“How was it for you?” The impacts of student-staff partnerships in developing online teaching and learning

The seemingly relentless drive across Higher Education (HE) Institutions to integrate both face-to-face and online forms of delivery to create blended approaches to teaching and learning shows little sign of abating. Yet, as blended forms of delivery become increasingly prevalent, existing literature suggests that the perspectives and experiences of students often remain overlooked. This article adopts the position that students are expertly situated to provide insider perspectives that are not always accessible to, or recognised by, those implementing these developments, with regular, intentional attempts to draw upon students’ views and perspectives remaining under-utilised and infrequent. Alongside similar studies internationally, this article reveals the potential of establishing collaborative partnerships between students and staff through a process of pedagogic consultancy to better-inform improvements to curriculum and programme design. Employing a participatory action research methodology, this article explores and analyses the lived experiences of ten undergraduate students and five academic staff members working in student-staff partnership (SSP) within a UK HE context. Findings largely endorse the use of SSP, indicating positive implications for promoting student empowerment, improvements in understanding and engagement, and the overall student experience. However, questions are raised relating to an apparent disconnect between differing epistemologies of staff and some students, the legitimacy and agency of student-researchers, and how SSP can be introduced as part of programme delivery in an authentic way. The authors advocate establishing SSP as part of provision, with the caveat that there must be broader institutional buy-in and robust infrastructure in place for it to be successful.