• Reflections on a specific approach to teaching, innovative practice, or application of technology that draws on student engagement practices. For example, perhaps you’ve made use of wikis to promote student engagement, or a student partnership initiative.

• Reflecting on, and sharing, a resource you’ve developed that may be of interest to a broader audience (e.g. a resource, or an approach to student engagement development)

• Offering a provocative perspective or call to action on an aspect of student engagement or the student experience about which you feel passionate (e.g. widening participation, inclusivity, or employability)

• Considering the content and your reflections on a conference, professional development event, or a book/article related to student engagement

 

We also welcome other ideas that may not fit into the above categories, so long as they are focused on an aspect of student engagement as per RAISE’s definition.

 

Audience

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• The RAISE Student Blog is freely available on the web to students, staff, parents and anyone else with any interest in the area, so you should ensure the content is written with that in mind. This may include some brief explanation of a scheme or project, so that anyone can understand it.

• When framing the blog post, think about the audiences and academic communities to whom it may appeal.

• When writing content, think about how happy you would be for staff and students across the University community to read the blog, and for the blog post to be shared on external platforms (e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram) by other readers.

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Written style

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• Use the first person and adopt a friendly, conversational style.

• Ensure the focus or rationale for the blog post is obvious to the reader in the opening few sentences.

• You may want to use a numbered blog post (e.g. five lessons learned about online engagement)

• Alternatively, you could structure the post around a reflective model such as Borton (1970):

  • What? – What happened / what did I do?

  • So what? – What is the significance of this? What difference does this make to my understanding?

  • Now what? – What will this mean in terms of future actions, for me and others? What will I do differently as a result?

• You may want to use subheadings to structure the post.

• Consider including hyperlinks to useful information or sources that support or provide context for your blog post. For accessibility reasons, ensure links are descriptive rather than simply inserting the URL.

• Avoid using student names and information that is specific to the University (e.g. module codes or acronyms)

• Identify a blog post title that will capture the attention of potential readers

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Word count

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• Blog posts can be up to 500 words maximum.

• Alternatively, you could submit an audio file or video that captures your experience; if you wish to do so, then please do state this in your expression of interest form. We can then discuss these proposals further with you.

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Using Images

 

Should you wish to use specific images or diagrams within your blog post, these must be high quality for use on the web.

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You must be aware of copyright. Images must be covered by one of the following:

• the image is original and for which you own the rights;

• you have agreed rights with the image copyright owner;

• it is a public domain image and with no copyright; or

• the image is available for use under a Creative Commons licence.

• For accessibility reasons, avoid looping animations, slide transitions, flashing images, or other persistent movement effect.

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Advancing your blog with our journal

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If your blog documents an experience with a particularly large or innovative project, we may ask if you want to develop your post into a full, 2000 word article for the ‘Student Voice’ section of the Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal (SEHEJ).

Developing your blog post into SEHEJ Student Voice article will be supported and reviewed by the Editorial Team. If it is your first time submitting a journal article, you may also be linked with an experienced mentor to help guide you through the writing and submission process.

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Further queries

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If you have any further queries about the RAISE Student Blog or how to submit, please contact: raise@newcastle.ac.uk

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