How can student belonging evolve within curriculum?

Transcript

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TEXT ON SCREEN: How can student belonging evolve within curriculum?

[0:00:00.8]

SPEAKER: [Munir Muniruzzaman]

TEXT ON SCREEN: Munir Muniruzzaman, Program Manager Associate Degrees, School of Vocational Engineering Science and Health

We have a number of measures. One of the things, in every single course that we deliver, we have in week 4 and 5, we have a formative assessment through which we try to ascertain which are the students who are struggling, where we can give more support. So, we can decide our focal areas, where we should give more attention there.

We also have a very good thing going for the last several years. We have a timetable, in which we deliver all of our classes in three days and give them two days free. You have to understand, in vocational school, our student cohort has about more than 25% of students come in from low-socio-economic background. So, basically, that two days is extremely valuable to them. They work, they support themselves. So, that way, they can-- they have-- it enters them in study. They don't have to exhaust themselves and many put in their time so much.

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So, we put a lot of effort in getting a timetable, which basically gives them two days free, and that is working fantastically, you know.

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[0:01:10.0]

SPEAKER: [Kerin Elsum]

TEXT ON SCREEN: Kerin Elsum, Lecturer, School of Media and Communications

Everyone will create a sense of belonging in a different way. So, you need to work on that. The other really important thing is that you actually need to ask your students how to do that. So, the best thing that I've done with belonging, is actually getting students to work with the year above them or with alumni who have gone out. And therefore, you are not saying, "okay, let's all go to

the pub and have a drink". It's actually about them developing their own ways of gaining a sense of belonging and a sense of community.

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[0:01:43.0]

SPEAKER: [Julian Pratt]

TEXT ON SCREEN: Julian Pratt, Multidisciplinary Program Coordinator, School of Architecture and Urban Design

Student belonging can be developed through the curriculum through ways in which we can think about the way in which our program sits-- our program in furniture. We sit between vocational and higher education in the social degrees.

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So, we try to explain to the students that it's about thinking about where you belong and how you belong and how you fit within the currency of the profession, especially. But also thinking about the ideas that-- where I [inaudible] *0:02:13.3 in somebody else's land. So, how can we belong in Australia as designers, especially looking in the current things that are happening in Australia and the way which we consider the way in which we impact our environment.

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SPEAKER: [Genevieve Dickinson]

TEXT ON SCREEN: Genevieve Dickinson, Student Experience Coordinator, School of Management

I'd run a few blanket events where we just invited all students. And the uptake has been lukewarm compared to what we did with inner course. I think, that is students wants to know who they are working with, who they are studying with and relate with their peers in the course. So, I think that is-- it was very reflective from what we did that that's the way to go. How we did that, I think, giving students a bit more advocacy and a bit more leadership in helping drive what they want to do in that social space.

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There was a lot of activities that we ran, but we gave students a bit of autonomy in picking the culture, in doing a presentation, in getting involved with the food and letting them sort of drive how they learned in that social environment. It was really great, and I think that's another angle that we could go with in developing student belonging inner course.

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[0:03:16.0]

SPEAKER: [Marco De Sisto]

TEXT ON SCREEN:

What I am planning, for example, next semester is with HRAM course. It's try to create the sense of HR team, rather than tutorial team. And how creating one class will invite all students in the role in HRAM for introduction. So, for example, induction, what I call. Like first week instead of starting with the content, start creating bonding across classes, across tutorials. So, they know that they can make friends even like in another classroom, rather than only amongst these 28. And if you're lucky, you find someone, if you are no lucky, you don't have friends through the semester.

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And I said initially, but still it can be an idea, is to have even like once a week one space, like one hour where the course coordinator is there or teaching staff is there for the students, for their course to come along and just ask questions, interact. Simply said, all courses are doing like through blogs and Twitters and Canvas, for the same principles. I want to try to recreate the one in a physical space, to make sure that these students can come here and see each other.

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SPEAKER: [Genevieve Dickinson]

I think, that's important, because I think building that student/staff relationship is very key as well. Like, yes, the students will interact with themselves as peers, but from our initiative, we saw that working-- having live sessional staff come, having Marco drive it, students built that rapport with their teaching staff. So, it wasn't this big, scary professor standing at the front. And I think that-- having a physical relation-- not relationship but having that physical interaction—

[0:05:00.3]

SPEAKER: [Marco De Sisto]

And not a scary face.

SPEAKER: [Genevieve Dickinson]

And not-- yeah. And having a personality to the teaching staff that they are not just the person behind the email, they are actually a human being, I think that also broke down a lot of student perceptions about how they can interact and the staff viewing them as young adults as well. So, I think that's a really good-- yeah, so we're going to trial that for next year.

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