This document summarizes a presentation about how students can act as agents of change in reshaping the learning landscape. It discusses using a platform called Xerte to give students creative control over their learning and assessments. Students provided feedback saying that using Xerte made them feel responsible for their own learning, improved collaboration skills, and made them less reliant on lectures. The presentation argues that allowing student agency and creativity through tools like Xerte can disrupt traditional pedagogies and empower students to help reshape the learning environment.

1. Can students act as ‘change agents’ in reshaping the
learning landscape?
Dr Gordon Heggie - @gorheg
Dr Neil McPherson - @neilgmcpherson
Association for Learning Technology
22nd Annual Conference
‘Shaping the Future of Learning Together’
University of Manchester 8-10 September 2015
School of Media, Culture & Society
University of the West of Scotland

2. Creative disruption: relocating the learner
Developing a learning in partnership model and methodology
Embedding learning in partnership and inquiry-based, co-creative learning
in the curriculum
Using Xerte as a platform for change
Reshaping the learning environment (together)

3. Agents of change, changing as agents
Listening to the student voice or promoting student agency?
(see eg, Dunne & Zandstra, 2011)
Supporting student engagement or supporting engaging students?
(see eg, Bryson, 2014)
Student as consumer or student as producer?
(see eg, Neary and Winn, 2009)

4. Learning in partnership: a model for for creative disruption

5. connection
creation
production
engagement
inclusion
participation
active,
inquiry-based
learning
research
mindedness
Xerte
from object to subject from passive recipient to active agent
from instruction to discovery
Learning in partnership with Xerte

6. “When I look back over the RSWB module I would defiantly [sic] say that this has
made me and my team members work well as a group and to our own initiative,
we firstly had to figure out xerte then get creative with it”
“The use of… Xerte gave the students creative control to produce a piece of
work that was more than an essay, it was interactive and creative while still
providing the work and evidence of the assessment. Despite being wary on how
to use Xerte at first, by working together as a group and with other students we
quickly understood how to create an interesting piece of work.”
“The research project involving the creation of a Xerte was the most challenging
but also most exciting part of the module. The creation of a Xerte is similar in
fact to the creation of your own piece of research. Also the publication of the
object made it a real, original and a unique experience.”
Xerte: engaging collaborative learning communities

7. “Allowed the class to take control of the module and of our own
education…being able to control how we tackled each assessment and how we
presented each assessment was intellectually simulating”
“Unlike other modules this put the onus on the student to take a hands-on
approach to their learning, reducing the gap that can exist between a student
and lecturer. Whilst this may make some students feel uncomfortable, I saw this
as a chance to enhance skills I otherwise would not have a chance to learn”
“I felt a great sense of responsibility as I was in charge of my own learning.
Instead of being told what to do, I was discovering what to do by my own
initiative”
“The RSWB module has made me more confident in uni and outside of uni”
Passive recipients to active agents of change

8. “The way in which this course has been taught has made me rely less on
lectures and more on fellow students. It has removed the gap between students
and lecturers and put them on equal footing”
“This module has been a prime example of taking ownership of your own
learning and through engagement with lecturers and fellow students I have
been able to co-create my own learning experience”
“We were left to learn new approaches on our own, asking each other for help
and cooperating with lecturers instead of being told what to do in the usual
teacher-student scenario. We were given the opportunity to learn for ourselves
and show we are capable of doing so even though we were not familiar with the
tools available”
Reshaping the learning landscape

9. “I have definitely experienced and learned skills of communication,
collaboration, creativity and critical thinking in this module which has allowed
me to become a more successful student overall. A laid-back approach,
destroying the traditional teacher-student barriers, forces students into an
interdependent method of learning, doing, recording and reflecting”
“I was a bit sceptical to say the least. When I saw the assessments for the
module I was even more sceptical. However once we got started and the
freedom we had to just “get on with it” made me realise that this is what it
would be like in the ‘real world’ “
Embracing creative disruption

10. Learning in partnership
Xerte as platform
Displacing pedagogies of mistrust
Creating the space for student agency & student-led change
Conclusion
Also see ‘Xerte at the heart of student led learning’
- http://goo.gl/CNON5w

11. References
Bovill, C., C. Bulley and K. Morss (2011) Engaging and empowering first year students through
curriculum design: perspectives from the literature. Teaching in Higher Education Research &
Development. 16 (2): 197-209
Brew, A (2006) Research and Teaching: Beyond the Divide, London: Palgrave
Bryson, C (2014) Understanding and developing student engagement, London: Routledge
Dunne, E. & Z. Roos (2011). Students as change agents: New ways of engaging with learning and
teaching in Higher Education. Bristol: ESCalate.
Healey, M. Flint, A and Harrington, K (2014) Engagement through partnership: students as partners in
learning and teaching in higher education, York: Higher Education Academy
Neary, M and Winn, J (2009) The student as producer: reinventing the student experience in higher
education., in Bell, L., Stevenson, H. & Neary, N. (2009) The future of higher education: policy, pedagogy
and the student experience. pp 192–210 London: Continuum
Taylor, P. and D. Wilding (2009). Rethinking the values of higher education - the student as collaborator
and producer?. Gloucester: QAA.