Engaging Students and Researchers in Their Development during a Pandemic
A Whole-Institution Response
Abstract
Engaging students in the development of their academic literacies and researcher skills requires that Learning Developers (LDs) and Researcher Developers (RD) place a strong emphasis on active, dynamic, collaborative and interactive pedagogies (Boyle et al., 2019; Struan, 2021). The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic caused a radical, immediate shift in LD and RD pedagogical practice; LDs and RDs became increasingly central in the sector’s response to student engagement and community building.
This paper analyses the response of the LD and RD departments within a Scottish Russell Group university. Utilising reflections and evaluation from almost twenty staff members across the two departments, the paper provides a systematic analysis of the implementation of emergency approaches to student and researcher development. The two departments are responsible for the academic and research development of all students – from pre-entry to postgraduate research – across the institution (roughly 35,000 students in total).
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