LUMINATE Framework
Section outline
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Listen to your students
During the first stage of the Framework, you should empathise with your students by listening to their concerns. Let them talk freely about the things that currently have their attention.
Reinhold Scherer, from the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, practising whole-body, active listening during a design thinking workshop. Attempt to see the world through their eyes. Appreciate them as human beings with unique life experiences. Allow them to express emotion, frustration, and even anger (within reason) without passing judgement. The main aim of this stage is to get raw data from your students that can be later used to generate insight, understanding and meaning.
What is the purpose of the Listening stage?
As part of the National Student Survey (NSS) Action Plan, all departments and schools need to conduct a listening exercise to understand the following topics better:
- Student expectations of good teaching delivery
- Our assessment and feedback processes and procedures
- The support departments and schools provide to their students (including how we can deliver better student satisfaction)
Any listening activities that you conduct should aim to engage 10% of your returning undergraduate students.
As well as these central themes, we would like departments and schools to ask students about existing opportunities to:
- explore ideas or concepts in depth;
- bring information and ideas together from different topics;
- and work with other students as part of their course.
Arguably the best way to gather this information from students is to conduct unstructured interviews. A guide on how to do this well can be found below.
A simple way of conducting a listening exercise is to ask your students to complete a Mind Sweep. This activity can be achieved using a pen and a piece of paper or a virtual whiteboard (we recommend Google Jamboard or Miro).
Active and whole-body listening is the most crucial skill when gathering feedback from people. Avoid defining the problem as you see it, and try not to talk about possible solutions (that will come later). Instead, let your students speak and try not to hear what you want or expect to hear.
Make copious notes as your students talk. An excellent way to capture their thoughts is to ask them to use the chat facility in Zoom or create a Moodle forum to encourage students to share their thoughts, feelings and ideas with you. A transcript of the chat can be downloaded after the Zoom meeting has finished.
Another great way to engage students is to create a Discord server. Discord is a digital distribution platform that supports voice messages, text chat and video chat rooms, all under one roof. This approach is a little more involved than using Zoom or Moodle forums. However, many students (especially gamers) will already be Discord users. This might make it a good choice to encourage more informal discussion.
You can find the official beginners guide below. If you like the sound of this option, but think it sounds too technically difficult, the Technology-Enhanced Learning team can help you set up your Discord server (truthfully, it is much easier than it sounds). In fact, the TEL team can help you with Zoom, Moodle and Discord (email tel@essex.ac.uk).
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A simple activity that works well as an icebreaker with students participating in design thinking.
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This is another helpful ice breaker that is designed to help students communicate how they feel about their experiences at Essex.
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Top tips to follow when performing unstructured interviews with your students. Interviews can be conducted in person or via Zoom (or Microsoft Team if you prefer).
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A detailed article on how you can build empathy with your students.
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Use these question prompts to encourage your students to share their thoughts, feelings and ideas.
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