Student experience and expectations of teaching and learning

Post-pandemic teaching has not been without its challenges for Higher Education providers, with many different strategies being developed to accommodate online and on-campus teaching and learning.

Many providers reported a decline in engagement from students, which was also reflected in the drop in student satisfaction in the National Student Survey in 2021.

This QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project brought together colleagues from 10 business schools to investigate this, focusing on students’ priorities and how they engage in the post-pandemic world of Higher Education.

Using a range of methods, the project gathered feedback around how students have responded to the changes they have faced. The findings centre around some key themes, including;

Timetabling and commuting students
The need for virtual and physical communities
The importance of recordings to support flexible learning
Digital literacy and inequalities
Mobilising student voice

The project produced a set of Student Engagement Guidelines which builds on these themes, discussing the overall meaning around how student experience has been altered post-pandemic and what engagement with students will look like in the future.

It also shares good practice examples of how the participating Higher Education institutions identified key challenges of the pandemic and introduced interventions to address decreasing student engagement during and after COVID-19. It includes student quotes, recommendations and reflective questions (‘Food for thought’) to allow the reader to reflect on their own practices.

Student Engagement Guidelines: Learning from innovative practices introduced in response to COVID-19

Publication date: 11 May 2023

This guidance document was produced as part of the Student Experience and Student Expectations in a post-pandemic teaching and learning environment Collaborative Enhancement Project. The team collected data from ten participating universities through a student survey and focus groups. As a result of the survey, they gathered important quantitative data on students’ perspectives on engagement. For example, participating students ranked the importance of 31 engagement criteria from ‘not at all’ to ‘extremely’ important, indicating their priorities for what they view as student engagement.

Author:	QAA
Format:	PDF
Size:	0.88 MB

A report was created for the project to assess how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected students' experiences and their expectations for teaching and learning. Valuable quantitative insights into the extent of student engagement were obtained through a student survey and focus groups conducted at ten universities.

Evaluation Report: Student Engagement Guidelines - Learning from innovative practices introduced in response to COVID-19

Publication date: 19 Jun 2023

This evaluation report is part of the CEP project on student experience and expectations of teaching and learning. It aims to investigate how the disruption during the Covid-19 pandemic has influenced student experience and expectations of their teaching and learning.

Author:	QAA
Format:	PDF
Size:	0.21 MB

Project lead:

Coventry University

Project partners:

Coventry University London, De Montfort University, Birmingham City University, Liverpool John Moores University, Manchester Metropolitan University, Northumbria University, University of East London, University of Greenwich and University of Huddersfield

Other Collaborative Enhancement Projects

QAA supports a number of projects every year, covering a range of topics and interest areas. Each is led by a QAA Member, working in collaboration with other members institutions. You can find more information on all projects, and access resources and outputs, on our website.

Find out more