Blogs, podcasts and videos; University training, networks and signposting; External toolkits, guidance and websites; Journal articles and book chapters. Blog posts, podcasts and videos Blog postsTeaching Matters has a dedicated student engagement category. Below we have pulled out a couple of blogs that might be of particular interest:Student Voice in Practice blog series: A series of blogs exploring how student voice and feedback are incorporated into everyday teaching and learning practices.Bringing Student Voice to the table: Supporting Student Representatives: This post provides a useful overview and introduction to the role of student representatives and how they can support student engagement.Hello, how is everyone? The importance of checking in: This post explores methods that can be adopted to help develop a sense of wellbeing, trust and playfulness in the classroom.Supporting first-year students at the programme level: A case from the School of Informatics: Fiona McNeill describes the non-credit bearing course “Informatics Connect” that she and colleagues designed to help first-year students develop a sense of collegiality while studying online.Sparking online joy: Five ways to keep students engaged: Lizzy Garner-Foy, Andrés Ordorica and Marcello Crolla share five guiding principles to use when designing and developing content for short online courses that will keep students engaged.Student engagement inside and outside the classroom: Following on from evidence that suggests that “in general, the more contact between students and faculty both inside and outside the classroom, the greater the student development and satisfaction” (Kuh & Hu 2001, p. 309), Professor Catherine Bovill outlines a 'coffee and cake' scheme to get staff and students talking. This initiative was then taken up by another School: “Coffee anyone?” Encouraging student and staff informal interaction in Biomedical Sciences.Teaching at scale: Improving student engagement through Quectures: Professor Heather McQueen suggests a flipped classroom approach to maintain student engagement in the large lecture hall.Interactive engagement and online teaching: Using the text-chat feature in digital lectures: Dr Ross Galloway, Professor Judy Hardy and Tom Brown share their insights into a research project exploring how the text-chat feature effects student learning in live, online lectures.Teaching presentation skills and engaging students in large lectures: Dr Richard Gratwick describes how he redesigned the “skills” component of a mathematics course to ensure that students in a large lecture got extensive practise in developing their presentation skills.Understanding student engagement in the classroom: A Times Higher Education Campus blog post exploring what student engagement means for different individuals and how to support and assess it in the classroom.VideosThe following videos explore student engagement and student voice: Is active learning the key to student engagement? (43 mins): Vicki Dale and Nathalie Tasler from the University of Glasgow provide evidence of the benefits of active learning and try out some active learning techniques with participants.Enhancing student participation in taught courses through active learning and reflective practices (58 mins): Rachel Howell, shares examples of active learning and reflective practices taken from her teaching on an undergraduate course in Sustainable Development.Effective student engagement practices (1 hour): Former President and Vice President at Edinburgh University Students' Association discuss what good student engagement looks like.Incorporating the student voice (1h16mins): Colleagues and a student share the work they have been doing to try and enhance student feedback in their teaching and learning. University of Edinburgh training, networks and signposting NetworksThe ENGAGE Network aims to bring together University of Edinburgh students and staff interested in creating genuine and meaningful interactions focused on learning, teaching and assessment. Engage Network events run roughly once a month either online, in person or hybrid. SignpostingAcademic Development team has a series of guides to student engagement in different areas of practice, which are helpful introductory guides for staffEngagEd in... community building EngagEd in… research led learning and teaching EngagEd in… learning and teaching conversationsEngaged in… feedback and assessmentEngagEd in… teaching with lecture recordingFind these on the student engagement resources pageYou may also find the following pages useful:Student contract: The student contract is a supportive set of regulations, policies and procedures that underpins the way staff and students work in partnership together to provide a learning environment that enables students to fulfill their potential.Student Partnership Agreement and Funding: This states how the University and Edinburgh University Students Association work together to enhance the student experience. Small pots of funding (up to £1000) are available each year to support staff and students to work in partnership through the Student Partnership Agreement Small Project funding. External toolkits, guidance and websites ToolkitsEncouraging student engagement with blended and online learning: This toolkit from University College London provides a useful overview of how to support student engagement in a blended and online environment.GuidanceA Student Engagement Framework for Scotland: This useful guidance document was created by sparqs (student partnerships in quality Scotland) and provides a framework for student engagement in HE.Relationship-Rich Education at Scale, aka the Too Many Bodies Problem: Short article by Professor Peter Felten offering three practices to make relationship-rich education possible no matter how many students you teach.Embedding active learning into your teaching practice (12 pages): A Heriot Watt 'Watt Works' Quick Guide, which outlines some examples of how you might embed active learning into your teaching practice, both as short activities within a lecture, and as longer activities taking up one or more teaching sessions.Top tips for online student engagement (2 pages): University of London's Centre for Online and Distance Education offers some top tips on engaging students with online teaching and learning.WebsitesALN Global Festival of Active Learning – The Active Learning Network: The Active Learning Network is a community for anyone interested in active learning. The website includes useful resources and links, and details of their annual Festival of Active Learning. Journal articles and book chapters Journal articlesJournals from RAISE: The Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement (RAISE) network recommned a list of journals to dip in to, which provide an academic view on the effectiveness of student engagement.Specific journal articles include:Grau, S. L., & Rockett, T. (2022). Creating Student-centred Experiences: Using Design Thinking to Create Student Engagement. The Journal of Entrepreneurship, 31(2_suppl), S135-S159. https://doi.org/10.1177/09713557221107443Martin, F. & Bolliger, D.U. (2018). Engagement matters: Student perceptions on the importance of engagement strategies in the online learning environment. Online Learning 22(1), 205-222. doi:10.24059/olj.v22i1.1092Seven Principles For Good Practice in Undergraduate Education: This paper outlines seven principles intended as a guideline for good practice aimed at improving learning and teaching.Prince, M. 2013. Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research. Research Journal for Engineering Education. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2004.tb00809.xBooks and book chaptersRecommended books from RAISE: This selection of books have been recommended as essential reading for student engagement by the Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement (RAISE) network. This article was published on 2026-07-24
