Student Experiences
This week, I would like to share a tangent to SoTL research with the 2021 article, "Student Experiences: 10 Things I Know for Certain" by Kinash. "Through an auto-ethnographic account of a university career journey, the author addresses ten key themes in higher education." Perhaps some of these ideas will resonate with us and if we are able to, we might attempt to further address these in our own settings.
Student centricity must be mission-critical.
Experience must be situated in learning and teaching contexts [including online].
Quality of teachers matters. Students expect their teachers to be engaging, knowledgeable, supportive and passionate, and they expect teaching approaches to be interactive.
Instrumental support. University staff holding important educational roles across the university – beyond directly teaching students - must work in-concert to support student success.
Business systems must create smooth student journeys. University functional mechanisms such as enrollment, advising, progression and fee-payment need to work smoothly so that students can place their energies into learning rather than systems.
Employability is core to student ambition.
Student cohorts have fluctuating and diverse expectations. One of the key mechanisms of personalizing learning journeys is recognizing the needs and expectations of student cohorts.
Learning journeys must be personal and authentic. Diverse student journeys can and should be conceptualized as a metro-map with multiple entry and exit points, routes, pathways and station supports along the journey.
Student engagement is the threshold for learning. Engagement requires reciprocal connection and means both that students are fully present in the university experience and compelled to contribute to communities within and beyond.
Retention is more than whether a student stays. For students to stay-with-their-studies and complete their degrees, needs associated with study, work, family, and finances must be met.
References
Kinash, S. (2021). Student experience: 10 things I know for certain. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 18(8). https://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol18/iss8/02
