Tim Linsey, Academic Development

As part of the UNC Charlotte study tour I followed my own technologies enhanced learning track for most of the visit. I got a fascinating insight into Charlotte’s use of technologies to support learning, covering both central departments (Centre for Teaching & Learning; Office of Disability Services; Office of Classroom Support; Students Union) and faculties / Schools (College of Health and Human Services; College of Engineering; College of Liberal Arts & Sciences – Department of Physics & Department of Earth Sciences & Geography; College of Education), including participation in staff development workshops and also joining a cross institutional panel to exchange experiences in addressing accessibility issues. There were many similarities in the types of learning technologies being used including a core VLE (based on Moodle), desktop video conferencing, electronic voting systems and interactive podium screens for example. I was impressed by the widespread use of student interns and the in-University part-time student employment opportunities. Examples included the use of a student team (4 interns) working as part of the ‘Learning MD’s (Multimedia Developers) programme to support staff in the development of video resources, and secondly a team of 11 students involved in the building, deployment and support of classroom podiums.

Staff development in technology enhanced learning was focussed in the Centre of Teaching and Learning (http://teaching.uncc.edu/ ) with a strong programme of events and I particularly liked their fortnightly podcasts recorded by teaching fellows and other academics (see http://teaching.uncc.edu/podcasts ), and we will look to establish something similar. I attended 3 very good workshops and of particular interest were two of the workshops that were run centrally and led by faculty academics including a session on the use of short videos in teaching sessions delivered by an academic from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences teaching in New Media for Communication Studies.

Secondly was a fascinating session delivered by an academic from the College of Education entitled ‘Workshop: Engaging the Millennial Student in Learning’. This workshop focused on who the millennial student was rather defining them by their use of technology. This included discussion on the impact of ‘baby boomers’ as parents.

I am also following up with Kingston colleagues with regard specific areas of collaboration that were raised on the visit including areas of engineering and geography. In addition I had discussions over piloting the use of Kingston’s One Community environment to support both Kingston University and Charlotte students on exchanges. I have provided a very brief overview of the staff that I met and the departments that I visited but please contact me if you would like to follow up on any aspect of what I have covered above.

Becky Lees, Principal Lecturer, Faculty of Business

The UNC Charlotte study tour coincided with the KU induction week, and at first I was hesitant to miss such an important week in the academic schedule. The first week of the KU semester is vital for enabling students to get to know each other, the campus and the staff involved in their teaching programme, and important in developing a sense of course identity and belonging. New undergraduates to UNC Charlotte don’t enrol on a course and don’t even have to declare a discipline to follow when they start their studies as the US education model is quite different to ours. Therefore the concept of identity is fostered in other ways by both academic and non-academic methods. As a fact-finding mission, I hoped the trip to UNC Charlotte would inform us about their initiatives to build such a sense of identity through the transition and support programmes they have introduced and the visit lived up to

its expectations. Some ideas that we may be able to adapt and adopt at KU include the concept of the Learning Communities and Academic Probation and Early Warning.

Learning Communities

As part of the discipline based sessions I attended, I sat in on a class that was part of the Business Learning Community programme. This initiative is open to students who live on campus and have an interest in Business, and creates a community of students who live, study and revise together. All students are located in the same residence building, and along with formal classes, have compulsory mentor-led study groups that meet every week in their halls of residence. This is an intensive and integrated approach to building a sense of belonging and identity driven by an academic perspective, but with social and networking benefits.

The class I attended was led by a group of three students who gave a short lecture, held a quiz (that they wrote and whose questions were subsequently used in a formal class test) and ran a whole group activity. The class was facilitated, and concluded by the tutor, but really this was a ‘backseat’ role. Whilst such class activities are not new, the depth of integration with activities outside the classroom seemed to encourage a higher level of

student engagement within the teaching session. UNC Charlotte claim that students participating in such learning communities have a better general attainment and progression record than non participants. Whilst this model is not directly transferable to the UK model of HE, there are elements that we can build on to improve the student experience. As a first step, these could include using peer mentors to facilitate out-of-class study groups, with Studyspace support.

Academic Probation/Early Warning System

UNC Charlotte require all students who are not ‘in good standing’ with the university to be placed on academic probation. This is an intensive one-semester programme of advising and tutoring opportunities for students who need to improve their GPA or else they face suspension. At KU, this type of initiative could be directed quite formally at repeating students. The Early Warning System they employ is an integrated approach to monitoring the early academic engagement with students heavily supported by a non-academic advisor and extensive data analysis using both current and pre-university qualifications data, undertaken by a central academic office. Student activity is evidenced by information including attendance and in-class tests. At KU, there are many courses on which there are opportunities for such monitoring, but the administrative burden can be prohibitive

especially in monitoring a large cohort of students and access to data can be difficult. Again, the academic probation programme claimed to improve a student’s GPA by around 0.9 points and such interventions could be beneficial in retaining a larger proportion of our repeating students. In conjunction with a pilot of an Early Warning system, we could reduce the number of repeaters in the first place if we could identify, early on, those students at risk of falling behind.

The staff at UNC Charlotte could not have been more accommodating or sensitive to what we hoped to achieve during our visit, and these initiatives certainly provide some food for

thought in adopting different models of student support and transition programmes. Their return visit in 2012 should provide many further opportunities for networking and discussion of the implementation of ideas gleaned from our visit.

Jenni Woods, Widening Participation Coordinator, ADC

As the University’s Widening Participation Officer I attended the UNC Charlotte study tour with a particular interest in finding out about the pre-entry transition and on course support programmes available to help non-traditional groups of students adjust to university life and achieve the best possible academic outcome.

During our visit we were warmly welcomed by a wide range of staff at different levels who gave up their time to talk to us about the various initiatives at UNC Charlotte that encourage access and success. Myself and David Taylor, Head of Widening Participation, worked particularly closely with Dr Sam Lopez, Director of the Office of Multicultural Academic Services and Mr Howard Simms, manager of the UTOP programme as well as a number of student representatives who answered our questions honestly and spoke about the programmes with great enthusiasm.

The University Transition Opportunities Programme (UTOP) celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and is credited with establishing UNC Charlotte’s commitment to prepare underrepresented students for the shift from high school to college, which is also the main purpose of the Compact Scheme at Kingston University. Therefore, I was keen to learn more about what the programme consists of and its impact on the students who take part. UTOP is open to all first generation applicants to UNC Charlotte, but predominantly targets students from African American backgrounds. It was introduced to address the lower attainment of black students compared to more traditional entrants (a discrepancy that has also been identified within Kingston’s student population) and has proved extremely successful in closing this gap. UTOP consists of a five week residential summer school and

includes three courses worth academic credit as well as social and orientation activities. Research from the past 10 years indicates that students who participated in UTOP had higher retention and graduation rates than students from similar backgrounds who did

not take part. As well as the academic rigour at its core, staff and students emphasised that the shared experience creates a sense of community and support amongst participants that greatly contributes to their success.

Myself and one of the Kingston students were fortunate enough to be invited to a meeting of the UTOP Learning Community during the week of our visit, as well as a meeting of the Learning Community Steering Group. Learning Communities (LCs) have a 10 year history at UNC Charlotte and play a key role in providing pastoral care and supporting students’ attainment during their first year. There are 16 LCs at UNC Charlotte with around 750 students (approx 24% of all Freshmen). LCs are discipline based (e.g. Engineering, Psychology) or have a common theme (e.g. UTOP, Gender Excellence). They are first year academic programmes that carry credit but also benefit the students through providing a

community of peer support, academic mentors and a stronger connection to the institution. We were shown evidence that LC participants achieve a higher grade point average, a better first year retention rate and are more engaged than non-LC students.

Students in the UTOP Learning Community we observed were in the fifth week of their first semester. The LC Coordinator was Mr Howard Simms, an academic member of staff who also manages the UTOP summer school. The students were given an assignment based

on a set text and completed an activity requiring them to reflect on their first few weeks on campus. However, the class also gave students an opportunity to ask questions and clarify matters that had arisen in their early weeks of higher education. Mr Simms was able to offer

them advice and prompt them to take certain actions, e.g. those who had not yet met with their academic adviser to finalise their timetable were told to do so. The students were also encouraged to become involved in activities outside of their course to enhance their skill set on graduation and Mr Simms spoke them about how to present and conduct themselves on campus.

Overall the UTOP students were extremely enthusiastic and clearly felt they had benefited from their involvement in the programme and the Learning Community (though some did admit they had been reluctant to attend the summer school initially!) The students felt the

summer programme had given them a head start in terms of their familiarity with the university and their preparation for study, as well as the comfort of having familiar faces around campus and a secondary academic adviser in Mr Simms. They trusted Mr Simms

and felt a desire to make him proud of them. The students were also confident of how to access support should they need it and that any academic issues would be identified early.

Kingston’s Compact Scheme is being expanded and developed for 2012 entry as part of our recent agreement with the Office for Fair Access. A number of factors, including the UK admissions process and different structure of our degree courses mean that we cannot

provide a programme exactly like UTOP. However, we will be developing short summer schools (2-3 days) to firm applicants in 2012 with preparation activities and study skills related to particular subject areas, as well as an enhanced induction and orientation

session. We are also keen to pilot one or two “Learning Communities” within the Compact Scheme to support new students as part of the transition process (i.e. during the first 4-6

weeks of term). These would initially be co-ordinated by trained student leaders, with input from Faculty staff, and promote regular contact between Compact students based on common themes or subject areas. It is hoped that, as is the case at UNC Charlotte, the

LCs will begin to encourage strong ties between the students and engagement with the institution, as well as ultimately improving retention and attainment in the first year. We will be working with the students who came to UNC Charlotte to develop these aspects of the scheme and intend to recruit and train student leaders to facilitate the work. Since its inception the Compact Scheme has had a significant impact on conversion rates through engaging applicants and advising them on the most appropriate courses to apply for. Retention amongst Compact students from first to second year has also been slightly better than the university overall.

We hope that by developing these new Compact initiatives, and incorporating some of the best practice we witnessed at UNC Charlotte, we can build on this success and ensure that we are supporting students in achieving their full potential at Kingston University.