Student Experience

Semester 1 2020

In partnership with College and portfolio staff across the University, Student Experience led the development and implementation of Flinders’ first five-week extended orientation program in Semester 1 2020.

In previous years, students have attended academic sessions, social events, and activities during O’Week (week zero) before being left to navigate University ‘on their own’ from week one. Furthermore, students who are admitted after O’Week and those who are unable to attend O’Week, miss out on this experience altogether.

Therefore, an extended orientation program was developed to better support all new students in their transition to University. The program started with O’Week and continued through the first four weeks of Semester. Each week included themed events, communication and activities highlighting support services and helping students establish a sense of belonging at Flinders. The themes were:

• O’Week: Get to know Flinders, meet other students, and get excited for University.
• Connect Week: Establish connections and a sense of belonging at Flinders.
• Skills Week: Develop skills for academic, personal, and professional success.
• Cultural Week: Celebrate the diverse cultures at Flinders.
• Wellbeing Week: Build habits and skills to support your wellbeing.

More than 500 events and activities were scheduled across the five-week extended orientation program in Semester 1 2020 (please note that due to COVID-19 restrictions, all events in Cultural Week and Wellbeing Week were cancelled).

As part of the inaugural extended orientation program, the following initiatives were implemented:

• A Welcome Hub at Bedford Park. Located at the ground floor of the Student Hub, the Welcome Hub provided a central, visible location for students to ask questions and learn about support services throughout the extended orientation program.
• A Meet and Greet Space at Bedford Park. Located within the Welcome Hub, the Meet and Greet Space was a place for students to meet their peers through weeks 1 to 4.
• Finding Your Way at Flinders (Digital Orientation Topic in FLO). This popular resource provided students with essential orientation information. On average, the topic had 10,500 student views per week throughout the five week orientation period. Views increased significantly in week 3 after the move to online teaching (due to COVID-19) totalling 19,348 views for the week.

Semester 2 2020

Due to the success of the extended orientation program in semester 1, an extended orientation program will be implemented in semester 2 2020.

Due to COVID-19 and social distancing restrictions, most events for semester 2 orientation will be delivered online, with some events and activations on campus at Bedford Park and Sturt.

Read more about the extended orientation program in semester 2.

In semester 1 2020, Student Experience led the coordination and implementation of the pilot Orientation (O’Guides) program in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences (CNHS), in partnership with CNHS staff.

Through the O’Guides program, all commencing CNHS students were allocated to groups and assigned an O’Guide. O’Guides are continuing students who volunteered their time to help new students settle in during their first few weeks. O’Guides met their groups at the College orientation events and were available at ‘drop in sessions’ at Sturt in weeks one and two.

Commencing students in CNHS were surveyed and overall, 96% of students who completed the survey found the program helpful. The majority said O’Guides made them feel welcome at Flinders and helped them make new friends.

Due to the success of the pilot program in CNHS, the O’Guides program will be rolled out across all Colleges in semester 2, 2020. New students will be allocated an O’Guides group that aligns with the discipline they are studying. They will then be able to engage with their O’Guides online, via Collaborate sessions, through the first few weeks of semester.

Read more about the O’Guides program.

The Flinders Support Network (FSN) program was launched in 2018 as a student outreach and retention campaign. The goal of the program is to increase student retention by connecting specific cohorts of students with academic, wellbeing and study support services to help them achieve success at Flinders. Planning and Analytical Services provide student engagement data to inform the FSN outreach process.

In 2018 and 2019, specific cohorts of students were contacted via the FSN (e.g. all undergraduate students). In semester 1 2020, changes were made to the FSN due to the impact COVID-19 had on students. Therefore, the FSN program was expanded to include all students in semester 1 2020 to assist connection with support services during these challenging times. The objective was to provide greater awareness of, and engagement with, the support available to students.

Student Experience has been working with Digital Student and Teaching Services (DSTS) to deliver Project Compass (aka the Student Portal project).

In partnership with students, Project Compass aims to streamline and improve the ways that students find, access, and engage with the university community, support and services at Flinders to improve the student experience and support student success. This will be done through the development and implementation of an innovative and highly personalised online student portal.

The project team has engaged students as co-designers in the project to understand student pain points and priorities and how these can be addressed through a student portal. The portal will be delivered incrementally throughout 2020.

Read more about Project Compass.