Summary

Active learning is a student-centred approach to education that develops in learners the attributes employers seek in 21^st-century graduates. Active learning also closely aligns with many of the priority-enabling strategies pervading Higher Education in the UK, such as embedding Education for Sustainable Development, work-integrated learning, flexible and authentic assessment, student partnerships and co-creation, and belonging and mattering. Recognising its crucial role, Manchester Metropolitan University in the north of England, UK, has placed transformative active learning at the core of its education strategy. To realise that ambitious goal, an institution-wide Innovation Scholar Scheme has been established. In this chapter we describe and explain the scheme and its thematic structure, and illustrate selected applications through a series of thematic case studies. We discuss outputs and impacts of the scheme and identify areas of challenge and opportunity. We close with some ‘takeaways’ for institutions considering a similar path.

Introduction

Active learning is a constructivist student-centred approach to education (Erbil, 2020) that emphasises student engagement and participation in meaningful learning activities, interactions and experiences (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). This is in contrast to the traditional view of passive learning largely through didactic transmission (Prince, 2004). Active learning is rooted in Dewey’s (1963) concept of ‘learning by doing’, and it enables and empowers students to take ownership and ‘construct’ their own knowledge. Constructivism in active learning is essential for realising learning gains (Andrews et al., 2017) and can promote higher order thinking through exploration and application of new knowledge (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). Active learning is often collaborative, providing opportunities to promote peer learning through social integration (Vygotsky, 1978).

Strategies that embed active learning in curricula have gained significant traction in Higher Education (HE) in recent years. These call for learning environments that actively involve students in their learning through structured activities designed to foster engagement and provide ample opportunity for students to reflect, evaluate, and act based on feedback (Cullen & McCabe, 2022). Thus, contributions from both students and teachers are required for active learning to be effective (Middleton, 2022) and this shared responsibility is not without challenge. Integrating active learning in HE curricula is challenging for a variety of reasons including pedagogical and disciplinary complexities, influences of market forces and financial pressures, implications for staff development, power relations, and physical infrastructure constraints. There is also some conceptual confusion for staff and students (Prince, 2004; Børte et al., 2023), and there are inherent difficulties in evaluating efficacy and obtaining meaningful metrics. These and other barriers are considered in-depth by Børte et al. (2023).

Despite challenges, there is extensive empirical evidence of the powerful intrinsic benefits of active learning approaches (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). These are explored at length by Prince (2004), and include enhancements in long-term information retention (Ruhl et al., 1987), individual and collective academic achievement through improved engagement (Astin, 1993), inter-personal skills, social integration, confidence and self-esteem (Johnson et al., 1998), diversity awareness and cultural literacy (Nicholson et al., 2023), and problem solving and critical thinking skills (Prince, 2004). Furthermore, active learning approaches equip students to enter the workplace as highly skilled, adaptable graduates capable of critical thinking and self-management, and in this sense, they are very employable (Kember & Leung, 2005).

It is in this context that Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom has placed active learning at the heart of its education strategy. In this chapter, we set out a unique institutional approach to ensuring successful implementation of active learning through our Innovation Scholar Scheme. We provide background and details for the scheme, and illustrate its application across several themes using case studies. We discuss the long-term sustainability of our approach, its benefits, and wider application.

Institutional Context

Realising an Institutional Education Strategy

At the heart of Manchester Met’s Education Strategy (Manchester Metropolitan University, 2023) is an aspiration to build a Transformative Active Learning Community (Figure 1). Five key action areas have been prioritised to realise this ambitious goal: future-focused curricula; excellent graduate futures; engaging, digitally enhanced teaching, learning and assessment (DELTA); staff supported and empowered to deliver transformational outcomes for our students; and outstanding student experience. The latter includes co- and extended curricular opportunities facilitated by RISE, our award-winning provision.

 

The Manchester Met Innovation Scholar Scheme

Seen as a crucial driver for the institution’s education strategy is the Innovation Scholar Scheme. The scheme enables academic staff on an education career track and those in education-facing professional services roles (such as Library, Careers, or Technical Services) to be fractionally seconded to our academic development unit, the Centre for Learning Enhancement and Educational Development. Successful applicants are responsible for:

• identifying and raising the profile of innovation;
• galvanising activity, creating momentum, and building a learning community;
• capturing and reinforcing the essence of active learning at our institution;
• supporting and driving pilot projects and/or institutional initiatives;
• developing practice through training, resources, exemplars, and masterclasses;
• nurturing professional development, raising the profile of excellence, empowering staff.

The scheme appoints Lead Scholars to provide cross-university leadership, crafting pathways through institutional strategies and practices, and Associate Scholars to mobilise grassroots action (Table 1). All Scholars represent a theme aligned to one of the priority action areas identified above.

Table 1: Structure and practicalities of the Manchester Met Innovation Scholar Scheme

Role	Practicalities	Activities
Lead Innovation Scholars	Two-year thematic leadership (up to 0.4 workload) across the university to facilitate delivery of a specific aspect of the Education Strategy (e.g. active learning) with expectation of broad impact.	Establish and convene thematic Communities of Practice (CoPs). Raise the excellence and profile of innovative practice through staff workshops, discussions, student fora, guidance, resources and projects. Disseminate and communicate impact widely within and beyond institution. Provide mentoring for Associate Scholars.
Associate Innovation Scholars	One-year project (up to 0.1 workload) focusing on a department or faculty priority linked to the Education Strategy with expectation of local impact.	Develop and implement projects. Examples include: A departmental support package for students with ADHD; a digital financial literacy tool (open to all students); and an Active Learning Spectrum resource showcasing examples from across the institution. Actively engage with relevant CoP(s) and promote activities to colleagues. Engage with our supportive professional development programme alongside project work.

The scheme is a key enabling mechanism driving implementation of the education strategy. In the first 18 months since the scheme was launched, Lead Scholars have established and now convene several institution-wide thematic Communities of Practice (CoPs) (Figure 2), which are vital to the success of the scheme (Nicholson & Herrero, 2023).

 

 

Collectively, the Lead Scholars also mentor 30-50 Associate Scholars recruited annually to lead small-scale projects and initiatives at department or programme level (Table 2). These include projects aligned to a ‘Closing Differential Gaps’ theme that cut across those discussed herein, in addition to a wider range of themes beyond the scope of this chapter.

Note: The four themes most closely aligned with active learning are shown here. Applicants may align with more than one theme. The total number of themes has expanded from six in 2023-24 to ten in 2025-26. In 2023-24 and 2024-25, all applicants were successful. A further 30 Associate Scholarships have been successfully awarded for 2025-26.

Active Learning Framework

Following one-to-one dialogue with around 50 innovators from disciplines across the institution, the Lead Scholars for the ‘Active Learning’ theme devised the Manchester Met Active Learning Framework (Figure 3). This captures the essence of active learning practices at our institution, identifying and categorising its most common features and framing a helpful set of principles for developing active learning curricula going forward.

Case Studies

The plethora of educational priorities, strategic targets, enabling strategies and aspirational graduate attributes may imply a set of discrete or even competing educational goals. However, a key value of the Manchester Met Innovation Scholar Scheme is its holistic approach. Scholars’ highly collaborative ethos reinforces thematic interconnectedness and the integral role of active learning across all themes, and this is reflected in the aforementioned framework (Figure 3). In this section, we present several case studies from across the Innovation Scholar themes and discipline areas and show how active learning is integral to all. The case studies include specific examples of innovative active learning practices that can be adapted and applied in different contexts. In each case study, alignment with dominant theme(s) from the Active Learning Framework is indicated.

Case Study 1: ‘Crazy 8’: Creativity and Divergent Thinking in Active Learning

Key themes from Active Learning Framework: Engaging and Socially-Integrative

Background: Implicit throughout the Active Learning Framework are practises with the characteristics (e.g. engaging, social, flexible, developmental) to foster divergent and creative thinking, and these do need to be explicitly cultivated. Divergent thinking involves generating multiple new ideas through curiosity and exploration without restriction, by changing perspective, taking risks, and imagining diverse possibilities. Creativity is a good indicator of divergent thinking in research and education (Baer, 1993), because it transforms, re-interprets and makes or produces something with those imagined possibilities (Guilford, 1986; Palmiero et al., 2014). Convergent thinking is perceived as being devoid of creativity, but aims to find a single answer with speed, accuracy, and logic (NHS Wales, undated). However, both divergent and convergent thinking are needed to tailor novel and innovative solutions for given problems (Pathan et al., 2016; Cropley, 2006), and these are desirable skills in 21^st-century graduates. The story goes that if you give a child a matchbox, they can think of hundreds of things to do with it. But give it to a teenager or adult, and the outcomes drastically reduce. Research shows that our tolerance of time and workload pressures significantly impede divergent thinking as we age (Fusi et al., 2021). But just as we lose the habit of divergent thinking, in a fast-paced world, finding a singular solution through convergent thinking is often encouraged.

Example: A creative active learning technique is ‘Crazy 8’, a rapid sketching activity used in the ideation stage of design thinking to generate ideas and stimulate divergent thinking. Design thinking is creative and collaborative, focusing on people and empathy (Newton et al., 2025). Crazy 8 encourages participants to view a problem from different perspectives, avoiding getting stuck on details. The goal is to sketch eight solutions in eight minutes. Crazy 8 encourages participants to think creatively, exploring wild, abstract, or even impossible concepts without overthinking or refining sketches (Verma, 2021). It begins with a problem, such as ‘How can we influence employers to adopt practices that are more sustainable?’ Eight prompts, one for each sketch, are then provided:

As part of the Innovation Scholar scheme, we host an annual Innovation Symposium. At our 2025 event participants played Crazy 8 at one of our active learning ‘sandpits’ (Figure 4), in which participants can explore playfully and flexibly at their own pace. Initially, some participants appeared panicked, but were quickly reassured that it was okay if their minds froze and were encouraged to rejoin when ready. We emphasised that there was no expectation to create masterpieces or share their sketches. Using humour, we thus diffused tension and created a safe space for experimenting without fear of failure. The more we reassured, scaffolded the activity, and explained the potential applications of Crazy 8, the more the feedback became enthusiastic. By the end, participants loved the activity and enjoyed the adrenaline rush of being gently pushed outside their comfort zone.

 

The Symposium was also peppered with ‘soapboxes’; live short but provocative speeches (like ‘What if we stopped teaching?’) from Innovation Scholars to stir divergent thinking on an aspect of their theme. Prominent themes arising from the symposium were summarised graphically by Nifty Fox (Figure 5).

Outcomes: The true value of creative and active learning techniques like Crazy 8 often lies in the rich discussions and reflections that follow. These moments of sharing experiences, exploring diverse perspectives and building on initial concepts can uncover powerful insights and foster deeper understanding, all within the context of low stakes and developmental learning. These social and collaborative elements draw from several areas of the Active Learning Framework, highlighting the vibrant opportunities that creative and active learning offer together; divergent thinking in a convergent world, the social and reflective learning, energetic and playful aspects, and development of key employability skills such as creative problem solving, collaboration, and critical thinking. Enriching creative thinking is crucial for navigating the rapid changes and competitive pressures of today’s world (Pathan et al., 2016) and thus also aligns well with the future-focused theme of the Active Learning Framework. We compel readers to consider braving Crazy 8 as an active learning technique that encourages divergent and creative thinking.

Case Study 2: Collaborative Innovation and Co-Creation in Active Learning

Key theme from Active Learning Framework: Developmental

Background: The concept of students as partners, co-producers, and co-creators has gained increasing scholarly attention due to its strong link with active learning (Bovill, 2020; Cook-Sather, 2014). Co-production emphasises an equal decision-making role for students in their learning, positioning students as partners in a dynamic process of working alongside staff to design curricula and develop pedagogical strategies. Co-creation emphasises collaborative shared curriculum design and/or participation in collaborative extracurricular activities. These approaches enhance learning outcomes and embed active learning at the core of educational practice. Co-production and co-creation also enrich the learning process, making it more enjoyable and fulfilling, and offering numerous benefits:

• empowering students with agency and voice, and fostering a more equitable, democratic, and developmental educational process;
• challenging traditional hierarchies within HE and redefining roles;
• encouraging ongoing and meaningful dialogue among students, academic and professional services staff, enhancing the overall learning experience;
• supporting a more personalised and adaptable approach to active learning, accommodating the diverse needs and preferences of students;
• promoting equity by encouraging balanced roles between students and staff, and among formal and informal student groups;
• capturing attention, sustaining engagement, and making the learning process more dynamic and stimulating by using innovative and unconventional methods;
• strengthening critical thinking by promoting creative and collaborative problem-solving, enabling students and staff to address challenges in novel ways; and
• enhancing motivation, building confidence, and cultivating a stronger sense of identity among learners by providing opportunities for personal expression.

Examples: Through the Innovation Scholar Scheme, the Active Learning CoP has established two Special Interest Groups (SIGs): ‘Co-creation and Co-partnership with Students’, and ‘Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Projects’. These are sub-communities for individuals interested in exploring the benefits of student-staff partnerships in curriculum co-creation and internationalisation. The SIGs have surfaced examples of transformative active learning that align with the institution’s education strategy. These examples highlight the substantial social value of interdisciplinary learning and peer collaboration and support the development of future-focused skills. Mechanisms include team-based projects and optimisation of social learning spaces to facilitate flexible curricula and assessment.

a) Co-creation with COIL

Defining learning spaces through co-creation and active learning in HE has been significantly advanced by Associate Scholars working with staff and students. An example is the implementation of co-creation through COIL, which facilitates pedagogical collaborations between students at Manchester Met and partner institutions in countries including China, Egypt, and Mexico. These initiatives have demonstrated numerous benefits, including the development of digital intercultural learning skills, as well as fostering greater student engagement and agency (Herrero et al., 2020; Perry et al., 2025).

b) Student co-creation of extended curriculum activity

Another project involves student partners contributing to the development of content for a Media and Misinformation self-study course, part of our RISE extended curricular programme. In this, students conducted research, created video materials, and co-created online course content. The project was led by academic liaison librarians at Manchester Met as part of their Associate Scholar roles, and the inclusion of professional services colleagues in this way is a noteworthy feature of the scheme.

c) Co-creation of renewable OER

The Transmedia Practices Project: Open Educational Resources (OER) Students by Students has demonstrated the value of expanding active learning outputs through open education. This project was based on the premise that there are many benefits to renewable assignments, including opportunities to co-produce, to enable and empower learners, to develop innovative pedagogical models, and to emphasise the value of lifelong learning (Ehlers, 2011). The principal project outcome has been the creation of digital artefacts by undergraduate and postgraduate students, who have as a result, developed their media and transmedia skills and enhanced their digital and cultural competencies. Artefacts include podcasts, video tutorials, and video essays, all shared under a Creative Commons CC-BY license to foster peer learning, including for future learners both within Manchester Met and beyond. Through formative evaluations from teachers and peers, students subsequently refined their work to meet OER quality standards (Herrero, 2022).

Case Study 3: Education for Sustainable Development and Active Learning

Key themes from Active Learning Framework: Future-Focused and Engaging

Background: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a holistic approach to achieving the globally-agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2015) that emphasises learning for sustainability rather than about sustainability. ESD-infused curricula are characterised by three key ingredients:

• sustainability-related conceptual content that underpins the SDGs;
• skills development framed around the key competencies for sustainability (Advance HE/QAA 2021); and
• learning via transformative pedagogies that are central to future-focused curricula (Price et al., 2024).

ESD completely aligns with active learning pedagogies in calling for transformative, participatory methods that employ a head-heart-hands approach (Sipos et al., 2008), and where students learn by doing using authentic, real-world examples (Thomas, 2009; Sterling, 2012; Price et al., 2021). The UNESCO-endorsed CoDesignS ESD Framework (Ahmad et al., 2023) embodies these principles and has been adopted by the University to implement its strategy for embedding ESD through all programmes. The Active Learning CoP is an important conduit for providing and promoting staff development around ESD, collating resources, engaging participants in debate, sharing practice, initiating projects, and providing support and mentoring. Situating ESD within the Active Learning CoP helps to debunk a common myth that ESD is merely teaching about the SDGs, and reinforces the importance of active pedagogies. Underpinning our ESD activities within the CoP, we draw upon an exemplar from current teaching practice that was co-created with students using the CoDesignS ESD Framework (Nicholson et al., 2004).

Example: Professional Geographer is a core first-year module for around 100 students from several undergraduate programmes in the Department of Natural Sciences. Ostensibly, the module aim is to support students’ development of academic and professional skills. Recognising that in the absence of a discipline context, skills education has the potential to be dry and unengaging (Allan & Clarke, 2007), the module is built around a pedagogy of enquiry-based learning in project teams, and conceptually framed within the theme of global sustainability challenges. Teams choose their own project topics with an authentic, real-world basis, and this has proved to be a key motivator, enhancing engagement. Project topics chosen include inequality in fast fashion, food and/or water poverty, and the lifecycle carbon footprint of mobile phones. Team projects happen over one semester (12 weeks) and are supported by weekly workshops and small group tutorials. In these, skills are introduced and developed ‘just-in-time’ (i.e. as needed, as relevant) and there are multiple opportunities for formative feedback and peer learning. Assessed team projects are presented at an end-of-semester showcase event to maximise the social element. Individual assessed elements comprise:

• a written critical review on a project sub-theme; and
• an online professional development portfolio evidencing students’ experiences, achievements, learning, and reflections.

Workshops and tutorials include mini ‘chunks’ of conceptual content and learning activities around sustainable development themes; guided practice linked to specific skills development; and a mixture of individual, team-based, directed and self-directed project activities. Collectively, these activities align with the three ‘head, heart, hands’ (3H) learning domains (Sipos et al., 2008), reinforce the interconnectedness of the SDGs, and promote interdisciplinarity (Table 3).

 

Table 3: Mapping learning domains against the module curriculum

Domain	3H	Icon	General target	Sustainability-specific aim
Cognitive	Head		Knowledge, understanding, critical thinking	To better understand sustainability issues, causes, influencing factors, and solutions, and SDGs interconnectedness
Socio-emotional	Heart		Values, attitudes, motivations	To develop affective understanding of sustainability impacts, identify and shape own values and motivations
Behavioural	Hands		Doing, action competencies	To have the capacity to act and effect change, influence society, be a change agent, shape graduate futures

Weekly workshops and tutorials are carefully designed to scaffold student activity and facilitators provide support. Within the broader enquiry-based learning pedagogy, students learn from a variety of active methods that promote engagement across the three learning domains (Table 4).

Table 4: Module activities and the associated learning domain(s) that promote transformative learning

Active learning method*	Brief description and example of activity as applied in Professional Geographer	Dominant domain(s)
Learning landscapes (Heywood)	Moving around the ‘landscape’. In groups, devise ‘stations’ for an on-campus sustainability trail. Each station to include information, questions, a problem-solving task, and encouragement to reflect on personal sustainability behaviours.
Storytelling (Beggs, Betts)	Written, verbal or graphic narrative. Write a short personal biography, in a storytelling style, of an aspect of life linked to a named SDG or sustainability issue.
Digital jigsaw learning (Stockton-Brown)	An online, multi-part exploration. In pairs or small groups, use Google Earth to explore and identify global locations with sustainability challenges. Post these in the Padlet ‘Map’. Comment on others’ posts.
Object-based learning (Dale et al.)	Everyday objects to stimulate deeper thinking. Explore the object given (e.g. coffee jar, battery). Discuss linked sustainability issues and identify connections.
Jigsaw classroom (Donnelly and Sai)	A real-time multi-part exploration. In pairs, investigate an SDG. Share findings with other pairs. Sub-groups then feedback to the class to explore systems thinking.
Role play debate (Pinnick, Jewitt)	Scenarios and other perspectives. Stage a mock debate to demonstrate the process of developing an academic argument around sustainability challenges.
Concept map (Trela and Rutschmann)	A visual summary of themes and interconnectedness. Depict the team project structure using a concept map (e.g. key sources, case studies, theses and antitheses, recommendations).
World café (Magkoufopoulou)	A carousel enabling opportunities to engage with different elements and activities. Use your concept map to convey the project to another team. Receive peer feedback. Give feedback to another team.
Infographic (Kozar)	A graphic summary of key data, concepts, and viewpoints. Produce an infographic summary of the key factual basis for your team project.

*NOTE: Citations refer to comparable examples from Active Learning Network (2022).

Outcomes: Professional Geographer has been used widely in the CoP as an exemplar in ESD-aligned webinars and workshops. Participants identified several positive impacts on their practice: creating thinking space to explore an aspect of learning design in depth, learning from sharing practices and experiences across disciplines, and identifying actions to enhance their curricula. In workshop feedback many cited examples of curriculum changes being made as a result, including to:

• review didactic and transmissive elements in teaching and develop active approaches;
• invite students to co-create and transform more learner-centred activities;
• draw on the three learning domains to enhance engagement;
• re-design curricula to achieve a more balanced range of learning activities; and
• explicitly embed the key competencies for sustainability, highlighting links with the University’s graduate attributes.

These outcomes indicate that the CoP plays an important role in implementing the University’s education strategy for transformative active learning. It achieves this partly by developing and enhancing curricula, and partly by drawing in individuals who otherwise might not have a mechanism for contributing to discussions and sharing their expertise, experiences and insights. Future priorities include capturing a wider range of exemplars to support practice development and identifying mechanisms to grow ESD at scale.

Case Study 4: Belonging and Mattering in Active Learning

Key theme from Active Learning Framework: Socially-Integrative

Background: In the last decade, the concept of ‘belonging’ has emerged as a key paradigm in HE. It seeks to understand and enhance students’ psychological, social, and physical experiences of inclusion and acceptance, and is a mechanism to support readiness for university study and student success (Allen et al., 2021; Crawford et al., 2023). However, as Blake et al. (2022) note, the foundations of student belonging require purposeful conditions that enable connection, inclusion, autonomy and support across the HE ecosystem. While the wider university infrastructure is undoubtedly critical to fostering inclusion and support, the everyday university experience for most students is grounded in their ‘classroom’ experiences, through staff-student interaction, and communicated through the wider teaching and learning environment. In this way, what happens in the teaching and learning space really does matter for student belonging. The principles of active learning, specifically the thematic domains of socially-integrative, developmental, flexible and engaging learning (Figure 3), align with Blake et al., ‘Foundations of Belonging’ (2022). These imbue micro-opportunities that enable students to feel accepted and enthused, and to make peer-to-peer connections. Indeed, in a literature review of belonging research undertaken by Gilani and Thomas (2025), groupwork and experiential learning are highlighted as significant predictors of belonging, replicated across multiple studies.

The Belonging and Mattering CoP established as part of the Manchester Met Innovation Scholar Scheme hosts discussions of practice that frequently illustrate the interconnectedness of belonging with active learning. Some disciplines have a longstanding tradition of ‘hands-on’ experiential learning that enables students to connect and learn in situated contexts, ‘with’ and ‘alongside’ each other and their educators. This ranges from placement-mandated programmes with strongly embedded Work-Integrated Learning (WIL), through to practice lab or studio-based disciplines. However, situated and experiential learning do not implicitly support student belonging. The presence of value-led and behavioural attributes led and instilled by the educator is fundamental to support a culture of belongingness. A Manchester Met Framework of Belonging developed collaboratively by Belonging and Mattering CoP members identifies that respectful relationships, transparency, compassion and care are key ‘ingredients’ for supporting an active culture of belonging, ensuring learning and support are not driven by shame or discomfort but by psychological safety and inclusion.

Example: In an undergraduate Social Work programme, the primacy of placement (practice) learning is coupled with a curriculum tightly bound by regulatory education and training standards (Social Work England, 2021). This could lead to the delineation of didactic teaching for knowledge and active teaching for skills. However, applying knowledge ‘for, in, and through’ practice encourages active learning and professional and personal reflexivity. This pedagogical approach is explicitly demonstrated within an initial ‘induction’ first-year module through a range of mobile and active learning activities designed to support peer-to-peer connection, confidence building, place-based sense of belonging, and enthusiasm and connection to the subject discipline:

a) Social justice walk

Designed to help students explore Manchester’s history and foster city pride, students received an itinerary of key places in the city to visit in groups or independently. Synopses of the community and social history of those locations were linked to fun, low-stakes observational questions adding a gamified element. To promote belonging, the activity was further developed and virtual and online adaptations made available to promote inclusivity with social media vlogs to enhance peer-to-peer connection.

b) Community profile activity

Students undertook a group activity along a bus route, exploring neighbourhood data, capturing observations, and speaking to community members for a group presentation. A virtual alternative helped address some accessibility limitations. A shorter three-hour adaptation was also created for part-time degree apprenticeship students who combine paid employment with study. They rapidly created community profiles using digital skills to share and refine their work in Padlet and Microsoft Sway.

Each approach fosters new connections and emphasises social and equitable learning. Clear expectations around respect, inclusion, and care are reiterated, aligning with professional identity and behaviours. Students with place-based knowledge or understanding of community languages are encouraged to share their skills, privileging those without traditional academic cultural capital. Students report a memorable, exciting, group-forming and bonding experience.

Outcomes: Sharing teaching and learning examples has been a key feature of the Belonging and Mattering CoP, with colleagues replicating the principles of collective and social learning by adapting and developing activities from and with each other. In recognition of the importance of group and social learning as a means to support belonging, further real-world examples of how to achieve this at scale, through differing modalities and with diverse student cohorts would undoubtedly enrich the conversation.

Case Study 5: Flexible and Authentic Assessment for Active Learning

Key themes from Active Learning Framework: Work-Integrated and Flexible

Background: Authentic assessment has been widely discussed within the academy and is a key part of Manchester Met’s newly revised Curriculum and Assessment Framework and our DELTA strategy. Interestingly, within the academy there have been calls to remove the phrase (Arnold & Croxford, 2024) or to return to its ‘true principles’ and disconnect the misappropriated connection to employability (McArthur, 2023). As a dual intensity institution (i.e. education and research), Manchester Met has a deep-rooted history with practice-based HE and has placed Authentic and Flexible Assessment (AFA) firmly within its institutional policies and practices to ensure student success, an excellent student experience and real-world readiness. AFA facilitates transformative active learning as ‘assessment for learning’, where the classroom pedagogy connects to the expected outcome of both summative and formative assessment tasks, connecting all elements of the Active Learning Framework (Figure 3). The strategic AFA CoP provides a mechanism to connect staff with the possibilities of AFA and the space to consider and develop new approaches. CoP discussions and activities have been informed by three key features of authentic assessment; realism, cognitive challenge, and evaluative judgment (Villarroel et al., 2018), together with institutional guidance to consider professional, societal, and educational authenticity (Table 5). The CoP has also debated flexible assessment, and optionality aligned to assessment type and task. This links naturally with the intent of active learning and influences the pedagogies applied in the classroom.

Table 5: Manchester Met approach to authentic assessment (themes not mutually exclusive)

Professional authenticity	Societal authenticity	Educational authenticity
Focuses on workplace tasks Develops professional skills Mirrors industry practice	Addresses social needs Promotes positive change Connects to real world issues	Centres student engagement Provides meaningful choice Builds evaluative judgment

Source: Excerpt from Manchester Metropolitan University Authentic Assessment Toolkit (internal document)

Examples: The examples below have formed the basis of AFA CoP discussions to explore wider applications and stimulate innovation.

a) Work integrated learning (WIL)

The size, scale and profile of programmes at Manchester Met allows for formal and informal connections to aspects of WIL (see Boud et al., 2023). The stimulus for world ready professional graduates is linked to the ethos of the institution and recognition through global accreditation (e.g. our triple-accredited Business School). Integrated and assessed WIL is also a significant expectation within broader university policy. As Boud et al. (2023) discuss, there are opportunities to integrate and assess WIL within curricula, and experiences that sit outside curricula. Authentic assessment in our Marketing and Tourism programme formalises the inclusion of WIL leading to learning that is future-focused, work-integrated, engaging, socially integrative, and flexible (Table 6). New opportunities for building on the natural synergies between assessment and real-world context have arisen from the continued investment in the institution’s estate. This includes bespoke, professionally-aligned learning spaces such as a moot court, a Hyflex suite (delivering blended executive education), and an industry-standard Bloomberg trading suite (for hands-on learning about global financial markets).

b) Active learning and authentic assessment in Apprenticeships

Manchester Met’s BSc (Hons) Chemical Science Degree Apprenticeship programme (employer-sponsored degree study) demonstrates strong alignment between active learning methods and authentic assessment, both essential for developing occupational competence and academic depth. Assignments are designed to mirror real-world challenges, and this not only enhances critical thinking but supports the transfer of theoretical knowledge to professional contexts (Prince, 2004). AFA equips our apprenticeship learners to develop, evidence, and critically reflect on the competencies required for complex, dynamic workplaces. Reflective tasks and feedback loops also reinforce metacognitive development and support inclusive, workplace-aligned evaluation (Boud et al., 2013; Gibbs & Simpson, 2005).

In an authentic assessment for a second year Business Improvement module, apprentices identify and resolve a workplace issue, improve a laboratory process, or introduce a new idea within their organisation. Activities are contextualised to each apprentice’s workplace role, fostering engagement and ensuring relevance (Guile & Griffiths, 2001). Preparatory active learning tasks and analysis of industrial case studies build familiarity with a diverse range of projects, enabling learners to critically evaluate quality, feasibility, and impact, all essential skills for professional practice. Active learning and authentic assessment exist symbiotically here; while active learning cultivates the analytical, reflective, and problem-solving skills required for success, assignment authenticity offers a meaningful opportunity to apply and evidence those capabilities. Flexible assessment formats (e.g. portfolios, presentations, or diaries) with deadline optionality also address the practical challenge of varying workplace timescales and demands.

Outcomes: The AFA CoP provides space and opportunity for colleagues to learn from each other, to ask questions, exchange resources and experiences, and to discuss and seek solutions to thorny challenges. As the CoP has grown, joint sessions with other strategic CoPs have taken place, serving to reinforce the synergies between themes.

Discussion

Inclusion and Sustainability

Ours is a large institution covering a wide spectrum of disciplines and types of programme, including foundation, undergraduate, taught postgraduate, degree apprenticeship, and research degrees, and an extensive extended and co-curricular programme. A significant challenge for any strategic direction is to obtain consistency of approach, while at the same time fostering the diversity within our disciplines. The Education Strategy sets out general principles, but the Innovation Scholar Scheme creates considerable space for innovation and discipline-specific development, while also reinforcing the expectations implicit in our strategic aims. The benefits of this scheme are rich and the demand for places is testament to its growing momentum and reach. Lead and Associate Scholars are being selected from across every department and in this sense the approach is highly inclusive, allowing for, even encouraging local variations in practice. Colleagues have reported that being part of the Innovation community has been pedagogically invigorating, supporting them significantly in their professional development, and providing evidence of impact for promotions and professional recognition (e.g. Advance HE Fellowship).

Initiation of a scheme such as this does depend upon strategic vision, amplified by significant top-down commitment and resource. In its early stages, the continuation of this commitment is necessary for long term sustainability. The Manchester Met Innovation Scholar Scheme has moved beyond its pilot phase and into business-as-usual. Momentum within CoPs continues to grow (for example, the Active Learning CoP has grown to more than 550 members in 18 months) as individuals discover the value and benefits of community membership for their work and professional development. The CoPs thrive on this ‘grassroots’ engagement in an environment where constraints often associated with more formalised systems (such as training or quality enhancement processes) are lacking (though these of course, do have their place). The distributed leadership model within CoPs will encourage them to continue to blossom and attract discourse, dissemination and support, so long as there are ‘gardeners’ to tend and occasionally nourish the practice. Long-lasting change, however, is most effective when top-down and bottom-up approaches are connected via actors operating in the middle ground. This is evident in our scheme through dissemination and showcasing of Associate’s project outcomes at our annual University’s internal teaching and learning conference. This has helped reinforce the central position of active learning at the heart of the institutional Education Strategy, raising awareness of different approaches, providing guidance and exemplars. Showcasing and inspiring innovation will be further amplified through our new multi-faceted, externally-facing ManMetInnovate website and blog.

Challenges and Barriers

Changes and pressures in the global external environment increase the danger of the relationship between HE institutions and their learners being reduced to an impersonal transaction driven by metrics, standards (like the Teaching Excellence Framework in the UK), and value-for-money. In addition, there remain post-Covid shifts in ‘housekeeping’ matters such as attendance, remote working and the implications of AI. To warrant continued support for the scheme – a large-scale movement – ensuring clear visibility and ‘value for money’ for senior leaders is as crucial as it is complex. Educational activity is notoriously difficult to monitor and evaluate with tangible, measurable outputs (Prince, 2004). Manchester Met has developed an evaluation tool to quantify the impact of student-facing initiatives but there are limitations on its applicability. Capturing and analysing vibrant stories of progress and success is therefore fundamental and we acknowledge this as an area for ongoing development and learning.

A Call to Action

The shift from traditional passive learning models to student-centred active learning has shown promising results in improving student outcomes, motivation, and overall learning experience (Bonwell & Eison, 1991). We argue that active learning also has the potential to counter the impersonal, transactional aspects of education, ensuring a learner’s experience is engaging, challenging, aspirational, developmental, social, inclusive, personal, flexible, future-focused, and responsive. To achieve this, we as educators need to continue to identify and foster an innovative, active, educational ecosystem (interconnections between learners and the learning environment) for learners to develop and thrive. We characterise such an ecosystem with the following elements (expanded upon in Figure 6):

Inclusion and equity (values, social integration, community, belonging and mattering)

Academic and personal development (support, agency, confidence-building)

Intellectual risk-taking (low stakes assessment, psychological safety)

Creativity and divergent thinking (‘out of the box’)

Partnership and collaboration (co-creation)

Enjoyment and enthusiasm (passion, fun and humour)

Challenge (aspiration, growth mindset, courage)

Relevance (authenticity, real-world examples/application)

Criticality and reflection (evolution, enhancement)

Diverse perspectives (variety and multidisciplinarity)

 

Key takeaways

We close with some key ‘takeaways’ for other institutions:

1. A key ingredient for the success of our Innovation Scholar Scheme has been the interconnected, collaboration ethos (a) between the macro (top-down), micro (bottom-up), and meso (middle-out) strategic activities, and (b) across disciplinary, department and faculty boundaries bringing together diverse co-creative practices, expertise and experiences from staff and students.
2. For learners to thrive in an innovative, active learning educational ecosystem, educators need to be prepared for intellectual risk-taking; being brave and curious; thinking ‘outside-the-box’; creating, co-creating, and innovating; advocating for inclusion and equity; supporting and developing; encouraging enthusiasm and passion; embedding reality and authenticity in curricula; reflecting and thinking critically; challenging and inspiring.
3. Our Active Learning Framework is applicable across all thematic areas within our institutional Innovation Scholar Scheme. However, it captures the essence of high quality, 21^st century, future-facing, student-centred learning, and in that sense we believe it is transferable and widely applicable across the Higher Education sector. We challenge readers to test it, apply it, adapt it, and make it work for you.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge with grateful thanks the many Lead Innovation Scholars and Associate Scholars with whom we collaborate, and whose work informs some of our ideas and case studies. We also express our gratitude to esteemed colleagues within Manchester Met’s Centre for Learning Enhancement and Educational Development who provide significant commitment, support and guidance to the scheme and all its Scholars.

Glossary of Acronyms

3H	Head, Heart, Hands Learning Domains
AFA	Authentic and Flexible Assessment
COIL	Collaborative Online International Learning
CoP	Community of Practice
DELTA	Digitally Enhanced Teaching, Learning and Assessment
ESD	Education for Sustainable Development
HE	Higher Education
OER	Open Educational Resources
SDGs	Sustainable Development Goals
SIG	Special Interest Group
WIL	Work-Integrated Learning

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About the authors

Theresa, Mâir, Amanda, Ffion, Carmen and Tim are Manchester Metropolitan University academics. We span the disciplines of Geography, Theatre, Business, Social Work, Languages and Chemistry, but are united in our quest to enable and empower delivery of active, engaging, learner-centred, innovative, future-focused curricula.

Corresponding author: D. Theresa Nicholson, d.nicholson@mmu.ac.uk