Abstract

Educational frameworks in HE are enhanced with practice-based learning tackling real-world issues. Knowledge Exchange (KE), important to this shift, encompasses multi-directional knowledge sharing within the learning triad of a student, a facilitator and an external partner. Students are a catalyst here and this paper adopts a mixed-method approach to investigate how media and communications students perceive and experience KE as part of their Final Major Project.

Session and activities

The overarching question introduced in the session is: “How do students perceive and experience knowledge exchange in the context of GLAM sector partnerships?” Report on evaluating student engagement in KE notes advantages for students, including securing future employment, as well as positive impacts delivered by students such as generating cultural change by altering perceptions of partners (SQW report for OfS and RE, 2023). The session explores the multidimensional benefits of KE for students, course teams and partner organisations, and the value of students bringing fresh perspectives to real industry challenges. It examines how KE influences student learning and employability, and how students understand their personal ‘added value’, contributions from a generational (Gen Z) and creative practice perspective, considering if and how the storytelling of their own backgrounds, and senses of belonging are integrated into their projects. Potential obstacles in the process are considered. The session provides participants with a valuable case study on students working in an agile way through short cycles of continuous development of ideas, client feedback and reflection. The study undertakes a mixed-methods approach (observations, interviews and focus groups, and projects’ mapping), adopting the Student-Led Knowledge Exchange (SLKE) model, proposed by Cotton et al. (2024). This triangulation aims to capture a holistic view of the case study considering how such initiatives are understood by students as well as to examine the applicability of the SLKE model in creative and interdisciplinary fields. The findings contribute to understandings around research and teaching KE, educational strategies, emphasising the value of students’ creativity, experience and diversity as core elements in the process, furthering existing research on the role of students in KE, with a specific focus on the GLAM and creative sectors.