This case study reports on the production, performance and evaluation of a public health street play by MSc Public Health students at York St John University (London Campus) in the United Kingdom. The street play was performed on World AIDS Day 2023. This paper focuses on the dynamic and interactive nature of street play as a pedagogical technique that aligns with constructivist principles, fostering meaningful learning experiences. Increased confidence, engagement and programme commitment were observed in students both in in-person and online sessions following the street play. While recognising these strengths, we discuss the need to address challenges, foster collaborations and implement continuous improvement strategies to make street play even more effective as a teaching method in the public health discipline.

To mitigate the problems of lack of preparedness and lack of a sense of learning community associated with online learning, this case study illustrates how a range of technologies including online platforms and educational tools may be integrated to assist purposeful engagement with learners for active learning to ensue. This case is based on an undergraduate module delivered virtually to three TNE partner institutions in China. Zoom, Mentimeter and WeChat were adopted to help with cognitive and affective engagement by the students. While this design is focused on online delivery, there is also an important implication for classroom-based teaching in achieving purposeful engagement with students.

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The shift to online learning has caused feelings of isolation and there has been a noticeable lack of engagement by students in this context, owing to uncertainties about the expectations of online etiquette. Research has shown that video cameras are a step in the right direction where building rapport is concerned, but they are not the only tool at our disposal for creating an online community.

The concepts of learning communities, open educational practices and co-created teaching and learning are topics of current debate, particularly since the switch to online learning in 2020/21 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This case study uses student feedback to evaluate a new assessment method introduced within an online distance learning Master of Public Health programme. The assessment required students to blog about their motivations for studying public health, submitting their reflections to an open online platform, resulting in the co-creation of a shared, open-learning resource for current and future students. The assessment design was informed by the benefits of open educational practices and co-created teaching and learning, with the overall aim of developing an online learning community that will continue to grow and develop beyond the initial assessment and cohort. Feedback suggests that the open, reflective nature of the assessment had a positive impact on the student learning experience and contributed towards a sense of learning community through enhanced social cohesion within the group.

This reflection on a presentation at the Greenwich Learning and Teaching Conference (SHIFT) 2021 shows how powerful a sense of belonging can be, not only for students, but also for academics. By sharing their autobiographical reflections’ project, the student and staff presenters so powerfully connected with their audience that everyone was struck by the importance of collaborations that give students a voice. The occasion both produced some unanticipated outcomes and enabled everyone to relate personal experience to that of others.’

This paper provides the context and background to a ‘Student Peer Mentoring’ scheme that was co-created with students and piloted within the Business Faculty in University of Greenwich. We reflect on sharing this experience at the annual SHIFT1 conference on Teaching, Learning and Assessment and the lessons learned that will support the further development of this scheme. Key themes that arose were around the value of mentoring to support first year students and the benefit for mentors in terms of their own self confidence and development as evidenced by their contribution to SHIFT. Lessons learnt were the need to provide more guidance to mentees in preparation for mentoring and providing supervision support to mentors to allow them to reflect on issues that arise out of mentoring. Our complex approach to evaluation was challenged given the small numbers of numbers of mentors and mentees. We concluded that qualitative evidence gives enough support for the success of this scheme. It is planned to provide mentor training to all students on a voluntary basis leading to enhanced peer relationships and support.

A sense of belonging within higher education (HE) enhances educational engagement and attainment. The rapid shift to online provision has implications for reducing students’ sense of belonging at university. We have previously shown that students consider belonging in HE to be important and that their personal sense of belonging was high. We also found that sense of belonging had elements of people and place: relationships with peers and staff were influential and the physical campus facilitated social relationships. In the first lockdown, we showed that sense of belonging in both staff and students at our large widening-participation London university was reduced. In this paper, we report on a continuing project to explore the impact of sustained provision of learning online, focusing on qualitative interviews carried out with forty-three students and twenty-three staff. Both groups identified advantages and disadvantages of online provision. Advantages included flexibility and accessibility, with savings – financial and time – owing to reduced commuting. However, both groups identified a negative impact on social relationships, student motivation and engagement. Future development of blended learning should be planned, supported and structured to optimise the benefits.

In 2019, a diverse, post-92, Midlands university implemented a new, hybrid third space role called the ‘academic coach’ (AC) to support its mission towards to support its mission to make its educational provision fully accessible to all its students, to retain them and to ensure their success to support its mission to make its educational provision fully accessible to all its students, to retain them and to ensure their success of all its students. Since a sense of belonging to their institution is such a powerful influence on students’ sense of wellbeing, their development of an academic identity and their resilience in the higher education context, with consequent positive impact upon their retention and success, this role is devoted to the pastoral care and personal tutoring of levels three and four students. This case study considers the journey of the AC in defining and shaping this new role and offers the ACs’ perceptions of their influence on the experience of students at levels three and four by enhancing collaborative and learning relationships within the wider university.

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