Listening to student voices through scenario design: Aligning learning.futures

Abstract

This paper explores the preferred learning futures of students at the University of Technology Sydney and the alignments of students’ preferred futures with policy changes. The aim of the paper is to describe a different approach to listening to students’ voices and illuminate some possible ways in which the student voice can influence the implementation of higher education learning policies, with the aim of ultimately improving student learning experiences into the future. Students’ preferred futures were explored through a methodology of rapidly formulated collaborative scenario design, then coded thematically using open coding. Broad themes related to the changing context, learning environments, and independent learning, with students seeing ideal learning in higher education being a combination of personal, social and connected experiences. In order to offer a student perspective that is of use to policymakers, we discuss these preferred futures in relation to the University of Technology Sydney’s ‘learning.futures’ approach, which focuses on changing the way that learning happens in the university.