IL939-20 Public Engagement

Department: Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning
Level: Taught Postgraduate Level
Module leader: Naomi Kay
Credit value: 20
Module duration: 10 weeks
Assessment: 100% coursework
Study location: University of Warwick main campus, Coventry

Introductory description

Public Engagement is about working with those outside academia to share research, collaborate on ideas and make knowledge accessible. Through the design, planning and delivery of your own public engagement activity you’ll build your communication, team working and project management skills. You’ll explore subjects like evaluation, digital engagement, effective storytelling and placemaking and come away with the confidence and skills to apply this learning to future research, and careers outside academia. This module will give you a theoretical and practical introduction to public engagement. You’ll come away with a strong knowledge of complex challenges involved, and the rewards it can bring to you, universities and society.

Module aims

This interdisciplinary module aims to give you both a theoretical and practical introduction to public engagement so that you can better understand the complex challenges involved in sharing research with a non HEI audience. To achieve this, the module will:

Introduce you to the concept of good PE from the perspective of several disciplines
Develop your understanding of interdisciplinary theories and issues related to PE
Enable you to discover, research, and experiment with different methods of PE, and in particular their effectiveness with different communities.
Contribute to a culture of PE across the university
Help you effectively articulate the relevance of your own subject area to society, and identify to which parts of society your subject area has most relevance
Allow you to explore how to measure good engagement
Engage you with innovative and active learning. You will design and deliver a PE activity and reflect upon this experience.
It will facilitate student-led events that will be mutually beneficial to you and the communities/demographics/sites you engage with.

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Public engagement is about connecting ourselves to those around us. It requires an ability to translate complex ideas, an understanding of different people and their needs, and a requirement for actively listening to their contributions. This module aims to explore the theoretical and practical skills students need to do public engagement to a high standard, explored through an interdisciplinary lens.

You'll be taught through a series of 10 2 hour seminar sessions which will include talks, panel discussions, interactive tasks with peers from a range of departments, and getting involved with engagement yourself. You'll be taught by a diverse group of module tutors who bring a variety of expertise and experience to the module.

Topics covered:
What is Engagement/ The Engagement Sector
Who are the public
Evaluating Engagement
Online Engagement
Planning Engagement and Reflective Practice
Collaboration and Co-Production
Presentation skills
Getting Hands On with Engagement
Activity Design

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

1. Synthesise transdisciplinary perspectives of public engagement into an interdisciplinary understanding of public engagement techniques and approaches, an how these relate to your own field of study.
2. Demonstrate a thorough awareness of the role of community involvement, stakeholder engagement, and public consultation when developing and delivering research led solutions for societal issues (e.g. environmental)
3. Produce digital engagement pieces that demonstrate an ability to communicate ideas and topics to a lay audience
4. Engage with a series of tools and techniques for planning and evaluating effective engagement to develop your own engagement activity
5. Reflect on your own engagement practice to identify strengths and weaknesses, and how to capitalise on/ mitigate for these in future engagement activities.
6. Demonstrate relevant engagement skills in the delivery of a two-way engagement activity.

Indicative reading list

General wider, recommended reading

NCCPE resources https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/resources
Research for All journal https://www.uclpress.co.uk/pages/research-for-all

1 - What is engagement?
NCCPE Webpage: https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/about-engagement/what-public-engagement
Warwick Institute of Engagement Webpage: https://warwick.ac.uk/wie/studentsengage/skillsfestival-pg/whatisengagement/
1 paper from Research for All relating to an engagement example from your own discipline https://www.uclpress.co.uk/pages/research-for-all

2: What is the role of a university?
From homework club to social justice: Critical reflections on student volunteering through the examination of a school–university partnership https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.18546/RFA.02.1.08

Community-University Engagement : a process for building democratic communities https://encore.lib.warwick.ac.uk/iii/encore/record/C__Rb3034035

Wellcome Trust report on the state of PE in 2015 https://wellcome.org/sites/default/files/wtp060034.pdf

Monitoring and Evaluation of City of Culture inc. interim reports on Coventry 2021 and methodology https://warwick.ac.uk/about/cityofculture/monitoring/

3: The engagement sector
Knowledge exchange or research impact – what is the difference between REF and KEF? https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/05/20/knowledge-exchange-or-research-impact-what-is-the-difference-between-ref-and-kef/ (blog)

NCCPE - working with museums and libraries https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/do-engagement/partnership-working/working-with-museums-and-libraries

4: Audiences
WIE guide on audiences: https://warwick.ac.uk/wie/studentsengage/skillsfestival-pg/audience/audiencedevelopment/

Developing resources for schools - look up the section relating to your own subject: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-framework-for-key-stages-1-to-4/the-national-curriculum-in-england-framework-for-key-stages-1-to-4

5: Effective presentations
WIE: https://warwick.ac.uk/wie/studentsengage/skillsfestival-pg/practicalskills/storytelling/
WIE: https://warwick.ac.uk/wie/studentsengage/skillsfestival-pg/practicalskills/presentingdata/

6: Online engagement

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/public-engagement-in-the-digital-environment-opportunities-and-challenges-for-arts-and-humanities-researchers

https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/30115

7: Co-production and collaborative projects -
NCCPE: https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/do-engagement/partnership-working/partnership-working-principles
Book: Co-producing research: A community development approach, Banks, Hart, Pahl, Ward
E-BOOK: Citizen science : innovation in open science, society and policy / edited by Susanne Hecker, Muki Haklay, Anne Bowser, Zen Makuch, Johannes Vogel & Aletta Bonn Https://encore.lib.warwick.ac.uk/iii/encore/record/C__Rb3425248

Developing a methodology for public engagement with critical research https://0-journals-sagepub-com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/doi/10.1177/1478210317739521

8: Planning engagement
NCCPE - Planning for engagement https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/do-engagement/quality-engagement/about-quality-engagement

9: Evaluation
What is theory of change? https://www.theoryofchange.org/what-is-theory-of-change/

WIE Evaluation guide: https://warwick.ac.uk/wie/studentsengage/skillsfestival-pg/evaluation/evaluationguide/

The Development and Use of a Theory of Change to Align Programs and Evaluation in a Complex, National Initiative https://0-journals-sagepub-com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/doi/10.1177/1098214018778132

City of Culture Evaluation strategy - https://warwick.ac.uk/about/cityofculture/researchresources/2021-pme-strategy-jan20-online.pdf

10: N/A

Research element

In line with the University’s Research and Education Strategies, this interdisciplinary module aims to provide students with the skills and confidence to engage communities with their research and maximise their impact on society. It will encourage community-minded thinking about research and upskill today’s students to be able to effectively identify societal needs and challenges. Students will be empowered to see how research can address these challenges, and to understand the value of open communication with a variety of audiences and the skills required for this.

Interdisciplinary

Students will consider public engagement through multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives. The mix of module leaders (from School of Modern Languages and Warwick Institute of Engagement) will attend all sessions to integrate and stimulate the interdisciplinary learning, and each week interactive lectures and/or workshops will be led by a subject specialist,

International

Examples of public engagement will be shared from around the world, enabling students to gain a global perspective of public engagement.

Subject specific skills

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

Appreciate the value of adopting interdisciplinary approaches and research methods for understanding global topics such as engaging publics in research.
Understand how applying public engagement practice to their own research may shape the direction the research takes and improve their projects.
Comprehend how to utilise the communicative and collaborative skills used in the module in their professional life.
Comprehend how society can benefit from ongoing efforts to include diverse audiences in the future of research.
Develop their transferable skills (i.e. impactful multimodal communication, project management, work with specialist and non-specialist participants) that will support future endeavours in the workplace.
Demonstrate the ability to critically reflect on the personal development of their skills and experiences throughout this module.

Transferable skills

Understand how to apply public engagement practice to future research
Use oral and written communication skills acquired in the module in their professional life
Comprehend how society can benefit from ongoing efforts to include diverse audiences in the future of research
Understand how to apply skills acquired on the module (e.g. impactful multimodal communication, project management, working with a specialist and non-specialist participants) to support future endeavours in the workplace.
Use resources in a transdisciplinary manner to comprehend and communicate concepts and ideas to the public.

Study time

Type	Required
Seminars	10 sessions of 2 hours (10%)
Online learning (independent)	10 sessions of 2 hours (10%)
Other activity	8 hours (4%)
Assessment	152 hours (76%)
Total	200 hours

Private study description

No private study requirements defined for this module.

Other activity description

In addition to the timetabled teaching activities students will need to take part in a presentation assessment day in July where they will present their event, and listen to their peers presentations.

Costs

No further costs have been identified for this module.

You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.

Assessment group A

	Weighting	Study time	Eligible for self-certification
Digital engagement pieces	25%	32 hours	Yes (extension)
Produce a digital engagement piece aimed at other postgraduate students about what public engagement is, why we engage, how you can engage audiences online. You should demonstrate as part of the assessment that you have researched principles of high quality public engagement and applied them to you chosen format. We will accept submissions in the form of social media posts/ videos/ images, vlogs or audio podcasts as well as written blogs. We'd expect for videos/ podcasts etc to be between 3-7 minutes, and written pieces should be around 1,000 words. You must provide a bibliography alongside your submission which shows the academic sources that underpin your piece, including the public engagement theory you have explored that's influenced how you've chosen to engage your audience through this online format.
Deliver a live public engagement activity	50%	80 hours	Yes (extension)
Students should develop a public engagement activity to engage an external audience of their choosing with a topic of their choosing. This should be an opportunity to showcase how they have taken on board the knowledge developed during the course and are able to apply it to live engagement activities. Students can collaborate in groups to produce events where they have a shared audience in mind. A small budget will be available from WIE to cover the costs of activities. Potential activities students could explore Deliver a public engagement talk, stand or interactive activity (for example as part of the WIE organised festival, in a school, or as part of another public event) Run workshops or meetings with community groups or partners to explore how they could collaborate on future projects/ ideas (these projects could be used for future summer engagement projects) Produce a digital engagement campaign and demonstrate how you've worked to build an audience and interaction with this Having completed this event students will need to present to the group about their activity. Where students have worked collaboratively for their live event they will still need to present to the group individually, making it clear what their contribution was. To allow students time to complete their live events and prepare the presentation this assessment will not take place until the summer. Students will have the option to present via Teams or in person to allow for students who may not be at the university during the summer to still take part. Students should allow 10 minutes for their presentation and 5 minutes for questions. Their reflective report will be submitted alongside their presentation, allowing them to make reference to it.
Produce a reflective journal	25%	40 hours	Yes (extension)
Keep a journal about the process of planning, delivering, and evaluating a public engagement activity. This should be a reflection of your learning about transdisciplinary public engagement and it's role in society, as well as the process of putting together an activity and your experiences of this. Along with reflections of how you're engaging with the publics involved and finally your event evaluation showing what you've learnt and would change next time.

Feedback on assessment

Written feedback at all stages. Formative feedback will be given on the first digital output submitted.

Courses

This module is Option list A for:

Year 1 of TIPA-LA9Z Postgraduate Taught Community, Engagement and Belonging (MASc)

This module is Option list B for:

Year 1 of TGDA-L801 Postgraduate Taught Global Sustainable Development