1. Planning (more) engaging and effective SGDE in your courses

2. What is SGDE at the UoA?
Principles of the Small Group Discovery Experience:
Students are actively engaged with the content and an experienced academic.
The Small Group Discovery Experience will enrich the on-campus experience.
The scholarship of discovery is central to the learning activities of the University.
The first year SGDE sets the foundation for a continuum of the scholarship of discovery.
It will be a core component in a credit-bearing course of every undergraduate program.
Guidelines of the Small Group Discovery Experience:
The SGDE will be led by experienced academics.
It will involve an active participation by students.
It will be based on a formal collaboration between the students and academic.
It will be part of every first year level of any undergraduate program from 2014.
The SGDE will involve at least two face-to-face encounters with the academic per course.
The size of group will be determined by what will deliver the optimal learning outcomes deemed appropriate by the discipline.

3. The ‘cut down’ version
Small groups of students will collaborate with academics to actively discover(y) broader and deeper aspects of the core components of their course. The experience will provide students with an authentic co-creation experience with experts in the field, and nurture their research skills from year 1 at the university.

4. Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, School of Nursing
SGDE Exemplar 1
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, School of Nursing
3 sessions using a ‘flipped class’ approach
Session 1: Online video students watch as their first SGDE session
Video featured interviews with ‘experts’ on the SGDE topic
Session 2: f2f session with academics where any misconceptions are clarified
Session 3: f2f session where students present their findings and are assessed against a contextualised rubric
YouTube Clip 1 presents the overview of the entire SGDE experience
YouTube clip 2 (in session 1) shows what the students watch to learn from the experts

5. Faculty of Sciences, Biology 1: Human Perspectives
SGDE Exemplar 2
Faculty of Sciences, Biology 1: Human Perspectives
I have sent you the word doc of this case study – it could either be projected for all to look over OR printed as a handout

6. SGDE Exemplar 3
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Bachelor of Oral Health
This is the BOH SGDE video where students and staff discuss their experiences

7. SGDE Co-Creation Workshop (Aug 2016)
48 participants from Faculty of Health Sciences – 16 staff and 32 students
All had been involved in some type of SGDE activity as either a:
Student
Mentor
SGDE designer

8. Outcomes of Co-Creation Workshop
Valuable and Effective Aspects
Industry insight – ‘real’ perspectives
Authentic assessment
Real world application
Putting theory into practice
Small groups (<10)
Interaction between staff & students
‘Novel’ – not just another lecture or tute
Least Effective Aspects
No structure or clearly defined outcomes
Groups too large
Not assessed – no incentive to participate
Dysfunctional groups/uneven workload
Mundane ‘meaningless’ activities
Replication of tutorial – didn’t feel ‘special’
No practical application to discipline
“Why are we doing this?”

9. UoA Survey
Stubbs, Semmler et al: Evaluation of the Small Group Discovery Experience (SGDE) in Large First-Year Classes 2014/15