Parallel Session Round #3

Parallel Session Round #3

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

Workshop Session A

Triggers for first year students’ academic integration from day 1

HS XII (ATEG036)

 

Workshop Session B

Exploring the impact of community on student engagement
SR Architektur 098 (AT01098)

 

Paper Session A

Influencing the influencers – reaching out to stakeholders at secondary schools

Using Peer Assisted Learning through transitional stages in Higher Education

HS VI (ATEG142)

 

Paper Session B

Fundamentals of EE – Concept of a first semester exercise

Will Faculty Buy In and Will Students Care? Embedding FYE Content into the Academic Curriculum

HS VIII (AT02002J)

 

Show and Tell Session A

Achieving student success: everybody wants to contribute, so why do we not succeed?

Closing the gap: How to speak to underrepresented pupils on their road to higher education?

“Kickstart your student journey’: an initiative for first generation students

SR Architektur 104 (AT01104)

 

Show and Tell Session B

“Welcome! Student starter kit”

Introduction days: checklist for a warmer welcome

Social structures for learning in on-line programmes

HS II (ATK1008H)

 

Workshop Session A

Triggers for first year students’ academic integration from day 1 

Keywords: Beginners, Orientation and Induction, Transition

Jan Bollansée and Katleen Craenen
KU Leuven, Belgium

In 2019 KU Leuven adopted a new concept for its induction activities, with an explicit focus on first year students’ academic integration from the very start of their studies. Activities that allow new students to get acquainted with disciplinary aspects and teaching and learning approaches, and to engage with teaching staff and fellow students, contribute to this goal.

However, the ambition to provide early triggers for academic integration gives rise to a number of challenges. They centre around three main strands: 1) the type of activities that contribute to academic integration in the induction phase, 2) ways to get teaching staff involved and 3) the roles that peer students can play in the process.

This workshop will start with a brief presentation of KU Leuven’s views and experiences regarding triggers for academic integration from day 1. We will then move on to small group discussions, exploring possible approaches to each of the challenges by sharing participants’ ideas and experiences. You will be invited to identify one ‘take home’ idea, so as to inspire change or further growth in your institution.

Workshop Session B

Exploring the impact of community on student engagement

Keywords: Beginners, Diversity and Inclusion, Student Engagement

Oscar van den Wijngaardn
Maastricht University, the Netherlands

How students perceive and participate in their social and academic communities has a strong impact on the degree of engagement students feel with their studies. The covid-19 pandemic has reminded all in higher education even more of the importance of connectedness and community for student well-being and success – for all students, but for first year students in particular. In order to make these complex concepts more tangible, staff at EDLAB, the Institute for Education Innovation at Maastricht University (UM), together with students have developed a workshop on community and engagement. In this workshop students identify characteristic features of their community and discuss how these features affect their affective, behavioural and cognitive engagement. The workshop thus generates concrete and contextualized topics for further discussion and planning on how engagement and community can be nurtured and developed further. While this workshop was developed with the aim of providing input to community building processes, its approach to reviewing and analysing aspects of community also offers a basis for more systematic research on the interactions between community and engagement.

Paper Session A

Influencing the influencers – reaching out to stakeholders at secondary schools

Keywords: Prospective Students, Student Engagement, Transition

Anine Skjøt Møller
University College Copenhagen, Denmark

How to strengthen the bridge to higher education by initiating co-created activities for both students, teachers, student counselors and management in secondary education?

At University College Copenhagen we have decided not just to focus on the prospective students but also the main agents in their environment in our initiatives to prospective students. We do that because we see the teachers and student counselors as the real influencers on the student’s choice of education. The obvious goal is to improve the students’ awareness of welfare educations and give them authentic experiences that can contribute their choice of education. Moreover, we are interested in bringing about a broader and better perspective on both the programmes at the university college and the subsequent labor opportunities.
In this session we will present the design for our partnership with the secondary schools with whom we are co-creating activities reaching out to students and staff both at secondary schools and by us. This collaboration is guided by principles about relevance, sustainability, and peer involvement.

Using Peer Assisted Learning through transitional stages in Higher Education

Keywords: Beginners, Orientation and Induction, Transition

Linnea Wallen
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

The Peer Assisted Learning Scheme (PALS) model is globally well-established as a key provision in supporting students through university and the body of research evidencing its efficacy is constantly expanding (Arendal, 2018; Malm et al., 2022). At Queen Margaret University (QMU), the scheme support students at each transitional stage – from first year through to fourth year – by trained leaders who facilitate student-led spaces in which they demystify expectations and explore their learning together with cohorts below them; functioning as continuous orientation, academic support and a learning community. This presentation demonstrates the impact of PALS for students at QMU. The data were generated through mixed evaluation approaches, including non-experimental counterfactual analysis of surveys and exam board results, as well as rich qualitative accounts from attendees in semi-structured focus groups facilitated by PALS leaders. By illustrating how the scheme fosters active student engagement and encourages students to take ownership of their knowledge and learning, this evaluative research contributes to cross-disciplinary theory and practice on peer-learning pedagogy.

 

Paper Session B

Fundamentals of EE – Concept of a first semester exercise

Keywords: Beginners, Transition, Virtual / Hybrid Teaching and Learning

Paul Baumgartner, Dominik Mayrhofer
Graz University of Technology, Austria

In the teaching project „Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering,” taught at Graz University of technology, the requirements on a first-semester course were systematically analyzed, and new concepts were implemented.

One major challenge is the student’s heterogenous prior education. An essential measure to react to this is the implementation of well-selected unique materials as additional exercise sheets or teaching videos. Also, the social aspect of first-semester students is considered in building learning teams within the course’s groups.

An intensive feedback culture provides the student with well-directed but manifold information. Using an anonymous communication platform, a fruitful discussion platform could be implemented. Also, feedback to the teaching staff and the course’s organization is well executed and ensures the sustainability of the course.

The impact of all these measures could be seen in the development of the course. For example, since the start of the project, the course’s failure rate could be decreased from 50% to about 25%. Also, surveys within the student group prove a better education on the entire content of the curriculum.

Will Faculty Buy In and Will Students Care? Embedding FYE Content into the Academic Curriculum

Keywords: Beginners, Support Services, Transition

Andrew Skelton
York University, Canada

The gold standard of FYE programming is the First-Year Seminar, a credit course that teaches students university success strategies, but such courses are not common practice in Canada. An alternative delivery model for FYE programming is to integrate the content into the academic curriculum, but this comes with challenges such as buy-in and loss of efficacy.

What does it take for instructors to adopt these materials in their courses, what does it take for students to complete them, and can they still be effective?

From the student perspective, the benefit (skills improvement, academic success, and direct academic reward) must be balanced with the cost (time, effort, and motivation). From the faculty perspective, the benefit (retention and improved student outcomes) must be balanced with the cost (workload, motivation, perceived sacrifice of course content and resource cost).

We will present results of our project, in which learning modules were developed at a variety of engagement levels and formats and tested with a large 1200-student course over three years. We will present student outcomes data, survey data from both students and faculty, lessons learned and ideas for the future.

 

Show and Tell Session A

Achieving student success: everybody wants to contribute, so why do we not succeed?

Keywords: Beginners,

Mia Milde, Harald Åge Sæthre
University of Bergen, Norway

An increasing number of students report mental health issues, and too many of our skilled and capable students leave our university before graduation. Do our employees have the skill, competence, and resources to work systematically to solve this issue in a sustainable way over time? Do they have the opportunity to build up their expertise in the field? And who is responsible for finding these solutions?

The way an institution achieve results depends on a multitude of factors, and the competence and expertise of the employees is only one. Other factors include, among other things, what mandate the employees have, how management relates to this mandate and student involvement. Simply put, who does what and where.

From February to October 2021, we have conducted interviews with university and faculty management, employees, and students, to uncover how the organization works with these challenges. This presentation will highlight some general findings that will be relevant for most educational institutions. The presentation will also include some of the recommendations that was given to the University of Bergen on how these challenges can be met.

Closing the gap: How to speak to underrepresented pupils on their road to higher education?

Keywords: Prospective Students, Diversity and Inclusion, Transition

Fatima-Zahra Naimi
KU Leuven, Belgium

Cross-national data indicate that equality on average across social groups is not achieved: students with a migration background or non-higher educated parents are still less likely to participate in higher education. KU Leuven and its associated colleges of applied sciences have been organising for many years the ‘A-crew’ project. For them closing that gap starts before entering higher education, it starts during the decision process. A diverse group of students take up the role of ambassador and visit schools and youth organisations to tell prospective students their story. This has three main objectives for prospective students: motivating to start considering higher education in time, equipping them with tools and tips to take sound decisions and facilitating encounters with role models they can relate to. The project also has objectives for the ambassadors: learning several skills in a formal and informal way, gaining a network and earning official recognition for this extracurricular activity through credits or a certificate. In this session KU Leuven will elaborate on how this project is carried out and what they have learned during the process, with all its challenges.

‘Kickstart your student journey’: an initiative for first generation students

Keywords: Beginners, Diversity and Inclusion, Transition

Yasmine Goossens
UCLL University of Applied Sciences, Belgium

First generation students – whose parents never studied at a higher education institution (HEI) themselves – have been pouring into HE programs (almost silently) for decades. These students form a highly divers and motivated group, but there are challenges lurking around the corner for them that HEI cannot ignore. For first generation students the start at higher education seems particularly difficult and stressful. It can often be an attack on their self-confidence, with all the imaginable consequences for their sense of belonging, progression and success-rate.

‘Kickstart’ is a three-day empowerment-program at UCLL, a University of Applied Sciences in Belgium, which aims to give first generation students a ‘head start’ to a positive student journey. ‘Kickstart’ aims to be demand-driven and focusses on the many practical and sometimes small questions these students struggle with. Summarized, they can participate in workshops about self-confidence, storytelling and discovering their own talents as a student. Kickstart has started (or revived) a valuable discussion about inclusion and diversity.

 

Show and Tell Session B

“Welcome! Student starter kit”

Keywords: Beginners, Orientation and Induction, Transition

Emma Björg Eyjólfsdóttir, Hannah Tischmann
UCLL University of Iceland (Eyjólfsdóttir), University of Stavanger (Tischmann)

“Welcome! Student starter kit” is a digital resource for first year students at European universities to support them in their transition from high school to university. The goal of this project is to generate a better understanding of the student role and an interest in academic skills before the first lecture. “Welcome! Student starter kit” thus aims at helping first year students to get started faster and more efficient with their studies.
The starter kit is developed by project teams from the University of Stavanger (Norway/project leader), the University of Iceland (Iceland), and Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) and financed by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships. It will consist of 10 short videos and other digital content discussing different aspects of being a student. The content is created across the three partner institutions and based on focus group interviews and questionnaires sent out to more experienced students.
“Welcome! Student starter kit” will be available from summer 2022 on www.studentstarterkit.eu.

Introduction days: checklist for a warmer welcome

Keywords: Beginners, Mental Health and Well-being, Transition

Liessa Engels
Ghent University, Belgium

An increasing demand of psychological support for students along with striking results from a university-wide questionnaire on well-being by the student board challenged our university to rethink our approach on students’ mental health.

Findings showed that our students perceived the university as a rather distant and impersonal institution. Introductory moments were experienced as overwhelming, with an overload on information. First year students lacked a warm welcome and struggled with finding the right support.

Well-being was put on the agenda as a university-wide focal point. While developing a mental health policy in various phases, the first focus was on creating a checklist for the faculties to use when giving shape to their introduction days. Through combining three crucial elements (social cohesion, campus guidance, basic information) all eleven faculties now have a new and improved way of organising their welcome days.

During the Show & Tell we will present the checklist combined with actual examples of the implementation within the faculties. The presentation will illustrate how a simple checklist can help to evolve welcome days into a more qualitative whole.

Social structures for learning in on-line programmes

Keywords: Beginners, Student Engagement, Virtual / Hybrid Teaching and Learning

Prof. Dr. Ellen Marie Saethre-McGuirk
Norwegian Competency Network for Student Success in Higher Education / Nord University, Norway

This show and tell presents a case study concerning the formal and informal social structures for learning created to support diverse students in their individual and group on-line learning activities.

The returning, but nonetheless first year students brought with them significantly different practical workplace experience, in that the students were teachers in a diverse range of schools from all over Norway. In that the program was aimed at a range of in-service teachers, a differentiated-content approach was necessary. Some students were given time off to complete the course, while others didn’t have this opportunity and had to take the program at the same time as working full time. The complexity of creating constructive formal and informal social structures for learning for such a diverse group of learners was furthered by the differences in students’ comfortableness of being on-line students. In this landscape, issues relating to GDPR, social media, and public presentation of student work had to be negotiated.

The case study addresses a 15+15 ects part-time in-service teacher continuing education program in art and design created for on-line delivery during the years 2015-2022.