Abstract
In the first weeks of the teaching all of our classrooms are full. Students are listening and waiting for the all-important assessment information. Once it is clear what needs to be done and the assignment deadlines approach, lectures and tutorials resemble ghost towns. While we, academics, understand the necessity and benefit of attendance and research has supported this (Kuh, 2001; Carini, Kuh & Klein, 2006, p. 2; Kahu, 2013), students have a different take on for several reasons. We decided after 3 years of ghost town culture in weeks 4-9 that if we want to revive our lectures and tutorials we need to change the students’ mind-set: showing the benefits of attending regularly and changing the focus of assessment by linking participation to formative and summative assessment. Participation and engagement have been connected with active learning. Chickering and Gamson (1987) emphasised that ‘Active learning and participation is encouraged in classes that use structured exercises, challenging discussions, team projects, and peer critiques. Active learning can also occur outside the classroom’. However, lecture-based types of approaches, which very much dominate academic teaching, do not often advance active learning and participation and as a fact are mainly based on students observing and passively learning. This PDW (Professional Development Workshop) will focus on challenges academics experience and should stimulate discussions around potential solutions such as the use of innovative inclusive strategies based on the elements of motivation and reward.