Student Engagement: not a dying art

‘Student engagement’ can be a bit of an oxymoron in some cases; all students want is the most marks for the least amount of work. So when I was invited to a workshop focussing on ‘Student Engagement’ I honestly believed I might be the only person in the room. I was, however, pleasantly surprised; not only was the room full of students from a variety of years and a wide selection of universities, but we all seemed to care about not only our own education but that of others on our courses. There are essentially two categories of student engagement: individual and wider engagement. Individual engagement is exactly what it says; how engaged each student is with their own studies. This can be anything from attending lectures and completing problem sheets to private study and wider reading. This obviously varies from student to student, and is largely down to the individual. There are a few ways to help improve individual engagement, for example clear, audible lectures. Many at the workshop said ‘a little context in lecture goes a long way’; we like to know where an equation came from, what it’s used for or the history behind it. Also, I was introduced to the concept of ‘gap notes’. Having spent the last 3 years scribbling frantically in almost every lecture, this was definitely something that caught my attention. The idea is very simple; the definitions and theorem are printed on a sheet with a gap for the proofs which the student fills in as the lecture continues. It gives the student a little more time to understand in the lecture and prevents them from switching off.