Abstract
Successful induction has been evidenced to strengthen students’ learning, engagement and feelings of belonging. Technology offers opportunities for enhancing the student induction experience, especially pre-arrival, but has been under-utilised. This article provides an evaluation of an online induction learning resource for pre-arrival students in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Warwick in 2019. There will be particular focus on the method of co-designing the resource with a group of current students. The article will demonstrate how online learning resources for pre-arrival students can support successful induction. It argues that co-designing digital student experience resources in collaboration with students aids the development of materials that students find engaging and that co-design has a range of benefits for staff and students who are involved in the process.
Highlights
Successful induction has been evidenced to strengthen students’ learning, engagement and feelings of belonging
Despite a healthy body of scholarship having emerged in the past decade evidencing the value of student partnership as an approach to student engagement (Cook-Sather et al, 2014; Gravett et al, 2020; Healey and Healey, 2019; Healey et al, 2014), many universities remain reticent to employing genuine partnership approaches outside of ‘student voice’ governance and quality assurance activity Matthews et al, 2019), including in relation to induction and transition
As its point of departure, the Arts Faculty Pre-Arrival Project that this research examines aimed to utilise a student partnership approach to develop a digital learning space and materials for pre-arrival students to support their transition into higher education and promote student engagement
Summary
Successful induction has been evidenced to strengthen students’ learning, engagement and feelings of belonging. This article provides an evaluation of an online induction learning resource for pre-arrival students in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Warwick in 2019. This article provides an evaluation of the staff–student co-design of an online learning resource for pre-arrival Arts students at the University of Warwick in 2019. This Arts Faculty Pre-Arrival Project sought to improve the student induction experience. The project drew upon these students’ prior experiences of induction and online learning to ensure that the project outputs would be engaging and meaningful for students when starting university It was developed out of an understanding, suggested by Collins, that ‘technology has altered the way students learn, connect and view themselves’ (Collins, 2019). There is concern about the potential impact that these digital-first approaches might have on the student experience, and students’ feelings of community and belonging (Czerniewicz et al, 2020)
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