Student Engagement Initiatives
Take a look at how Lynn’s transformed ideas into action through innovative, student-centred engagement.
City of Glasgow College
When? 2016 – 2019
What happened? Lynn supported all aspects of the legal duties for the College under the Equalities Act 2010. She engaged with the student population and staff body on ED&I issues and tailored messages to suit audiences.
Take a look at the gallery below for examples of how she used creativity to communicate complex issues.
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![Image of table with leaflets, and the "City of Glasgow College" in a white font on a purple table cloth]()
On Campus Stalls
Why it worked: Regularly having a presence on campus in various areas and at different times allowed maximum engagement.
Lesson learned: never just sit behind a stall - get out and say hello!
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![Image of gingerbread on a table with leaflets and staff standing behind it]()
Chaplaincy Campaign
Why it worked: Distressed students were increasingly presenting to student services and the chaplaincy volunteers were able to offer a listening service which was underused. A multi-channel approach to increase awareness was taken, along with ‘Taste of Faith’ events out on campus, partnering with the College’s fabulous catering students.
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![Image of a mind map]()
Mindmapping Workshops
Why it worked: Printing out large sheets with colourful and clear diagrams to draw on is a great way to get participants to discuss their ideas while also recording feedback.
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![Consultant and trainer Lynn Pilkington dress as Sherlock Holmes]()
Stonewall Conference
Why it worked: Loads of people find equalities monitoring boring, but by theming it as a detective process and dressing as Sherlock Holmes there was a great hook to keep people engaged.
Lesson learned: Dress-up is a good way to make content pop online - this post made over 3000 impressions on LinkedIn (this was even in the early days of LinkedIn).
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![Table with awards on it]()
Embracing Diversity Competition
Why it worked: All areas of the curriculum were invited to take part in a competition to reflect the values of fairness, opportunity and respect. This allowed students to interpret the brief creatively and 1-2-1 support and guidance was provided.
Lesson learned: 80 entries require a lot of co-ordination! Also mail merge is a gift.
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![Image of award for Lorna]()
Survey Prizes
Why it worked: To engage staff in our survey about the equality outcomes, Lynn translated the proposals into plain English and there was a gift voucher prize draw as an incentive.
Lesson learned: prizes really do work!
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![EDI Sign up sheet]()
ED&I Badge for E-Learning
Why it worked: On completing an online module, staff would be rewarded with a physical ED&I badge. Lynn would hand deliver these to desks to create personal relationships.
Lesson learned: Take photos of humans who have completed e-learning to have a gallery to promote others to take part!
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![Images of brushes and glitter in preparation of the pride march]()
Pride March
Why it worked: Gathering staff support for the Pride march is easier when you have freebies and glitter! A great way to visibly show commitment to diversity.
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![Image of a A4 sheet with the 2017 equality outcomes]()
Equality Outcomes
Why it worked: Colourful graphics with simple information is crucial to engage people in policy formation.
Case Study
Case Study
The image above shows the detailed info underpinning one equality outcome. In order to engage students, this was turned into a simple visual (below) for them to add post-its with thoughts on this outcome.
To encourage participants, Lynn made the below eye-catching poster highlighting why people should take part.
Lead on Involvement stage of Public Sector Equality Duty 2017
Implemented strategy to support development of statutory duties and reporting mechanisms, policies and procedures.
Data analysed around gaps and actions required for minority groups.
Ran 'Equality Conversations' to obtain feedback on proposed outcomes, adapting engagement for target audiences, including LGBTQ+ student society, staff networks, and disabled students.
Over 300 responses to 'plain English' survey for staff and students.
Impact:
Outcomes revised in line with feedback.
Continued engagement with equality groups to support feedback on other policies and procedures.
My Student Experience Questionnaire - September 2021:
• I am aware of my right to be treated fairly and with respect 95%
• I understand my responsibility to treat others fairly and with respect 95%
• I believe City of Glasgow College is committed to improving ED&I 93%
GCU Students’ Association
When? 2015 – 2016
What happened? Lynn was the main point of contact for 60+ student-led societies, supported all aspects of their activities and managed 280 volunteers. Her tireless commitment to engagement had great success as she surpassed all her targets (e.g. training 191 students in one year when the target was 150).
She delivered several large-scale risk-assessed events, including an inaugural ‘Committee Bootcamp’ training conference with 120 students, leading on Refreshers Fair, and a Las Vegas themed night.
This experience gave Lynn experience in a variety of communication channels as students can be a tough audience to keep engaged. Activities included giving out sausage-rolls on campus at 7:30am, training student media in social media channels and holding a committee mixer with speed-networking and pirate badges.
Below are some photos from this time.
Lynn with various arrows and photos out on campus to help students understand how to get to the new location of Freshers Fair.
This visual gave a clear process for students to identify what sort of volunteering that they might be interested in - making the involvement process quick and easy.
In order to explain timelines, clear drawings were used to communicate processes allowing students to grasp deadlines quicky.
Pizza always helped to keep the student volunteer team engaged!
All training covered essential policies and procedures - but also had a flavour of fun (our ice breaker was to line up the chocolates 'Celebrations' from best to worst which was always controversial!).
Key dates were communicated several times over different channels to ensure that they were registered by students.
In order to share best practice, Lynn developed a scrapbook of activity ideas to cross-pollinate societies' good work.
Always game for a laugh, working with students sometimes meant jumping in the photobooth with sunnies and a blow-up banana.
Instead of ground rules we developed the 'Be cool' board for training sessions.
Instead of name-badges, we had name-pirates. Much more fun.
National Union of Students Scotland
When? Jan 2014-Jun 2015
What happened? Lynn self-managed all aspects of a pilot project around community organising, a process that involves bringing people together to address shared concerns, overcome social injustice, and create positive change. This trained her in power-mapping, relationship building, influencing, student-facing engagement and connecting to policy work.
Some of the creative techniques she used can be seen in the photos below.
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Superhero Cardboard Cut-outs
To develop local relationships, Lynn brought together volunteers and local stakeholders to co-design the ‘Superhero’ Team for local change.
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'You Are The Change' Event
A student event to celebrate the positive changes that had occurred. Every invite was handmade and every student was asked to bring a ‘Rising Star’ plus one.
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Facebook Feedback
Evaluation forms can be boring - so Lynn turned hers into a Facebook feed with ‘Likes’ and ‘Comments’!
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Housing Consultation
Cardboard cut-out houses were taken out on campus and students were encouraged to write their views on ‘bricks’ and attach these. This input was used in a Private Rented Sector Bill response.
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Democra-Tree
To make a conference stall more interactive, Lynn created a ‘democra-tree’ for people to ‘leave’ ideas and comments.
