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Home Membership Benefits of QAA Membership Collaborative Enhancement Projects Student experience and engagement Improving retention and attainment: The promotion of the ‘sticky course’  The promotion of the ‘sticky course’: Toolkit
Improving retention and attainment: The promotion of the ‘sticky course’ 

Toolkit

Our Collaborative Enhancement Project,  Improving retention and attainment: the promotion of the ‘sticky course’, drew on the expertise of our partners, to identify, develop and evaluate ways in which higher education courses can embed ‘sticky’ approaches in induction, assessment, online peer learning communities and enquiry-based/student centred learning pedagogy to maximise student experience and engagement.

 

In the context of this project, we defined ‘sticky’ as something which supports attraction and attachment. Building on existing research around the ‘sticky campus’ and the ‘sticky curriculum’ Our view is that a ‘sticky course’ is designed to inspire student engagement, where students ‘stick to’ and ‘stick with’ their course.

The project team explored a range of interventions across our three project strands:

  • Preparedness for study and managing assessment load via curriculum design
  • Promoting peer communities online
  • Enquiry Based Learning (EBL) pedagogy to support retention
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This Sticky Course Toolkit draws together the outputs of the project into a single model so these may be explored from a single point, aligned by strand. This Sticky Course model has the course at its core. It reflects the interconnected relationship between our strands and how in combination they have the potential to develop a more holistic approach to supporting student retention and attainment.

 

This toolkit is intended to be used as a resource to share the case studies and resources developed through the project.


The toolkit below is interactive: Hover over the different strands and click to bring up the associated resources
Student Voice
Co-curricula
Course

This resource is an output from a  Collaborative Enhancement Project supported and funded by QAA Membership. The project is led by De Montfort University in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Brighton and University of the Arts London. Find out more about Collaborative Enhancement Projects.