Laura Ellington - student stories

What type of relationship did you envisage with staff/students before you began your project? Was your experience in line with this or different?

Before starting my project, I wasn’t really sure what the dynamic would be within the project team. Obviously in normal university teaching, there is a hierarchy where students are taking instructions from professors and other teaching staff, so I didn’t know how that would translate to working alongside each other. My experience was that the dynamic was slightly different to normal – I still took general instructions from the staff leading the project, but there was a lot more freedom in how I chose to tackle each task, and there was open communication so I could feedback on how things were going and shape the next steps of the project in collaboration with the project lead.

Why did you want to work with staff/students on a project to enhance and develop the student experience?

I had two main reasons. First, I wanted to learn more about how our courses are designed and the factors that go into optimising the student experience at the College.

I wanted to learn more about how our courses are designed and the factors that go into optimising the student experience at the College.

As a student I wondered how certain course decisions were made, and this project gave me some insight into the course-design process. My second reason was to see what working in a kind of ‘Office environment’ is like, and it was great experience for learning how a professional environment runs.

How did working with staff/students as a partner help you reimagine and develop a new/different relationship?

For me, this project helped break down the communication barrier that the traditional student-staff hierarchy can introduce. I feel more comfortable talking to staff now, particularly about my learning experience because I know that they will most likely want to hear my thoughts, especially if it can improve the student experience for future years.

What impact do you think your experience will have on the way you and other staff/students teach/learn?

I’ve seen how staff try to build a sense of community in their courses through student-student collaboration from workshops to group projects, and it was interesting to see just how much some exercises are enhanced by this student-student interaction. In the future, I’m going to try and make the most of these opportunities to collaborate within my course, because I think it helps build the course community as well as improving my learning experience, as some teaching elements rely on this type of student engagement.

What is the most important thing, skill or new perspective you have learnt during the project?

It was really helpful to draw on my experiences from the project to give examples of when I have worked well in a team, had to compromise, or delivered a result on time.

The most important ability I developed was my teamwork skills. I think this is one of the biggest skills employers look for at interviews and working well in a team makes a lot of projects at university or work more enjoyable and helps things go more smoothly. I was interviewing for placement year positions the term after my StudentShaper project, so it was really helpful to draw on my experiences from the project to give examples of when I have worked well in a team, had to compromise, or delivered a result on time.