Recognising and Rewarding Reps Open Badges Thank you for having me along today to this session. I am very happy to be involved and speak with you today.

Aims To reward and recognise the work and contribution student representatives make to the learning experience To help define the role and responsibility of the positions To help enhance employability As a students association DUSA has the pleasure of representing every student at the University of Dundee and we get to work with them through a variety of different routes, campaigns and projects. The development of Open Badges presents a number of opportunities and there are 3 key reasons why DUSA is investigating there potential use, this includes: To help us reward and recognise the contribution that our reps make To help us define the roles and responsibilities more clearly To contribute to their employability

Student Representation Why is it important? Enhanced Learning Experience Students are experts QEF The development of open badges is currently being focused around representation and as a bit of background it is worth providing an overview of the Student representation system. Student Representation is important for a variety of reasons but principally: A strong and effective representation system is vital to the enhancement of the learning experience Students are experts at being students, so they are the experts in their own learning experience And student representation is a sector commitment through the Quality Enhancement Framework

Effective representation Joint Agreement Student Representation: The University, in partnership with the Dundee University Students' Association (DUSA), encourages students to become actively involved in providing constructive feedback about all aspects of University life. DUSA and UoD are committed to having an effective representation system and that work is taken forward through a strong partnership approach as outlined in the Joint Agreement between DUSA and the University on Representation.

Student Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) Rep structure Module/Programme Discipline School School President Class Reps Vice-Presidents Our school representation structure is based on a three tier model of class reps representing students at the module/Programme level, Vice-Presidents at the disciple level and School Presidents lead the reps in the School and works with school management and teaching and learning leads. On an annual basis there can be over 500 representatives across the school system and engaging them can be a big task. Along with this is the issue of tracking their work and measuring the change and impact that they make for their fellow students. Student Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) School Board

Evidence The decision to peruse Open Badges is also based on some evidence. DUSA works with 4th year marketing students each year and this year one team focused on School representation. They asked students: “Which of the following would most likely give you an incentive to run for a School Representative position (School President, Associate President, Class Representative)?” As you can see there was a strong preference towards improving their employability (improving cv and gaining experience) but there was also a clear interest in making a difference and actually having a positive impact for their fellow students We also know from colleagues at Stirling Students’ Union, who have developed open badges, that open badges have been an important addition to their student representation approach.

Open Badges Incentivise Capture Impact Reward and Recognise So it is hoped that Open Badges will allow both the Association and the University to: Incentivise student engagement in representation Capture and record the impact of what the reps have achieved, and Allow us to reward achievement This is the cycle we would like to develop where the more our reps can achieve and the more we can reward and recognise them the more we can incentivise participation and engagement by students

Use of badges Reward for: Completing Training Completing key reports Attending important meetings Completing key projects/campaigns Providing effective feedback Etc. Use of the badges could include reward for …..

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