Wong Kwong Yu
Student Voice Award
What they did:
The student is a rep for the course and class. He has communicated classmates’ feedback and concerns with the Course and Admin Teams. Kwong Yu has been helpful not only to his peers, but also to the module tutors, including SHU tutors who did block teaching at SHAPE (we were not familiar with the SHAPE IT system).
What was the impact?
Kwong Yu helps his peers express their opinions and concerns and make their voices heard by the Course and Admin Teams, through which student experience and attainment have been enhanced.
How it inspired others
Kwong Yu plays a key role as the Course Rep and a facilitator to help build a more two-way communication channel between students and staff. He has demonstrated leadership and selflessness supporting other students on the course.
Wong Man Ching
Inspirational Individual Award
What they did:
This particular student was a great member of the classroom. Unfortunately, this most recent module delivery remained online which is not always ideal for tutor or student in terms of building rapport. This is can be even more difficult for students for whom English is not a first language as there are, understandably, sometimes concerns about speaking in front of peers having had little opportunity to practice language skills in a group environment. However, this student had no qualms about engaging with tutors and showed a curiosity and willingness to learn was inspiring to see. The student regularly came to the front of the class to use the IT equipment provided and engage with me, their UK based tutor, and ask questions and provide their thoughts. Furthermore, their questions and insight were of a very high standard and showed the ability to engage with module content critically and apply the theories to real world contexts – this is something that not all students can do confidently and especially not in a second language. The students enthusiasm for learning was clearly evident.
What was the impact?
Sometimes teaching online can be difficult – it is context specific of course and engagement can vary considerably between different cohorts. There is nothing worse than a silent classroom though and the students willingness to engage brought a liveliness to the class that is sometimes missing with online teaching. The critical nature of the questions asked helped not only to enliven the class but also the material itself, providing an extra layer of depth and contextualisation which was beneficial to the whole classroom in terms of students’ understanding of how theory might be applied to the assessment task and to the real world in general.
How it inspired others
The student’s behaviour was inspiring to the teaching team – it is rewarding to see first hand how students engage with the ideas and concepts that we share and how their interpretations can sometimes develop our own understanding of content. Their behaviour was also inspiring to other students, showing that concerns around language skills needn’t always be a barrier to engagement and that asking the right questions can lead to a much deeper understanding of taught content.