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Institute of Teaching and Learning

Header with the words 'Students in Public' written on it

Linking student research and public engagement in learning and teaching

This site is all about embedding public dissemination into course unit design.  It aims to help practitioners to embed the public dissemination of student knowledge and understanding into course unit design.  Our experience shows that students develop employability skills and contribute to social responsibility by taking part in activities geared towards public dissemination.

All around the University of Manchester, people are putting on courses that recognise this, and ask students to respond creatively to tasks geared towards engaging with different kinds of public.  This website is designed as a resource to share this experience, and explore different aspects of the challenge of asking students to put their work in the public domain.

What students said about doing research for public dissemination.

Video 1

 

Video 2

 

Video 3

This resource offers information on current practices in the University and beyond, on the possibilities and constraints related to different platforms and genres of dissemination, and evaluates the different ways in which student knowledge and understanding can be made available to a wide range of potential stakeholders.  It provides the necessary resources for course unit directors to integrate impactful public dissemination tasks into their course unit design, including appropriate assessment models.

Explore the different pages of the site to find out about:

First steps
How to approach the integration of student research and public engagement into course unit design?

Curriculum:The curriculum is the starting point for developing student research opportunities appropriate to the level of studies.

Curriculum

How to approach the integration of student research and public engagement into course unit design?

 

Abbie is aware of the relevance of academic theory to work outside academia that she might want to do in the future. Many course units have an inherent connection between the curriculum and public engagement. This can be activated by bringing student research products and activities into the public domain. The identification of these opportunities and partner organisations is organic, e.g. a course unit in museum studies suggests exhibition-related outputs, a course unit in business studies might involve a live consultancy project for a client. There are obvious links to employability skills which can be built into the learning outcomes and assessment strategy.

Inherent connections between curriculum and public engagement are apparent in the following two examples. Students develop practical skills in the context of cultural event production and exhibition making through the combination of theory and practice in SALC61061 Managing Collections & Exhibitions with SALC60232 Professional Practice Project. The project allows students to create a small exhibition and related public programme in collaboration with a local cultural organisation. Similarly, BIOL31230 Science Media project is intentionally set up for students to produce a portfolio of communication materials about a bioscience topic aimed at a range of audiences, including the general public.

Other course units do not have an inherent connection between curriculum and public engagement, but this does not mean that the connection cannot be made. The challenge is to identify possible user communities for students’ research products and activities.

For example, in this clip Hannah talks about gathering data at a Muslim festival in Manchester in order to design a Museum exhibit on a course unit about religion and diaspora communities.Many public sector organisations and industries are dependent on external research input for their core activities and for staff development, e.g. teachers, local government bodies, the police and the NHS as well as media production companies. Public engagement products and activities offer an excellent opportunity to highlight potential employment sectors that students might not have considered as relevant to their degree.

Further examples of inherent connections between curriculum and public engagement

Aims: The selection of the format for research outputs follows the statement of the aims for public engagement. What is the public engagement product/activity aiming to achieve?

Aims

Aims for linking student research to public engagement

The outputs of public engagement activities are most impactful when they resonate with the public environment to which they are addressed. A universal aim can be the showcasing of student research by making authorship explicit to a number of stakeholders such as the users of the product/activity, prospective students and prospective employers. Students in Public can be a powerful marketing tool for alumni and for the University.

Some aims relate directly to specific engagement formats and platforms such as consultancy and resource development for a particular client. Advocacy and policy is best disseminated through externally-recognized channels in order to have high impact.  On the other hand, informing and entertaining can take many forms of writing, exhibition and performance that might be disseminated face-to-face, in print or online. Styles of presentation need to mediate between audience needs and content; they might be formal and technical for a professional audience, artistic and visually engaging for an exhibition, and conversational and comical for school children.

For example, Tom speaks about the development of social cohesion as a critical aim of the museum exhibit he was preparing for a course on Religion, Migration and Diaspora.

Hannah explains how the output from her course unit supports her application for professional training.

 

The list below provides examples of different types of aims in the linking of student research to public engagement.

Informing/educating

Consultancy

Resourcing

Advocacy/policy

Entertaining

Assessment tasks: What kinds of assessment tasks and models are available? What are their benefits and challenges?

Assessment tasks

Assessment of student research for public engagement

Integration into summative assessment validates student research for public engagement as an integral part of academic study. In some scenarios, public engagement enables the integration of practice with theory that would be missing otherwise. Many common assessment tasks readily lend themselves to public dissemination. In theses case, students are able to perceive the public engagement aspect as value added, not as a source of anxiety due to unfamiliarity.

A range of assessment tasks and models are available:

Information texts

The compostition of information texts is already familiar to students in several disciplines through essay writing and answering exam questions. This familiarity reduces any anxieties students might have about assessment tasks that are perceived as different due to their non-academic audience. Making essays face ‘outwards’ adds a significant employability dimension and introduces students to career options.

Essay-based

Exemplars

Research/consultancy report

The composition of reports is already familiar to students in several disciplines. This familiarity reduces any anxieties students might have about assessment tasks that are perceived as different due to their non-academic audience. Linking reports to live projects adds a significant employability dimension and increases student engagement. Continuing availability of new topics might be a significant challenge for long-term sustainability.

Exemplars

Public address

Composing and delivering a public address builds on widespread assessment of seminar presentations. Skills development training might be required for effective and confident public speaking. Making presentations face ‘outwards’ gives students experience of real-life situations in a wide range of professional and civil society contexts.

Exemplars

Exhibition-related

In addition to museology courses with their inherent link to exhibition-related assessment, many other courses produce knowledge that can be disseminated by writing interpretation of material objects and images. This adds a significant employability dimension and enables engagement with local communities. Careful planning is required to ensure that resources are available for the production of exhibition materials. Partnership working and securing internal and external funding are useful ways to support this. Online opportunities offer alternative ways of dissemination that are less resource-intensive.

Exemplars

Performance-related

Where the curriculum has an inherent link to public perfomance, if offers exciting opportunities for experiential learning and community engagement. Students welcome this assessment opportunity because it is different, creative and playful. Organizing the performances can be challenging and time consuming.

Exemplar

Workshops

Workshops are highly interactive opportunities for students to develop their confidence and their skills at planning and delivering activities in real-world situations under supervision. Effective support at all stages is essential for high attainment. Workshops have the highest impact when they address a real need that has been identified by stakeholders. Partnership working is therefore useful but can be resource-intensive to establish and maintain.

Exemplars

Reflective writing

Reflective writing is a useful assessment tool for accompanying public engagement tasks so that students can deepen their understanding, actively learn from their experience, identify skills gaps and celebrate successes. This is particularly beneficial in challenging environments or where the development of empathy with perceived Others is of importance. Many professions emphasize the importance of being a reflective practitioner such as nursing and education. Reflective tasks need to be clearly structured in line with their intended learning outcomes in order to overcome students’ fear of not knowing what is expected or students mistaking free flow of consciousness for reflection.

Exemplars

ILOs and marking criteria: How to formulate appropriate learning outcomes and marking criteria for public engagement products/activities?

ILOs and marking criteria

Learning outcomes and marking criteria for student research for public engagement

It is important to ensure that principles of public engagement are written into Intended Learning Outcomes. Targeted learning outcomes highlight the practical, transferable and employability skills offered by public engagement products/activities.

The National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement offers extensive guidance on the design of learning outcomes and marking criteria for public engagement products and activities. The most relevant aspects are collated at the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE).

The University’s document Writing aims and intended learning outcomes Guidance, Appendix 2  lists a number of relevant learning outcomes related to practical skills, transferable skills and other attributes.

Examples of Students in Public learning outcomes are taken from

Engagement platforms: What kinds of platforms are available within and outside the University?

Engagement platform

Hannah shared her learning about a Muslim festival with her family by showing them her online museum exhibit. Effective engagement with public stakeholders requires accessible platforms for dissemination. This might use existing internal and external opportunities in order to reach established audiences, e.g. through exhibitions at the University’s own museums and galleries. Conversely, it might be more effective or sustainable to create custom platforms such as the Multilingual Manchester website which offers downloadable reports generated by students on LELA20102 Societal Multilingualism.

In some cases, quality control and dissemination can be linked to attainment: RELT30291 Religion, Migration and Diaspora requires students to make a sales pitch for their exhibit to be included in a virtual museum. In other cases, public engagement happens as part of the assessment and is therefore beyond ultimate tutor-control as in the case of workshops delivered by students on DRAM30111 Theatre in Prisons.

Publications

Publications can take a number of forms including hard copy and online publication of stand-alone products or inclusion in a larger resource. Costs of production and distribution can be either minimal or extensive depending on the chosen platform. Tutors have ultimate control over quality and selection for dissemination. Partnership working and use of external dissemination channels can increase or threaten sustainability and impact.

 

Exhibition/interpretation

Exhibition-related products and activities have a high impact and employability potential. Producing content for exhibitions can introduce students to unexpexted employment opportunities.The University has an excellent network of internal and external partners in relevant cultural sectors, libraries and museums. Managing these partnerships is time-intensive, and producing physical exhibition materials requires sufficient financial resources. Online dissemination is a highly attractive option either through existing or custom web sites.

Performance/presentation/public address

Presenting research-based knowledge products face-to-face in public can be a challenging opportunity for students to develop their public speaking skills, receive audience feedback and gain confidence in their expertise. Tutors have limited control over quality of the live event, but might be able to operate a proposal or internal pilot stage to select suitable products for dissemination. Arranging public events requires substantial time investment, suitable external partners and potentially students’ willingness to travel.

Interaction

Direct interaction with participants is of particular use to students who consider a career in any form of education and outreach, and offers a dialogical model of learning. Face-to-face dissemination of student research through interaction  provides an important opportunity for experiential learning of the practice aspect of many courses. However, this might not be appropriate for some DASS-registered students. Accompanying reflective practice tasks help students to self-evaluate and develop their skills.

Artefacts

The production of artefacts such as images, sculpture, films and musical pieces might be limited to specialized courses. Collaboration is possible across several courses to link e.g. research of content with film or audio production. Artefacts have great potential for public dissemination. Their portability and reusability make them highly sustainable, esp. where they can be disseminated online.

Partners: Which partners are available within and outside the University? What opportunities and threats does collaboration involve?

Partners

Working with partners can make a significant difference to the impact of dissemination, and add employability benefits for students.

Partners contribute their established links with stakeholders through their engagement platforms and marketing channels. Partnership working requires careful alignment of aims, operational processes and sustainability for both partners.

For example, a third year course, DRAM30111 Theatre in Prisons, engages with a range of prisons and has created a company, TiPP, to facilitate this.

The live consultancy projects carried out for BMAN30180 Consultancy Project place students in local third sector or not-for-profit organisations.

 

Internal partners

External partners

Museums, libraries, festivals

Schools, colleges

News media, information services

Charities, service provides, civil society organisations

Businesses

Codes: Which academic and professional codes of conduct need to be adhered to in relation to different public engagement products and activities?

Codes

Codes for the conduct of student research and public engagement

While a number of specific codes of conduct need to be observed depending on the nature of the activity, all student research should fulfill the requirements for critical scholarship as defined in the learning outcomes.

The University operates a process to apply for ethical approval of research on human subjects in taught assessment. Students on RELT31031 Studying Sacred Spaces who are planning to conduct interviews as part of their fieldwork receive detailed instructions to guide them through the process.

Where students engage with external partners, DBS checks and confidentiality agreements confidentiality agreements might be relevant. Security is particularly significant on DRAM30111 Theatre in Prisons, and all students and staff have to undergo a prison security clearance several weeks in advance of the residency.

In addition to the University’s own guidance on student placements, there is also generic guidance available on health and safety issues  and for industry-specific aspects, e.g. in Engineering. RELT31031 Studying Sacred Spaces dedicates in-class time to induct students into the requirements of risk assessment. Students are also provided with a generic risk assessment for the course unit which informs them how to minimise any risk to themselves and others.

Public dissemination of research requires compliance with copyright. The Library offers extensive guidance. Course units in specific professional fields offer tailored resources on copyright such as SALC61061 Managing Collections & Exhibitions training students in museum management and marketing.