Blog – STEER

22 August 2023

Recruiting ethnically minoritized male students for a mental health research project

As part of a 6-month seconded role in STEER, Claire Wolstenholme met with Ursula Klingel (Head of Wellbeing Service) and Jozef Sen (Lead Wellbeing Practitioner) to discuss research into male student mental health at SHU. Claire had recently completed a Doctorate in Education (EdD) in this area and was keen to further develop this work. The wellbeing team explained that they had seen a continuous underutilisation of the service from ethnically minoritized male students and wanted to understand the reasons for this, with a view to service improvement. Claire and Jozef decided to conduct a scoping investigation, undertaking qualitative research, and they aimed to give a voice to this demographic of male students about how they felt about mental health services at university.

Research

6 December 2022

Reflections from the evaluation of the PGCert and MA Student Engagement in Higher Education (University of Winchester)

In February 2022, STEER began to work on an evaluation of the Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert) and Master’s (MA) Student Engagement in Higher Education at the University of Winchester. The programme team commissioned an evaluation to find out what impact the PGCert / MA has had on the practitioners studying on the course and within their organisations of employment, and to explore how the design and processes of the course, including its blended delivery, have contributed to the outcomes being achieved. This blog post presents: 1) the experiences of the practitioners on the course who co-designed and participated in the evaluation; 2) the reflections of the programme team about what they learnt from the project; 3) the perspectives of the evaluation team from STEER.

Evaluation

18 July 2022

Exploring the Context, Assumptions and Outcomes of Institutional Interventions via a Data Dashboard

A recent review of access, retention, attainment, and progression literature written by a team from Sheffield Hallam (Austen et. al. 2021) discussed the evidenced relationships between interventions and student outcomes. Knowing and understanding the demographics of a cohort and tracking outcomes over time were concerns, as was the description of how and why change occurs. At Sheffield Hallam, we recommend that all interventions which aim to impact of student outcomes are accompanied by a Theory of Change. An exploration of the context, assumptions and outcomes for these interventions is crucial for designing effective interventions. This evidence was used to commission, design and test an ‘Interventions Dashboard’. The dashboard contains demographic data, including trends in frequency of participation over time, and outcomes data, which compares the intervention cohort with the general population at Hallam and displays withdrawals (retention) and reasons for leaving, good honours, degree classifications, average module marks and if possible, graduate outcomes.

Evaluation Research

28 June 2022

Digital Storytelling Transitions from Study into Employment: Experiences of Graduate Interns 2021-2022

STEER have been using digital storytelling to amplify student and staff voices for many years, most recently to explore the transition to undergraduate study via a Foundation Year. The current research explored transition at a different point in the student lifecycle – progression from student to Graduate Intern. This study also explored the Covid-19 challenges faced by this cohort of students. The aims of this pilot research were to further explore the utility of the digital storytelling method in gathering student experiences and to provide a detailed analysis of the transition experience of the 2021 cohort of Graduate Interns. The findings of the digital stories are covered across three main themes: The role of the course in transitions to employment; Transition experiences: and Career planning.

Digital Storytelling

20 June 2022

Using Appreciative Inquiry as an evaluative approach to course enhancement

In December 2021, STEER colleagues (Liz Austen and Alan Donnelly) and the Teaching and Learning Portfolio Lead in Art and Design (James Corazzo) came together to design an approach to course enhancement. The aim was to support the BA Fine Art course team in an exploration of what was currently outstanding about their course and how this was evidenced, and design changes through evidenced-informed decision making. STEER recommended the Appreciative Inquiry approach for this work as it provides a supportive environment to consider enhancement, design realistic actions and outcomes, and share good practice.

Evaluation

7 June 2022

Call for Proposals: Evaluation Bursaries 2022-2023

Building on the success of last year’s bursary funding The Directorate of Student Experience, Teaching and Learning (SETL) is delighted to share with you this call for proposals for Evaluation Bursaries 2022-2023. The bursaries are open to all staff who are implementing an intervention (activity/initiative) that aims to enhance any part of the student life cycle (access, retention, attainment, and progression). These Evaluation Bursaries run in parallel with the College Teaching, Learning & Student Experience Enhance Projects, and colleagues may apply to both Schemes.

Evaluation

18 February 2022

Everybody’s talking about…Theory of Change

Sheffield Hallam has committed to using and supporting the use of a Theory of Change to design interventions and underpin robust evaluation planning. The aim of the blog is to highlight the utility of a Theory of Change in a range of contexts and to outline some of the work that has been developed and completed at Hallam. The examples included in this blog showcase the use of a Theory of Change at different stages in the evaluation process. Some are used during intervention design and some after a period of implementation, while many of the examples are complex and the Theory of Change is being drafted for multi-activity programmes.

Evaluation

9 February 2022

Hallam Symposium Series: Student Retention and Success (What Works and How Do We Know?)

A team of researchers from the University have recently published ‘Access, retention, attainment and progression: a review of the literature 2016-2021’ as part of the Advance HE Connect Benefit Series 2021-22 on Student Success. Drawing on the findings from this review,  the research team (led by Dr Liz Austen and Dr Rebecca Hodgson) are holding a Symposium Series that focuses on Student Retention and Success (What works and how do we know?). In this three-part Symposium Series, the research team will cover the following key topics: 1) Exploring Evidence for Change; 2) Constructing a Theory of Change; 3) Evaluation Planning and Implementation.

Announcement Evaluation Research

2 February 2022

A Digital Day In The Life

In March, April and May 2021, a team of researchers in STEER conducted a study entitled “A Digital Day in the Life”, exploring how the student experience had changed during the pandemic. The researchers asked students to document their daily teaching and learning activities through frequent diary entries over 3, 3-week periods. Students were then asked to participate in a focus group session to discuss their diary entries in more detail. To share the findings with students and other stakeholders, Graduate Interns in SETL (Tom Savage, Kiran Mahmood) have produced a series of graphics to communicate the findings, recommendations, and responses.

Research

1 December 2021

‘How to be a survey whisperer’: Using cognitive interviewing to explore interpretations of questions

At the Advance HE Surveys and Insights Conference 2021, Alan Donnelly and Caroline Heaton led a workshop that was based on their work of applying cognitive interviewing techniques to examine students’ interpretations of, and responses to, items in the development of the Module Evaluation Questionnaire used at Sheffield Hallam University. Cognitive interviewing refers to a set of techniques used to assess the ways in which individuals mentally respond to survey questions.

Cognitive Interviewing Research Student Voice