Using an outdoor activity day to build a sense of community in a year 1 cohort

Aim of your session: First, this session will report on a project designed to promote a course identity and develop group cohesion amongst first year students of an undergraduate degree programme. Second, in a seminar format, discussion of issues to be considered by other course teams when trying to enhance course identity and develop group cohesion within a student cohort will take place. The session aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an outdoor activity day containing collaborative problem-solving activities that are separate to the degree content and aims to generate ideas for other course teams wishing to adopt a similar approach. Description of the content of your session: One characteristic of a degree programmes that received very positive National Student Survey results is that it has a sense of community and identity (Cameron & Chown, 2007). Students within the Sport and Exercise science BSc (hons) degree reported a lack of a course identity and cohesion amongst the course and the desire to engage in more course-based social activities. To address this issue, an investigation into students’ perceptions of social activity with course-mates was conducted and an outdoor collaborative problem-solving activity day was used as a way to promote a course identity and cohesion amongst the first year cohort. Questionnaires and focus groups were used to measure these perceptions in students that did and did not attend the day. Results will be presented and issues for course teams wishing to develop a course identity and help students develop friendship groups will be discussed.