It details an approach to fostering student belonging in Higher Education. Developed by OneHE Mindsets online community.

1. A focus on student
belongingness as a multi-
layered concept
Dr Konstantina Martzoukou & Dr Fiona Work

2. Recently, we organised an interactive session for enhancing the practice of our academic
colleagues across the university (an event facilitated by the Department for the Enhancement
of Learning, Teaching and Access at the Robert Gordon University). The topic we selected
was ‘belongingness’ with a focus on its connection to the online distance-learning
environment in a bid to relate pedagogical theory to practice (Cheng, Cheng and Tang 2010).
We started by gaining inspiration from a collaborative project, which has been funded by QAA
Scotland under the current national Enhancement Theme: Evidence for Enhancement,
Improving the Student Experience. The project, a partnership between a number of different
universities (Queen Margaret University, the Open University in Scotland, the University of
Highlands and Islands, and the University of Dundee), aims to develop “a toolkit for tutors to
promote a sense of belonging for online, distance and rural learners at the module and
programme levels” (Gibson, Peacock and McDermott 2018).
The toolkit, when completed, can place emphasis on the practical steps that could be
followed in different stages of the student’s learning experience (e.g. before, at the start,
during and after a module/programme), focusing, among others, on areas such as student
orientation, engagement, collaboration and co-learning activities.
Introduction
The opportunity to organise the training session on belongingness helped us to reflect critically upon a number
of issues. At a first glance, belongingness or a sense of belonging may appear to be a straightforward concept.
The need for belongingness is a basic human motivation and all people have a strong need to belong. For
example, Maslow’s (1962) hierarchy of needs places belongingness needs just after basic physiological and
safety needs of people. Once basic needs have been gratified, psychological needs such as belongingness and
love as well as esteem (i.e. prestige and feeling of accomplishment) emerge, the fulfilment of which lead to self-
actualisation, in other words “achieving one’s full potential, including creative activities” (Maslow 1962; 1970).
Drawing from a number of key authors, we understood that belongingness for us creates a feeling of
connectedness, which is expressed as a feeling that one has importance and matters to others (Rosenberg &
Mccullough 1981). Belongingness can be also perceived as the opposite of feeling a sense of alienation,
isolation or marginality.
What is belongingness?
Authors
Dr Konstantina Martzoukou is Teaching Excellence Fellow and Course Leader (MSc information and Library
Studies) at Robert Gordon University. She is also Convener of Information and Computer Science Global
Subject Centre of OneHE.
Dr Fiona Work is Senior Lecturer in eLearning and Innovation and Teaching Excellence Fellow at the school of
Nursing and Midwifery, at Robert Gordon University.

3. However, as part of our training session we were focusing on belongingness not as a general concept but
within the domain of education and particularly within the distance-learning programmes that we design for our
students. Sheffield Hallam University Academic Development team describe belongingness as “the sense that
a student feels that they are part of their course and that their presence and involvement matter” (Sheffield
Hallam University 2019). That concept or premise suggests active involvement and participation as well as the
need to be part of a community of learners who not only value their education as passive learners but they can
be co-creators by means of interacting with other students and learning from each other. Beyond this social
dimension, a sense of belonging, from a student perspective, may also be a “reflection of their satisfaction with
the teaching on their course, the extent to which they identify with their discipline and the belief they have that
they can succeed academically and in life". Belonging, of course, is also affected by students’ “wider
experiences they have while at university” and not only by their academic experiences (Sheffield Hallam
University 2019).
This is an interesting view which directs us towards considering critically both the value and the complexity of
belongingness from a student perspective and not only from a learner perspective. Previous research has
similarly identified the value of belongingness for students’ engagement (Hardy and Bryson 2009), social and
academic integration (Tinto 1993), student retention (Thomas 2012), student success (Strayhorn 2012)
pointing to its significant value for students on different levels. However, it led us to start to question if the
sense of belongingness is the same for all learners? Is it similar during the different stages of the learning
journey? And more fundamentally, who are the key players and strategies that foster it? Looking at the
academic literature, it becomes clear that belongingness is not a new concept nor a single but a
multidimensional entity. In other words, it is fostered not in silo but in relation to institutional (Percy 2002),
course (Kember, Lee and Li 2001), and peer involvement (Thomas 2012), (Strayhorn 2012) (Figure 2).
What is the value of belongingness in education?
Figure 1 What is belongingness? (Maslow 1962; 1970)

4. Therefore, we can distinguish a number of manifestations of belongingness and its value, as presented in the
following layers:
a) The Course / discipline layer
It fosters motivation and helps students to understand how the programme can help them develop key
knowledge and skills in order to achieve future personal and professional goals.
b) The Institutional layer
It promotes and fosters a commonly shared pedagogy and values which shape the students’ approach to
learning and development of skills and knowledge.
c) The Peer layer (student)
It empowers students to learn together and develop into active and life-long learners and, subsequently team
players within the professional sphere and personal lives.
d) The Peer layer (academic)
It ensures a supportive and inclusive education and inspires students with a positive role model (educational
or professional).
To these layers we may also add that students have diverse social identities, circumstances and experiences,
which may result to different perceptions of belongingness. Not all students experience belonging in the same
way while learning within the same context. Students are different on the basis of their own personal qualities
and learning styles, their previous educational experiences and background which create different levels of
academic self-efficacy. They also have diverse age demographics and everyday life commitments - to name
just a few – which play a role in how they engage with their education and interact with others. These create
unique learning identities, which may, for example, value or not value belongingness or may consider the
value of belongingness differently within the different stages of their unique and individual learning journey.
Figure 2. The value and different layers of student belongingness

5. Considering belongingness from these lenses, we may be able to devise different strategies for fostering
belongingness. For example, at the course/discipline level, a focus on belongingness means that we can
identify early students who struggle and intervene to ensure that communication and access to support is
available. In addition, we need to cater for the different stages/motivations of students. Consider, for example a
first year undergraduate student who is transitioning into higher education from school and needs to develop
into an effective learner next to a final semester master’s student, who aims to develop professional skills and
knowledge, which are closely associated with their personal career objectives. For the new student improving
course/peer integration may be key in order to create a sense of belonging that will help them achieve higher
educational goals. For a continuing student, the peer layer of belongingness may be key to helping them
develop interpersonal and team working skills, which are linked to their future employment.
Ragusa and Crampton (2015) list a number of steps for developing students’ sense of belonging. For new
students improving social integration can be enabled by means of making them feel known and accepted,
creating a welcoming and familiar environment and enabling mechanisms to ask for help. For ongoing students
belongingness can be enabled via encouraging active engagement with the programme (as opposed to
passive) and having an environment which fosters sharing one’s own passion for the discipline, focusing on
personal objectives and career aspirations. Interestingly, the researchers found that belongingness for distance-
learners had a “utilitarian role”:
“Distance students cared less about the sophistication or
aesthetics of learning resources provided and cared more
about resources’ practical application and relevance. Thus,
prioritising relevant and focused learning interactions are
likely to be well-received and may foster a sense of identity
and connection.”
Ragusa and
Crampton
2015

6. With all of the above ideas in mind, we set out to design a practical session with the following
objectives:
Therefore, we first asked our participants the following question:
To explore the meaning of belongingness in the online environment for students (we used a
mentimeter.com exercise for this)
To appraise various approaches to foster belongingness in the online environment for students
at different stages of their learning journey (group work)
To critique the QAA Belongingness Toolbox in relation to the stages of belongingness and in
relation to areas of own practice (group work).
Exploring ideas on belongingness for distance-learners
Figure 3. Participants’ answers to the question: ‘What does belongingness online mean to you?’
‘What does belongingness online mean to you?’
The answers presented below demonstrate the multifaceted social, affective, collaborative and
aspects of belongingness. They also reveal that a sense of belonging means active engagement
and the development of skills; staff felt that when they belonged they were not just passive
recipients of information and support but “part of a bigger whole”, where “feeling involved”,
“sharing ideas” and “working together” in “connection” became important pieces of the
belongingness puzzle (Figure 3).

7. The initial brainstorming exercise was followed by a practical team exercise, which asked
participants from different schools to engage in discussion and exchange up to three innovative
ideas around setting a belongingness plan. As the QAA belongingness toolkit is still under
development, we devised our own schematic template, mirroring the QAA project directions
with coloured blocks, which represent belongingness activities during the different stages of a
programme/course/module (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Belongingness diagram
There were a number of innovative ideas shared from creating a virtual coffee shop for the
students, to considering issues surrounding communication and netiquette, to building activities
around emotional intelligence and digital literacy and to getting students completing a course or
module to reflect upon their learning, before sharing insights and advice with the next student
cohort. Based on our discussions, it was also made clear that fostering belongingness is a
synergistic endeavour; belongingness cannot operate in silo. It requires effective partnership of
key stakeholders: academic and support departments (e.g. teaching and learning support,
student support services, the library, admissions) as well as a leadership and strategic vision
which embraces the centrality and diversity of students’ belongingness during the different
stages of their educational journey.
What is your own view of students’ belongingness and how can we
create distance-learning environments that can foster it?

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