If we think the mentality of UK students is changing with the introduction of higher fees then let us further consider the implications of them being consumers of education. It could be argued with the traditional didactic lecture and reading list format that students have little choice but to consume (as in absorb) to achieve learning, but there’s little universal pedagogical support for this.

Students do produce one thing; the essay, many of them. But putting this summative and irksome artefact to one side, why don’t students produce all the way through their education? There is a stack of evidence that suggests engaging students to construct and co-create is how they learn successfully. There’s little wrong with a bit of homework but by pushing that further, why not engage students in producing educational content or better still, work with academic staff to design their entire undergraduate programmes. This is what University of Lincoln is trying, with a grant from the Higher Education Academy, and it looks very interesting:

Student as Producer emphasises the role of the student as collaborators in the production of knowledge. The capacity for Student as Producer is grounded in the human attributes of creativity and desire, so that students can recognise themselves in a world of their own design. Undergraduate students will work alongside staff in the design and delivery of their teaching and learning programmes, and in the production of work of academic content and value.

Student as Producer
http://studentasproducer.lincoln.ac.uk/

This poster was designed to be presented at the Conference for the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Liverpool in October 2010.