Re-building the first year experience, one block at a time

Andrew Smallridge,John Weldon,Trish Mccluskey

doi:10.5204/ssj.v10i1.1148

Abstract

For many years, universities around the world have been developing and enhancing the First Year Experience (FYE), with a view to improving retention, performance and student satisfaction. This feature practice report outlines a strategic initiative, launched in 2018 at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia that aims to transform the experience of Victoria University’s first-year students on an unprecedented scale. This unique model reconceptualises the design, structure and delivery of first year units of study in order to deliver a program that deliberately focuses on students’ pedagogical, transition and work/life balance needs. This initiative required the disruption and redevelopment of all university systems to ensure students experience a supportive and seamless transition into, and journey through, their first year of study at university.

Highlights

Victoria University (VU) is a multi-campus institution with its main campus located in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, the state capital of Victoria
A key aim of VU is to ensure the highest levels of student satisfaction, as measured by the Australian Quality Indicators of Teaching and Learning (QILT) Student Experience Survey (SES), among firstyear students of any university in Victoria by 2020
This paper details the redesign of the first year at VU, including the reasons necessitating a change of this scale, the complex and multifaceted change process required to bring about this change in an established dualsector university, and the principles and characteristics of the model

Summary

Background

Victoria University (VU) is a multi-campus institution with its main campus located in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, the state capital of Victoria. Literature on intensives includes several comparative studies of particular units with a focus on using matched samples to test educational aspects, satisfaction or outcomes of intensive versus traditional delivery model (see, for example, Eames & Luttman, 2018; Kucsera & Zimmano, 2010; Smith et al, 2016) These studies generally aim to establish the rigor or efficacy of intensive mode units, in order to address concerns about possible impacts on quality (see Daniels, 2000 for a review). A block model is new to mainstream Australian higher education, similar models of teaching and learning exist elsewhere, and have proven to be successful, producing increased levels of student satisfaction in educational institutes in Canada, the United States and Scandinavia. The principles underpinning the VU Block Model are described below

Design principles

Design process

Findings

Conclusion