Disruptive innovation (Christensen & Eyring, 2011) continues to impact higher education (HE) and the labour markets with which it interacts. The challenge to HE’s knowledge monopoly via Google Age’s democratisation of knowledge access, has now been trumped by escalating skills’ instability due to persistent technological, demographic and socio-economic change (World Economic Forum, 2016). If education, fairness and economic prosperity go hand-in-hand, business-as-usual responses to future-fit learning seem unlikely to deliver the what, when and how of tomorrow’s workforce needs, let alone socially just outcomes for underserved citizens and regions. And the impact of COVID-19 has now escalated the imperative to correct our educational alignment given its exacerbation of inequality. Lifelong learning must become a practical reality for all. This requires a fundamental re-imaging of the educational continuum, and higher education’s role in it.

This presentation will consider the promise of a connected educational ecosystem. It will suggest that our full, collective resources – educators, government, business, industry, accreditors, communities, students and graduates – should act in calm concert to shape a sustainable HE future in which: participation and attainment continue widening; our skills effort is boosted; enhanced credit recognition is facilitated, including for micro-credentials; and learner pathways are better enabled, especially for young people to complete an initial tertiary qualification and to enable workers displaced by COVID-19 disruption to get back on their feet.

This student-led panel will explore the ways in which the sector’s swift pivot to online delivery has impacted student voice and engagement, highlighting the need to reconsider the ways in which we engage with students about their learning experiences in a time of disruption. This session also provides an opportunity for discussion around the ways in which this crisis might impact student voice and engagement in the future.

Guiding Questions:

• How has the swift pivot to online learning impacted student voice and engagement?
• What can the sector learn from the current crisis to enhance our engagement with student voice?
• Is there a ‘new normal’ for student engagement and voice as we look toward the new academic year?

Responding to Student Voice resource pack

This resource will help you work with students to find the most effective ways to obtain student feedback and respond to it. The principles of practice will help guide your work, whatever changes you are making to the mechanisms through which you gather and respond to student feedback. 

Engaging student and staff voices webinar

This resource will help you to use an inclusive and empowering approach of digital storytelling in engaging student and staff voices.  

Just Graduated? What Next?

If you are a final-year student or recent graduate, or you provide careers services, this online course provides accessible support at a time of great uncertainty in the global labour market.

In this session, delegates will be invited to join our panellists to debate and explore the following questions:

Guiding Questions:

With the global pandemic highlighting accessibility to digital resources is not always equal, what efforts can we make to be sure that all members in a community are included?

• What role can educators play in supporting their own and learners’ wellbeing during this time?
  
• In what ways can educators promote online engagement to enhance student learning outcomes?
• As educators balance accessibility, inclusion, and well-being with curriculum, quality assurance and academic integrity. What matters and counts under these circumstances?

Developing a sense of belonging in online distance learning

A toolkit for tutors and course teams who are interested in developing Sense of Belonging for students engaged in online distance learning. It contains practical suggestions about how to develop Sense of Belonging, opportunities to learn from others, and a tool to help with evaluating and reflecting on Sense of Belonging.

Student mental wellbeing - creating inclusive curricula and learning environments

A Wakelet providing a summary of a professional development, including speaker presentations, will help you identify important aspects of creating inclusive curricula and learning environments. Collated third-party resources provide a range of information on different aspects of wellbeing. 

Student mental wellbeing webinar

The webinar recording and its accompanying Wakelet provide conference delegates with reflections on student and staff mental wellbeing in the current pandemic and key approaches to supporting students through new ways of delivering learning and teaching.