Conference presentation
Lifting student success for all: Insights from three years of immersive block model delivery in the Southern Cross Model
AdvanceHE Teaching and Learning Conference 2025: Future-focused education: Ensuring successful student outcomes for all (Sheffield, UK, 01/07/2025–03/07/2025)
03/07/2025
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Abstract
Amidst cost-of-living pressures in contexts such as the UK and Australia, higher education (HE) students are increasingly expressing preferences for more flexible forms of learning that enable them to succeed in their studies around competing family and work commitments (Neeves & Stephenson, 2023; Studiosity, 2023). In response, many HE institutions are reconsidering the way they offer education, offering more opportunities for blended or hybrid learning and seeking new pedagogical approaches that best engage the current generation of university learners. Immersive block models, where students study one or two modules over 4-8 weeks, have attracted much interest in recent years as a way for institutions to create the conditions for improved student success (Wilson et al., 2024). Southern Cross University, Australia, is one of few institutions worldwide to introduce an immersive block model – known as the Southern Cross Model (SCM) – across a whole university (Roche et al., 2024a). Southern Cross has an important responsibility to deliver high-quality education that supports the success of diverse student cohorts, given that it enrols high proportions of students from under recognised backgrounds such as first-in-family to attend university, low socio-economic status, and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (Roche et al., 2024b). The implementation of an immersive block model in order to raise student success therefore supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: providing inclusive, equitable, quality education. This presentation will present insights from the SCM’s implementation across all faculties and colleges at the university from 2021 onwards. It is a strong example of a whole-of-institution approach to policy and pedagogy that has had a measurable, sustained, and significant impact on student success across diverse cohorts in HE.
Details
- Title
- Lifting student success for all: Insights from three years of immersive block model delivery in the Southern Cross Model
- Creators
- Erica Wilson - Southern Cross UniversityThomas Roche - Southern Cross UniversityElizabeth Goode - Southern Cross University
- Conference
- AdvanceHE Teaching and Learning Conference 2025: Future-focused education: Ensuring successful student outcomes for all (Sheffield, UK, 01/07/2025–03/07/2025)
- Identifiers
- 991013295355502368
- Academic Unit
- Office of the PVC (Academic Quality)
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation
- Local Fields
- Original Research - SoLT