Helping Learners Make SMART Decisions

Helen Cormack
University of Glasgow

(Click on the title to access as a PDF document)

SUMMARY

Workshop sessions are organised in further and higher education institutions with the intention of informing potential students about the nature of Higher Education and improving their decision-making skills. Trained facilitators, who use a range of tools produced centrally, lead the sessions. These tools consist of icebreakers, information resources (e.g. qualification frameworks) and case studies based around the histories of non-traditional students with whom potential applicants might identify. Student feedback indicates appreciation of the clarity that this brings to their decisions about attending Higher Education.

Key words: Non-traditional students, decision making, student retention, West of Scotland Wider Access Forum.

INTRODUCTION

The Decision Making and Student Progression in Transition Project is supported by the West of Scotland Wider Access Forum (WoSWAF) as part of their on-going work to increase participation rates and improve student experience. The Forum membership consists of all Further and Higher Education providers in the area. The project was planned to run as a pilot for 18 months from January 2004 to July 2005. In the initial stages of the project it was decided to devise a shorter working title for the activities and so the udecide name was adopted. The project intends to address ways in which students can be helped in their decision-making process relating to progression and transition from Further Education to Higher Education.

RELEVANCE TO THE STAR GUIDELINES

At its outset the STAR project researched, produced and published a set of guidelines based on the causes of student attrition and which pointed the way towards possible good practice. The STAR guidelines relevant to this case study are

1.1 Information about campuses and courses should be accurate and lead to realistic student expectations.
1.2 Teachers, careers advisors, family members and other educational institutions are important clients of the University and should receive up-to-date, accurate and relevant information. Two-way communication should be promoted.

Cook, et al. 2005

THE PRACTICE

OUTLINE

The project aims to develop a programme to assist students to make appropriate educational decisions at key points in their lives. The project is developing a set of materials and workshops that will complement existing guidance mechanisms within institutions. The materials offer general assistance in the decision-making process and focus on seven key areas:

The workshops are being offered as part of on-going guidance or at special events such as Open and Information Days so that students can find out which aspects they will need to consider when making decisions about progression and transition. Students will then have a basis for asking appropriate questions of admission staff at a later date.
The project is currently involving learners from the following groupings:

The project will also contribute to existing work on increasing retention as research in the area has demonstrated that many early leavers had poor information about their programmes, made unreliable choices or joined, programmes late. The project is developing a model that can be disseminated to all institutions so that, in time, this procedure can be delivered at institutional level.

FURTHER EDUCATION STRAND

An initial letter of introduction to the project and a press release for college newsletters was sent to all Further Education members. A positive response was received from most colleges in the partnership.

Principals were then encouraged to release staff to take part in the Facilitator training Workshops.

Guidance and Student Services staff were asked to complete a short questionnaire to establish a benchmark for best practice.

WORKSHOPS

The workshops are designed such that attendees can:

• Make SMART decisions (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time specific)
• Access people and resources to help them make their own decision;
• Assess the relationship between their present studies and other qualifications;
• Assess how advanced entry might affect them; and
• Evaluate their choice of programme.

The workshops follow a set agenda as follows:

1. Introduction

2. Ice-breaker (Appendix 1)

3. Outline of the qualifications framework

4. Discussion and group task (Appendix 2) on how to:

• Gather information
• Compare option
• Succeed in small steps
• Re-evaluate

5. Consideration of some case studies of decisions to be made
by exemplar potential applicants (two examples, Amanda and Joe,
from the 21 case studies available).

6. Developing an action plan

Students are guided to the relevant sources of personal and written information available from institutions. Their options are discussed as the relationship between their own personal needs and the variations in subject, patterns of teaching, location, funding, etc. Given this information and a consideration of their own needs, participants are then encouraged to make decisions about their futures in terms of finances, time and opportunity.

In line with the Project Development Plan, three colleges were targeted for the initial pilot of the learner workshops. These were evaluated on the day and participating students are being tracked for a full year thereafter.

The selection of colleges for the initial phase of the project was based on geographic spread and range of student experience.

go to top of page

FACILITATOR TRAINING

In order to roll out the 2nd phase of the project for session 2004-2005, the project team has trained potential facilitators from academic and non-academic staff groups. Fourteen Facilitator’s workshops have been held for over 100 staff from both education and community groups in locations as diverse as Dumfries in the south west to Coatbridge in the east of the Forum area. Facilitators complete Action Plans at the training workshop, committing to deliver Udecide workshops within their own institutions, which will be evaluated in due course. This has allowed for a “roll out” during Session 2004/5 while the project is still a pilot but will also begin the embedding of the process as part of routine guidance for the future.

HIGHER EDUCATION CONTACTS

The team has created a shortened Udecide workshop for Clearing and Information Days to target learners when they may be taking decisions within very short timescales. The initial target was two seminars but due to a positive response, four sessions have taken place with a further one planned for Spring 2005. Bell College and the Universities of Strathclyde, Paisley and Glasgow have all participated. Contact has been made with all seven Higher Education providers in the area.

COMMUNITY CONTACTS

The first contacts with Community Groups proved positive. Following on from this, a Focus group was set up involving several community providers. One local authority had a planned event as part of their Adult Learners’ Week 2004 and others requested information about places on Facilitator training workshops. Some facilitator training workshops to Community Tutors took place in the autumn and the future in widening provision to this population is being supported by a further project, the Ad-dition Project, beginning in Spring 2005 and concentrating on supporting community learners by building on the success of the Udecide format.
Meetings have been held with Careers Scotland and have proved beneficial to both parties. The organisation is keen to work with the project. Their staff are presently involved in a substantial staff training programme developing a more skills based approach to career planning which will include life skills coaching and action planning.

EFFECTIVENESS

Although target numbers were set at the beginning of the project, these were notional and were not intended to be the main criteria for evaluation. Qualitative comment was seen as being more important in a project of this type where progression to higher education may take several years and, indeed, be beyond the allotted time span of the project.

Learners complete an evaluation following the workshop and the pilot group of learners are being tracked for a full academic session (March 2004 – May 2005) after the event.

Examples of comments from the student evaluations include:

“Very useful. Helped me make decisions when I was not very sure of how to make my choices about where to go next.”

“The project should be continued to give help to all students moving through career decisions.”

“Even though I have already made a lot of decisions, the workshop highlighted quite a few things I haven’t thought of yet and which I need to think about.”

An independent evaluator has carried out a full evaluation of both the pilot workshops and the materials. This document commends the project team on work to date and considers the project to be very valuable to learners. A sample of learners who had participated in the workshops was interviewed approximately three months after the event and comments noted. These included:

“I never fully appreciated the things that could happen, like short-term money problems to buy equipment that you need for your studying and a lot of things that a lot of people don’t think about. And it also made you think about your life, breaking it down into small sections. And the presentation got you to look at yourself and made you more self-aware of what actual commitments you had. And the case studies were informative because there was a single person with kids that was trying to go back and get off the benefit system and found out what her priorities were and what she had to do to meet them. It was very informative.”

“It’s twenty five years since I left school and everything’s so different. Some of the jobs that’s out there and courses, they never existed twenty five years ago.”

“I think they gave the information then it’s up to the individual to decide if they want further details. I think they covered it in the session pretty good.”

The project team has adapted the evaluation questionnaires and developed some alternative materials based on the evaluator’s recommendations. Facilitators also complete an evaluation following the training and are invited to attend “follow-up” events at approximately three and nine months when they have had an opportunity to experiment with the materials. The final event is planned for March 2005. They also have a web-board facility to post queries, make suggestions and share experiences with colleagues involved in the project.

An external evaluator will be appointed in Spring 2005 to consider whether the project has met its primary targets and what impact the project has had on the groups of learners involved.

PROPOSED FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

Minor modifications in the procedures are currently being implemented An extension of funding may be available beyond the end date of July 2005 to ensure that all Forum partners fully embed the aims of the workshops within their guidance and student support systems and also to confirm increased figures for progression and retention in those learners who participated in the workshops.

go to top of page

REFERENCE

Cook, A., Rushton, B.S., McCormick, S. and Southall, D. (2005). Guidelines for the Management of Student Transition. University of Ulster, Coleraine. Also at http://www.ulster.ac.uk/star/data/star_guidelines.pdf

CORRESPONDENCE

Helen Cormack, Udecide & Ad-dition Project Development Officer, The Widening Participation Service, 12 Southpark Terrace, University of Glasgow, G12 8LG
email: h.cormack@admin.gla.ac.uk

FURTHER INFORMATION

Star Case Study: Pre - Entry Guidance Work

http://www.gla.ac.uk/wideningparticipation/initiatives/initiatives.html - initiatives at the University of Glasgow

http://www.swarf.ac.uk/ - Scottish Wider Access Regional Forums

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/widen/ - The Higher Education Funding Council for England, Widening Participation

http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/issues/wp/index.htm - The Higher Education Academy, Centre for Bioscience, Widening Participation

http://www.thinkuni.info/ - Providing Solutions to questions about higher education