COVID-19 hub - sparqs and sector resources

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This page contains a collation of resources gathered during the pandemic, from across the sector. While some are aimed at a particular institution's students, they also include information which may be useful to everyone. 

Quick links to resource categories: 

>  Guidance for reps
>  Supporting reps online
>  Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
>  Surveys and consultations
>  Strategic approaches
>  International practice

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Guidance for reps

• Suggested questions for course reps: COVID-19 edition updated for 2021-22 - sparqs
  - a resource designed to help course reps gather crucial student feedback during the COVID-19 crisis in order to assess the impact and build solutions to help safeguard the student learning experience.  Our resource suggests questions that course reps can use when speaking to students, which have been updated for the academic year 2021-22. 
• COVID-19 course rep briefing to outgoing reps - sparqs
  - a message of thanks to reps for their work over the year, reflecting on the importance of their role during the pandemic.
• Miro online whiteboard as a Method of Collecting Feedback - Robert Gordon University Students' Union
  - case study of how to use the online whiteboard tool Miro to gather student feedback, including a description of its use at RGU and a video with a technical walk-through.
• COVID-19 course rep briefing on transitions - sparqs
  - a resource for course reps to use to engage in conversations with students and staff around student achievement and progression, to ensure the issues and concerns that students have in relation to successfully completing their courses are heard.
• COVID-19 course rep briefing on assessment - sparqs
  - a resource for course reps to use to begin the conversations with students and staff around assessment and exams, and to try and resolve any worries before they become problems.
• Course rep recruitment resources - sparqs
  - some useful resources sent to students' associations, including a guide to the course rep role and template presentation to help with recruitment, as well as a sparqs' welcome note to new reps and a template letter which reps can use to introduce themselves to their classmates.  Even if you have already recruited your reps, you may find the welcome note and template letter useful. 
• Briefing note FAO Course Reps - sparqs
  - sent via students' associations for distribution to reps, reinforcing the importance of their role during the current crisis.
• How to be an effective rep online - University of Strathclyde Students' Association
  - a simple handbook for course representatives, on how to be effective following the suspension of face-to-face teaching.
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Supporting reps online

• A Resource for E-Moderators on Fostering Participatory Engagement Within Discussion Boards for Online Students in Higher Education – Student Success Journal
  This article by Australian academic Ameena Payne outlines five successful approaches for students in digital discussion boards. It will be useful for those who use discussion boards to support course reps in sharing their research into the learning experience, and the techniques could even form advanced training for reps themselves on how to use their own course-level digital spaces to get meaningful feedback from their fellow students.
• Developing online active learning – The Educationalist
  The Educationalist is a newsletter about HE and technology, and this edition focusses on active learning: what it is, how works and how it can be created in a way that responds to students. Active learning is an important approach for student reps too, so the advice and resources here could be valuable in the training and support of course reps and others.
• The student perspective:  top tips for student engagement in an online environment - Advance HE and sparqs
  - a resource to help consider the student voice around contemporary issues that influence engagement in an online environment.
• A Toolkit for Effective Learner Engagement - sparqs & Education Scotland 
  - a joint sparqs/EdS resource support student engagement in Scotland’s colleges in this ‘recovery year’. The resource is aligned to, and intended to be used alongside, the new Education Scotland resources ‘Our Best Future’ and the sparqs' SLE tool. 
• Preparing your course rep system and recruiting your reps during COVID-19 - sparqs
  - a resource to support students’ associations and institutions in devising and executing rep systems that can operate in this changing environment, including how they can operate online.
• COVID-19 education officer induction resource - sparqs
  - a short resource for universities and colleges, outlining ideas and suggestions for developing a successful induction for education officers during the crisis.
• Top tips for supporting Course Reps during COVID-19 - sparqs
  - an infographic with some pointers for engaging and supporting reps during the current situation. 
• Engaging students in online distance learning - sparqs
  A guide for institutions and students’ associations on engaging online distance learning (ODL) students in shaping the quality of their learning experience. While not a newly-published resource, it may now be of more interest to the wider sector in the light of the COVID-19 crisis. 
• Tool for developing a forum for students on online courses - sparqs
  - a tool developed by sparqs when undertaking consultancy work with Hibernia College in Ireland, as featured in a case study in the above-noted sparqs' ODL guidance. Again, not a newly-published resource but worth highlighting in the light of the current situation. 
• Resource Bank for Online/Blended Delivery - CDN
  - a core set of useful guides, developed to support delivery of the curriculum online for the upcoming academic year. While the resources relate to learning and teaching, they could also be useful for the support and training of reps.
• Free 'Virtual Bridge' webinars - CDN and Jisc
  - this new series of free webinar sessions has been designed to support college staff in delivering remote learning and teaching. But it is equally useful for staff who now find themselves remotely supporting and training academic reps.
• Take Your Teaching Online - The Open University
  - a free OpenLearn course, aimed at teachers, but also equally valid for staff aiming to support, network and train academic reps online.
• Guide to ensuring your webinars are accessible - NADP
  A useful starting point for ensuring webinars are accessible to all participants. 
• Resources on digital education – Heriot Watt University
  – many of the tools in this broad collection, such as the guides on fostering online community or design for digital education, will have applicability for those who are running training, support and networking spaces for course reps.
• “What we learned when we ran student council online”
  - top tips for successful online rep meetings, by Hannah Winslade of the University of Westminster Students’ Union (published on Wonkhe).
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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

• Resources and guidance for working with British Sign Language (BSL) users – University of Edinburgh
  - Engaging British Sign Language users is an important aspect of student engagement and inclusive communication generally, and these resources highlight ways of fully including users of BSL in online meetings and events.
• NADP (National Association of Disability Practitioners) COVID-19 Resource Hub
  News, guidance and advice on information impacting staff and disabled students, including a useful guide to ensuring your webinars are accessible.
• COVID-19 EDI Resources - Advance HE
  A wide range of EDI guidance and resources to support HE institutions and staff through the COVID-19 pandemic.
• COVID-19 Information hub - Student Minds
  Useful guidance and resources for students and staff around student mental health and wellbeing.
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Surveys and consultations

• Using Learner Feedback in Evaluation – Education Scotland
  A thirty-minute video, facilitated by Education Scotland, from one of CDN’s regular Virtual Bridge webinars. It features presentations from New College Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway College on how they have successfully used sparqs and Education Scotland’s joint Toolkit for Effective Learning Engagement to support reps to generate feedback and data about the student learning experience during the pandemic.
• Student Panel (COVID-19) – University of the Highlands and Islands
  A forum of students set up to gather feedback on changes implemented by the university as a result of COVID-19, and to gather student views on potential new changes to learning and teaching methods. This is complementary to the analytical feedback provided by reps, and has informed decision-makers across different areas of the university’s work.
• Shaping surveys of students following lockdown - University of St Andrews
  - student surveys relating to the student experience of online taught programmes (UG/PGT) following lockdown - examples of the kinds of questions students can be asked about their learning experience at a time of rapid transition.
• Staying Well Survey - Robert Gordon University
  - a simple survey designed to gather student feedback while they are studying at home, with a view to protecting and assuring the student experience.
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Strategic approaches

• Student Partnership Agreements during COVID-19 - sparqs
  A resource to support institutions considering their partnership approach during the pandemic and looking to redevelop or renew their SPA.
• The role of the SA Academic Co-ordinator during COVID-19 - sparqs
  - guidance for Academic Co-ordinators around designing, delivering and co-ordinating student engagement and representation activities in the face of the rapidly changing learning experience as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 12 Principles for Preparing for Online Learning and Teaching - Edinburgh Napier University
  - developed by the university's Digital Support Partnership, this resource provides guidance for staff who are moving their learning and teaching to an online context. The role of students is a strong theme throughout the twelve principles, for example through their feedback or co-creation of learning.
• Creating Socially Distanced Campuses and Education Project - Final Capstone Report - Advance HE
  - the final report of Advance HE’s Creating Socially Distanced Campuses project, which includes approaches to creating learning experiences that are suitable for the new context. It includes partnership as one of its themes, and cites sparqs within.
• What questions should students' unions be asking? - NUS Scotland
  - a guidance document with suggested questions students' associations should be asking institutions during the COVID-19 crisis.
• Partnership and Engagement Rainbow infographic - Robert Gordon University
  - a simple but effective image that reinforces the concepts of representation and partnership, using the rainbow imagery that has become a symbol of solidarity with NHS workers during the current crisis.
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International practice

• NStEP resources for staff and students – Our partners in Ireland, NStEP, have produced various reports and guides for student engagement during the pandemic, which can be found in their resources section. They are written for the Irish HE context but of course contain many transferable ideas.

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