Flying Start: supporting student transition
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Presentation given at the University of Limerick's seminar on the Academic Library's Role in Supporting New Students: Transition Success and Retention. It outlines the Flying Start programme at the University of Leeds which introduces students pre-arrival to the key academic skills they will need to success at University.
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Flying Start: supporting student transition
- 1. Off to a Flying Start! Supporting student transition Helen Howard Learning Services Team Leader
- 2. o What is Flying Start? o What have we found out about student transition? o What are the key findings for all of us supporting transition? o What we are doing next and why.
- 4. Flying Start Aims to raise undergraduate student awareness of the importance of building a foundation of academic skills to enhance their studies and improve their grades and employability An online interactive resource for students making the transition to University, available prior to their arrival Includes general content on independent learning, as well as School- specific information: a set of webpages for each school.
- 7. • Pilot year: 11 schools • 2,417 visits (no pageview data) 2011 • Rolled-out: 34 schools • 49,624 unique pageviews2012 • Repeated: 34 schools • 35,254 unique pageviews2013 • Repeated: 34 schools • 34,590 unique pageviews 2014
- 8. Our findings about student transition to University • Pre-development research oSurvey and focus groups with year 12/13 students oSurvey of first year undergraduate students • Feedback from users
- 9. What is your biggest concern about going to university? Finance: “not having enough money” 44% Meeting new people / fitting in: “not getting along with people I’m living with” 15% Not doing well: “failing”, “it being too hard” 15% Lack of ability / not coping: “struggling academically” 34% Meeting new people / fitting in: “being able to find myself comfortable there” 27% Financial worries: “my finances and expenses” 7% Year 12 /13 students UG students with no FS
- 10. What is the biggest difference between study at school & university? Independent learning: “I will be expected to organise myself” 53% Greater volume of work: “the amount of work required outside lessons / lectures” 15% Style of teaching: “the amount of contact time & how it is used” 15% Independent learning: “the expectation to know where and how to find relevant info and resources” 34% Self-motivation & time management: “lots of free time for me to manage” 14% Writing, reading & critical thinking skills: “the need for strong essay responses, nuanced arguments, originality, referencing” 10% Year 12 /13 students UG students with no FS
- 11. What 3 things would be useful to know before you arrive? Course format: Structure, timetables, assessment 43% Finance: Budgeting, fees, debt 41% How to succeed: Support on offer, how to develop skills, avoiding plagiarism 30% The need to be an independent learner: “how much work you have to do by yourself” 14% How to make the most of resources (VLE, Library): “the basic skills to study such as how to use the Library” 13% How to make the most of time here (study / social): “you need to actively learn from lectures and for this you need certain skills” 11% Year 12 /13 students UG students with no FS What do you wish you had known?
- 12. Meeting people, conversation skills Time management, online resources, reading lists Feedback, assessment, groupwork, exams Research skills, using the Library What is referencing, and avoiding plagiarism Types of contact, lectures, note-taking Being an effective learner, reflection
- 13. Our findings about student transition to University • Pre-development research • Feedback from users o4 surveys (immediately after use) o1 post-use survey (Easter) o1 non-user focus group
- 14. What did you find most useful? Independent learning & study skills, esp. referencing & plagiarism Making the grade: feedback & assessment Student videos: hearing directly about their experiences Contact time & making most of lectures
- 15. What did you find most useful? “being an independent learner at Leeds because the change from school / college to university is so humongous” Making the grade: feedback & assessment Student videos: hearing directly about their experiences Contact time & making most of lectures
- 16. What did you find most useful? “being an independent learner at Leeds because the change from school / college to university is so humongous” Making the grade: feedback & assessment “the videos give you an opinion from a ‘real’ student” Contact time & making most of lectures
- 17. What did you find most useful? “being an independent learner at Leeds because the change from school / college to university is so humongous” Making the grade: feedback & assessment “the videos give you an opinion from a ‘real’ student” “it helped having a breakdown of what each kind of contact time meant and what you should expect of it”
- 18. What did you find most useful? “being an independent learner at Leeds because the change from school / college to university is so humongous” “explanation of the types of assessment and marking and things, and how to learn effectively :)” “the videos give you an opinion from a ‘real’ student” “it helped having a breakdown of what each kind of contact time meant and what you should expect of it”
- 19. What did you think was missing? Practical info: what to bring, issues around accommodation, money & budgeting Local info: life in Leeds- the city, University, buildings, setting Experiences & examples: students sharing their typical week; a sample of work More promotion and reminders to use it Lectures & note-taking: more on the style and structure of lectures and how to take notes
- 20. Would you recommend we produce a similar resource for next year’s students? 96.8% 2011 98.5% 2012 98.3% 2013 99.2% 2014
- 21. “I felt I was at an advantage over those who had not accessed it. I had a headstart in understanding referencing, plagiarism, using the Library etc.” (Healthcare student, 2013 survey) “It made me feel a lot more confident about the transition to University and how to apply myself for studying, time management. etc.” (Law student, 2014 survey) “It contained a lot of useful and important information and allowed me to feel more comfortable (and less nervous) about going to university.” (Medicine student, 2014 survey) “I think you need something like this to encourage people to get into their studies and to reassure anyone with social or academic concerns.” (English student, 2014 survey) “It's a brilliant way to update yourself with the new life at uni, introducing you to the new way of learning as well as good tips to help you get a head start.” (French student, 2014 survey)
- 22. Key findings and 5 suggestions for all of us supporting transition
- 23. Students get an overwhelming amount of information during transition and induction- they will miss things Getting information beforehand is reassuring and prepares them Too much information is off-putting Drip-feeding is good if you can Promote resources through all channels, incl. social media
- 24. Content which is new to students is the most useful Content related to the step up to studying at the HE level was the most popular Explain unfamiliar terms / phrases or those used differently in the HE context Students sharing their own experiences gets the message across Resources which are too basic or patronising are off- putting
- 25. Content in transition resources can be useful through the year Keep content available for students after they arrive at University Attitudes and priorities change as they settle in and understand the context better Students report that they will return to a resource later
- 26. Transition resources should be engaging Visual images help students know what to expect Videos are generally popular Hearing from other students is very popular Content shouldn’t feel heavy but fun!
- 27. Settling in generally (not just in terms of study) is important Use examples / images of social aspects and local settings These can support learning or study-related content Collaborate with other University sections engaging with students during transition – check who’s doing what
- 28. New! Flying Start 2015 Resource will be totally updated, due to: –Institutional changes –Scalability issues –Need to improve content and ‘look’, based on feedback received over last 4 years –Wish to link closer with our face-to-face offer –Need to provide all-year round access, including pre-transition and open days
- 29. Flying Start 2015 will highlight: • differences between study at HE level and school / college • key academic skills which support independent learning at Leeds The first year • What to expect • Major HE differences • Types of learning experience Independent Learning • Top study tips • Managing your workload • Planning your semester Academic skills • Referencing & research skills • Types of assessment Taking it further • Your School • Skills@Library support • Signposting to other help
- 30. Questions or Comments? Skills@Library http://library.leeds.ac.uk/skills Click new students tab for list of all Flying Start sites
Editor's Notes
- Plan for today. Specifics of FS at beginning and end, and how what we have done might help others in middle.
- Helps to understand Skills@Library service which LS runs. We cover a broad range of academic skills, including critical thinking, writing, presentations, reading and note-taking, IL, exams, maths. We do this through specific in-curriculum teaching and providing support at specific levels of study; also through generic workshops, events, e-learning and enquiries. We aim to work closely with teaching staff to get them to embed AS in the curriculum. Flying Start fits into our level 0 support (transition) and is followed by 2 induction resources at level 1 (Library Guide and Academic Integrity Tutorial).
- By introducing this concept at the transition stage it is hoped that students will perceive the development of academic skills as a way of enhancing their learning strategies and performance rather than as a remedial option part way through their studies. Multimedia resource using video, interactive e-learning resources, text, links. Concept to have generic content and school info, means that in effect we have 34 different websites.
- Each of the nine sections, has generic top half (same for all) always with a video of these 3 students to introduce the section and explain any new concepts and at the bottom school-created content or links. In this case link to library referencing tutorial, but could be a link to their website or video etc.
- Here’s another example using student video at the bottom as well. Different schools could add what the wished here; we helped with filming of videos. Top half shows tabs across, so in this section we have content on contact time, lectures, note-taking and listening, so bringing in academic skills which link to the topic.
- Development timeline. Note that for the first 2 years the project was funded, firstly through a University Student Education Fellowship, and then additional funding to roll-out to all Schools who wanted it. For the last 2 years we have managed it ourselves, which has led to some sustainability / scalability issues which will talk about later. Note that this is pageviews across all 34 sites, each site has 9 main pages. Changes in how students accessed the site explain the drop in usage between 2012 and 2013. For the first 2 years, students were “drip-fed” information with more pages on the sites being released every few days. They kept getting reminders to look at it, thus higher usage.
- 2 lots of feedback / research data from students. Pre-development with 6th form students and some level 1 Ugs. Then with actual users- will come onto this.
- Comments from 6th formers and UG students who did not experience FS. We decided not to cover finance, as this information covered elsewhere and outside the scope, but academic ability and fitting in were included. 6th formers more interested in practicals of settling in / money, whereas this is reversed somewhat when students are here.
- So building on academic ability, some of the specific skills are outlined here and were important to include in the resource. Also style of teaching and contact time emerges as a theme.
- 6th formers are particularly interested in practical things- structure, timetables. Whereas Ugs more focused on study.
- Content summary, as determined by findings outlined before. These translate into the following areas.
- So survey was sent out to students after use- data from 4 years of this. Plus after 2 years we run an additional survey at Easter and did a focus group with students who identified as not having used it.
- These are the key themes which emerge.
- Some of this is out of scope, which is one of the problems with such a broad resource- where does it end??
- We are pleased with this consistently high score, so in terms of moving forward it’s important we focus on what’s really useful to students at this point.
- Some recent quotes- pretty common themes. 2 interesting ones for me- “headstart” idea and the reassurance something like this can provide at an anxious time.
- Communications is one of the main challenges. FS goes out with School welcome in mid-August (once place confirmed) but is still lost by students.
- Students talking about what skills they needed, how they organised themselves etc.
- New online module pilotting this year will cover some transition time (and topics?); also complete reconfiguration of library teams last summer meaning priorities changed slightly and less capacity esp in e-learning area. Difficulty of keeping up with the amount of content provided. Lost a sense of identity – scope. Treading on others toes? Needs a face-life, some content looks dated. Launching a new offer with new library building, including FS to workshops. And see the opportunity it provides re pre-transition if we do not stick with mid-August launch.
- Pretty much same aims, but content more focused. 4 themes- only school content will feature in theme 4. Each theme will have 3 learning objects, plus a series of students talking about the topic.