Reconceptualising student experience: Creating inter-connections between the curricular, co-curricular and technologies into a seamless place of learning

Abstract

In 2012, University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia, piloted the Student Personalised Academic Road to Success (SPARS) initiative. SPARS is a student-centred framework that offers personalised academic learning support and resources to enhance student success. The framework is underpinned by Chickering & Reisser's (1993) vectors of development and Bronfenbrenner's (1979) integrative ecological approach in development, situated on Tait's (2000) student support framework for open and distance learning (ODL). It further adds a layer of connection to student engagement (Kuh et al, 2007). The framework facilitates a repositioning of student experience by marrying the co-curricular (professional) and curricular (academic) 'places' of learning harnessed by technologies (core learning and student management systems) - three common milieus - that Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) call the interconnections that are more likely to produce a more effective educational experience. SPARS provides a personalised 'place' of learning for all students, across the various phases of the student learning journey, from first inquiry to post graduation. It does this by pulling all relevant academic, administrative and personal resources situated 'outside classrooms' to facilitate students' learning 'inside classrooms'. The analytics of these systems provide affordances for on-going development strategies and reporting. The accompanying proposed assessment framework, (figure 2,) will generate assessment data based on measurable outcomes that consider external and internal priorities for the individual student and the university as a whole. The interconnectedness of different 'places' will position students well in today's world where true power of learning is making sense and use of information.