Programme induction 

In mainstream textbooks on pedagogy, student induction tends to be a slightly overlooked phenomenon. It's often defined by the fact that it is other to learning and teaching, an event that takes place before normal teaching takes part.

Fry, Ketteridge and Marshall (2003) use a human resources analogy to describe it as:

In many people's conceptions, induction lasts for a week.

This is, we would argue, highly problematical. Our research strongly suggests that in many respects students are not well prepared for learning in higher education by their prior studies. Foster, Bell and Salzano (2008) picked out a number of key themes areas in which learning is extremely different in post 16 education. Before university the following practices are relatively common:

• formative feedback is much more widely available
• re-submission of assessment to improve grades
• students are often taught in relatively small groups and have a closer relationship with their tutors
• feedback is often more instructional guiding students to ways of improving the specific piece of work in hand.

Although the first week is a very important part of induction, we would argue that it's only one part of a bigger induction process and would encourage programme teams to reflect on how to extend the induction so that it is embedded throughout the first year. Cook and Rushton (2008) suggest that induction needs to be broken into two stages.

References

• Fry, H., Ketteridge, S. and Marshall, S., (2003), A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Enhancing Academic Practice, Glasgow, Kogan Page
• COOK, A., and RUSHTON, B., 2008. Student Transition: Practices and policies to promote Retention. UK: Staff and Educational Development Association

This downloadable guide gives up to date (2010) student feedback on programme induction and suggests aims for programme induction that include:

• allowing opportunities to make friends whilst fitting around other commitments
• giving advance notice of what the programme induction will include
• developing an understanding of what kind of learning is involved in higher education
• a reminder of how their course will benefit their future plans.

Download the Induction Guide