Being part of a well-functioning academic community is important for the students’ wellbeing, motivation and learning. The academic community can be anything from the class to the year group, several year groups or the entire degree programme, and it can include fellow students, teachers and other subject professionals. As a teacher, you can foster a good academic community for your students in many ways.
The first important step is to share your enthusiasm for your subject and the academic community you’re in – it’s contagious! Here are some other ways you can foster a good academic community for your students.
Experiences of success help students to realise that they are mastering their subject and that they belong. First-year students in particular may feel uncertain about their choice of degree programme and their own abilities, and they need to feel that they are on top of their academic work. That’s why it’s important to consider how you can create good conditions in your teaching for student success. For example, you can:
Get the students to contribute their knowledge and experience from previous courses or everyday life so that they feel that they have something to offer.
Articulate the skills and competences the students have developed on their degree programme and in their work on the subject. Putting into words the skills students have acquired can strengthen their affiliation and their academic identity.
Invite students to ask questions about anything they are puzzled about. This will reassure students that everyone has something they’re unsure about. It shows that it’s okay to be academically uncertain and that the whole point of university education is to ask questions about what you don’t understand. Students could ask questions anonymously on TaskCards or in Mentimeter, or by talking to a fellow student and together formulating a question for plenary discussion.
Acknowledge students’ uncertainties. The path to success experiences can be shorter if you acknowledge the students’ uncertainties. Make sure students know that they can only overcome their uncertainties by sharing them with others. This will improve the academic community.
By creating something together, students develop a common understanding of the academic material, cultivate their academic skills in a common context, and take ownership of the academic content and their own learning. For example, you can:
Create a joint subject resource in which students in the class or in groups produce joint notes, presentations, minutes or assignments. This will mean that they have to work together to build up a knowledge database and correct each other’s misunderstandings. They can also use their joint work to prepare for the exam. See how a teacher uses collaborative note-taking as a classroom activity.
Let students plan an academic activity in order to take joint ownership of the academic content. This could be a seminar day, an excursion, a theme day or something else entirely. See how a teacher involves students in running their own student seminars in which they present on topics of their own choice to the rest of the class.
Create a framework for online written collaboration, in which students give peer feedback on each other’s written submissions, compile texts together, or collaborate in some other way on a written product. Read more about online writing collaboration.
The academic community is not limited to the class, but extends out to the academic environment, across year groups, out to the department and to peers outside the university. By interacting with representatives from different parts of the academic community, students can get to know the community and the academic aspects better and find that they too have a place in this community. You can:
Ask students to investigate the subject field to gain an understanding of what subject specialists work on and what the degree programme can lead to. For example, students could interview researchers in the department or make a mind map of research areas. See how a teacher encourages students to gain an insight into academic competencies in practice.
Invite alums in to talk about the relevance of the subject outside the university and how students can apply the academic skills they acquire. This will also help to make the academic skills and competencies more visible to students. It is also motivating for students to have specific examples of jobs that the degree programme can lead to.
Set up a student café where students can meet for a set length of time each week (e.g. for three hours once a week). This can foster the academic community as well as academic dialogue and understanding. It also provides a forum for students to give and receive feedback. The idea behind a student café is to provide students with the opportunity to get help with their academic work or to discuss academic topics. Teaching staff, student instructors or older students should also attend the café sessions to help or talk to the students.
See how you can organise and launch a student café.
Propose a mentoring scheme that allows students to get support and build up academic relationships either one-to-one or in organised groups. See how you can organise a mentoring scheme.
Feedback can foster the academic community and the students’ academic identity because it helps students clarify what they know or do not know, and what they can or cannot do. This gives them a good basis for development. Feedback can also be an outset for success experiences.
You can also use peer feedback to help students practise their academic skills and develop their academic identity. By engaging in academic conversations with peers about how the discipline works, they also become part of an academic community.
Study groups are small academic communities in themselves that allow students to explore their subject more deeply in a secure setting. However, students in study groups work best if they have something specific to work on and a clear purpose for their collaboration, e.g. a specific task or issue.
It also often helps group collaboration if students agree on how they want to work together. You – and your students – can find tips for working in study groups in the collaboration section of AU Studypedia.
Group work can pose challenges on several levels and can intensify distress among students who are struggling. Not all students enjoy or are good at the kind of collaboration required by group work. Examples of situations lecturers have experienced:
That students lack collaboration skills.
That students lack a desire to collaborate.
That students have used their diagnosis as a justification for not participating in group work.
That students with different ethnic backgrounds were unwilling to be in the same group together.
That the behaviour of individual students can undermine group cohesion, for example when students are domineering or disengaged.
Before starting group work
Put some thought into how the groups are to be formed:
Should they be formed with or without your assistance?
Is being part of a group mandatory or voluntary? And is it possible for a student who prefers to work on their own to be exempted from group work?
Should there be requirements as to the number of students in each group?
It can be a good idea to formulate criteria and rules for forming groups together with your students. This can contribute to a shared understanding of how groups are to be formed, which often makes it easier for students to accept the framework for and composition of their groups.
During group work
Ask the students to begin their group work with an initial discussion to balance expectations. For example, you might ask the students in each group to discuss their expectations regarding:
Scheduling meetings and workload
Preparing for group work
Academic work in relation to socialising
Whether the group’s members will divide work among themselves or whether they will collaborate on everything
Whether the group needs a moderator
Monitor the progress of the groups.
Are you as a lecturer available to help if a group doesn’t function – Why/why not?
Is it possible for you to regularly check on any groups that are having difficulty and keep an eye on how their collaboration develops? If you as a lecturer don’t have the time and opportunity to do this, perhaps the groups could agree to partner up, so that the groups have a source of mutual support.
After group work
What went well, and what lessons have you learned that you can draw on next time?
Will you keep the same groups or form new ones next time?
Karin Scager, Johannes Boonstra, Ton Peeters, Jonne Vulperhorst, and Fred Wiegant (2017): Collaborative Learning in Higher Education: Evoking Positive Interdependence in: CBE- Life Sciences Education Vol. 15, No. 4
Christensen, G., Andersen, P. Ø., & Jepsen, K. D. B. (2019). Anvendelse af studiegrupper.
The content was developed by Simone Brendstrup from the Centre for Educational Development in collaboration with the Counselling and Support Centre and the Student Guidance Office (VEST).
Contact the editorial team behind AU Educate
Write to the AU Educate editorial team if you have questions about the content or need guidance regarding your teaching from one of the many skilled professionals at the Centre for Educational Development.
How can I support my students to experience academic successes?
How can we create something together as a class?
How can I support students to collaborate in study groups?
