The European project Fostering Student Engagement through AI-driven Qualitative Quality Assurance Practices (Qual-AI-ty Engagement) hosted the Qual-AI-ty Bootcamp on 8th and 9th of February. These two-day online co-creation workshops brought higher education quality assurance officers to reflect on how to integrate “student engagement with society” as a dimension of quality in higher education. The Qual-AI-ty Bootcamp was a space for exchanging experiences, perspectives, and envisions how to foster a culture of quality on student engagement with society. Dean, professor Elīna Gaile-Sarkane and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, professor Inga Lapiņa participated in the Bootcamp and shared their thoughts and vision on the topic.
Qual-AI-ty Engagement is an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships project initiated in 2021 to empower quality assurance staff to take a more proactive role in fostering student engagement with society. For this purpose, the project will develop a collaborative machine-learning-based platform to assess, analyse, and graphically showcase student feedback about the impacts of engagement with society. The project will also empower universities and quality assurance staff to successfully create innovative student engagement strategies to increase their societal impact.
The Qual-AI-ty Bootcamp was initially planned as an onsite event at the University of Twente. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was adapted to an online format keeping the focus on a hands-on experience. The main objective was to co-create a vision and define the requirements for embedding student engagement with society in the quality assurance frameworks of higher education institutions, supported by qualitative data analysed through artificial intelligence tools. The development of the Bootcamp allowed quality assurance staff from different countries to exchange knowledge and share experiences with the project consortium. The Bootcamp allowed envisioning information requirements for assessing student engagement with society and a comprehensive Qual-AI-ty Assessment Model to drive student engagement with society. This will be the basis for developing policy and artificial intelligence tools that promote student engagement with society proactively and contribute to the convergence of policy and practice in quality assurance in the EU.
In the Qual-AI-ty Bootcamp participated higher education staff involved in quality assurance and accreditation from Germany (Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities - ACEEU), Latvia (Riga Technical University), Malta (Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology – MCAST), and Spain (University of Santiago de Compostela). We had a diversity of profiles such as Accreditation Coordinator, Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs, Deputy Director for Quality Assurance, Quality Assurance Manager, Career Advisor, Strategic Planning Director, among others. All of the participants engaged in the discussion, the co-creation exercises and the definition of priorities and requirements for implementing student engagement with society in higher education.
The event was organized by the consortium developing the project: Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities – ACEEU, European Consortium for Accreditation in Higher Education ECA, FEEM RTU, Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology – MCAST and University of Twente.
Download the Qual-AI-ty Bootcamp Facilitators’ Guide with all the details here.
Website of the project.
