Summary

Portfolios are widely used in medical school programmes to showcase individual educational, research, ethical, personal, and professional development. Currently, we would like to review how we use portfolios in this way at Imperial College School of Medicine. We aim to partner with two Student Shapers who will have active engagement in this project as co-producers from the beginning.  Student partnership in the development of a portfolio is vitally important; your experiences will be crucial to making the portfolio as student-centred and engaging as possible.

Student partners from Imperial College will:

• Participate and collaborate in the planning, development, and design stages as well as the evaluation process of the portfolio.
• Use your networks to explore what your peers would like from a portfolio
• Participate in this project to suit your schedule, but must commit to working on the project roughly 3 hours a week
• Primarily work in partnership with a Clinical teaching fellow.

The successful candidates for this project would have the following attributes: ability to work both independently and within a team, proficient IT skills, flexible approach, and the ability to critically appraise research papers.

At the end of this project, you will gain a greater understanding of designing higher education learning & assessment tools. The project will help you prepare for professional practice after you graduate, as portfolios are essential to every medical professional throughout their career. By engaging in this project, you'll have the chance to cultivate invaluable professional capabilities including project management, collaborative teamwork, self-reliance, accountability, and effective negotiation within a supportive and realistic workplace environment.

Project Lead

Noreen Ryan (noreen.ryan@imperial.ac.uk), Quality Healthcare Domain Lead in School of Public Health

Esta Finesilver (e.finesilver@imperial.ac.uk) Clinical Education Fellow, Faculty of Medicine centre

Further Details/Experience Required

Two positions available, approximately a half-day a week for 30 weeks in total, between January 2024 and July 2025.  Undergraduate Medicine students from years 4 and 5.  

Student Portfolio recruitment ad

Summary

This is an exciting opportunity to influence the training of community GP Teachers who deliver clinical placements in Years 3, 5 and 6. We are aware that neurodivergent students may experience challenges during clinical placements that prevent them from maximising their learning and potential. We want to ensure that our community GP Teachers are equipped to improve primary care placement experiences for neurodivergent students.

We want to co-create resources and an online training workshop for community GP Teachers that is informed by available guidance and shaped by our students with lived experience of neurodivergence.

This project will involve two students working collaboratively with our team from January 2024. As a student shaper on this project, you will have the opportunity to

• Review the literature and relevant guidance relating to neurodivergence and clinical placements
• Co-create authentic case scenarios and questions to prompt discussion during the workshop
• Co-create short videos highlighting student experiences and perspectives on best practice
• Co-create an evaluation survey and analysis of data with potential for conference presentation

Project Lead

Sian Powell (sian.powell@imperial.ac.uk), Course Lead for General Practise

Further Details/Experience Required

Students enrolled on the MBBS in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6, and who have lived experience of neurodivergence are eligible to apply.  

Two positions available.  Working two hours a week for 16 weeks from January 2024 onwards.  

Inclusive GP placements recruitment ad

Summary

Using effective learning strategies is essential for achieving academic success. However, students rarely receive any training on how to study independently and how to regulate their learning to enhance their learning performance. To maximise students’ learning performance and to prepare them to become lifelong learners, Imperial College has initiated a 'Learning How to Learn' training program for our student body. Student partner collaboration in the development of ‘Learning How to Learning’ programme is fundamentally important; your experiences as a student will be invaluable to making the training as useful as possible.

Student partners from Imperial College will

• Collaborate with a team of educational psychologists and teaching staff from Imperial College London
• Collect typical learning tasks from your Y1 courses
• Use your networks to explore what and how your peers study
• Support the development of training materials
• Participate in this project to suit your timetables, but must commit to a one-hour fixed weekly team meeting which will be determined based on your availability.

At the end of the project, you will gain a greater understanding of higher education environment in which you are studying, a deeper understanding of effective learning strategies and self-regulated learning, and hands-on experience in educational psychology research. Finally, you will benefit by developing professional skills such as self-sufficiency, responsibility, project management, teamwork, networking, and negotiation in an authentic workplace environment at the College.

Project Lead

Magda Charalambous (m.charalambous@imperial.ac.uk), Principle Teaching Fellow, Life Sciences

Luotong Hui (l.hui@imperial.ac.uk), Research Assistant, Life Sciences

Further Details/Experience Required

10 weeks part-time, Year 2 or above Undergraduates from any department, starting in Autumn term.  Extension edit: Looking particularly for students from the Department of Computing, Department of Physics, Department of Mathematics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and students from Medical Biosciences.  

14 positions available.  

Learning How to Learn recruitment ad

Summary

The BSc Medical Biosciences (BMB) programme was newly designed with current, evidence-based teaching method utilising flipped-classroom approach for all its modules. The flipped-classroom model is heavily dependent on students’ self-regulated learning before coming to class where they apply and test their knowledge within their peer teams. This allows students to reach a deeper level of understanding that is focused on concepts and theories instead of remembering facts while also developing crucial transferable skills (I.e., communication, teamwork, etc).

Studies have shown that self-regulated learning can be supported by setting goals and monitoring progress. To help students set goals and monitor their progress the BMB programme has developed a unique tool in collaboration with Blackboard, called dashboard. This tool is hosted on the virtual learning environment (VLE) Blackboard and gives an overview over all pre-session, F2F (Face 2 Face) session, and consolidation material as well as assessment within the current 5 weeks of term. The dashboard feature automatically updates students’ progress through the material and thus is a visual aid to highlight what students have done and still need to complete.

However, the building block tools that are required for this tool will be disabled in the next AY by Blackboard. To ensure that student experience is not compromised, and students do not lose this essential support, we need to develop an alternative by the Easter break. We therefore seek to recruit two BMB students who will be working with staff and the Digital Education Office (DEO) team to develop and consult on alternative solutions. Students will subsequently give feedback on functionality and user friendliness. Once a new solution is implemented students will help communicate this change to their peers and help with transitioning towards the new tool. In this collaboration, students will shape the future virtual learning environment to make it fit for their purpose.

Project Lead

Silke Donahue, (s.donahue@imperial.ac.uk), Senior Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Medicine centre

Further Details/Experience Required

Two positions available, three hours a week during term-time, November to March.  

VLE Tool development recruitment ad

Summary

This project, funded by the Quality Assurance Agency, explores the approaches higher education institutions are taking to identify educational gain, building on extensive work across the sector to research measures of learning gain and student engagement over the past decade. Evaluating and refining measures of educational gain support universities to identify positive student outcomes and associated good practices. Broader measures of student success enable students to be active agents in their holistic student experience and account for the knowledge, skills and competencies they have gained. Provider and student submissions for the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in September 2023 offer a unique resource to explore how institutions are accounting for the outcomes of their students.  Analysis of submissions draw oust methodological approaches for capturing discipline-specific learning, broader knowledge acquisition, skills and competencies. Further information can be found here

With our student partners, we gather insights and design a guide for students nationally to reflect on and account for their own learning and wider student experience, developed with students.

Project Lead

Camille Kandiko Hawson (c.howson@imperial.ac.uk), Associate Professor of Education, CHERS

Further Details/Experience Required

Two students from any department or Faculty.  For four weeks part-time term-time.  

Educational Gain recruitment ad

Summary

The Imperial College Learning Analytics Project is a College-wide project that embeds the use of Learning Analytics into the College. ‘Shaping Learning Analytics’ is an invaluable stream of work feeding into the wider project and is advantageous for both staff and student partners.

We envision a future where reliable, safe, accurate data about our learners and their online behaviours are available to academics, educators, professional staff and students; enabling them to improve teaching and learning experiences through evidence-based evaluation, data-driven design and insights into learner behaviours. The College aims to use learning analytics to offer an enhanced student experience. The project will enable academic staff to identify patterns and trends to support students, review and evaluate teaching, make evidence-based decisions about enhancement, and facilitate high-quality staff-student interactions. Students will also be able to access their learning analytics to reflect, gain insights into their own educational experience, and be empowered to improve their own learning.

We are currently working with Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore to develop learning analytics data literacy, and support staff and students to understand, engage with and support student learning using learning analytics across institutions. Workshops and surveys on students' views of how their data is used for Learning Analytics are already underway. This section of the project will focus on developing outputs based on best practices and ethical interpretation and use of learning analytics to support student success. The project adopts a "by you for you" approach, which is student-focused and ensures that staff and students can interpret learning analytics correctly, support students in the way they prefer and understand what we are using their data for.

With our student partners, we gather insights and co-design web content, brochures and videos surrounding the following areas/outputs:

• Student-friendly policies and procedures relating to data, privacy, and ethics
• Best practice guidance for staff and students for interpreting and using learning analytics
• Innovation and ideation of further Learning Analytics project outputs
• Promote what students would like in terms of interventions and nudges and using their own data to actively improve their learning experiences.

Project Lead

Camille Kandiko Hawson (c.howson@imperial.ac.uk), Associate Professor of Education, CHERS

Charlotte Whitaker (c.whitaker@imperial.ac.uk), Learning Analytics Project Manager, Education Office

Further Details/Experience Required

One Undergraduate student from any department or Faculty.  For ten weeks part-time term-time.  

Shaping Learning Analytics outputs recruitment ad

Summary

This project is approved pending EERP approval.  

This study aims to investigate the different cultural values and social norms that exist within three undergraduate degree programmes and understand the ways in which students position themselves in relation to these norms. Students in this project will undertake educational research in their departments through conducting focus groups with undergraduate students. Students will receive training in conducting focus groups and will have the opportunity to be part of subsequent publications. In the Autumn term students will be conducting focus groups and analysing them in the Spring term. During the two weeks following Spring term students will be writing up results and working with departments to explore implementable developments to improve student experience.

When students enter higher education (HE) they begin a process of enculturation into a specific discipline; each discipline carries its own unique set of cultural expectations, values, and norms, which can significantly influence the academic and personal lives of students. The enculturation process can be challenging, particularly for students from underrepresented or marginalised backgrounds, who often find themselves bridging the gap between their own backgrounds and the culture of HE, which tends to privilege certain norms and values over others.  The study builds on existing research undertaken by the PI in their PhD research, which investigates the social norms present in a physics undergraduate programme. Undergraduate programmes in Chemistry, Geology and Computing are chosen to represent a diverse range of STEM disciplines.

Understanding the distinctions between disciplines is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it allows us to greater understand and appreciate the diversity of experiences among undergraduate students, helping educators to tailor support and resources more effectively to their discipline. Secondly, it provides insights into how these distinct norms – which often go unexplored - might impact students' experience and will support college efforts to increase sense of belonging for all students.  

Project Lead

Camille Kandiko Howson (c.howson@imperial.ac.uk) Associate Professor of Education

Amy Smith (a.smith21@imperial.ac.uk), Research Postgraduate 

Further Details/Experience Required

Three positions available.  

Part-time for 12 weeks during term-time, with two weeks full-time engagement following Spring term.  

Social norms and cultural experience recruitment ad

Summary

Providing an inclusive offering that is representative of, and appropriate for all of our students fundamental to our community. This project is part of the Animated Inclusive Personae project funded by the College to help achieve that. However, there is limited practical advice or oversight of inclusivity in education. This is true across the sector, not just at Imperial and finding ways to assess inclusivity of content and consequently providing practical, data informed, solutions to any issues that arise is going to be key for many institutions. This StudentShapers project seeks to collect baseline data for the inclusivity of educational offerings with a view to finding the gaps individuals from different backgrounds find in their student experience.

Provisional ethical approval has been applied for and during the initial two-days all students will work together to finalise the ethics submission. They will develop a framework for assessing the inclusivity of teaching content and develop a research plan to survey colleagues within their departments and select and areas of their curriculum to review. The term-time hours will be spent assessing the inclusivity of content and carrying out the research.

The final two-days will be to wrap up the project and for the student partners to collaborate again on data analysis and suggestions for what might come next. This could include further StudentShapers projects or creating a plan for sharing findings.

Project Lead

Katie Stripe (k.stripe@imperial.ac.uk), Senior Learning Designer, Central Education Office

Further Details/Experience Required

Any student from the participating departments (Mechanical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, and the Biomedical Sciences BSc) that has completed their first year and has an interest in how students are represented in different aspects of teaching and learning.

2 bursaries are available per participating department. 

A half day a week between January and March (12 weeks) and including two full days in January and in March.

How Inclusive is your curriculum recruitment ad