Spinnaker Group: quietly making a difference to teaching and learning and student experience

Back in 2017, I founded the Spinnaker Group to share good practice among colleagues with strategic responsibility for teaching, learning and student experience in institutions across the sector.

At that time there was nothing else that enabled dissemination of institutional research and to build understanding on important L&T and student experience issues that was not mission-group specific, so a forum bringing UK-based colleagues together to discuss ideas and outlook specifically on the student journey was much needed. 

The group has generally operated under the radar, in the sense that we meet around twice a year, at a volunteer member’s institution, or virtually, together with a simple web page, but nothing more overt than that.  

However, we have grown and are expanding, with currently 68 member institutions and links with key sector organisations such as Advance HE and QAA.  

So, as we approach our next group meeting on 16-17 May, a face-to-face event at The University of Buckingham, I wanted to reflect on the work we have done and its impact to date. 

Clarity of purpose from the beginning 

Our first meeting was held at the University of Portsmouth in July 2017. We had university speakers on delivering excellence in teaching and student experience, measuring learning gain: implications for development, enhancement and evaluation, and simulated learning.  

We also had a lengthy discussion on our purpose. The group felt that networking, observing another institution’s approaches and examples of best practice, and having speakers as a stimulus at that meeting had all been valuable and useful.  

It was suggested that future meetings could have a theme. Based on the theme, members could then pitch to host; choose to attend, or suggest attendance by another more relevant colleague from their institution; or give a presentation. It was also tabled that presentations might take the form of speed dating or lightning sessions, as well as more traditional presentations.  

The ‘expert’ guest speaker we have subsequently had for our pre-meeting dinner has become a distinctive and welcome feature of what we do – and the topic is then the focus of the next day’s meetings, presentation and further discussions. 

We did explore advocating on issues, but noted this might prove difficult via-a-vis institutional and mission group positions on sector issues. It was agreed, however, that there may be outputs to come out of meetings on particular themes, including sector-facing articles such as this one, and the most popular topics agreed would form the focus of future meetings. 

Bringing together resources on key topics in one place 

As well as covering a range of topics, including TEF, academic integrity, and student wellbeing, we have created a number of bilateral connections and collaborations including assessment and feedback, and personal tutoring.  

Following a member’s presentation on personal tutoring, I invited them to present to our personal tutor forum and I incorporated elements (e.g. the use of solution-focused coaching) from their published work (Lochtie et al, 2018) into the developing Personal Tutoring and Development Framework at the University of Portsmouth.  

One of our university member institutions recently reported they are currently reviewing and revising their student feedback mechanisms and personal tutoring system. Having the opportunity to discuss the merits, pitfalls and resource requirements of different approaches with this group has helped them to refine their thinking and given them a better understanding of what has worked (or not worked) elsewhere. It is these ‘snippets’ from Spinnaker that have been incredibly valuable throughout our seven years. 

Other subject matter has included student success as part of widening participation, student feedback, mental health, mitigating circumstances, raising social capital, extra award schemes, and engaging the ‘middle layer’ of students.  

At our next meeting we will be discussing an active workshop approach, enABLe, the University of Portsmouth’s team-based learning design process; introducing members to other work that has recently been completed: Compendium of good practice on embedding wellbeing into the curriculum; and showcasing an approach which has been introduced successfully at institutions across the sector: mission-driven entrepreneurship with the Common Mission Project (UK).

Here for colleagues when they most need it 

The sector’s ‘Covid response’ is a well-written story, of course, but the Spinnaker community really came into its own during that period.  

In 2020, I hosted virtual meetings on teaching, learning and the student experience during lockdown. Sharing our plans, issues and resources for 2020-21 fed into my Learning and Teaching Workstream work at the University of Portsmouth, including inclusion of resources on our support website and attendance at events.  

Generally, Spinnaker has been described by members as “an excellent forum to kick-around ideas and gather feedback and insights from colleagues working on similar challenges across UK Higher Education”, how it has “renewed enthusiasm for driving positive change for students during some of the most difficult and challenging times in our sector”, and led to “lifelong collegial friendships” and relationships which have been utilised further in educational enhancement projects outside of the group. 

It is an inclusive, non-hierarchical group, and as one member told me “it is less to do with your job title and more to do with your ideas and sense of collaboration.” For those that are able to make an institutional difference, this is key, as regardless of time in post or experience, Spinnaker is a friendly and safe environment where experiences, views and opinions on education and the broader student experience are readily shared and warmly received.