Awarded Projects 2024/25

Introduction

The Public and Community Engagement Module Development Fund supports projects which develop new opportunities for students to learn about and practise public or community engagement within taught modules. Students are employed as co-creators to design these opportunities with staff, and some projects involve partners in the design phase too.

On this page you can read about projects funded in 2024-25.

Enhancing case creation through engaging people with lived experience

Dawn Collins, Nick Hopcroft, Hollie White, Kate Owen, Lindsay Muscroft, Michele Gutteridge, Jackie Shanley (WMS), WMS Students & community and patient partners

Case-based learning (CBL) is the signature small-group learning approach utilised across WMS since it enables the patient/population to remain the focal point of learning.  In the final year Health and Medical Sciences (HMS) course module: Advanced Cases, students create their own CBL cases and supporting academic material, demonstrating holistic understanding of a health problem.

This project will significantly enhance the student experience by enabling them to work with volunteer members of local community and patient groups (people with lived experience – PWLE) creating a bespoke set of recorded interviews with an authentic voice, to enhance the development of their cases.

Students will undertake workshops to develop active listening and communication skills, designing cases that incorporate the authentic PWLE voice, and on developing appropriate question proformas to send volunteers prior to recording sessions.

By engaging with students, PWLE volunteers gain the opportunity to reflect on and verbalise their experience, and to work alongside the student to ensure authenticity and accuracy of created case material. Through these partnerships we hope to create a significant library of PWLE journeys to embed in CBL/teaching across WMS and the wider university.

Science and public engagement

Sophie Martucci, Christine Lockey, Ian Edwards (School of Life Sciences), School of Life Sciences Year 2 Students & Herbert Art Gallery and Museum

The aim of this module is to develop the public engagement skills of Life Sciences year two undergraduate students through a series of interactive workshops. Students will learn the importance of public engagement in science and how to tailor activities to their audience with regards to a number of different public engagement activities. Such activities may include public talks, museum displays, social media and co-production projects, but this module will also encourage students to focus on how to evaluate the success and measure impact of their events.

The module will provide students with the opportunity to work as a team to design, develop and deliver a public engagement event at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry. Students will also be supported in reflecting on their skill development, the delivery of the activity and consider what was successful and highlight any areas for improvement. This is intended to help students continue to develop their public engagement skills beyond the end of the module.

From classroom to community: enhancing engineering skills through public engagement

Ishwar Kapoor (Engineering) & Warwick Students

Supported by the Warwick Institute of Engagement (WIE), this project integrates innovative public engagement activities into undergraduate engineering research project modules. The project emphasises the importance of effectively communicating technical concepts to non-technical audiences - a highly valued skill in the engineering industry.

Student ambassadors will play a central role by creating interactive learning resources and delivering workshops at local schools. These sessions simplify complex engineering topics, such as materials science, through hands-on demonstrations and relatable analogies. This approach not only inspires younger audiences but also enhance the ability of ambassadors to communicate effectively.

In addition, ambassadors will collaborate with local companies to gain insights into the public engagement skills employers value. This ensures that the resources developed are aligned with industry expectations and provide ambassadors with practical experience in professional communication.

The feedback and responses gathered through these activities will be used to enhance learning materials for research project modules within the School of Engineering. Students involved in these modules will gain valuable public engagement and employability skills while making a meaningful contribution to the community.

Serious Tabletop Game Design and Development

Devon Allcoat (WMG) & Warwick Students

Serious Tabletop Game Design and Development is an IATL module where students get to turn their subject expertise into a serious game. This module is an opportunity to master serious play. Students learn about the mechanics, messages, and motivations of serious games in order to build their own educational tabletop game influenced by their Warwick degree. Through a range of learning activities, from seminars, games and simulations, and online vlogs, students develop an understanding of serious games, and an appreciation for the creating and testing of game play. They have the opportunity to critically explore the relationship between games and student learning and motivation. 

We want students to be inspired by their Warwick degree, turn their knowledge into play. They get to achieve this through the design and development a serious tabletop game. They can even get a prototype of their game created and demonstrate it to members of the public.

Social Welfare Law and the Community

Rebecca Munro & Tara Mulqueen (School of Law), School of Law Students & social welfare law practitioners

Warwick Law in the community will use this funding to co-create

a new and innovative module:  Social Welfare Law and the Community. This module is being developed in collaboration with students and social welfare law practitioners from across the community, with the goal of enriching legal education through real-world engagement and practical experience.

Social Welfare Law and the Community will offer students the opportunity to gain a deep and critical understanding of key areas of social welfare law, including housing, welfare benefits, community care, and education. The module goes beyond the classroom, placing a strong emphasis on public and community engagement. Students will learn from academic staff and guest speakers, including practitioners from partner organisations such as the Central England Law Centre. These sessions will provide valuable insights into the practical challenges and everyday realities of working in the field of social welfare law. A key component of the assessment will be a policy report, written in collaboration with partner organisations addressing pressing social welfare law issues.

The funding has supported a student-led process to co-create the module. Students have contributed through research, interviews with social welfare practitioners, and the planning of an online workshop that will bring together practitioners and academics working in the field. The workshop will gather insights into the current state of the profession, including the impact of legal aid cuts and the shortage of social welfare lawyers, helping to shape the final design and delivery of the module.

Social Welfare Law and the Community seeks to address urgent challenges facing the sector, and to inspire the next generation of lawyers committed to social welfare law.

Globalisation, diversity and public engagement: Putting theory into practice through podcasting as module assessment

Stephanie Schnurr, Duncan Lees, Matthew Turner, Marianna Patrick, Yvette Wang, Joel Agius, Diana Wang, and VC Zhang (Applied Linguistics)

This project is a collaboration between staff, PGT and PGR students in Applied Linguistics with the aim to redesign one of our current MSc modules on "Globalisation and Diversity in the Workplace." Introducing the design and production of a podcast as an assignment, this module will enable students to understand and carry out public engagement and equip them with increasingly relevant professional skills.

As part of our MSc in Intercultural Communication for Business and the Professions, the module has long emphasised putting theory into practice by applying scholarship and research to real-life contexts. The new podcasting assignment directly addresses these aims, by encouraging students to put theory into practice while drawing upon their own interests and resources and sharing different voices. The podcasts will be published and made available to a wide audience beyond the university, furthering their reach and becoming a public showcase of what the students have achieved.