Creating a Digital Induction Website for student transition from A-level across the Faculty of Science

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By Tom Anderson 

Introduction

One of the most substantial challenges for all students has been the transition from A-Level (or equivalent) to university. In particular, new students' digital literacy skills are often lacking, as surveys and focus groups in Chemistry carried out by myself over several years, have demonstrated. 

After presenting this work at a Learning and Teaching Scholarship Exchange event, I was asked to chair a Task and Finish Group looking at student induction, with a particular focus on digital induction.

The Project

Discussions with representatives across the Faculty of Science showed recurring common problems arising from common causes - in particular, it was identified that while the University website and Blackboard contain many useful resources for new students, these are of limited value when they cannot be accessed until the students are fully registered. 

By this point, the students are already overwhelmed with many other logistical and academic factors. Departments frequently end up creating bespoke resources of their own to help pre-arrival students, which often duplicate effort and unnecessarily reinvent the wheel.


A Digital Induction Website


It was decided to create a Google Site, separate from any University account permissions, on which useful information could be accessed by pre-arrival students. Neil Everill, the Digital Learning Advisor in the Faculty of Science, designed and implemented this site, with input from myself and departmental representatives.

The Digital Induction site is divided into four sections to avoid overloading students:

  • Pre-arrival / pre-registration tasks

  • Intro Week activities (including department-specific pages)

  • University Essentials (e.g., how to use Blackboard, campus maps, how to access your timetable, how to obtain software)

  • Health and Wellbeing Support

To incentivise students to use the site, a quiz was set up which required them to search for the answers to hypothetical ‘what to do if I…’ questions. Five £10 Amazon vouchers were awarded to entries.


What were the positive outcomes?


A total of 92 students entered the site quiz (but many more will have used the quiz without entering). There were some useful comments, in particular highlighting the timeline for obtaining a U-Card (and which activities it is required for) as a topic which pre-arrival students wanted more clarity on.


Student comments particularly praised the website’s use of short, self-contained Google Slide activities to explain concepts such as Blackboard or timetabling.





What sort of problems were encountered?


The biggest issue was communication problems. Each department seems to have a unique and bespoke arrangement for who is responsible for contacting pre-arrival students, who timetables Intro Week and by when, and how to contact this person/people. Therefore, the website was not communicated to all students sufficiently early to be helpful.


The timing of the project meant that the departmental input phase coincided with the August holiday period, which delayed matters.


Although there was a great deal of commonality between departments in some ways (hence the move to avoid duplicated effort) some factors did cause issues. For example, the School of Biosciences uses the term ‘induction week’ to mean a different week to other departments, which could confuse students.




Conclusions

  • A Digital Induction Website is a useful tool for students to prepare themselves for university study pre-arrival, before they are potentially overwhelmed with distractions from other activities.

  • There is sufficient commonality across the Faculty of Science departments for a cross-Faculty website to avoid duplicating effort, although some departmental-unique factors must be signposted.

  • Timing, communication and organisation between Departments must be improved to ensure time and effort expended on a project like this reaches the students it is intended to help in time.


Tom Anderson has worked at the Department of Chemistry since 2012. His current roles include Level 1 Lab Director, Student Experience and Engagement Director, and Lecturer in Organic and Environmental Chemistry. For the Faculty he co-leads the Science Teaching Network. Until recently he also served as Senior Tutor and has run education research programmes in the Department.


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