Orientation, Student Portal and Students, Learning & Teaching Conference

A message from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students, Learning and Teaching) Professor Anne Cummins:

Dear colleagues,

As we conclude the first week of Semester 1 it is timely to reflect on last week’s Orientation, the new student portal and look towards the future by inviting you to the inaugural Students, Learning & Teaching Conference to be held mid-year this year.

Our new domestic and international students are off to a great start thanks to the enthusiastic and hardworking staff and over 200 current students who contributed to Orientation this year. Thank you to all who were involved in making this event a success.

Orientation ran exceptionally well due to the careful planning and execution by the teams involved. This included collaboration between faculties and co-curricular service areas. Over 9000 students created an ‘Orientation Planner’ in the student portal.

A range of stalls on each campus promoted opportunities to students, including co-curricular programs such as sport, health and wellbeing programs and cultural and leadership programs, student services, the Campus Student Associations, Clubs and Societies. Faculty staff were also on hand answering course related questions.

Student Portal update

The new student portal is an exciting development for students. It aims to improve their online experience by providing simple and intuitive access to their schedule, student systems, including single sign on to LEO, Student Connect, Tutorial Direct and OrgSync, news, notifications and announcements as well as all the information previously available on the student website.

Simply by logging in, staff too can access important website information in the portal – check out ACU Info and Discover U on the portal menu. You will not see information in the students’ schedule or the Units and Results pages for example, because the portal is personalised for each student. Personalisation in the student portal has also been customised down to campus, enrolment and study levels allowing more streamlined communication with these groups.

The portal has been created to be dynamic. Since its launch in December ongoing improvements include:
A new search engine helping users to find information quickly. Many online users prefer search rather than the menu.
‘Terms and Conditions’ on the sign on page, once agreed to, only appear once a year for confirmation or when there is a change to the Terms and Conditions.
Deep links, a link to information inside the portal will now go direct to the relevant page after sign on.
Units and Results, showing each student’s current enrolled units and their results from previous study at ACU, as well as the students’ schedule, will now be populated with 2017 information.

The inaugural Students, Learning & Teaching Conference

Themed ‘Engaging Students for Success’ the Students, Learning and Teaching Inaugural Conference will be held on 14 July, 2017 and you are invited to attend. The Conference is for ACU staff responsible for delivering and supporting teaching at ACU.

The aim of the conference is to:

• promote engagement with students from diverse backgrounds, aspirations and support needs
• raise awareness of the impact of SLT portfolio services on student engagement
• demonstrate relationships between curricular and co-curricular experiences for students in enhancing student learning
• strengthen and build effective partnerships between faculties and directorates to create a positive learning environment for student success.

More details will follow in the coming weeks.

With every good wish,

Professor Anne Cummins
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students, Learning & Teaching)