Encouraging Participation and Involvement

     If institutions desire for active learning to take place they must focus on how the environment might encourage student engagement and participation (Strange & Banning, 2001).  Students learn by becoming involved.  What an individual does defines involvement much more so than what a person thinks or feels.

     The physical dimensions of the environment that impact student involvement are the campus location, human-scale design, layout, and flexibility.  An institution’s geographic location plays a role in the degree to which students become involved.  Opportunities for involvement exist in both rural and urban settings.  On small, rural campuses students are often motivated to get involved because they feel isolated.  On the other hand, students attending a large urban institution will have a wide range of opportunities to get involved both on and off campus. 

     Human-scale environments are not overcrowded and their design promotes student involvement.  For example, research indicates that students in low-rise residence halls are more likely to feel a sense of community and less stress than students in high-rise residence halls.  In addition, students attending smaller classes are more likely to participate in class than student attending classes in large lecture halls. 

     The design, layout, availability, and flexibility of campus environments also impacts student involvement.  Indoor and outdoor paces that encourage students to socialize and relax with other students make students feel less isolated.  In addition to public spaces, students also need a personal place to call their own. 

     Spaces that are most likely to encourage involvement must be flexible in design.  Being able to move tables, chairs, and walls allows students to use particular spaces to meet their specific needs. 

     Human aggregate theory states that individuals are most attracted to and involved with groups who share common interests.  As a result, the use of common interest groupings is on the rise in higher education.  For example, campuses may have living-learning communities or interest groups based around a core set of learning experiences.  Campuses also have specialized offices and organizations to meet the needs of specific students (students of color, LGBT, international students, etc).   These groups encourage student involvement, especially for students who are not part of the dominant campus culture, and provide a support network. 

     The organizational scale impacts the degree to which students become involved.  As group size increases, student morale and attitudes become more negative and students care less about being absent.  If individuals feel there are few reasons to show up, they will not become as involved.  Large settings bring about a problem called overmanning.  Overmanned environments have too many people for too few opportunities.  Undermanning is also a challenge for student participation.  In this case, there are too many opportunities for too few people.  The ratio of the number of individuals to the number of opportunities is critical when it comes to creating an environment that promotes participation. 

     Organizational complexity and the way that power is distributed also impact the level of student involvement.  When structural complexity increases to a certain point and power and decision making is more equally distributed, more opportunities exist for more individuals to participate. 

     Constructed aspects of the environment have an influence on involvement, too.  Taking the time to build and maintain relationships may be one of the most critical strategies a group leader can employ if the goal is member involvement and satisfaction.  The strongest communities are those that make use of nonverbal modes of communication such as traditions and rituals.  Campus culture creates an impression on students and invites them to get involved and to become part of the experience. 

     Involving campuses are those with a clear mission, that value and expect student initiative and responsibility, that recognize and respond to the student experience, that provide small, human-scale environments and multiple subcommunities, that value students and take them and their learning seriously, and are able to generate feelings of loyalty and a sense of specialness. 

Strange, C. C., & Banning, J. H. (2001). Ch 6: Encouraging participation and involvement. In Educating by design: Creating campus learning environments that work (pp. 137-157). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.