ACTiveNSW PD & AGM

AGM & A Holistic Approach to the First Year Experience (FYE)

Date: Thursday, 24th November 2016

Time: 2pm – 3pm (AGM)    3pm – 5pm (PD)

Venue: Level 1, 10 Barrack Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Member AGM & PD – FREE

Non-Member – $95.00 (Why not become an ISANA member instead? Membership starts from $150 which provides you with free participation in all ACTiveNSW Branch Professional development sessions throughout the year.)

Session Outline

The first year experience for students entering into higher education or even certain vocational courses can be a real challenge. UTS has incorporated an institution-wide program designed to encourage academics to embed pedagogic strategies into their subject planning – for classroom practice, assessment, student’s interaction and collaboration, developing independent learners and supporting the diverse cohorts that are part of their first year subjects. Networking and collaboration of academics with academics, and academics with professional staff are essential elements of the role of FYE coordination.

Attend this workshop to hear about the initiatives and analysis done by UTS this year in regards to the FYE.

About the presenter

Dr Kathy Egea is a senior lecturer at UTS and coordinates the First Year Experience (FYE) program at UTS. To achieve this, she has developed a large community of practice in FYE (membership to date is 583) and facilitates regular FYE forums. The goal here is to foster engagement, collaboration and dissemination of good practices undertaken by community members.

Through an extensive use of data, Kathy has been able to demonstrate the success of the FYE program in maintaining or improving the transition experience of commencing students (improving pass rates and retention rates) despite huge growth in student numbers. The program with Kathy as program lead, has gained both institutional and national recognition through citations, program awards and facilitating a national network of FYE educators.

Kathy has had an extensive career in education, as a high school maths and science teacher, a primary teaching in Spain, and a university computing academic at CQUniversity (1999-2007), University of Queensland (2008-2009). Since her move to NSW in 2010, she has been a tutor with CQU, researcher at UTS, and most recently facilitated academics and industry collaboration towards the accreditation of UTS Information Technology degree programs.

From 2008 to 2014, she was an active member of the Australian Computer Society, as a board member and chair of ACS Women for both Queensland and NSW.