University on Wheels

Greetings from the Inaugural Student Experience Conference in Sydney, where Professor Doug Hargreaves, Science and Engineering Faculty, QUT is speaking on "Enhancing the student experience through collaborative learning spaces".

Doug described how the new Engineering Studio and Teaching Space at Queensland University of Technology has the equipment on wheels. Gordon Howell, Manager Learning Environments Support at QUT showed me an early version of some of this equipment in 2009.

QUT has a room called "The Forum" (P419), intended for debates.This looks to me like an extravagant use of space with an inflexible design. What would be preferable is a standard, square, "TEAL room", with tables on on wheels and walls which can be projected or written on. The furniture could then be arranged to this forum format, when needed. But tables could be rearranged for group work, or a traditional lecture.

Addressing the needs of international students

Greetings from the Inaugural Student Experience Conference in Sydney, where Thomson Ch’ng, National President, Council of International Students Australia (CISA) is speaking on "Addressing the needs of international students to enhance their student experience". CISA was set up after in response to criticism of treatment of international students. There is a CISA Good Practice Program. One issue Thomson mentioned was the role of university agents, who help recruit international students.

Thomson pointed out that long induction presentations, with handouts, are not useful. It would seem to me obvious this should be "flipped", with the students getting the induction information on-line before they arrive and then just a question and answer when they arrive.

During this presentation it occurred to me that I am now an international student.I am enrolled in a course provided by a university in another country. Even thought I am not traveling to that country, there are some differences. One trivial difference is that my course is scheduled in what the university describes as "Winter 2014", even though for me it is high summer. While this is trivial, it would be good if the institution acknowledged its international students and used global terminology. More seriously, I don't exactly how large the course I have enrolled in is, as it is described in terms different to those used in Australian Higher Education.

Student leadership in curriculum development

Greetings from the Inaugural Student Experience Conference in Sydney, where Elizabeth Deane (UWS) is speaking on "Student leadership in curriculum development and reform". This is an Office of Learning and Teaching funded project, with La Trobe University, University of Queensland, University of Sydney, University of South Australia, University of Southern Queensland and, most interestingly, the National Union of Students.

It would seem to me that leadership skills would be part of any professional degree program. This could therefore be built into the programs. However, there would have to be a curriculum and qualified teachers.

Also before teaching university students outdated pre-Internet ways to run a university, I suggest new on-line techniques be looked at. I help organize events and run organizations with people who I hardly ever (or never) see. These use specialized on-line services and also more fluid forms of "un-conference" event.

Abstract

This project addresses a key issue in Higher Education: identifying and developing valid, productive roles for student leaders, particularly important in capitalising on the capacity of the student body to contribute to strategies for improving learning, teaching and curriculum. Phase 1 will investigate institutional governance and management frameworks supporting student involvement. This will entail documenting and critiquing student roles in education-related committees, a stocktake of models of student representation and policies, processes and approaches used to gather and use student feedback. Phase 2 will involve a survey of staff and students as to the validity and effectiveness of processes used to access the student voice and act on results, particularly in relation to curriculum development and reform. This survey will identify strategies and initiatives to ensure valid student leadership roles and develop case studies for the sector. Phase 3 will workshop the findings with experienced students and staff to establish effective student leadership framework(s) and validate key recommendations.

Improving the Student Experience Online

Greetings from the Inaugural Student Experience Conference in Sydney. After a day and a half of presentations from university personnel, Peter Rohan from Ernst & Young, is giving a refreshing business view of higher education (E&Y issued "Universityof the future: A thousand year old industry on the cusp of profound change" in 2012). He asked if investments, such as WiFi on campuses, actually is worth the cost. He suggests that providing feedback to students and taking an interest in them would better improve their experience. He also suggested the university look at what their students value.

My own experience as a student has been that at times a university may try too hard. I don;t mind a few surveys to find what I like. But at one stage I was getting a survey about every week from one university. I did not know which were important and which were not, but the surveys were detracting from my student experience, so each time I got one, I have the university a lower rating.

In my view Higher Education could usefully invest in on-line presence and in teaching skills. This not be an expensive exercise, compared to building new buildings and hiring new staff. A university is  inherently virtual, with the physical environment just to supplement the experience: it is about people and ideas.

An example of the ideas and people is when I visited Cambridge University Computer Labs. This institution is world famous for helping create the modern computer age, from building the world's second electronic computer to the world's first web cam. But when I visited the lab was in a crumbling old, cramped building (with a dinosaur skeleton in it). The old buildings are part of the Cambridge ethos (although on my next visit I found they had moved into a shiny new building next to Microsoft Research Labs). But it was the idea of the Lab which was important not the physical building.

Topping The Student Experience Survey

Greetings from the Inaugural Student Experience Conference in Sydney. Dr Richard Harvey, University of East Anglia, is speaking on his university's
Rise to the top of the The Student Experience Survey. University of East Anglia was established in the 1960s. Richard commented that the UK higher education system went wrong in the 1980s. In particular he criticized the national ranking of research, which forced some researchers into teaching. East Anglia is a center for climate changed research and was embroiled in controversy over "Climategate". He showed a university "league table" graph comparing his own university with the "Russell Group" (which appears to be the UK equivalent of Australia's Group of Eight, leading universities). He also showed the National Student Survey (NSS), Student Barometer and the Times Education Supplement Student Experience Survey. The survey I find of interest is the Webometrics, which ranks the quality of the university's web presence. The interesting point about the web rankings is that they correlate closely with other more general university rankings.

Richard looked at the NSS in detail. He pointed that that the criteria would not be welcomed by some at universities, as for example, library facilities are not a priority. He pointed out that scores for feedback on students were "remarkably poor" for UK institutions. He suggested universities needed at most a five day turnaround for student feedback.

Richard also pointed out that student satisfaction differs by discipline and nationality. He suggested that this needs to be addressed. But some effects are correlations, rather than causal relationships (such as graduate employment rate being caused by quality of courses, rather than a measure of it).

Richard commented that more attention needed to be paid to the postgraduate experience. I will speak on this a little in my presentation at 3:40pm on "MOOCs and the Student Experience" (see program for other speakers).