Ignite the Spark: Inspiring Student Engagement and Motivation

Thursday 3rd July 2025

The annual Learning at City St George’s Conference, will place on Thursday 3rd July 2025 at City St George’s, University of London – Clerkenwell campus. The conference will provide an opportunity to engage in discussion and debate with colleagues on how to engage and support student motivation.

Student engagement and motivation is central to ensuring our institutions remain student-centred and also involving students in decisions about their education. Learning should be social, active, engaging, authentic and collaborative. We want students to engage and enjoy their learning. We also need to ensure it is inclusive and flexible.

Whilst institutions have used a range of approaches to collect student feedback such as surveys, focus groups and student-staff liaison committees the feedback focuses on what students think is positive but also what changes might be needed. It does not often ask students about what motivates and engages them to learn nor do we always include them in research and development to enhance this aspect. Students as partners schemes are one approach to providing students with an opportunity to be able to share their views on engagement and be involved in making change. Co-creation of learning experiences is another.

Lowe (2023) refers to students continuing to change the way they learn, use resources and engage with each other and staff who provide and support their education. The importance of recognising this and involving “students as being mutual producers of knowledge” (Lowe 2023:289) and “fully participating as partners in making changes in our universities” (Lowe 2023:289) is essential to future engagement of students in their education.

Within this theme there are a range of sub-themes:

• Co-design of modules and programmes
• Learning and teaching approaches that engage students
• Peer and group assessment and how to engage students
• Engaging students in assessment design
• Extra-curricula activities to support learning
• Fostering Inclusion: Embracing a Diversity of Experiences

We anticipate that this topical theme will provide excellent opportunities for discussion and, debate during the conference.

The event will include the following

• Papers/presentations (These will be for 15 minutes with three in each session and 5 minutes for questions on each paper)
• Lightning talks (These will be for 7 minutes each with six in each session and a few minutes for questions)
• Workshops (These sessions are for 60 minutes)
• Posters  (before and during lunch)

Keynote

Tom has researched and innovated in student engagement across diverse settings for over ten years, in areas such as student voice, retention, employability and student-staff partnership. Tom works at the University of Westminster as Assistant Head of School (Student Experience) in Finance and Accounting where he leads on student experience, outcomes and belonging. Tom is also the Chair of RAISE, a network for all stakeholders in higher education for researching, innovating and sharing best practice in student engagement. Prior to Westminster, Tom was a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at the University of Portsmouth, and previously held leadership positions for engagement and employability at the University of Winchester. Tom has published two books on student engagement with Routledge; ‘A Handbook for Student Engagement in Higher Education: Theory into Practice’ in 2020 and ‘Advancing Student Engagement in Higher Education: Reflection, Critique and Challenge’ in 2023, and has supported over 40 institutions in consultancy and advisory roles internationally.

References

Lowe T (2023) (Ed) Advancing Student Engagement in Higher Education. Reflection, Critique and Challenge London Routledge Taylor & Francis group

 

Programme

Oliver Thompson Lecture Theatre (OTLT) and Foyer and rooms on Level 3 of Tait Building.

Thursday 3rd July 2025

09:15 | Registration and refreshments (OTLT Foyer)

09:45 | Welcome and Introduction (OTLT) – Professor Pam Parker,  Professor Juliet John & Professor Susannah Quinsee

10:00 | Keynote (OTLT) –   | Tom Lowe

11:00 | Refreshments and networking (OTLT Foyer)

11:25 | Session one

1A [Workshop]  “Unfold” A paper-folding classroom learning method to support graduate qualities sought in the era of AI | Professor Clive Holtham and Monica Biagioli

1B [Papers x3] 

1. Supporting staff through reflective practice for more engaging digital teaching| Luis Periera, Alexandra Mihai, Jessica Hancock, Pam Parker and Jane Secker 
2. Hybrid teaching and learning in the UK in 2025 – how does it engage and include students? | Rebecca Wells and Alexandra Buchan
3. Ignite the spark’, ‘beyond the classroom’: Law as a case study | Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos 

1C [Papers x3] 

1. 1. Exploring the Assessment Only Year: Student Perceptions and Support Systems in a BSc Clinical Pharmacology Programme | Jennifer Stott
   2. Engaging students through experiential learning: the Structured Research Projects experience, 5 years on | Florencia Cavodeassi and Paris Alatliotis 
   3. Self-Determination Theory and Applications to Engagement in Extracurricular Activities to Support Learning | Hafsa Tahir and Liam Power

1D [Papers x 3] 

1. 1. Student-staff Co-creation: Developing an Inclusive Curriculum for Change | Margot Turner, Dr Ban Haider and Shehla Baig
   2. Data Analytic Engagement: Patching The Co-Created Learning Model | Thomas Robinson, Joshua Gwynn and Ethan Henry 
   3. Does size matter? A review on the impacts of increasing student numbers in lectures on undergraduate law programmes | Pia Terese Rebelo

12:30 | Lunch (OTLT Foyer)

13:20 | Session two

2A [Workshop]  Generating Student Engagement with Generative AI | Professor Susan Blake 

2B [Workshop] Preparing students for the future: Embedding digital literacies and graduate attributes into the curriculum| Jane Secker, Julie Voce and Helen Kempster

2C [Papers x3] 

1. 1. Student engagement at scale: A case study of playful and gamified Interprofessional Learning |Lucy Myers and Stian Reimers
   2. Breaking down borders: strategies to support inclusion and engagement in transnational legal education  | Lucy Myers and Stian Reimers
   3. Bridging the Gap: Enhancing Simulated Nursing Practice Through Engaging Online Learning | Jame Brailey and Thomas Hanley

2D [Posters x7] 

1. 1. Using COILs to encourage subject engagement: A case study with a marketing class | Dr Nilay Balkan
   2. Discover who your Link Lecturer is and how they can support you! A student support poster| Hannah Austen, Lucy Rogers, Bhavina Patel and Nadira Balkissoon
   3. Enhancing Learning Through Active Engagement in Therapeutic Manual Handling in Occupational Therapy | Miss Jeong Su Lee
   4. Using cultural capital to maximise student potential: a guide for personal tutors | Paul Sutton Reeves, Benjamin Evans, Roma Ivanauskaite, Naba Elsaid and Fred Scot
   5. Seeing is Believing: Enhancing Anatomical Understanding For Undergraduates Through Co-Designed Immersive Virtual Reality | Dr Amandeep Singh, Mahdi Alsahaf, Isaac Watts, Ekshimran Malhi and Sejung Park
   6. Graduate Attributes: recognising and developing skills | Helen Kempster, Ben Butler and Gemma Kenyon 
   7. Generative AI scenario development in Maritime Engineering Virtual Reality training | Artem Ivanov, Dave D Muir and Abdulla Tahhan

14:25 | Session three

3A [Lightening talk]

1. Turning Challenges into Opportunities: Launching Primary Care Simulation Sessions When Placement provisions Fell Short  | Mrs Tripti Chakraborty, Amy Donaldson-Perrott and Jay Cameron
2. Enhancing student engagement in engineering: hands-on assessment over traditional report writing | Dr Tala El Samad
3. The Moodle mystery of the Christmas crime – using gamification to engage staff in Moodle training | Kathryn Drumm
4. Modelling a formative feedback loop through Exercise > Forum > Feedback | Dr Jonathan Gibbs
5. Teaching to transgress: a case study in co-design methods in City’s Journalism Department | Ms Suyin Haynes
6. Worldskills Competence based approach for Enhanced student engagement | David Muir

3B [Papers x 3] 

1. Embedding Experiential Learning in a Public Relations module | Raluca Moise
2. Engaging Students in Feedback Design and Implementation: A Mosaic of Feedback Practices | Clare Tyrer and Stamatia Papathanasiou
3. Skill, Voice and Belonging in HE: reflections on co-designing a first-year transition module | Jacqueline Gibbs and Karen Graham

3C [Papers x3] 

1. 1. Student Partnerships – A User-Centric Approach | Lisa Liu, Alexandra Bandoc and David Ross
   2. Engaging Minds, Inspiring Participation: What Works Inside and Outside the Classroom | Maria Dymova
   3. Teaching to Transform: Engaging students in employability-focused ‘real world’ learning | Carline Watkinson and Frederica Mure

3D [Papers x3]

1. Working Together for Change: Strategic Approaches to Sustainability Education through Authentic Group-Based Assessments | Dominic Pates
2. Engaging Former Foundation Year Students in Appreciative Inquiry for Programme Development | Helen Spicer Cain
3. Student Experiences of Authentic Group-Based Alternatives for Dissertations: An Interpretivist Enquiry | Hyunsun Yoon, Dr. Zach Thompson (University of Tennesse, Knoxville), Dr. Rushana Khusainova (University of Bristol) and Dr. Paul Booth (University of Greenwich)

Session 3E [Workshop] Closing the BAME attainment gap through community and engagement activities | Lauren Regan and Shannon Precilla

15:25 | Break

15:35 | Session 4

Session 4A [Workshop] Building AI Chatbots for Roleplays, Student Support, and More | Professor Stian Reimers

Session 4B [Workshop] Engaging Live, sparkle to inspire : live interaction with you and your enthusiasm for your subject is an important element in learning. However some learners will have challenges when following and taking notes from live speech | Sandra Partington and Sylwia Frankowska-Takhari, Natalia Czuba

Session 4C [Papers x3]

1. Intersecting User Experience & Learning Design: Developing an introductory Digital Accessibility course for City St George’s staff | Matthew Green and Victoria Brew-Riverson
2. Technology Enhanced Learning boosts students’ engagement: Empirical findings from a prominent university in London | Christos Balafoutis and Jane Secker
3. Teaching towards ‘eudaimonia’: a creative pedagogy to engage students and better prepare them for life after university | Johanna Payton

Session 4D [Papers x2]

1. Engaged but not Motivated? A case for embedding coaching in STEM projects | Professor Shabnam Beheshti
2. Beyond Participation: Redefining PGR Engagement through Structured Development Initiatives | Dr ElHadj Moussa BenMoussa

Session 4E [Workshop] Developing the Graduate Attributes through assessment | Ben Butler, Gemma Kenyon and Helen Kempster

16:35 | Closing points and Celebrating awards of PGCE in Academic Practice and AdvanceHE fellowships (OTLT) | Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein

17:00 | Drinks (OTLT Foyer)