Of the three themes that emerged during our December 2023 Hackathon (see the last post for more details here), ‘community’ (and, more specifically, learning communities and study buddies) was the one that surprised us – and possibly the students – the most.
Although all were familiar with the concept of a community, only a few had considered the term ‘learning community’. Opinions were varied on what they believed it to be, but one thing was unanimous – communities are an essential part of life at University.
One of the groups gave their final presentation on what conditions create learning communities and they defined a learning community as:
- A group of students who help each other learn and grow
- It extends beyond knowledge and the confines of a classroom
Earlier in the day, all of the students contributed to a flipchart activity asking ‘What do you think a learning community is? Do you feel a sense of learning community?’. The second question received mixed responses, with some students believing that the University does not foster learning communities, but instead it is something you need to seek out yourself. Comments on the flip chart paper also discussed ‘study buddies’, the concept of which I’d heard very little about before the hackathon but became one of the most represented concepts throughout the day as a way to move forward.
All three groups discussed the use of ‘study buddies’ as an activity the University could foster as a way to help international students. They offered a number of suggestions as to how these could work:
‘Family style’: senior students (e.g. 3rd/4th year) could be paired up with lower-years students to impart knowledge and advice. This is similar to the PASS system currently in place, which was praised by students who had used it but some were not aware of its existence.
Autonomous study groups (set up by unit leaders): students are put into groups by the unit leader and meet outside sessions informally to discuss readings/ work. One MSc student said that they had this for one of their units and was a brilliant way to support peers and share ideas and thoughts about the course content. Students suggested this should be an ‘opt-out’ process. It was important that this is done by unit leaders and not left to students as often students do not have the confidence or opportunity to make friends and set up such groups.
One-to-one mentors: all students are offered a student mentor - ideally someone from a similar background – when they start University as an initial point of contact. This was already the case for a number of students but most said they did not meet their mentor more than once. Students also suggested alumni mentoring for those wanting to follow similar career paths.
In the final presentation, one group looked at three aspects to create an optimal learning community:
| What makes an optimal learning community on a: | ||
| University level | Course level | Individual level |
| – Facilitate academic and extra-curricular activity – Language support to ensure inclusivity and accessibility – Organise different cultural events – Offer careers guidance and professional support – Connect real world application through field trips. | – Group work – Study buddies – Course mates | – House mates – Sport and academic societies – Interdisciplinary opportunities |
The biggest difficulty students cited was the lack of ability to form relationships with their peers in classroom situations – they don’t make friends in lectures and students tend to rush to their next session at the end of seminars. We have heard similar sentiments in previous hackathons, with students having similar issues. Distribution of spaces across campus, rooms used for different subjects, and no dedicated informal space for students on the same course (i.e. common rooms) means that there are very limited opportunities to form a learning community with peers. The modular aspect of many programmes, too, limits the sense of ‘community’ on a course, as students on the same programme may choose different units and therefore rarely see the same people.
Students believe that learning community and social community are strongly intertwined, with group work (important that it is unassessed) being thought of as a brilliant way to create learning communities between peers. The introduction of – or emphasis on – study buddy programmes within courses, schools and faculties is also a great way to help develop students’ sense of learning community within programmes.
It is important to note that these issues are not specific to international students – the students at the session who had done a study abroad year but were ‘home’ students felt the same as international students with regard to learning community.
Next week we are going to look at the final theme, ‘engagement’, and the classroom behaviours and attitudes that help encourage international students to feel confident when contributing.
