Why Student Involvement Is Essential For Undergraduate...

Alexander Astin, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Higher Education and Organizational Change, at the University of California, Los Angeles, spent much of his career trying to understand which variables are most likely to predict student success in Higher Education. Through the course of his research, Astin became convinced that what he called â€Å"student involvement† was essential to undergraduate student success. In a now world-leading paper, first published in 1984, Astin defined involvement as â€Å"the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience,† and contended that the amount of learning and personal development that students experience in an academic setting is directly connected to the†¦show more content†¦Given that all three courses operate within this online space, a physical space (and offline manifestation of ‘Random Twist’) would represent the logical conclusion to their online d iscussions, providing a shared real-world space for students to realise collaborative projects. Within the School, we see collaboration as dividing the task and multiplying the success of everything that we do (every course operates shared modules, staff, resources, etc.). We see the ‘Random Twist Hub’ as a creative, interactive, informal and social learning space which would encourage student collaboration beyond their own courses and traditional subject boundaries. The creative opportunities are extensive, and embedding the critical importance of collaboration through creative media-rich projects is everything we hope for within the School. In an ever-changing global landscape, we recognise that hubs are important spaces where students can design, test, scale and launch enterprising new ideas. Within this innovative new space, the students are expected to engage in creative collaboration through the completion of dramatic pieces, live streaming, podcasting, web-based events and student-led web series. This project, alongside the evaluation of its impact, which we will measure through a dedicated (public facing) website documenting its development, would