1. “NStEP and NCI’s role within it”
(National Student Engagement Programme) ˄
presentation by Dr Maurice FitzGerald FHEA
Quality Assurance & Statistical Services (QASS) Officer
13 October 2017

2. What is student engagement?
“The investment of time, effort and other relevant resources by both students and their institutions intended to optimise the student experience and enhance the learning outcomes and development of students, and the performance and reputation of the institution (Trowler & Trowler, 2011).”

3. Why is student engagement vital?
ten principles underpinning student engagement
8. Feedback and feedback loop – “open and prompt feedback … the feedback loop will be closed in a timely fashion”

4. Quality Assurance @ NCI Who are we?
Sinéad
Maurice
Director of Quality Assurance
QASS Officer

5. Quality Assurance @ NCI Where are we based?
QA Office (Room 4.13)
Quality Assurance … this way!
we’re on the 4th floor corridor

6. Quality Assurance @ NCI Where you can find out more?
our homepage can be found at Depts/Other- Departments/Quality- Assurance we run the blog and we maintain a Twitter we use the portal heavily (e.g. to offer information, to provide resources, etc.), but you can also ask us directly about our work!

7. National Student Engagement Programme (NStEP) 2016-17
NCI-NCISU Working Group (NStEP)
meetings held every 4-6 weeks in L&T
Institutional Implementation Group
meetings held at NCI
1 June 2016
11 January 2017
31 May 2017
National NStEP Working Group
meetings held at QQI
17 May 2016
10 November 2016
5 April 2017
additional training sessions for Class Reps (provided by NStEP trainers on 8 December 2016)
Institutional Analysis Workshop (facilitated by sparqs on 9 November 2016)

8. NStEP
a National Student Engagement Network will launch on 13 November 2017, with NStEP membership expanding from 5 HEIs to 20+ across the country
NStEP will encompass five national projects
the role and recruitment of class representatives (led by NCI)
the design, review and delivery of programmes (led by NUI Galway)
student feedback opportunities, data and follow up (led by WIT)
students in formal system level procedures, strategy and decision making (led by LYIT)
staff roles and capacity building (led by CIT)
additional training will continue to be available for Class Reps (provided by NStEP trainers)

9. How can you get involved in NStEP?
NCI-NCISU Working Group (NStEP)
Institutional Implementation Group
currently composed of three staff members and two student representatives, the latter is due to increase by one more person

10. “Taking Next StEPs – a case study: NCI staff and students working together”
this conference paper is available at
it includes a section entitled “NCISU’s views and hopes regarding NStEP” penned by the NCISU president
the principles of student engagement include ‘Feedback and feedback loop’
in this context, the paper speaks about a “review of quality assurance and enhancement policies and procedures” and the “demystification of processes for staff and students”

11. What is meant by learner feedback?
national
Irish Survey of Student Engagement
local
Class Representative Meetings
Module Evaluation
Services Evaluation
for more details, see ISSE, and NCI Quality Assurance Handbook, “Chapter 3: Programme Development, Delivery, Evaluation and Review”, pp.68-9
under the auspices of a Quality Assurance Review, and utilising NCI’s involvement in NStEP, a Student Forum on feedback was held on 8 March 2017, while a Staff Forum on feedback was held on 22 March 2017

12. NCI reports using Irish Survey of Student Engagement data
NCI’s ISSE 2016 report is available through the blog
NCI’s ISSE 2017 report is being tabled next week at Learning, Teaching and Assessment committee

13. How might a ‘virtuous circle’ support learner feedback processes?
“We said, we did!”
PROMOTION
COMPLETION
EVALUATION
ACTION
“We said, we did!”
“We said, we did!”
“We said, we did!”
“We said, we did!”
“We said, we did!”
COMMUNICATION
“We said, we did!”
“We said, we did!”
“We said, we did!”
“We said, we did!”
“We said, we did!”
“We said, we did!”

14. How are students involved in QA?
Students Union
Class Reps
Student
Representation on College Committees
Representation on Governing Body
Class Rep Meetings
Class Council
Module Evaluation
Irish Survey of Student Engagement
Quality Assurance
@ NCI – examples of direct student involvement

15. What is the QA role of Class Reps?
College
Students Union
Class Reps
Student
Quality Assurance Handbook
“Chapter 3: Programme Development, Delivery, Evaluation and Review”
8.2.1 Class Representative Meetings
Meetings between the programme director and class representatives take place once per semester. This is a formal opportunity for Class Representatives to provide feedback to the Programme Committee on matters affecting the programme and learners on the programme. Representatives from the Support Services also attend these meetings.
Schools may arrange meetings in subject groupings etc. to facilitate meaningful discussion. Actions arising from these meetings should be reported to the Programme Committee meeting.

16. What if there is a problem?
speak with the Lecturer or the Member of Staff
raise it with the Course Director, Programme Co-ordinator, or Head of Function and, if necessary, raise it in a Class Rep meeting
inform the Dean or Registrar
from ‘informal’ mechanisms …
… to ‘formal’ (and in writing)

17. What class representative meetings are … and what they aren’t!
a forum to have a constructive discussion about your programme (i.e. what is working, what isn’t, and how it can be improved)
its minutes will be public documents and are subject to review by internal and external review bodies
a forum to air your personal grievances or to ‘have a go’?
for a better idea regarding what is being discussed in relation to the future functioning of class rep meetings, see the proposals being tabled at Learning, Teaching and Assessment committee on October 18th

18. Questions? So, some questions …
please feel free to direct further feedback to