ELSSA, a team of academics, students, and graduates, has transformed architectural education at the University of Sheffield and beyond through Engaged Learning (EL). They facilitate student collaboration with community groups on real architectural projects, fostering crucial employability skills like leadership, communication, problem-solving and critical thinking.
ELSSA offers a comprehensive range of curricular and extracurricular opportunities:
- Live Projects: Curriculum-based modules for Level 7 students.
- Live Works: An extracurricular initiative complementing Live Projects, offering year-round EL for students across Levels 6, 7, and 8.
- Urban Room: A public-facing civic engagement space on the high street, moving learning beyond the traditional classroom.
- Project Stack: A framework promoting cross-programme collaboration among all School of Architecture staff and students.
- Liveness Charter: A manifesto to embed ethical and effective EL, redefining the School as a "Live School."
This approach has significantly boosted student confidence, with 95% of surveyed alumni reporting feeling better equipped for complex real-world challenges after their EL experience. ELSSA has also unified disparate teaching activities within the School, creating a resilient community of situated learning and teaching, and has influenced EL practices at other institutions across the UK and globally. Many alumni have gone on to develop their own EL teaching practices in universities across the world or have integrated collaboration and social value into their architectural practice.