2016 AALL ACT REPORT

1Membership Levels

As at August 2016 the ACT has 34 current AALL members. Approximately 3-4 non-members also attended regularly in the ACT chapter AALL meetings

2ACT Events in 2016

The ACT chapter of AALL has had another busy year with regular opportunities for meetings for AALL membersand other ALL staff. These were hosted on a shared basis by the ACT institutions (see table 1 below). The meetingsprovide an opportunity for ongoing networking, collegiality and professional support. They have also been a platform for professional development by providing interesting topics chosen by the members and presented by ALL staff or invited experts.An important aspect of the Branch meeting are the fruitful discussions which increase collegiality and professionalism in ALL.

Table 1: ACT events in 2016

Date/venue (host) / Participants / Events /agenda / Remarks
16.03. 2016
UNSW Canberra / 15 representing
UNSW Canberra, ANU, UC, ACU, CIT / General Discussion/planning meeting / The first meeting of the year: The team had a fruitful discussion on their professional development needs and potential topics for future meetings.
01.06.2016
ACU Campus, Canberra / 23
representing
UNSW Canberra, ANU, UC, ACU, CIT / Supporting students with disability – Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model / Working with students with disabilities in ALL led by Emma Grist from ACU Canberra. The presenter discussed the strengths of the UDL model for learning and teaching.
24.08.2016
ANU / 20 participants
ANU, UNSW Canberra, ANU, UC, CIT, ACU / Supporting and teaching students with Autism Spectrum Disorder / This meeting provided an opportunity to hear from specialists working in Disability Support in our different institutions around supporting students with ASD.
28.11.2016
University of Canberra / 16 participants
ACU, ANU, UC, CIT / How to make awesome online resources on a shoe-string budget / The team from UC Study Skills took the participants on a tour of their facilities and then showcased their online learning tools to support academic skill development and explained how they have created them on a limited budget. ANU also demonstrated their Moodle site on Turnitin.

3Reports from ACT intuitions

3.1Australian National University (ANU)(prepared by Tess Snowball, Manager)

Another busy year at the Academic Skills and Learning Centre (ASLC). Overall, our strategic targeting of group teaching and changes to some of our work practices has meant a continued improvement on our impact and reach.

  • Orientation Week workshops were more popular than ever in 2016 with even higher attendances than 2015. It has been an ongoing challenge to cater for the demand but the use of more flexible venues and registration procedures has had a significant impact and made the week much less stressful for all concerned.
  • This year we have implemented significant changes to our one-to-one teaching to make it more sustainable and reach more students. Strategically we see this as very important as it is seen as a resource intensive form of teaching. We believe it is highly valuable and students consistently give feedback supporting that. So our aim has been to make it as sustainable as possible. Changes to our service model has meant that we have reached more individual students this year. We expect to see the further positive impact in 2017.
  • ASLC curriculum embedded teachinghas continued to be popular and we continue to work on developing closer ties with our Collegesinto 2017.
  • Academic integrity continues to be an area of focus. In particular we have been looking at whether to introduce an Academic Integrity Module and if this module should be made compulsory. Earlier this year we conducted a benchmarking survey among AALL centres which has helped reinforce that this has become a sector wide practice – although the implementation differs. We will continue to work on this throughout 2017.
  • This year we have had a major change to our online presence with the introduction of a new “thematic” approach to organizing web content. This has meant the loss of our own domain and a change of thinking about how we organize and collate information in a way that makes the most sense to students. This is a common theme now across student support service in the sector.
  • In 2016 all our advisers achieved Fellowship with the Higher Education Academy. This is a major achievement – particularly as this has been developing more momentum within our own institution and across the sector. As part of the ANU Educational Fellowship Scheme, advisers participate in assessing applications, writing referee reports and ongoing professional development.
  • Throughout the year we have developed a new professional development program of sharing practice regularly at staff meetings and inviting academics to speak with us about writing within their disciplines. At these meetings we sometimes conduct case reviews to workshop how we assist students with particular issues in a developmental way. We topped this off by finishing the year completing an Accidental Counsellor workshop on managing distresses students. This workshop also helped us focus on our listening skills.

In sum, it has been another busy and productive year in which we significantly increased our impact in terms of number of students reached, number of workshops delivered and significant development of our teaching and learning resources.

3.2University of Canberra

Learning Advisor activities in 2016:

Student attendances in the Study Skills drop-in sessions have increased in 2016, with 1,666 student attendances from 506 unique students. This is an increase of 50% in attendances and 28% in unique users compared with 2015. Student satisfaction with the Study Skills drop-ins remains high, with 98.42% of the 1,523 feedback responses being positive to the statement “I found this session helpful” (the 2015 satisfaction rate was 98.21%). International students and 1st year students were over-represented in the drop-in attendees, with 40.5% being international and 39% being 1st year students. In comparison, in the full student cohort 24% were international and 33% were 1st year students.

In each session, Study Skills staff recorded the unit for which the student was seeking help and the student’s main query type/s. A total of 310 different units were recorded, the most frequent units being Foundations of Professional Planning (132 student queries), Government-Business Relations (74 student queries) and Nursing Inquiry (72 student queries). The most common query types recorded were assignment structure, grammar, and understanding the assignment requirements.

Study Skills Learning Advisors conducted 38 sessions of in-unit support in 2016 for an estimated 2,260 students. This is an increase of 224% in sessions and of 70% in students compared with 2015. Additionally, Study Skills Learning Advisors ran the four-day Intensive English program twice in 2016 for a total of 63 students.

In 2016, a total of 360 student referrals for Study Skills individual consultations were received and 242 consults were conducted (a no-show rate of 33%). This is an increase of ~370% in both referrals and consults from 2015. The main sources of referral were Inclusion and Welfare and faculty ADEs (mainly for education regarding academic integrity).

All UC students (regardless of location or mode of study) are automatically enrolled on the Study Help Moodle site. A number of the existing activities have been updated over the course of 2016, and additional activities have been added, including the Smart Study Transition and Orientation Programme. In November 2016, the site contained 204 activities and resources in total (an increase of 56% from the 131 resources available in 2015). In 2016, 95,200 use instances of various components of the Study Help site were recorded from 7,144 unique users, which is an increase of 45% in uses from 2015. The most common activity was viewing of the Study Help site components (55,850 use instances), and the most popular resources were the MaharaePortfolio SCORM package (1,959 uses), the Writing an Essay SCORM package (1,884 uses), the PALS discussion forum (1,260 uses), the URKUND guide (1,161 uses), and the EndNote Basics 1 SCORM package (1,149 uses).

In 2016, a total of 3,762 students completed the online Academic Integrity Module and received the AIM 2016 digital badge. Additionally, Study Skills created an Academic Integrity and Study Skills video which explained the student conduct rules, how Urkund works, the AIM and the Study Skills programs available to support students’ understanding of academic integrity. This video has been embedded on a number of unit Moodle sites, including those at partner institutions.

The Rovers (the UC peer learning service for study skills and library assistance):

Student attendances at the Rovers and the student satisfaction with the Rovers have both increased in 2016. A total of 3,036 student attendances from 1,101 unique students were recorded at the Rovers, this is an increase of 9% in attendances and 15% in unique users compared with 2015. International students and 1st year students were over-represented in the Rovers attendees, with 39% being international and 39% being 1st year students. In comparison, for the full student cohort, 24% were international and 33% were 1st year students.

In 2016, 98.8% of the 2,661 feedback responses were positive to the statement “I found this session helpful” (either agree or strongly agree). In comparison, the Rovers received a 94% positive response rate for the same question in 2015. In the longer survey sent to all Rovers attendees at the end of 2016, two standout comments were “This service/support has made the difference to dropping out or continuing... very grateful” and “The rovers are very approachable and their service really helped me to solve my problems”.

In each session, Rovers staff recorded the unit for which the student was seeking help and the student’s main query type/s. A total of 468 different units were recorded, the most frequent units being (271 student queries), Government-Business Relations (122 student queries) and Nursing Inquiry (76 student queries). The most common query types recorded were technology/product support (mainly printing and MaharaePortfolio assistance), grammar, and assignment structure.

Peer-Assisted Learning Sessions (PALS):

Across semester 1 and semester 2 2016, a total of 26 1st year units were supported by PALS. Student attendances in the Peer-Assisted Learning Sessions (PALS) have increased in 2016, with 6,750 student attendances recorded from 1,140 unique students. This is an increase of 67% in attendances and 20% in unique students from 2015. The percentage of students in a unit who attended PALS varied between 9% and 59%. Across all PALS-supported units in semester 2 2015 and semester 1 2016 (semester 2 2016 results are not yet analysed), students who attended PALS received a higher average mark (up to 22 points higher), were more likely to be retained in the unit (up to a 33% higher unit retention rate) and were more likely to successfully complete the unit (up to a 35% higher pass rate).

Student satisfaction with PALS was high, with 98.7% of the 3,310 feedback responses being positive to the statement “I found this session helpful” (either agree or strongly agree) (in 2015 the satisfaction rate was 96.8%). In the longer survey sent to all PALS attendees at the end of 2016, a standout comment was “It was very useful because it allowed me to develop study techniques that were efficient and helpful for me to retain information. I also got the opportunity to meet great people, thereby had fantastic support throughout my 1st semester. Thanks to PALS and with the hard work I put in my results turned out much better than I ever expected”.

4Other Branch news

Sadly this year saw the restructure of the ALL Unit at UNSW Canberra. This restructure led to the retrenchment of three positions – including one of our Branch representatives, Maya Gunawardena. UNSW has made the decision to change the ALL roles from academic to professional. The structure has not been finalised as yet so it is unclear what new positions will be created.

Maya has been a fantastic Branch representative, particularly in her enthusiasm and work in revitalising the Branch over the last 2 years. Her warmth toward and encouragement of her colleagues has been instrumental in the strong collegial network that has been established. We wish Maya all the best in her future endeavours and hope to see her at future Branch meetings.

ACT AALL REPORT 20161