Student Learning Development Research Articles

Transforming transitions: learning and researcher developers and a whole-institution approach to successful transition

The impact of Covid-19 on incoming students and researchers is plain: students and researchers were denied access to their usual educational experiences, to their usual networking and social interaction, and to their usual assessment types. This resulted in an incoming cohort of students and researchers with higher levels of anxiety and, often, less awareness of the requirements of higher education/research. Recognising the need to engage with new students and researchers in innovative ways, the Student Learning Development (SLD) team and the Researcher Development (RD) team undertook two institution-wide projects to provide students with a ‘world-changing’ start to their studies. In particular, we sought to engage with the competencies of online study and research skills, academic integrity in an online world, academic community building, and student/researcher confidence. As we move out of the emergency response to the pandemic (Bartolic et al., 2021; Yowler et al., 2021), both teams have adopted these projects as core elements of work and as particular highlights of the value of LD and RD to the institution. The relationship between LD and RD varies greatly within institutions. Some universities do not differentiate between the roles, some work within the same team, and others work entirely separately. While the two teams are situated separately at the University of Glasgow, the teams work closely together to provide an integrated response that provides continuity of experience for our students and our researchers. For our undergraduates, a new course – T2G: Transition to Glasgow – was created by SLD. Designed around developing competencies, instilling academic identity, and easing the transition to formal education, the course provided students with the skills required to succeed. For our postgraduate researchers, a new course – PGR@Home – was created by RD. Designed around integration and developing competencies, the course offered asynchronous and synchronous opportunities for research students to begin the process of joining the university community in their new role. In each case, students were contacted directly with information and promotion material on the available initiatives and participated on a voluntary basis. They were able to select from a range of topics that interested them, and also completed a core academic literacies module. For students who completed T2G by completing the required coursework, we granted an exemption for a first-year compulsory writing course. As the courses were pilots, PGT students were not included in either piece of work, but reflecting on each project has enabled us to develop plans to expand and tailor our provision to meet the demands of our PGT students. This joint case study presented and reflected on the ways in which we adopted a whole-institution response to the transition to new stages of learning and research. The case study highlights the ways in which Learning and Researcher Development teams can offer a transformational transition experience for our students and researchers (Cage et al., 2021; Thompson, Pawson and Evans, 2021), and provides evidence of impact through evaluation and analysis.

Designing a Student Counseling Guidance Information System at SMA Negeri 1 Batang Kapas Using the Codeigniter (CI) Framework

This research is conducted because of the need for an information system about how each student's learning development and student behavior were needed, so that Counseling Teacher (BK) was needed. Counseling Teacher (BK) SMA Negeri 1 Batang Kapas is a school directly related to student discipline that requires a computerized information system to operate data collection so that it is more optimal. It is carried out because the Counseling Guidance in schools has not used a computerized system in carrying out its work activities, the school still uses a conventional system such as in making attendance reports and archiving student violation data still using a portfolio so it seems that they use a lot of paper, many points of violation are not accumulated because of recording is still manual, so that sanctions are not appropriate and there is no valid and effective database in data management. It is the background for researchers to design a student counseling guidance information system using the CodeIgniter (CI) framework. The methodology used in the research is the type of research and development research commonly called R&D, which is research to create the desired program and test the program's effectiveness. The research model chosen is the 4D version, namely define, design, develop, and disseminate. This model uses the waterfall. Based on the results of the product test, the validity results of several computer experts were 0.91 (very valid), the results of the practicality test of two Counseling Teacher and one homeroom teacher obtained an average result of 0.91, which is very practical, while for the effectiveness test it was obtained value 0.91 (very high).