Working on the student digital induction
22 September 2020
My name’s Ella and I’m a Student Champion at the University.
As you know, March 2020 saw Cardiff University swiftly transform studies to virtual learning as a result of COVID-19. With this, the work of Student Champions also became remote and online. Over the summer, most of my Student Champion work has become focused on working with staff to help shape the digital education for students. As we approach an academic year that will be like no other, it was important that Student Champions and staff used this time to collaborate – in order to create and adapt Cardiff’s online learning environment.
My work on this ongoing project started by reviewing gaps in the current Learning Central Induction. Alongside this evaluation, I spent time looking at other Universities Digital Inductions, and considered features of those that might be valuable to use online at Cardiff. Using these resources, we posed questions; What should a student be made aware of in an Online Induction? How accessible is this resource? Where was important information located? Most importantly, perhaps, we then considered how we could contextualise our research for use in Cardiff’s Digital Induction.
We returned our research to staff, who were then able to develop the new Learning Central Induction.
Alongside giving general feedback about the changes to the Learning Central Induction, I also was involved in creating screencast explanatory videos for students. In order to do this, I created scripts about certain areas of Learning Central – discussion boards, navigation, mobile accessibility. Next, I recorded these using a screen-recording software, and sent them over to staff to be included in the Learning Central Induction.
As September approaches, Student Champions are continuing to work with staff to make final changes to the Learning Central Induction, in order to make sure online learning can run smoothly and successfully for students. I think the work of Student Champions will have a positive impact on all students for the next academic year, who can be confident the needs of students have been met!
Find out more about the induction to online and digital learning at Cardiff University