Lockdowns and large international cohorts (1000+) meant first year undergrad students in 2020/2021 could feel isolated and disconnected. We would like to share the BUSS1000 story and how we learnt and designed face-to-face and online learning experiences that also helped reducing anxiety of our transitioning students. Drawing upon Usyd’s transition principles and resources, and the Business School learning and teaching transformation project Connected Learning at Scale, various activities were introduced online and in class to encourage students to reflect on how their values and sense of self were changing throughout the semester. These included anxiety-busting exercises and tips, while reflective activities were conducted online then discussed in class to self-assess value evolution with global wicked problems and megatrends. End-of-semester survey results indicate increased student engagement and satisfaction with their learning despite the disruption of the pandemic and pivot to remote teaching.
Teaching@Sydney