In this blog, Ali Dunk an Access Officer shares how the Access and Engagement Department welcomed new students to the College during an online event.
At the beginning of September 2021, the Access and Engagement (A&E) Department invited students across its various programmes to take part in a two-part online Orientation event, aimed at preparing them for taking their first steps at Birkbeck. The sessions were led by both A&E staff members and current Birkbeck students and covered topics such as How do Seminars Work? Learning Online and What Support does Birkbeck Offer? All students who had engaged with Access and Engagement initiatives were invited, including students from the On Track programme as well as scholars coming to Birkbeck through The Compass Project and the Camden Scholarship.
The first session saw attendees take part in a mock seminar, centred around watching a short video before being spilt into breakout rooms to discuss what they had watched. This allowed them to get a feel for university teaching and learning in a safe and supportive environment as well as creating a sense of community with their fellow students. The second session set up a Q&A that allowed them to ask questions to current Birkbeck students, which ranged from requesting advice on time management and handling workload, all the way to asking about how to sign up to clubs and societies. As always, our incredible Team Birkbeck ambassadors gave informative and thoughtful answers which helped to assuage many of the students’ pre-term worries. Common themes emerged, with many of the attendees bringing up concerns about the concept of blended learning, alongside questions about the personal tutor system and contacting academic departments.
Across the two sessions student engagement was excellent and the team used a number of online methods to gain feedback and give students the opportunity to contribute. The increased confidence in using Microsoft Teams to engage with teaching and learning was clear as the sessions progressed, effectively preparing students for online elements of their courses.
The Access and Engagement Department will be running a programme of outreach activity with both current and prospective students across the academic year, with an Is University for Me? event planned for January 2022. For more information about our work and how to get involved, colleagues can email the team.
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