Engaging first year students in skill development : a three-way collaborative model in action

Recent discussion about engaging first year students calls for more collaboration in terms of adopting a holistic approach to course delivery. This paper reports on an intervention that explores the impact of collaboratively teaching information literacy and academic skills in the first year Business program at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC). The intervention has emerged from a three-way collaborative model, involving the Faculty Teacher, the Skills Advisor and the Librarian, which was developed to improve students’ skill levels. Blended skills sessions were integrated into lectures and delivered in conjunction with assessment tasks to contextualise the relevant skills being demonstrated. Students’ perceptions about their academic and information literacy skills were surveyed before and after the intervention presentation to help raise individual awareness about skill levels, and to measure changes in these perceptions. Survey analysis demonstrated an improvement in perceptions about skills and the skill processes. By illuminating the link between the writing and research process and the course content, the intervention has promoted student and faculty accessibility to the Library and Academic Skills services and fostered better collegial relationships. Findings also support the value of the three- way collaborative model as a framework for facilitating first year engagement with skill development.