Student Led Teaching Awards 2013

Optimising the Student Experience: The Student Perspective

The Student Led Teaching Awards: The Results!

In just our second year, the Student Led Teaching Awards received over 300 nominations from students who felt they had received outstanding levels of teaching and support from the staff here at Staffordshire University.

This year our students nominated, judged and presented the awards, in a truly student led experience. There were 10 award categories, all chosen by students, which reflected every aspect of the student experience.

The Awards Inclusivity The inclusivity award can go to any member of staff who demonstrates that they consider students’ needs on an individual basis and makes appropriate adjustments for all students to maximise their experience here at Staffordshire University.

Positive Impact The positive impact award gives students a chance to nominate someone who has made an invaluable contribution to their experience through aiding their personal development, boosting their confidence, providing emotional and academic support and/or befriending them and generally creating a better experience for students.

Developing Student Employability Students can nominate any member of staff who they feel have increased their employability over their time at University. Nominations may focus on the development of skills or specific examples of times where an individual has gone out of their way to prepare the student for working life.

Best in Practice This award is targeted towards the staff members who support students on work experience.

During placement, students can feel nervous or overwhelmed in a new environment; this award gives the students a chance to show their appreciation to the staff who have ensured that this experience is as rewarding and productive as possible through their help and support and often providing an exemplary role model for the student to emulate.

Best Teaching Support At Staffordshire University, all staff members contribute to the student experience. However a positive learning experience relies on constant support provided to students on a day-to-day basis from a range of university staff. Whether this is a department administrator, a computing technician, a mentor or security guard, this award gives students a chance to applaud individuals for the positive impact they have had on their experience.

Personal Tutor of the Year The relationship between personal tutor and tutee is arguably one of the most significant relationships a student will form at University. A great personal tutor will actively engage and encourage students’ learning and development in both the personal and professional aspects of their life. The personal tutor of the year award gives students a chance to thank and applaud their tutor for the extraordinary efforts.

Extra Mile This award is about those that go above and beyond – the extra mile as we would say!

Their effort is what makes Staffordshire University the place it is and ultimately makes the students proud to be here at Staffs. Nominations for this award were open to everyone; it really was all about celebrating the people that make Staffordshire University the great place it is.

Excellence in Distance Learning Here at Staffordshire University, we pride ourselves on the experience we can offer to all of our students and because we are live to the differing needs of each student, this award gives students that are distance learners a chance to honour the staff members that have gone that extra mile to make them feel as valued and important as those students studying on campus.

The award allows distance learners to nominate anyone who has been particularly supportive and flexible, while tailoring their teaching and learning appropriately.

Best Feedback Feedback is essential in the learning process. Good feedback isn’t just a grade but it explains what you have done well and what you need to improve next time. The quality of feedback was judged on whether or not the feedback was tailored to the students’ needs, constructive, encouraging and beneficial for the students’ development going forward.

The Lecturer I Would Get Out of Bed For Students are not often stereotyped as being ‘early birds’ and we all know how difficult it can be to get out of bed first thing on a Monday morning. The nominations for this award went to the lecturers that managed to turn the frowns upside down first thing in the morning!

The energy and passion they bring to the lecture is something students feel is invaluable to their learning experience, and come rain or shine, the winner of this award will be sure to have a smile on their face!

Background In only the second year of our Student Led Teaching Awards, the number of nominations increased over threefold from 86 to 318.

The first of our two awards nights focused solely on celebrating excellence.

The evening, suitably themed ‘everyone’s a winner’, comprised of a BBQ and drinks reception for both the nominees and the students who nominated them. Our student Judging Panel (made up of 5 highly engaged student academic representatives) presented personalised certificates to each and every nominee alongside the Full Time Officer Team.

Following the first celebratory evening, the student judging panel met on several occasions to deliberate over the nominations and decide our winners and runners up for each award category.

Their decisions were based on the content of the nomination data, with an emphasis on how the nomination demonstrates that the nominee best fits the criteria of the award category. For example, a nomination for Best Feedback that reads ‘the feedback is always tailored to each individual and she’s always happy to talk me through the feedback so I can do better next time, because of this my grades keep improving’, would be scored higher than ‘She always has a smile and the feedback is good’, because it evidences the specific actions of the nominee in relation to the award and the impact this has had on the student.

Once the student judging panel had meticulously gone through each and every nomination they selected the top three nominees in each category and reviewed these again to select the eventual winners!

The shortlisted nominees in each category along with key Union and University staff were then invited to a formal Awards Ceremony which included a 3 course meal and a complimentary glass of bubbly.

The student judging panel and full time officer team hosted the event, presenting a personalised mug and certificate to each winner. They each read out the shortlist for their award category, accompanied by a quote from the nominations. Before announcing the winner of each category, the officer team and judging panel were each given a gold envelope with the winners name in, to add a touch of sparkle to the occasion!

The Winners!

Best in Practice: Rebekah Penny

“Becky was a great inspiration. She uplifted me, guided me and supported me, making my placement a very enjoyable and worthwhile one. Becky went out of her way to help me achieve all that I had set out to do, by working with me to identify learning goals and continually expanding my knowledge base with her excellent teaching. I want to nominate Becky as I think all mentors should follow suit and inspire their students like her. She is a brilliant role model...”

Inclusivity: Elsa Heffernan

“Elsa works tirelessly all year round to help all students in need and always with a smile on her face. If I have a problem I go to Elsa.

If my friends have problems I send them to Elsa and they’re so thankful for her! I would’ve dropped out long ago from depression/anxiety if it wasn’t for her support and the same goes for everyone I’ve spoken to who she has taken under her wing.”

Developing Employability: John Cassella

Excellence in Distance Learning: Marc Jones

“John has always encouraged his students to do well in the formative pieces of work so that he can continue to give us feedback on our presentation skills and really drives home to us how important it is to be able to do a variety of things when we have finished university. John has especially encouraged and pushed me to create posters for several conferences where I have had the opportunity to improve my presentation skills and confidence levels; most importantly though these conferences have enabled me to meet with potential employers and make important contacts.”

Best Feedback: Paul Houghton

“This is in no way detrimental to other lecturers; however I have to choose just one, so I choose Paul Houghton. I love Paul’s feedback because it is always positive, constructive and supportive.

He makes suggestions for finding out how I can improve my marks next time rather than just telling me what I’m doing wrong in a negative fashion.

For example, he will direct me to an author / text to research, thus ensuring my continued development is embedded. Wholesome learning is how I’d describe it.”

“I particularly found the Research & Statistics module of this course hard. Marc however helped me get through it!

By offering a lot of telephone support and weekly emails - I never felt he was too far away to offer his support and advice in an encouraging way - and that support definitely helped me get through the module and stay on the course - thank you!”

Best Teaching Support: Richard Allan

“Richard has been our main technical instructor for the past 2 years now. Every single student gets along with and respects him.

He is enthusiastic and always makes sure that technical instruction sessions are fun and engaging. Not only does he care about the education that his students get but he also cares about their experience. No matter what issue you may have you know you can pop into the Media Centre and ask Richard for some advice. Even when you don’t have an issue you can still go in and have your day made a little brighter by the smile that Richard always has to share.”

The Winners!

Positive Impact: Anne Duffell

“Anne has helped me on numerous occasions with not only my assignments but with my career path, advising me on the right routes to take and helping me to achieve these. She’s encouraged me to strengthen my weaknesses and helped me with personal issues that I had.”

Personal Tutor of the Year: Mel Hall

“I wish to nominate Mel for this role as she is quite honestly, the most professional, approachable, honest and supportive personal tutor I could have wished for.

She has given me professional advice over the past three years which has led to me making the decisions I needed to in order to complete the course. Without this, my chances of completion, I feel, would have been non-existent.”

The Lecturer I Would Get Out Of Bed For: Rainer-Elk Anders “Rainer demonstrates incredible subject knowledge, being informative, engaging, approachable and proactive in student learning.

Actively encouraging student participation with the ability to successfully control the room and still effectively engaging the whole group.

All lectures and seminars are well thought out and prepared, making both lectures and seminars an enjoyable learning environment.”

The Extra Mile: Richard Mellor

“Richard completely goes above and beyond the call of duty of his role as a senior lecturer.

Working numerous times into the early hours of the morning and pulling all nighters creating work to help and assist students individually in their design projects. Spending countless hours in 1-1 or small group sessions discussing personal work and development, and going above and beyond outside of lecturers. He went with me to a photo shoot late at night in Hanley Park for a project, working for over 2 and a half hours in minus temperatures to get the photo shoot complete.

This is also the same for lots of other students that require help outside of the normal 9am-5pm working hours.”

We originally had 10 award categories but this year decided one member of staff deserved special recognition having been nominated 43 times in 7 different award categories and the Outstanding Contribution to the Student Experience award was presented to a very deserving Mel Hall

What the Students want: By analysing the nomination data and talking to students, we can begin to assess what it is that students’ think is key in the provision of an excellent teaching and learning experience.

Students place value on the previous experience their lecturer has, often relying on their connections and influence to get them a foothold in the industry and increase their employability skills.

Students want to continue to learn, develop and improve skills and knowledge throughout the duration of their course and find that thorough, tailored, constructive and positively delivered feedback can improve this.

Paired with academic success and professional experience, students also felt strongly about the individuals they were nominating and regularly referred to positive aspects of their attitudes, values and behaviour that were important to them.

A level of compassion, patience and a desire to help and support the students by offering advice and building confidence all had a positive impact on a students’ learning and development.

Students actively seek out role models, they value staff that use new and innovative ways of teaching and are inspiring. The accessibility of staff is very important, students focus on the availability and devotion of lecturers, placing particular importance on providing friendship, encouragement and time, in order to make each student feel as important as the next.

Here at Staffordshire University, we are focused on delivering the best student experience and providing students with the transferable skills and specialised knowledge they need to succeed in the workplace.

Lecturers who encourage a students’ participation in a wide range of activities by stressing the importance of extracurricular activities, working with the latest technology and engaging students through their teaching style all contribute to delivering an excellent student experience.

Where do we go from here?

Review of Personal Tutors

The personal tutoring system is currently being reviewed here at Staffordshire University, but before we make any solid changes, we feel it would be greatly beneficial to hold focus groups with the personal tutors nominated and the students who nominated them, in order to find out what it is that makes an excellent personal tutor, what students expect from their tutors and what tutors can do to improve this relationship.

Dissemination of Best Practise

We hope the University will host a conference around the theme of Best Practice to include input from the category winners and the students who nominated them but also speakers from other institutions demonstrating examples of best practise and new innovative techniques potentially as part of Staffs Fest.

A series of “master class” lectures open to all, where the nominees of ‘the lecturer I would get out of bed for’ award category showcase their skills to give other staff the opportunity to observe their teaching style and to showcase to students and the local community the excellent teaching that we have to offer here at Staffs.

The Awards

One of the nominees asked if we could “have awards for students nominated by tutors” which is something we would like to incorporate next year and we will be combining the awards night with our STARs awards, in order to celebrate both excellent teaching and outstanding student engagement.

Given the breadth of the award categories and student feedback (they did not all realise that they could nominate any member of staff not just teaching staff), we will also be looking to rebrand as “The Student Experience Awards” (or similar) By doing this we can hope to increase the number of nominations and encourage a better working relationship between staff and students, making everyone here proud to be Staffs.