Poster Tables

Poster Tables

Keywords: Diversity and Inclusion, Mental Health and Well-being, Orientation and Induction, Student Engagement, Support Services, Technology, Enhanced Learning, Transition, Virtual / Hybrid Teaching and Learning

#1 – Helping first-year students overcome mathematical hurdles

#2 – Self-management apps augmenting academic success?

#3 – Habitus.Power.Education – Transformation through Reflection

#4 – Fundamentals of EE – Gifted student program

#5 – Increasing permeability into STEM/non-traditional fields of study

#6 – Ways to successfull transition in higher education

#7 – How Interest Fit relates to Study Choice and Reorientation in HE

#8 – eCampus: Promoting Technology Enhanced Learning at Styrian Universities

#9 – From KUG-Student4OneDay to KUG-Student4Real

#10 – KUG Welcome Center for prospective students and university applicants

#11 – KUG… but why? Results of a qualitative study

Helping first-year students overcome mathematical hurdles

This contribution endeavours to share experiences of a self-management course’s assignment as a core element in the first semester. The task aimed to facilitate the transition to an Austrian university: 89 first year students from three study programs had to research an app that supports one aspect of self-management such as focus, time management, etc.. The chosen app was tested for one week in order to report the experiences and to explain for which situations students recommended the app.

From a theoretical perspective, all steps of Bloom’s taxonomy on educational objectives are included: students described the app, experienced one week of usage, analyzed the app’s impact on their behavior, and evaluated the experiment to share a recommendation. Furthermore, previous studies show the impact of self-management-skills on academic success (Thiel et al. 2010, Metzger & Schulmeister 2020).

The results of the mainly ‘digital natives’ indicate that they perceive their needs in self-management differently within the three study programs. The assignment resulted in an impressively positive reflection. Students emphasized that they would continue using the self-management tools.

Habitus.Power.Education – Transformation through Reflection

Keywords: Beginner, Diversity and Inclusion, Transition

Dr. Lisa Scheer
University of Graz, Austria

What does studying have to do with power and habitus? How can reflection support the transition into university life and what is the purpose of addressing classism at university? These questions will be answered with results from the research project “Habitus.Power.Education – Transformation through Reflection”, conducted at the Institute for Educational Research and Teacher Education, University of Graz, from 2019 to 2021. Social and participatory research methods were used to analyze how social inequality is experienced, perceived, and (re)produced in educational institutions. On the basis of these results, open educational resources (OER) were developed, consisting of theory cards which support the introduction to main concepts such as habitus, capital and meritocracy. In addition, exercise cards introduce visual, written and oral methods which represent a more playful approach the topic of social inequality in education. At the poster session I will give a few insights and inspire colleagues to reflect on classism, discuss measures and take home a few new ideas focussing on first year students.

Fundamentals of EE – Gifted student program

Keywords: Teaching Staff, Student Engagement, Transition

Dominik Mayrhofer, Paul Baumgartner
Graz University of Technology, Austria

Within this work an overview of the gifted student program implemented in the course “Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering” taught at the Graz University of Technology is given.

Due to the size of the course a large team of experienced students working as tutors is vital to disburden the course organizers while keeping a good supervision ratio. The selection and integration of new tutors is very important since it directly influences the team dynamic. An extensive selection process enables us to recruit talented colleagues forming the backbone of the course.

An open feedback culture as well as a flat hierarchy forms trust and enables fruitful discussions leading to the continuous improvement of the course. Since they are students themselves, they know the student’s way of thinking, bringing valuable feedback and new ideas to the table, forming the think tank of the course.

In order to quick start their teaching career, an intensive support framework is implemented where experienced colleagues evaluate the teaching session and give feedback. Furthermore, social activities and meetings throughout the semester keep the team spirit high and give valuable insight in the course dynamics.

Increasing permeability into STEM/non-traditional fields of study

Keywords: Prospective Students, Diversity and Inclusion, Orientation and Induction

Katja Landstetter, MA
Fachhochschule Technikum Wien, Austria

When it comes to careers, worldwide a huge gender-gap can be observed. Despite this obvious imbalance, more factors are known to be invisible barriers to (higher) education. To tackle such barriers, it is necessary to provide fair and equal access and therefore increase diversity in those areas of expertise.
The University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien is offering several programs to enable non-traditional students to successfully start a new field of study: For students lacking a high-school-diploma, qualification trainings and exams are provided. The FiT-Program (an German abbreviation for “women in tech and craft” or “Frauen In Technik und Handwerk”), a joint venture with the public employment services, is aimed at women, with a focus on women facing intersectional barriers to studying.
This poster is intended to showcase proven examples of good practice and serve as inspiration to adapt and adopt this for your own IHE.

Ways to successfull transition in higher education

Keywords: Beginner, Diversity and Inclusion, Orientation and Induction

Katja Landstetter, MA
Fachhochschule Technikum Wien, Austria

The start of the academic education is, especially for first generation-students, a complex and often confusing situation. A plethora of new and demanding tasks are to be solved with little time to adapt to this new reality. Transparency and good supporting structures are critical to prevent immediate drop-out or disadvantages for vulnerable and minoritized student groups.
To ensure a good start the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien started in 2018 its orientation-program, called Welcome Days. On two days new students are provided an overview of how the university and their study-program work. Service units for each kind of support are introduced. Students are made aware of the requirements that are placed on them as well as support options.
In the months prior to the start Warm Up Courses in a large variety of subjects help to prepare for studying and are essential e.g., for career changers and students with a deficit in basic scientific knowledge. Both programs offer the opportunity to connect to fellow students early on.
This poster is intended as a handout for the implementation of welcome events for universities to adapt this good-practice-example to their own needs.

How Interest Fit relates to Study Choice and Reorientation in HE

Keywords: Prospective Students, Orientation and Induction, Transition

Sofie Van Cauwenberghe (co-authors: co-authors: Nicolas Dirix, Stijn Schelfhout, Wouter Duyck)
Ghent University, Netherlands

Choosing a suitable study program is a challenging process for prospective students. A good person-environment fit (PE fit) among student and study program affects study achievement and persistence, required to acquiring the favored degree. In Flanders, there is an open access policy and a modest tuition fee ensures that everyone have a chance to attend higher education. However, dropout rates are high. Providing adequate and personalized information prior to student enrolment helps prospective students in making informed study decisions and, thereby, improves student motivation, confidence, and success. Studies suggest that students who failed their first year, would benefit from changing their study choice. The benefit of reorienting is influenced by the extent to which the student’s interest profile matches the field of study and by the degree the study level matches the student’s competence. The present study investigates how the fit between a student’s vocational interests and the chosen study program contributes to reorientation during and after the first year of higher education. Furthermore, we examine if study efficiency and interest fit improve after reorientation. We used the interest data of N = 6,000 last-year Belgian secondary school students and their achievement one year later in higher education. Results indicated interest fit was significantly lower for students who reoriented. The interest fit with the new study program decreased and the study efficiency increased after reorientation. We argue that study orientation and counselling tools can benefit from the insights of this study.

eCampus: Promoting Technology Enhanced Learning at Styrian Universities

Keywords: Teaching Staff, Support Services, Technology Enhanced Learning

Andrea Meier, MA; Anastasija Lyubova, BA
FH CAMPUS 02, Austria

eCampus marks an important step towards cross-university collaboration and advancement of technology enhanced learning (TEL) at Styrian universities.

It is an e-service containing more than 50 use cases, or practical applications, which help lecturers find the right TEL methods to help students reach the intended learning outcomes. Those use cases are classified into six categories (course management, creating learning materials, conduct face-to-face teaching, conduct online teaching, performance assessment and feedback, and technology enhanced course concepts) and come with detailed descriptions, basic information, and practical tips for implementation. All use cases are licensed under CC-BY 4.0 and can be filtered according to categories such as levels of learning taxonomy addressed, forms of feedback, and group size to help lecturers find the right method for their classes.

eCampus and its most important features, such as the structures of the use cases and the possibilities for interaction, will be presented on a poster, allowing for an in-depth discussion with the participants on their experiences with TEL methods, user engagement and further development of eCampus.

From KUG-Student4OneDay to KUG-Student4Real

Keywords: Prospective Students, Orientation and Induction, Support Services

Eva Calvi-Fuchs, Sara Kebe Cerpes
University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria

The service “KUG-Student4OneDay” has been founded in 2017 by the central contact point Welcome Center and provides individual guidance through the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (shortly KUG by its German acronym) and offers prospective students exclusive and important information about the life of a student at KUG. Target group of this service are prospective students or interested party, who is still searching for the suitable study programme. The service “KUG-Student4OneDay” allows prospective students to get a taste of being a student of KUG for one day themselves; before they take an entrance exam and/or they enrol. A prospective student, who applies for this service, will be consulted professionally in different languages on the desired field of study and admission process by a student of KUG. Afterwards, an all-round supervised campus tour will be provided, too. Moreover, at the applicant’s option and if applicable, attending a course from the respective curriculum is also possible. At the end of the tour, each prospective student will be given a Welcome Package with further information material. Throughout the years, the service KUG-Student4OneDay has become very successful and popular, based on the number of registrations.

KUG Welcome Center for prospective students and university applicants

Keywords: Prospective Students, Orientation and Induction, Support Services

Eva Calvi-Fuchs, Sara Kebe Cerpes
University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria

In 2016, the Welcome Center was established at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (shortly KUG by its German acronym) for prospective and first-year students as well as for university applicants. This student-centred measure promotes a welcoming culture at the university. As a central contact and service point, the Welcome Center is well networked within and outside the university. Within the university, redundancies in the processing of enquiries are avoided and the risk of incorrect answers to questions is thus minimized, as well as the overall processing effort is reduced. Outside the university, not only the professionalism in dealing with potential students and freshmen increases, but also the attractiveness as an educational institution does.

These are the services:

• Multilingual counselling on site, by phone, and online
• Information fairs
• Open House Day
• Guest Audition
• KUG-Student4OneDay
• “Pre-Registration” (before enrollment)
• Welcome Information Day
• KUG at educational institutions
• KUG Backstage
• Others: Creation of various study-relevant printed materials, supervising and editing the homepage (area “Studying”), development of a student recruiting/marketing system.

KUG… but why? Results of a qualitative study

Keywords: Beginners, Support Services, Transition

Eva Calvi-Fuchs (1), Sara Kebe Cerpes (1), Thomas Lederer-Hutsteiner (2), Manfred Hammerl (2), Harald Lothaller (1)
University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (1), x-sample (2), Austria

The University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (shortly KUG by its German acronym) sees itself as a pathfinder and companion through all phases of studying (also including the time before and after the studies). But does KUG really meet these requirements of focusing on its students? How do students experience KUG and its offers?

In the winter term 2021/22, KUG commissioned a study by the social research institute x-sample to ascertain how KUG is perceived by its students, why they decided to study at KUG and how they evaluate the support offers, in order to be able to improve the services. The results of the approximately 60 narrative interviews conducted with students of the Bachelor´s and Master´s Programmes “Instrumental Studies and “Music Education – Voice and Instruments” (“IGP”) (in each case classical) are presented in the form of a poster. The focus is on the phase of decision-making and preparation for studies (prospective students) and the phase of beginning studies (beginners). This will provide insights into how (potential) students are welcomed at KUG and how they evaluate the (onboarding) offers.