The First Year: engagement and empowerment

3rd European First Year Experience ConferenceUniversity of Wolverhampton

7-9 May 2008

Professor George GordonCentre for Academic Practice and Learning

Enhancement, University of StrathclydeDr Christine Macpherson

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education

Quality Enhancement Themes:

• Topics of interest to the Scottish higher education sector, with the aim of enhancing the student learning experience

• Part of the Quality Enhancement Framework, along with enhancement-led institutional review (ELIR), student participation, institution-led subject review and public information

SHEEC

• The Scottish Higher Education Enhancement Committee (SHEEC) plans and directs the work of the Enhancement Themes

Quality Enhancement Themes:Completed

• Assessment• Employability• Responding to Student Needs• Flexible Delivery• Integrative Assessment

Quality Enhancement Themes:Current

• The First Year• Research-Teaching linkages

Implementation

• Scoping study• Steering committee including students, institutional

contacts• Identify emerging good practice nationally and

internationally• Programme of public and institutional events• Publication of outcomes of project work

Dissemination:Supported Engagement

• Publications sent to higher education institutions (HEIs) and available on enhancement themes website

• Dissemination phase: supported engagement with outcomes

• Dissemination events• Enhancement themes newsletter• Annual conference

The First Year Experience:student empowerment and

engagement

• What is the nature and purpose of first year?• What do we want students to gain from the first

year?• How can we align student and institutional

expectations to achieve this?• How can we make best use of the first year to

engage and empower learners?

The First Year Experience:student empowerment and

engagement

• Two broad stands of work:– Institutional discussions– Projects:

• sector-wide (2)• practice-focused (7)

The First Year Experience:student empowerment and

engagement

• Sector-wide projects:

1. Sector-wide discussion: nature and purposes of the first year

2. Student expectations, experiences and reflections on the first year

The First Year Experience:student empowerment and

engagement

• Practice-focused projects:

3. Curriculum design for the first year

4. Transforming assessment and feedback: enhancing integration and empowerment in the first year

5. Peer support in the first year

Cont’d…

The First Year Experience:student empowerment and

engagement

• Practice-focused projects:

6. Personal Development Planning (PDP) in the first year

7. Personalisation of the first year

8. Introducing scholarship skills: academic writing

9. Transition to and during the first year

Sector-wide discussion: nature and purposes of the first year

The principal sections considered:• the Scottish scene• supporting material from the HEA• illustrations from the English HE sector• developments in Hong Kong• Australian experiences and approaches• the American scene

Sector-wide discussion: nature and purposes of the first year

Key messages included indications that:• there is considerable interest in the first year

experience• the focus upon engagement and

empowerment was distinctive and considered to be timely

• the discussions in Scottish HEIs demonstrated that context is crucial

…

Sector-wide discussion: nature and purposes of the first year

• active discussion occurred in institutions and it was reported that these would continue as strategies were formulated and implemented or options investigated

• Scottish institutions viewed engagement and empowerment as core components of a successful student experience, albeit with differences in detailed interpretations

…

Sector-wide discussion: nature and purposes of the first year

• the project found that the most common foci of interest in Scottish HEIs were: induction; orientation; peer support; improved monitoring of students and ways of enthusing them about their studies. Ideas were being adopted from elsewhere with care taken to ensure a match to local needs and contexts.

Sector-wide discussion: nature and purposes of the first year:

Workshop questions

1. How can opportunities for engagement and sharing of good practice be maximised?

• What could be done to lubricate/assist/enable/inform without being seen as an external imposition/burden?

2. Once the main project phase is completed, what should be done to facilitate/enable/encourage embedding?

Sector-wide discussion: nature and purposes of the first year:

Workshop questions

3. How can students be engaged to continue to contribute to discussions/ dialogue/ deliberations/developments?

• That is, to create a continuing agenda

4. Does it matter if supportive vehicles for students and staff within an institution are slightly separate from the main academic discipline-based structures?

• For example, university colleges in the USA or Educational Development units in the UK…

Sector-wide discussion: nature and purposes of the first year:

Workshop questions

5. What are the opportunities and challenges to the apparent UK preferences for subject-based focus, with assistance from HEA subject centres?

• How can it be integrated coherently into a multi-stranded strategy (institutional, disciplinary, sectoral)?

6. What can be done to produce high levels of practitioner engagement with the first year Theme (and indeed any enhancement initiative)?

• How is that influenced by recognition and reward schemes?

http://www.enhancementthemes.ac.uk/