Overlooking the voice of students is prevalent throughout higher education. Though strides have been made to create and include representative roles for students (i.e., student councils, student government associations, student representatives on boards and committees, and alumni participation), true student partnerships remain relatively absent, especially in critical teaching and learning decisions, despite the evidence of benefit to all involved (Mercer-Mapstone et al., 2017; Matthews & Dollinger, 2022). One of these critical teaching and learning areas where student voice and partnership is often missing is course design. Integrating the human intelligence of student lived experience and expertise into course design and resulting delivery creates a more relevant, dynamic, and innovative learning environment. In addition, design partnerships prioritize relationships in learning and teaching honoring liberatory educational pedagogy, a needed priority as we engage in an ever increasing diverse and complex global learning environment. Despite design partnerships potential benefits to higher education, the integration of student voice into design is not always supported or understood by higher education institutions, resulting in the missing voice of students. Such partnerships require interdisciplinary thought and coordination between instructional designers, professors, learning management systems, students, and pedagogy centers. This presentation will discuss theories and principles that guide this work; relevant higher education course design literature; student professor course design partnerships; initial data findings of student and faculty perspectives after participating in partnership experiences; and ways of integrating student voice into course design.

Authors:
Ann Obermann, Metropolitan State University of Denver, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Ann Obermann PhD LCSW is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Metropolitan State University of Denver: Denver, Colorado USA.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-opderbecke-obermann-lcsw-phd-1a0b017/

See this presentation on the full schedule – Friday Schedule

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