Rethinking and redesigning the transition into HE as a way to enhance the first year experience for all students May 13th and 14th

Date: Tuesday May 13th and Wednesday May 14th 2014

Time: 9.30 – 4pm both days

Venue: Kevin St Gleeson Hall DIT

Presenter(s): Session will be facilitated by Ewan McIntosh, http://notosh.com/

Event Details:

The session aims to build upon existing best practice, local research and current initiatives across three institutions as a way to rethink, reflect and redesign the transition experience for their first year students. A range of stakeholder groups, including students, will be invited to attend as project or programme teams.
Three student engagement related themes are being used to structure the day:

Fostering a sense of belonging within the first year
Assessment and Feedback to support learning
Development of first year student graduate attributes for success

Linking to these themes, participants will be invited to contribute shared experiences or research studies, ideas or resources they have used in their own practice. Using a series of group based activities, the facilitator will encourage attendees to exchange, share and build upon a foundation of experience. From the day, it is planned to collate a shared menu of engagement strategies that have worked in practice and to work with participants to build towards a series of recommendations for implementation of a sustainable programme that takes into account resource constraints.

Learning Outcomes:

By providing an opportunity for attendees to share, exchange and reflect upon current first year practices that have been successful in engaging students, participants will be able:

to reflect upon their own and others current teaching and assessment practices
to develop new or redesign current practice that will enhance the first year experience of students through effective pre and post entry engagement activities
to work effectively as part of a programme team in planning a strategy to facilitate a smooth student transition into HE
to explore opportunities for synergies with other programme teams and institutions during this process

Contact: Linda.Boyd@dit.ie