Study/Life Focus

Main idea

To enhance new students’ experiences of healthy communities, confidence, and a sustainable learning mindset. It addresses significant well-being challenges in higher education, particularly during the transition period, which is crucial for shaping peer culture, learning mindset, and self-image.

Outline

The main purpose of the Study/Life Focus intervention is to support new bachelor’s students in their transition to university life by fostering a sense of community, promoting a positive learning culture, and addressing common challenges. This is achieved through a series of group meetings that complement digital resources and individual support, focusing on themes such as bridging the gap between expectations and experiences, enhancing psychological safety, shifting from a grade-oriented to a learning-oriented mindset, and maintaining motivation and meaning in their studies.

Description
Study/Life Focus consists of 3 meetings for our new bachelor’s students, spread over the first semester. It focuses particularly on community-promoting and culture-creating as a supplement to the digital efforts and the classic individual support.

The effort is an extension of the digital introductory course “How to Uni” and runs alongside the digital nudges in Study/Life Check-in, which the students encounter 10 times during the first semester.

The format of the intervention is inspired by Walton’s belonging interventions (Walton & Cohen, 2011), the format of First-Year Experience Seminars, and classic group guidance. Additionally, it draws on CEFU’s current research on what creates good youth communities (Bruselius-Jensen & Sørensen, 2017). We adjust the format to the specific context of our study programmes.

The format consists of group guidance conversations on themes that contribute to strengthening the students’ good start to their studies, both academically, personally, and socially.

Study/Life Focus cover themes such as:

• The gap between expectations and experiences
• Uncertainty, doubt, and the sense of belonging
• A good learning environment in the group (psychological safety)
• From performance/grade focus to learning focus (a learning-oriented mindset)
• Motivation and meaning – and how to take good care of it

Target group
1st semester bachelor students at the Faculty of the Humanities.
The ideal number of participants is 14-20 students – we divide the large cohorts into smaller groups.

Length/timing
Study/Life Focus is 3 meetings of approx. 2 hours per meeting.

Goals

• To shape peer culture, learning mindset, and self-image.
• To ensure new students feel safe, become part of healthy communities, and develop a sustainable learning mindset.
• To foster positive feelings and positively influencing student culture.

 

Obstacles targetted:

• Educational difficulties
• Social obstacles

Inspiration and evidence

The inspirational background for this initiative is two-fold:

• Past experiences doing this kind of group sessions or seminars on various topics with positive responses from the participating students.
• Academic literature on group guidance and the positive outcome on having facilitated conversations about relevant topics with and among peers.

 

Points of attention

• It is essential for this initiative that it is designed as a group guidance with focus on students’ conversations on specific topics to support the purpose.
• Relevant topics, timing and facilitation of the meetings.
• These meetings are “no devices”-meetings, which means no pp-presentations or other on-screen presentations.

Do you feel you can effectively provide the support that students require?

We strongly agree.

Would you recommend this to other institutions?

strongly agree

Evaluation

Study/Life Focus is evaluated in a small survey with Likert scale statements and open-ended input-field. The statements and questions align with the main objectives, the prioritized content, and structure (the facilitated group meetings). The participating students are asked to fill out the survey in the end of the sessions and spend approx. 5-7 minutes on it.

The evaluation informs us on possible adjustments and/or confirms the current structure and content, and we share the evaluation report with management, the involved study programmes, and colleagues.

Communication

Study/Life Focus is communicated mainly through the LMS/VLS in the course room and message function, and via mentors and lecturers in the beginning of the semester.
The meetings are also added to the students’ schedules alongside the regular courses.

Timing

During the 1st semester, and based on our experiences and research we have the following timeline:

Theme 1: A Soft Landing? Expectations vs. Experiences
After 3 weeks of studies.

Theme 2: Sustainable motivation, a good student, and a healthy learning culture?
About 3 weeks after theme 1.

Theme 3: Why are you here? Connecting the dots to meaningfulness in your studies.
About 3-4 weeks after theme 2.

Resources

Staff: student guidance counsellors (or similar who are able to facilitate group guidance sessions)

Skills: planning, coordinating, facilitating, insight in the theoretical framework.

Resources: The meetings and set-up are supported by a course room for each participating study programme in the Learning Management System/Virtual Learning System. The course room consists of text and materials in connection to the meetings. It is also used as a way of communicating directly with the participating students.

Transferability

We think it is quite easily transferable to other contexts or groups.

The theoretical framework and the design could easily be transferred – the content would have to be adapted to the cultural context. It all depends on the field of interest, the aim of the content, and the available resources (people, skills, money).

Specific for the context
The pilot of this initiative was supported with funds from the Ebbefos Foundation (approx. 45.000 euros)