I am glad that I chose to simplify ARP early on as it has been hard to organise and implement ideas whilst juggling workload (at LCF and my other 2 jobs) and whilst being fractional.
Early on in my group tutorial sessions my peers recommended me to focus on the core issue that connected my ideas together which was community, this helped me to focus my efforts into working with the students to find out what they wanted out of the community on the course.
This research is still very much underway and ongoing; it’s something that will hopefully be embedded into how we begin to navigate new academic years with students and be something that continues to adapt and change with student input.
When students were asked, ‘What kind of spaces or events would help you feel more connected with students on your course from other years?’ answers were:
-Skill sharing
-collaborations
-more group sessions
-snack party
-pub
-cinema nights
-casual hangouts
-more exhibitions
-group tutorials
-shared table spaces
-open spaces to share, talk and connect
Although some of these we already do as a course its interesting to me to see them coming up as it shows that students are not already connecting things like group sessions or group tutorial as a community activity which means there is opportunity for me to work on the delivery and nature of these.
Further to this I have planned an alumni talk where past students are coming back to show 3rd years their work and I am hoping to start implementing some of the above student ideas with the support of my wider team.