About the project

This podcast project aimed to listen-in to conversations about blended learning. Our virtual 'listening room' brought together both students and staff, to reflect upon, discuss, and learn from the experiences of an extraordinary year to move to a place of understanding and of partnership.

How it worked

Unscripted conversations between pairs of Social Science students on a range of topics related to teaching and learning during 20/21 were recorded by our student podcast producers. A parallel process captured conversations between colleagues who teach within the Social Sciences, supported by staff members of the project team. These conversations formed the basis of a podcast series. At the end of the process students and staff were invited to come together in a virtual listening room to listen, learn, and consider the implications for blended learning.

Get involved

If you are a Social Science student or staff member we invite you to join the conversation. Please sign-up via our Listening@Warwick Expression of Interest form.

All students who participate will receive a £30 voucher to thank them for their time. Staff participants will be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 voucher.

Project Team

Project Co-Lead Dr Jennie Mills (ADC)	Project Co-Lead Dr Naomi Waltham-Smith (CIM)

Project Co-Lead Dr Letizia Gramaglia (WIHEA)	Project Co-Lead Will Haywood (CTE)

Project Team:

Grace Okutubo

Charlie Humphrey

Georgia Smithies

Technical/podcast consultant:

Jim Judges

If you would like more information on this project, please contact us at listening@warwick.ac.uk

Project Aims

• Added a more human dimension to survey-based evaluation data and SSLCs in order to create shared understanding. This project celebrated the power of individual experience, sharing personal stories of learning during lockdown in conversation to shape educational futures.
• Enabled students and staff to ‘speak truth to power’ by sharing ‘ground up’ knowledge outside of formal reporting structures.
• Produced a podcast series that captures the experiences, expertise, and aspirations of students and colleagues, with the hope that others might wish to replicate, adopt or adapt similar ways of listening to students and creating space for student voices to be heard within their own practice.

Project Timeline

• January 2021: Ethical approval gained
• April 2021: Student members of the project team recruited.
• May 2021: Social media campaigns launched. Recruitment of our podcast conversationalists. Production and editing; Dissemination.
• May 2021 - June 2021: Focus groups; Masterclass on how the Listening Project was created.
• June/July 2021: Final evaluation

Project Impact

• Gained insight into how students are experiencing blended learning. This was invaluable to support students in response to the more immediate demands of pandemic pedagogy, and considering which elements of blended learning have the ability to enhance student learning and outcomes as we re-shape the ‘new normal’, integrating the most powerful features of online learning with the strengths of on campus learning.
• Offered those individuals participating in the project the insights into the power of sharing ‘taken-for-granted’ experience and seeing experiences through the perspective of others
• Disseminated learning for the staff and student community, not only from the output of the project itself, but also the process of undertaking the project. We therefore created ‘how it was made’ materials to support colleagues to initiate and undertake similar projects in their own work.