamental question: Is the level of student engagement with learning in veterinary epidemiology optimal from a student perspective? What aspects of student engagement are working well and is there room for improvement? What changes can instructors make to improve student engagement? The study proposed seeks to examine these questions by evaluating the relevant measures of student engagement among students undertaking the module, VMS2008.

Study approach

A qualitative study approach will be used to investigate student engagement in learning of veterinary epidemiology, and to identify potential ways to improve student engagement. The qualitative research approach will involve collection of data from second-year veterinary students using semi-structured interviews of a subset of students followed by focus groups with students. The use of focus groups will allow for exploration of the data collected in the interviews as a way of triangulating the data and getting more detail.

At the end of the study, data will be cleaned and summarised. Interview data will be transcribed, and thematic analyses performed. An inductive approach will be applied to examine patterns in the data as described by Braun & Clarke 2006 and Swart 2019. The results of thematic analyses will be categorized in alignment with the study objective to generate codes under each theme.

Expected outcomes

This study will directly involve students and generate information on what is working well and what is not working well with respect to student engagement in learning of veterinary epidemiology and ways to improve student engagement. Subsequently the results will be used to design and implement targeted interventions to improve student engagement in learning of veterinary epidemiology.

Project value

Understanding how we can improve student engagement has potential to increase the ability of teachers to implement approaches to reduce the risk of disengaging from veterinary epidemiology learning. In the module VMS2008, different approaches are utilised by instructors during delivery to promote student engagement with learning, including asking questions, use of case studies, group discussions, and use of technology (Pollev, Jam boards, etc). Identifying which of these approaches are considered effective with respect to student understanding and incorporating those formats in teaching may help students better appreciate the relevance of the module and improve student engagement with learning and course content in and outside and beyond class.

In alignment with the recommendations from the Faculty’s NSS 85 Plan 2021/22 and the five key dimensions of the Curriculum Framework, findings of this study will be applied to develop effective student engagement and facilitate the formation of students as critical thinkers and life-long learners. Crucially, the student Module Evaluation Questionnaire (MEQ) scores for this module for the last academic year, 2020/2021, were just slightly above average (overall percent positive = 67), indicating a need for improvement. The study findings would therefore contribute to identifying ways to improve MEQ scores of this module.

Project lead

Harriet Tenenbaum (School of Psychology) 

Contributors

Sarfraz Jeraj (School of Psychology), Neesha Oozageer Gunowa (School of Health Sciences), Emily Williams (School of Health Sciences), Ilknur Aktan (School of Veterinary Medicine), Kourosh Ahmadi (School of Biosciences and Medicine)

Project outline

Decolonising the curriculum is an especially pressing topic facing higher education (Begum & Saini, 2019). A “decolonised” curriculum needs to be fully inclusive and cannot privilege the experiences and knowledge of people from WEIRD (i.e., Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic) backgrounds. Despite the clear and urgent need for decolonised curriculum content, awareness of this need is low among HEIs and only a few universities have begun the process.  Similarly, many academics at Surrey lack the awareness and/or confidence to embark on this type of curriculum review. This project will focus on two aspects of modules (i.e., the module guide and the reading list) as a drive towards creating a more welcoming and inclusive environment for all students.

Our first focus will be on module guides (or handbooks) because they are one of the first pieces of information that students receive. Module guides serve as a contract between students and instructors, a permanent record, and a learning tool (Parkes & Harris, 2002). As a learning tool, the module guide provides an overview, informing the student about the tasks that they will need to accomplish, and provides insight into the aims and scope of the module as well as the module convener’s philosophy and approach to education (Parkes & Harris, 2002). Module guides can welcome students from a variety of backgrounds, and deconstruct a “white only” experience of the discipline (Education, 2020). Ours will also highlight the inclusion of readings from non-WEIRD academics. Building on current work (Syllabus Review, 2020), our plan is to develop five sample module guides from PG and UG modules (two from Psych and one from each of the other schools). We purport that it is also imperative that we include student voices in this process (Shay, 2016).

Methods to be Employed

Across FHMS, we (Ahmadi, Aktan, Oozageer Gunowa, Jeraz, Tenenbaum) will change one module guide each using a tool previously developed (Education, 2020). We will examine each others’ guides for inclusivity. We will also make sure that the new module guide includes at least 25% readings either focused on non-WEIRD populations (without a deficit model) and/or written by non-WEIRD academics. Williams will also look at these guides.

We propose to utilise the requested funds to:

1) Employ a PhD student to conduct four action focus groups (5 students each; one group per School) to evaluate the module guides and receive recommendations for improvement. We will then change the module guides and again conduct one focus group to have students (2 from each school for a total of 8) review the guides.

2) Outcomes, including example module guides and the focus groups, will be utilised to develop a set for recommendations for the Faculty to lead us in enhancing the inclusivity of all module guides. We would also hope that we can make recommendations for the catalogue from what we learn. The PhD student will help develop these guidelines.

Project value

The FHMS Teaching Strategy seeks to increase students’ global and cultural intelligence. The strategy suggests that students should be able to learn to engage with others from varied backgrounds and to be engaged with diverse perspectives. The Teaching Strategy also seeks to support all students from all backgrounds, including those from minority or under-represented groups. Decolonising the curriculum and becoming more inclusive will help empower staff and all our students to engage with others from different backgrounds. To support students, we need to model how to embrace cultural diversity. Making students aware of culture diversity and its benefits can support students in learning to value cultural diversity, be open to cultural differences, and to gain greater perspective-taking skills needed to develop knowledge and critical understanding of the world (Barrett, 2020). We believe that be creating a more inclusive environment, we will be better able to develop and deliver richer and more relevant curriculum that are accessible to all students and in doing so, reduce our Black, Asian and minority ethnic awarding gaps.

Project lead

Ioannis Smyrnias (School of Veterinary Medicine)

Contributors

Sharmini Paramasivam (School of Veterinary Medicine)

Project outline

Online teaching and learning (or Hybrid Education) is a concept that is increasing within higher education(1). Covid19-related restrictions first imposed during the semester 2 teaching in 2020 required academic staff to alter their teaching delivery methods from the traditional face-to-face (F2F) interaction between teachers and students to that of online learning within Surrey University. Online teaching material includes pre-recorded lectures, non-lecture activities (e.g. feedback videos), and online engagement sessions on Surrey Learn for students to engage with.

Despite restrictions now changing and F2F teaching increasing, staff at the request of students are still widely using online learning to supplement F2F teaching in Surrey and to engage with the hybrid teaching model. Effective online teaching plays a role in contributing towards the student engagement with a myriad of content and having different levels of impact on the learning experience (2). It is important that this is mapped within curriculums.

Student experience with online teaching is captured through the MEQ scores and is evaluated at a module and programme level. However, while student experience is important, it is equally important to gauge the impact online teaching activities have on student academic performance.

Additionally, non-lecture online resources are routinely uploaded to contribute to the student learning (e.g. module handbooks, exercises, assessment briefs), but there is limited data on student engagement with this.

Hybrid education has been widely adopted at the School of Veterinary Medicine. However, there is a gap in understanding how student engagement with Surrey Learn teaching activities and the correlation it might have on impacting student academic performance.

Aim

To promote the use of high engagement practices within the online teaching resources on Surrey Learn that will contribute towards an improved academic performance within the BVMSci programme.

Research question

Does increased student engagement with online learning contribute to higher performance in undergraduate veterinary students?

Objectives

1. Determine the correlation between student engagement with online-only lecture content and their academic performance.
2. Determine the correlation between student engagement with non-lecture activities (e.g. handbook, practical exercises) on Surrey Learn and their academic performance.
3. Compare engagement levels with online teaching between preclinical and clinical subjects.

To address these objectives, we will:

1. Identify teaching content and summative assessments within clinical and preclinical modules in years 1-4 during the 2020 and 2021 academic years (e.g. Structure and function modules, animal husbandry, pathology, clinical medicine, research, zoological medicine)
2. Determine average engagement levels for lecture content for every student, and make comparisons with their academic performance.
3. Determine the engagement levels of non-lecture online material (e.g. module handbook, assessment briefs, practical exercises).
4. Compare average engagement levels of students with online teaching in clinical vs preclinical subjects in years 1-4 and determine the effect on their academic performance

Project value

By understanding the relationship of student engagement with online teaching and student performance, we have evidence to better support academics on how to develop a more engaging and higher quality online learning space for students. This is in line with the education strategy to develop an innovative learning environment within the hybrid education model. Our research will build on the University’s key activities to carry out learning analytics and student success as part of the Education Strategy. 

Data on the effectiveness of non-lecture learning material is very important as these are uploaded routinely without addressing how much time students spend on it.

Developing and disseminating your learning and teaching ideas (PDF)