7 social integration recipe card - draft march 2011

The HERE Project Toolkit

The HERE Project (2008-2011) researched the impact of doubting on student retention and appropriate strategies for programme teams to adopt to help students remain.

This action card is designed for programme teams to use in workshops to reflect upon their own practices and consider ways of improving retention.

Further information can be found at www.HEREproject.ac.uk





Theme 7 - Social Integration

Interviews with programme teams suggest 5 possible strategies for:

• Social networking

• Pre-arrival activities

• Induction week

• Group work

• Peer support

a) Maximise opportunities to develop friendships in the curriculum

Theme 7 - Social Integrationa) Maximise opportunities to develop friendships in the curriculum

Support from friends & family was the number one reason cited by doubters for staying, particularly friends made at University.


"[I logged onto] some websites, like the week one message board and www.yougo.co.uk website, so I actually met a couple of people that were coming to Uni before I got here… I think that made it easier"

Social Networking

What's the University strategy for using social networking, particularly prior to students arrival?

How can students on your course make contact with one another before they arrive?

How could you use returning students to engage new students in cyberspace?

What particular strategies ought you adopt to help those students not in halls to meet one another and with studentson your course?



This action card is designed for programme teams to use in workshops to reflect upon their own practices.




This action card is designed for programme teams to use in workshops to reflect upon their own practices.




"When you feel lost and bewildered, the last thing you want is long lectures"*Induction

Induction can be a crucial time for helping students to start building social networks

We suggest:• Using ice breakers to help students

learn one another's names• Providing small group work with

focussed academic tasks to help them spend time getting to know one another

• Reducing the amount of time students

spend in lectures and increase opportunities for discussion

• Starting induction early in the week, give decent breaks and allow time to take part in friendship activities such as joining clubs & societies in freshers fairs



"I was quite lucky in that we were given the group assignment [Stepping Stones 2HE]…the first week…to design a poster about a computing expert and the people that I had in that group are still my group of friends now. I’ve been to their flat, whilst they were in student accommodation and things like that, and their house this year which isn’t quite as bad. It means I have had some interaction."

Pre-arrival activities

What do you do to start engaging with the programme before they arrive?

Stepping Stones 2HE for example provides students with a short pre-arrival research activitity that forms the basis of group work during induction week. Sutdents are required to conduct activities such as delivering poster presentations and are encouraged to work together in small groups.

(* quoted in Edward, N., (2001), Evaluation of a constructivist approach to student induction in relation to students' learning styles, European Journal of Engineering Education, 2001, 26, 4, 29-440)

http://www.refworks.com/RWShibboleth/%7E2%7E

http://www.refworks.com/RWShibboleth/%7E2%7E



"I have never been so homesick as I was that weekend… but what it did do was really pulled [together] our friendships… because we were feeling a bit out of our depth… then when you came back after then you really felt that you knew people."

Field tripsWhilst in some respects, overnight field trips are expensive and time consuming to organise, student participants spoke highly of the social benefits of participating. Tehy may provide a rite of passage that the whole group can engage with. Students also felt they had benefitted from seeing staff in a different light too.

But field trips may also exclude those who may benefit most from the experience such as students living in their own homes with caring responsibility.

How can you make best use of field trips or off-campus visits?



"On my course you have to do quite a lot of group coursework and projects - we started to communicate with each other, that is how our friendship developed... naturally."

Group work

Whilst we acknowledge that when group work goes wrong it can be a great source of stress for students, encouraging them to work together on a task can really help forge friendships. Requiring them to work together is likely to create more opportunities to learn about one another than social events.

There's a risk that some students feel uncomfortable starting new groups, therefore consider strategies for encouraging communication such as ice-breakers.

Students would perhaps benefit from more mixing up at the start of the academic year to create as large a pool of potential friends as possible.



"I have never been so homesick as I was that weekend… but what it did do was really pulled [together] our friendships… because we were feeling a bit out of our depth… then when you came back after then you really felt that you knew people."

Field tripsWhilst in some respects, overnight field trips are expensive and time consuming to organise, student participants spoke highly of the social benefits of participating. Tehy may provide a rite of passage that the whole group can engage with. Students also felt they had benefitted from seeing staff in a different light too.

But field trips may also exclude those who may benefit most from the experience such as students living in their own homes with caring responsibility.

How can you make best use of field trips or off-campus visits?



“I really enjoyed PAL because you got to know so many people because it’s held in your seminar groups” Peer Support

The use of structured peer support can help students to bond with one another. Second and final year students offer support to individuals or small groups of first years.

This may take the form of buddying (primarily social support, often provided during at the start of the year) or supplemental instruction/ Peer Assisted Learning (in which the primary focus is consolidating students' learning, but with a social focus).

How can you use the experience and expertise of your returning students to support first years?