The importance of team work to benefit the student experience: changing the culture of a course team

The questions for the teams were themed around four specific areas:

1. Change of attitude and behaviour for staff and students

2. Students confidence, engagement and belonging

3. Student success

4. Sustainability

Staff Engagement and  Wider  ‘Buy in’

Inclusion in the SRS focussed the minds of the teams on a particular project and goal: even where some of this activity was already taking place, reporting on the project seemed to provide a spotlight on improving practices.

This led to wider staff engagement (sometimes beyond just the course teams) in student engagement/retention initiatives.  This took longer in some instances than others, but it has resulted in an improved experience for students.

A staff member reflected that the wider buy in has led to the initiatives being embedded into the course team:

Even though it was a long process for others as well, the benefits are now being felt and the team are working together:

“I think the buy in was always there but it was just I suppose even understanding that the project can make a difference and it’s a lot of learning as you go and just sort of trying things and see if they work….

We’re having a [Team C] planning day today and a lot of the stuff will be discussed.  We have a whole number of ideas built into what we are going to do next year in terms of our intervention which are coming out jointly from the [Team C]  planning day and out of this project as well” (Team C, Staff member A)

Students as Part of the Team

For many of the teams this project transformed how they interacted with their students, they moved beyond consulting students, and began to work with them as team members and began to think about how to create camaraderie amongst staff/students and between students themselves.

As one team noted:

“One of the things was that it was collaborative with the students.  In other words we discussed the issues that students have and ideas that students have towards developing maybe a more inclusive kind of environment and so on and it meant that our interventions were in many cases largely steered from feedback we got from the students so they were certainly involved in the process”

(Team B, Staff member C, page 1)

Another picked up on the importance of creating the informal spaces to build the relationships between staff and student:

“…One of the things as well was the student trip.  It was something I must say worked really well…it was a great opportunity again to break those barriers down and be able to get that information back from the students about how they are getting on instead of in a class environment and I suppose the more information we can get informally sometimes the better and more of an understanding we can get of individuals and the course of a whole.  Then that can feed back into what interventions we can plan”

(Team C, Staff member A)

All of the teams noted how this focus on including students in the teams created a sense of partnership between staff and students, Team G explained:

“It really became good, not just with second year partners and 1st years but third years and you know artists in residence and actually some of our placement students had come in and they were looking at it”

(Team G, Staff member A)

“This is a partnership.  This course is about them as much as it is about us facilitating.  They are the course and I think once that realisation sets in then they do rise to that and it’s this is our course for 3 years and if I’m a year ahead and then the 3rd years would then come in and that should build relationships and the relationships have really blossomed”

(Team G, Staff member B)

Networking and Creativity

Due to the dissemination of good practice, and the inter-disciplinary nature of the SRS project – all teams began to see the benefits of learning from their colleagues across the institution and creating new networks.

Further, the camaraderie of students and staff is beginning to grow following some of the interventions and creating better linkages within departments.

One team noted:

“[…]we are going to be working with sports and computing.  Whoever saw that as a marriage made in heaven but hopefully that will work.  I think there is lots of things going on out there that we could and I think there is a lot out there and we could be helping each other and benefiting and when you start working with people in those areas it is amazing how you can work together.  We need to get better at that”

(Team B, Staff member B)

Another team noted how connections were being made across disciplines in their department:

“I think the other thing is it’s not only stuff between staff and students but it’s also between the students across the disciplines.  We would never have done that before hand whereas they all seem to be doing that” (Team, H Staff member A)

Improved Staff Morale and Engagement

Several of the courses noted a sense of increased staff engagement and morale due to teamwork.

Working as a team towards this shared goal provided the natural benefits of a shared workload, but in some instances also inspired staff to continue with the projects and helped to spread the enthusiasm for them.

“I think it’s had an impact on all of us hasn’t it in how we work together and how we understand our own practice and we understand our own enthusiasms and approaches to work.  From a staff point of view it has been very interesting”

(Team G, Staff member A)

Another member from the same team noted:

“I think it was good for staff development and bonding for them which is fantastic and then that goes into their practice”

(Team G, Staff member C)