Identifying Best Practice in Academic Induction

About

The Identifying Best Practice in Academic Induction strand of PESE2: Inclusive Multi-Modal Learning Environment (2015 - 2017) was challenged to determine the nature and content of academic induction across the institution with the aim of enhancing the initial student experience through an inclusive academic induction programme.

The project investigated the merits of earlier academic intervention to support students’ needs and explored whether or not dedicated skills induction for students early on in their degree programme would benefit student attainment in the longer term.

It also wanted to understand if academic induction encourages a more inclusive learning approach which enables a strong cohort identity to develop and flourish.

Contact us

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please email Hellen Barton: hbarton@brookes.ac.uk

We are particularly interested in examples of good practice from colleagues developing academic induction.

Resources

The project ran a conference at Brookes in January 2017, where staff from across the University presented examples of academic induction in their particular subject areas. See below for details of the workshops and downloadable presentations.

Foundations for Academic Success: Orientation, Transition and Integration

Presenters: Fran Brassington, Jacqui O’Rourke, Lindsay Williams (Business School)

The aim of this session was to outline the rationale behind Foundations for Academic Success (a compulsory, double level 4 module within the Department of Marketing), its structure and the resourcing factors that are key to its success. Student evaluation offers further insight into its perceived value and effectiveness.

Presentation slides »

Peer Advice on Learning

Presenter: Rehab Osman (Business School)

This is an informal scheme run by senior students which aims to give new students an opportunity to improve their understanding of module requirements and develop the learning skills necessary for success.

This workshop explored the peer learning principals behind PAL and reflects on whether this type of scheme would help your students.

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Academic orientation and skills development in the School of Biological and Medical Sciences through inclusion of academic advisor-led tutorials in a first year module

Presenter: Andrew Rendell (Biological and Medical Science)

All new undergraduate students within BMS study a skills-based module within which there is a programme of tutorials that each academic advisor runs with their tutor group.

These tutorials serve several purposes, including induction into academic study and skills development. The logistics, successes and challenges of this scheme are presented.

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Peer mentoring in disciplinary focused transition: a partnership approach

Presenter: Julia Winter (Health and Life Sciences)

The presentation describes a team teaching project exploring how peer supported activities can help students to achieve professional transition into nursing. Pre-registration nursing education recruits students from a varying demographic so transition needs may vary.

Gale and Parker (2012) propose that transition activities can be conceptualised as "induction" – pertaining to institutional requirements and expectations ; "development" – pertaining to the development of an HE identity and "becoming" which relates to developing an understanding of how to function within a specific disciplinary identity.

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Taming baggy monsters; or, groans, grades and gratitude: Perspectives from English Literature

Presenters: Dr. Andrea Macrae and Dr. Niall Munro (English)

This talk summarises the various iterations that academic orientation teaching has recently gone through within the English Literature UG course, in the context of a wholly revised degree programme and shifting entry grade requirements.

The presenters discuss the rationale behind module designs, challenges they’ve faced, strategies they’ve tried and lessons they're learning.

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Teaching Legal Skills: Fusion of the Academic and the Practical

Presenter: Andrew Kopkin (Law)

The study and practice of law require an excellent grasp of many skills. The most basic are effective reading, note taking, summarisation, and time management; as well as research, learning how to analyse legal materials such as cases and statutes, how to structure argument and accurate drafting and writing.

This presentation focuses on three skills law modules that give law students the opportunity to develop these foundational skills, including the critical component of teaching the '4 Cs' approach – the consistent focus on correctness, clarity, conciseness, and corroboration both to conceptualising and to effecting excellent legal writing.

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Developing a digital environment to enhance the pre-arrival experience: transition into higher education

Presenter: Samia Kamal (Computing and Communication Technologies)

PASE (Pre-Arrival Student Engagement) Hub is an activity web app developed in the department of Computing and Communication Technologies at Oxford Brookes University, about engaging students via course specific activities before they arrive to start their degree programmes.

These course related activities are also linked to the induction program, which help in engaging students with their course content earlier on and to become part of a course specific learning community.

Presentation slides »

Developing Students' Skills

Presenter: Dan Sames (Foundation Built Environment)

Themes - Academic Orientation, Raising students' grades

The Foundation Built Environment course has been running and developing for over 13 years. It allows students who do not meet entry requirements for degrees within the Built Environment a second chance and brings them up to the academic level required at degree level study.

Modules develop students' academic and practical skills and give them the confidence to perform within the university environment.

Students studying on the FBE often go on to out perform traditional entrants and obtain good degrees (2:1s and Firsts).

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From Fear to Finesse: Helping students navigate bumps on the road to academic success

Presenter: Kevin Watson (Upgrade)

This session explores the extent to which effective study skills provision is as much about helping students with ways of 'being' as it is 'ways' of doing.

Using the Upgrade Study Skills Service's six guiding principles as a focus, the workshop demonstrates that discovering effective study techniques is far from obvious but that a joined-up extended induction process that seeks to meet students where they are can significantly enhance the student experience.

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A shift in responsibility: Inclusive Learning and Teaching to replace parts of the Disabled Students’ Allowances for students with Dyslexia and Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD)

Presenters: Fiona Hutchison and Fiona Watkins: Dyslexia Service, Wellbeing (ASA)

The transition into Higher Education can be challenging for around 500 students with Dyslexia /SpLD who join Brookes each year; academic demands, greater independence and the new environment can all be problematic and the process students must follow to demonstrate their needs and access support can take months.

The presenters explore these issues and introduce a range of approaches and inclusive resources which are being developed as part of a Project for Enhancing the Student Experience.

Workshop handout »

Examples of inclusive practice »

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Presenter: Kanja Sesay (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Adviser)

This workshop focuses on the importance of delivery-focused interventions around attainment from pre-induction and throughout the student life cycle in order to maximise sense belonging and student success, as well as an opportunity to discuss the importance of inclusive practice in a wider sense.

Presentation slides »