Below is the output from the interactive session. Etherpad was used to record responses to THREE questions put forward for discussion. This page is open for further elaboration by logged in users.

Question 1: What does student engagement mean for you?
Question 2: What are some of the key challenges/issues we face in building student and staff engagement at UNSW?
Question 3: Where to from here?
a) What's currently working well in addressing some of these challenges?
b) What else do we need to do?

Question 1: What does student engagement mean for you?

Table 1

• Contextualised learning, relevance of learning
• Commitment to learning process, actively participating in discipline and beyond
• Reflection on learning, becoming independent learners

Table 2

• building relationships and connection with students -get to know students
• promoting dialogue - between students and students, staff and students, staff and staff
• presentation skills of staff training on having engaging powerpoint presentations

Table 3

• enthusiasm / passion - working on real outcomes, authentic, relevant experience
• productive time spent on learning
• knowing the purpose of 'being there'

Table 4

• Interactive within student body and two way process between teacher & student.
• "Being Present" Thinking/Feeling/Focus
• Changing mental models. - Growth/transformation

Table 5

• student's move from passive to active learning
• we have to have active learning and also inform students about how that will work. Clearly explain the relevance in the field of study, context
• and discipline practice.
• The student develops an identity or relationship with the field of study through assessment aligned to the relevance of the field/agencies/institutions involved.

Table 6

• Provoking students to move out of their comfort zone
• Students learn to sustain this engagement by accepting the discomfort of learning
• This is a roller coaster of learning, alternating discomfort and comfort and so long as it doesn't get too hard in either direction they can maintain that engagement

Table 7

• ownership; enabling
• connections, interactions and transferability
• community

Table 8

• formal & informal curriculum - "beyond the classroom"
• engagement in lifelong learning
• engagement with the community & peer learning & support, group work

Table 9

• Engagement is interaction. Students need to agree with learning objectives.
• Strategic (overall) and tactical (in the classroom) engagement
• Fearlessness needed in design process
• Etherpad is technology getting in the way of engagement
• Engagement differs across programs and in different years
• Students need a sense of ownership (eg "I am a Law Student")
• engagement through provocation

Table 10

• genuine discussion
• students who take control
• focused students

Table 11

• Self-management beyond classroom
• nurturing to ownership
• mutual obligation

Table 12

• Develop a basic level of understanding\desire to learn
• Help students with self empowerment\mature approach
• How to keep the students attention
• Vitality\connection\ of each other and between the lecturer and students

Table 13

• Cross disciplinary - breaking down the barrier - see the bigger picture - each discipline not focussing just on their area/boundaries
• Defining expectations
• Mixed cohort of student - school leavers and more mature students - help them to enjoy the learning experience and so better engaged.

Table 14

• Enthusiasm with the course material and what it might mean in the bigger context
• Turning up to classes!
• Active involvement, discussion, interaction with peers and tutors - listening
• Demonstrating understanding of key concepts, applying them to real-world issues
• Participating in the social dynamics of the learning process
• Understanding the relevance of material in their future career
• Coming up with an idea I hadn't had - extending the application of concepts

Table 15

• Active participation underpinned by a sense of belonging to and being acculturated into a knowledge community
• Commitment to what is being learned as meaningful and valuable - own their learning process
• A passionate and exciting rendezvous among other appointments
• Outcome of engagement --> Students take the learning with them - lasting impact - transformative --> sense of triumph!

Table 16

• Drawing previous experiences into learning and making connections with course materials, having a dialogue about it.
• getting students to understand the connections of what they are currently doing and what they will do in the future.
• Students are getting involved in problem-solving process, providing counter-examples and ask ‘what-if’s'.

Question 2: What are some of the key challenges/issues we face in building student and staff engagement at UNSW?

Table 1

Table 2

• large class sizes, prior learning - challenges. What can we do to overcome workload issues ? Perhaps we are assessing too much or use more efficient feedback mechanisms
• best practice takes time - longitudinal approach - (first year, second year, third year)
• Use of curriculum mapping tool transparently to predict what students have achieved/not achieved - students need to know why they do whatever they do (e.g., Research skills - research their profession - even if they do not want to be researchers)

Table 3

• Institution - number of students/staff, staff student ratio, organisational structure
• Time - staff: research-teaching tension, administration; students: commuting, bureaucracy, etc
• Cultural differences

Positive: connecting to students - social aspects (orientation, shared memories, ...)

Table 4

• Reward/Motivation
• Not enough valuing of teaching
• Creating the right environment: issues: time, resources
• Lack of organisational coherence in program and courses
• Old Transmissive Teaching model
• Numbers of students (class sizes) Teacher/Student ratio
• Good Application of the virtual environment
• Are the staff willing and enable to engage - being willing to teach a subject or area that is not yours
• Staffing issues

Table 5

• for both students and staff, accountability and compliance
• life challenges, work & study balance for students, yet, acknowledge the 'fun' of new learning opportunities
• getting the balance right with technology, the use different formats/offering a selection of delivery media/importance of blended learning

Table 6

• class size affects how students learn, interaction with peers, engagement and ability to track learning progress
• e.g. small classes enable better feedback to and from students to assess progress, engagement, satisfaction, plus peer to peer interaction
• e.g large classes: tracking learning from a distance, only the best and the worst students are in view

Table 7

• balance between teaching and learning
• having realistic expectations
• cultural differences

Table 8
students

• size of cohorts
• time poor; work/study commitments
• diversity of student population; cultural learning backgrounds; prior learning

staff

• time, competing priorities with research
• generational difference; teaching styles

Table 9

• Increase in workload (including pressure to research) works against student interaction
• Need for greater support for infrastructure ( including IT)
• E-learning necessitates new ways of engagement
• Ascendancy of E-learning sometimes at the expense of quality
• Increased class sizes works against "personal" interaction with students

Table 10

• the problem of institutional support for the investment of teaching
• seeing teaching as a private activity (the problem of teaching peer review)
• time pressure for students

Table 11

• numbers
• ohs issues
• space
• silos
• virtual teaching
• external pressures
• ADFA focus defence not study

Table 12

• Getting the right technologies ie ease of use.\appropriate tool?
• Time management for students and staff\conflicting priorities.
• How to convince students to look at "deeper" ways to learn.
• Effective management of online technologies.
• Diversity of community\settings\relationships.

Table 13

• Emphasis in single large class rather than smaller groups to engage students
• Move towards more online teaching to dump content - less engagement and interaction with the student.
• Assessment of learning rather than for learning - student can be irrelevant to the new methods of learning
• Students that are fee-paying expect more - expect to be given the more specific direction on their learning.

Table 14

• Resources: especially time, teaching load,
• Facilities for students to engage outside of class hours
• Culture of engagement: things that students want to do
• Effective communication with students outside classes
• Absence of staff restaurant

Table 15

• Barriers for staff - enjoying what you are doing - finding and maintaining the passion for the endeavour, inadequate knowledge of our students (quickly get out of touch with what engages), time constraints exacerbated by competing priorities, creativity, lack of opportunities to have conversations about l & t
• Barriers for students - need for income, competing demands, recognise the relevance of what is being learned as building towards the final outcome (professional practice), tensions between different educational expectations and aspirations, lack of shared language & culture (ethnic, social and academic)

Table 16

• student / staff workload
• large class
• lack of resources
• different expectations of relationships

Question 3: Where to from here?
a) What's currently working well in addressing some of these challenges?
b) What else do we need to do?

Table 1

• large class size - combine cohorts from different years (eg 1st and 2nd year in med) - student mentoring and peer support
• large interactive tutorial - opportunity to identify individual students eg name tags
• Online - provide course templates to support different levels of engagement
• To do - manage cultural change - valuing of teaching

Table 2

• Use of online learning tools - lots of effort at the beginning but will be easier for ffg years. Opportunities for virtual workshops, group work, discussions, e-mails can cater for individual needs)
• Production of course content materials is crucial and needs to be of high quality - student engagement activities incorporated at this stage.
• Teacher can do action research on teaching and learning by reflecting on teaching.Use of evaluation tools. Include technologies that are adaptable and changeable by teacher
• Peer assessment of large assessment tasks (e.g., 2000 word assignments or essays) can engage students while lessening workloads for staff.

Table 3

• use large groups to your advantage to get feedback about student learning/difficulties

o quick quiz in a lecture - students complete it, pass it on, get other students to mark it and feed back
o walk around, find out what students still don't understand
o collect student feedback and address it in the next lecture

• talk to other like-minded people in your school/discipline - share ideas, get inspired
• introduce a sense of continuity to your students - constant theme that transcends a course/module that enables students to look at the same things from different perspectives

Table 4

• Working with the students
• Getting the students to build the design
• Graduate Attributes and providing models of effectively implementing them
• Problem based learning
• Investment in learning spaces
• ALTC funding

• Willingness to review your course/program
• Basic Staff training

Table 5

• shift from individual achievement to collaborative supportive teams
• online environment/exemplars of successful projects needed
• supported collaborative environment, "infrastructure" to support academic development targeted through projects without fear of individual competiveness/failure
• teamwork skills needed as academics are not great at this.

Table 6

• Team teaching and complementing each other, gets synergy going
• Group projects and team work
• other student communication and interaction outside the classroom

Table 7

• spending time talking to students outside the subject area

Table 8

• good teaching=good learning, academic support & development; support through resources and training, peer observation & review & self observation, reward and recognition eg. ASB
• We need a more coordinated approach to student engagement on campus; reward and recognition of student achievements

Table 9

• Reliance on the enormous goodwill of staff. "This university works on love"
• Recognition of the value of teaching and learning as an equal to research
• Need to improve on pedagogical IT support

Table 10

• mentoring for staff/students
• student to student mentoring
• students controlling the teaching
• e-learning flexibility/inflexibility
• defining online learning - use, name etc.

Table 11

• Assessment as tool of engagement
• student ownership of content eg Wiki
• role play as a way to deal with cultural barriers
• team work
• work integrated learning

Table 12

• Time Outs- extra week in mid sessions.
• Models\examples from other practices
• sort out conflicting priorities between teaching and learning
• Mandatory Tutorials are step in right direction
• More recognition of teaching contribution across range of activities from research to lecturing
• relationships between support group and core business ie teaching.
• resourcing priorities-transparency and alignment.
• Staff rooms for lecturers.
• Contextualising ELISE.

Table 13

• Interdisciplinary education - across disciplines, across courses, across schools and across faculties. Create a multidisciplinary position.
• Bologna - basic foundation first and then specific discipline specialisation 3/2 eg. Bachelors/Masters
• Increase face-to-face teaching - selling point

Table 14

• teachers as learners
• mentoring programs (for students and staff)
• team teaching
• talking to each other; listening to each other

Table 15

• Opening the classroom into the world, while maintaining a safe and secure environment to experiment, exercise critical thinking, and potentially fail
• Using quality technology to enhance teaching and learning

Table 16

• divide big cohort into groups./ small group facilitators
• mentors
• define whose role it is to engage with specific people?
• don't spread the staff too thin / need repeated interactions with same students
• pictures next to names on roll