Student engagement

Academics and university staff address what student engagement means to them and offer advice on boosting attendance, class participation and building a campus community

Is online education killing conversation

Will online education lead to the death of conversation?

Students who can critique ideas and generate sound, reasoned arguments in real time will be better prepared to find success after they graduate, says Rebekah Wanic

Rebekah Wanic

Nova Southeastern University

Hacking their hack: how embracing online summaries revolutionised my classes

With students struggling to focus on and comprehend assignments, summaries can take some of the leg work out of learning and allow students to come to class ready to connect

Catherine Ross

University of Texas at Tyler

Students are disconnected because of higher ed discipline silos

Students are disengaged – and it’s due to how higher ed is structured

Academic structures, such as disciplines, too often silo and limit possibilities for engagement and connection, says JT Torres

JT Torres

Quinnipiac University

Student happiness versus student satisfaction

Should we be aiming for student happiness or student satisfaction?

Happiness and satisfaction are two sides of the same coin, but crucial differences exist between them – and one serves our students far better, says Doug Specht

Doug Specht

The University of Westminster

Bringing confusion into class can actually benefit students

Confusion diffusion: nine ways to prepare students to work with uncertainty

Jenny Moffett explores classroom techniques to help students meet the demands of an increasingly complex and rapidly changing society

Jenny Moffett

RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences

An introduction to microlearning

Dulce Julissa Salas Benavides and Jesús Alejandro Salas Benavides explain the basics of microlearning, from how it works to benefits and key features

Dulce Julissa Salas Benavides , Jesús Alejandro Salas Benavides

Monterrey Institute of Technology

Top three teaching and learning tips for higher education

Good teachers need to be good learners

Patrick Bailey draws on four decades of university experience to identify the three things he thinks have the biggest impact on successful teaching and learning

Patrick Bailey

London South Bank University

Female student writing in the university library

Mini virtual writing retreats to support and connect tutees

A guide to organising mini virtual writing retreats each week to build a supportive scholarly community within a personal tutoring group

Aspasia Eleni Paltoglou

Manchester Metropolitan University

How to design a rubric in five easy steps university

Build effective rubrics in just five steps

A quick guide to the process of designing successful rubrics and recommendations for successful implementation

Ileana Alejandra Ochoa Arias , José Wbaldo Rivera Nevarez

Monterrey Institute of Technology

Creating innovative social media content

Lessons learned in creating and using innovative social media strategies

If we aspire to enabling better educational decision-making, marketers first have to understand how, when and where prospects make those decisions

Simon Pride

Arts University Bournemouth

Podcast discussing building resilience and protecting well-being among university staff and students

THE podcast: breaking down barriers with research and student-led campaigns

Winners of the Times Higher Education 2021 Awards discuss how their research and student-led campaigns navigate difficult and taboo topics

Anna Walas, Lindsay Morgan

Edinburgh Napier University, University of Nottingham

Don’t build barriers between yourself and your students

Lecturers can make their teaching more memorable by breaking down barriers between themselves and their students with a smile and a joke, says Mohammed Zuhear Al Mulali

Mohammed Zuhear Al Mulali

Al-Mustaqbal University

How to rethink university comms with student voice at the centre

Tactics for revamping your comms with students front and centre

How can you stay on top of the evolving student voice and ensure it’s at the heart of your communications? Kim Graakjaer shares her thoughts and some takeaway tips

Kim Graakjaer

The University of Manchester

Using the ‘36 questions to fall in love’ to revolutionise group work

Nici Sweaney shares a simple classroom task rooted in the psychology of interpersonal relationships that anyone can use to help students bond and feel more comfortable with group work

Nici Sweaney

Australian National University

Minecraft is just one creative assessment platform for university educators

Breaking with tradition: 10 creative assessment ideas

Monica Francesca Contrino and Rocío Elizabeth Cortez Márquez suggest 10 methods for adding an imaginative twist when evaluating your students’ learning

Monica Francesca Contrino , Rocío Elizabeth Cortez Márquez

Monterrey Institute of Technology

Efficient methods of marking and providing feedback

Aaron Taylor and Victoria Rafferty provide advice on how to ensure formative and summative feedback is carried out with student learning in mind

Aaron Taylor, Victoria Rafferty

Arden University

TikTok can be a great instructional tool for engaged educators

What I learned from spending three years researching TikTok

Far from being an attention span wasteland, the popular social media platform has great instructional potential for engaged and experimental academics, says Elizabeth Losh

Elizabeth Losh

William & Mary

International perspectives on teaching and learning forged during Covid

Academics from around the globe share practical advice and lessons learned for those teaching online now or in future turbulent times

Katherine Mansfield

The University of Westminster

Assessment and feedback as a participatory dialogue

Assessment and feedback as an active dialogue between tutors and students

Seven steps towards enhancing assessment and feedback as a participatory, social process that supports deeper learning, by Neil Lent, Tina Harrison and Sabine Rolle

Neil Lent, Tina Harrison, Sabine Rolle

The University of Edinburgh

A little more conversation: using Elvis to teach critical theory

Sharing a critical reading of an American icon via film and critical theories builds an authentic learning space that can examine current cultural issues

Stone Meredith

Colorado State University Global

Building emotional resilience in students is a key goal

Building emotional resilience is not creating a generation of ‘snowflakes’

Many students arrive at university adept at navigating challenging situations. Julia Downes explains how to leverage and add to these skills for positive and validating results

Julia Downes

The Open University

Strategies for a holistic student experience

Pardis Mahdavi and Loulou Hong discuss the strategies they use to foster a culture of student wellbeing on campus.

Pardis Mahdavi, Luoluo Hong

University of Montana , Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities

Blocks for building a stronger student community

Block teaching can help rapidly establish bonds among students, and with their lecturers, which in turn maximises learning potential. Here, Sarah Jones offers insights from the 50-year history of block scheduling

Sarah Jones

De Montfort University

Diverse hands illustrating inclusive student-staff partnership concept

Student-staff partnerships: seven strategies for adopting inclusive practices

Student-staff partnerships can support skills development and enrich courses, as well as offer life-changing professional and academic opportunities for diverse students. Here, Madelaine-Marie Judd and Brooke Szücs encourage others to embrace this ethos

Madelaine-Marie Judd, Brooke Szücs

The University of Queensland

Relationship-building skills are transferable from the workplace to academia

Relationship-building: the key to effective teaching

Teaching in HE is daunting for new academics, but interpersonal skills honed in the workplace provide strong foundations, say Charles Marley and colleagues

Charles Marley

The University of Adelaide

Virtual reality has failed higher education

Virtual reality has failed education, so what should we do with it?

Getting VR right at a sophisticated level requires a hefty mix of hardware, pricey developers, rock-solid internet and suitable pedagogy – but there is a way forward

Malcolm Burt

Central Queensland University

How to communicate the value of the arts and humanities to students

Classroom tips for debunking the arts and humanities employability myth

David Dodick offers practical pointers gleaned from a course he designed and taught aimed at communicating the value of arts and humanities degrees for various careers

David Dodick

University of California, Berkeley

Socrates' methods can still help university student in the battle with misinformation

How Socrates can help your students question information

In a world full of answers, we must take time to ask questions, and the approaches favoured by Socrates can still be useful today, explains Konstantinos Arfanis

Konstantinos Arfanis

Arden University

Student voice initiatives in universities need to be rethought

You said, we did – now what? Why student voice initiatives need a rethink

‘Student voice’ initiatives tend towards changes that can be easily packaged and publicised rather than those that demand time, resources and deeper consideration

Claire Kinsella, Linda Kaye

Leeds Beckett University, Edge Hill University

What can human behaviour analytics tell us about student learning?

Human behaviour analytics could be the answer to enhanced student engagement and better learning experiences in computer-aided learning environments

Fang Chen, Kun Yu

University of Technology Sydney

We may never stop university students cheating but we should still encourage academic integrity

Zero cheating is a pipe dream, but we still need to push academic integrity

David Rettinger and Erica Price Burns offer key points for institutions to consider when creating systems that encourage academic integrity among students

David Rettinger, Erica Price Burns

University of Mary Washington

Podcast as pedagogy: discovering the joys of a new teaching format

After a first foray into podcasting as a mode of instruction, Alan Bradshaw shares some of the tips he picked up along the way for those considering taking the mic

Alan Bradshaw

Royal Holloway, University of London

Videos and podcasts can be useful tools for assessment

21st-century assessment: improve and update the way you evaluate

Mariana del Sol González offers initial tips and guidance on how to update assessment methods in your classroom

Mariana del Sol González

Monterrey Institute of Technology

Podcast discussing building resilience and protecting well-being among university staff and students

THE podcast: what makes research and teaching interesting?

Find out what universal tricks and traits can make things more interesting whether introducing a new concept in class or drafting a research paper for fellow academics

Kurt Gray, Manuel Goyanes, Emily Corwin-Renner

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M), University of Tübingen

Creative projects as a way of bringing students together

An institution-wide creative project is an opportunity for students to make friends and learn from one another, writes Karen Amanda Harris. Here, she shares tips for developing an extracurricular language-art project

Karen Amanda Harris

University of the Arts London

There are many simple, free tools in a lecturer's arsenal for making lectures more inclusive

Tips for new lecturers on the human elements that make students feel included

Forget constructive alignment and instructional scaffolding, things like saying ‘hello’ and being encouraging are the real key to good, inclusive lectures, says Andy Grayson

Andy Grayson

Nottingham Trent University

Academics and lecturers should not conflate interesting with entertaining

Beware the pitfalls of making lectures ‘interesting’ and focus on curiosity instead

Conflating ‘interesting’ with ‘entertaining’ and getting caught in a never-ending loop of shinier and shinier edutainment should be shunned in favour of cultivating sustained interest

Lee Li Neng

National University of Singapore

Gamification brings great benefit to online university classes but has negatives too

Next level? The pros and cons of game-based learning

Using gamification in the classroom can work wonders for engagement, but does it come at too great a cost to deep thinking, asks Frederik van Dam

Frederik van Dam

Radboud University

Awaken your students’ interest in your online course

Are you struggling to motivate students in your online class? Angeles Carolina Aguirre-Acosta provides strategies to generate greater motivation and participation

Angeles Carolina Aguirre-Acosta

Monterrey Institute of Technology

Anxious students can be helped in the university classroom by using tech and empathy

Using tech (and a little empathy) to help anxious students

Amber Phillips shares some high- and low-tech tips for supporting anxious students and improving inclusivity in the post-pandemic physical classroom

Amber Phillips

University of the West of England Bristol

The rise and rise of the lecture-tainer

Falling class attendance and shorter student attention spans present challenges for university teachers. Sandi Mann offers advice for tackling the boredom conundrum

Sandi Mann

University of Central Lancashire

Using comic books can be a great way to teach complex topics to university students

Picture this! Teaching difficult concepts through comics

David Brown and Mark Giancaspro explain how they use visualisation to maximise engagement and student success when teaching complex topics

Mark Giancaspro , David Brown

The University of Adelaide

Observe, improvise and listen: how to re-engage bored students

In this video, Basim Al-Qargholi explains how to spot the signs that university students are not paying attention in class and offers tips for getting them back in the room

Basim Al-Qargholi

Al-Mustaqbal University

Image showing one person striding off with a crowd following

Build your teaching presence to better engage students

A strong ‘presence’ in the classroom can help imbue students with a passion for your subject and willingness to learn. Catherine Wehlburg explores simple ways to enhance teaching presence

Catherine Wehlburg

Athens State University

Yes, online learning can teach you to think

The idea that online learning ‘doesn’t teach people to think’, which was suggested by one of our peers recently, is short-sighted and false

Valerie Wood, Laura Shannon

Queen's University

A student watching a lecture online at home

Strategies to motivate students in asynchronous learning

The self-directed nature of asynchronous learning makes it easy for students to disengage. Guhuai Jiang and Jiayu Zhou offer strategies that boost students’ motivation when working on their own

Guhuai Jiang , Jiayu Zhou

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Leverage students' eco-anxiety to drive change

Embrace students’ eco-anxiety to spur critical and systemic climate action

Luis Gerardo Rojas Solorio gives tips on how to leverage and assuage your students’ eco-anxiety, using fun games and discussions, in order to drive change

Luis Gerardo Rojas Solorio

Monterrey Institute of Technology

Podcast discussing building resilience and protecting well-being among university staff and students

THE podcast: what Freeman Hrabowski wants you to know about inclusivity

The outgoing UMBC president and civil rights activist speaks about the difficult conversations around inclusivity and how it is work that benefits all of humanity

Freeman Hrabowski

University of Maryland Baltimore County

Say goodbye to bored students

Boredom is the enemy of learning. Educators can minimise it, increase student engagement and allow deep learning to take place with these practical tips

Amanda Bourgeois, Alexandra Osika, Annemaree Carroll

The University of Queensland

Designing activities for hybrid learning can be difficult without following the correct steps

The 7 steps for designing activities in hybrid courses

When planning a hybrid course, a main concern is how to design the activities in this still relatively unfamiliar format

Laura Patricia Zepeda Orantes

Monterrey Institute of Technology

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