Angela Dierks and Darren David attended a symposium at Goldsmiths, University of London on 7 July 2010. The symposium, entitled Enhancing Induction: Priniciples for Improving the Student Experience, aimed to enhance understanding of the issues relating to induction, stimulate debate, share good practice and facilitate change. The programme included the following presentations:
- Growing (with) the students? Induction as an ongoing process
- Student Transition
- Inducting students into assessment and feedback
- Goldsmith's student lifecycle service design project 'GoSlurp'
Particularly relevant for Birkbeck's Get Ahead: Stay Ahead project, was the Goldsmith service design project (GoSlurp). GoSlurp, funded by JISC, aimed to review the experience of students from their very first point of contact with Goldsmiths, through to application, enrolment and their first few months at the institution. The project engaged with students during the pre and post enrolment stages and the student lifecycle to review service expectations and experiences.
The feedback was analysed and used to identify pilot initiatives that could be implemented to improve the overall student experience and more specifically, students' preparedness for study. Kevin Thomas, project leader for the GoSlurp initiative, also demonstrated at the presentation how they had extensively mapped the student services provision at Goldsmith, including academic, college and peer support, any tangible evidence at each stage, back office support and systems support.
Full details of the project at Goldsmiths can be found on the JISC website
