Welcome and introduction to block model study

Welcome to the National Virtual Expo, on Garigal land in Sydney. Welcome to this session on how this way of studying changes everything. We're talking about block model study. Now for most of you this might be something you've never heard of before, but I can tell you what the academic research shows: studying in block mode is exceptionally good for students. We're talking about things like better retention of information, less stress and pressure, and better results. So we're going to be exploring this with Southern Cross University, one of the pioneers of the block model here in Australia. We're going to be hearing from a senior academic at the university on how this might make your journey through university a lot less stressful and a lot more productive. Let's jump into the session.

About Southern Cross University and why it does things differently

Hi. I'm Professor Thomas Roche, Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic Quality at Southern Cross University. It's a pleasure to be with you today. I know you're all here because you're thinking about your study options: where you're going to study and what you're going to study. Today I'm going to tell you a little bit about Southern Cross University, how we approach learning and the student experience, and I hope that helps you think about university and what you'd like to do there, and helps you think about the type of university you'd like to study at and the type of experience you'd like to have.

Southern Cross University is a fantastic university. Why? Because it's different to many other universities. It's different because it puts at the heart of what it does, how students learn. Over the past 30 years I've worked at universities in Europe, Asia, and Australia, and Southern Cross really stands out. It's not a traditional university that does things the same way universities have done them for hundreds of years. Instead of having a semester of 13 to 15 weeks, expecting students to come on campus for lectures, sit there quietly and take notes, and then at the end regurgitate everything in exams they've memorised, Southern Cross does things differently. It thinks about students' lives. Your lives are busy, and you shouldn't have to put them on hold while you study.

At Southern Cross, how we accommodate your busy lives is we break the semester in two. Students don't have to study four subjects at a time. They only have to study two, and they study two subjects over six weeks. So you're juggling fewer things, fewer things to keep in your mind, fewer assessments to do at any one time. If you come to Southern Cross, you'll work and go deep on two subjects and two assignments during that time. And usually you won't have exams at all, unless there's a special reason from an accrediting body such as Chartered Accountants or nursing boards, which may require exams for professional recognition. But if not, we believe there are better ways to assess learning. That's what you'll do with us. That's why Southern Cross is different in terms of focus, less juggling, and a better experience for students.

Why Southern Cross moved away from the traditional semester

So why do we do things differently at Southern Cross? There are a couple of reasons. One is we noticed that our students were struggling to complete their studies. We noticed that after about the seventh week, many of them simply stopped coming to lectures. They didn't hand in their assessment in week seven. It was just too much. They were juggling too much, and we know that many of our students have part-time jobs, family, and caring responsibilities. So we reflected on what we could do to make our students' lives easier, and that didn't mean making the quality of the learning less or making the content easier. It meant arranging the learning so they could focus more, go deeper with their studies, and bite things off and finish them piece by piece. Over the course of the year, they're still learning the same material, but they're juggling fewer things at one time.

That's really what drove our thinking forward, and it came from two places: our students' lives and how we could make learning more manageable for them, and the science of learning. We know that all of us can only manage so much cognitive load, and we've tried to reduce that and get students to be active and focused on as few things as possible at any one time. That's why we changed from the semester model to the Southern Cross model.

What a typical six-week term looks like day to day

A typical student is a busy person. They come to university, but they already have a life outside it: a part-time job, family caring responsibilities, other commitments, and they need to maintain all of that while they study. We understand and acknowledge that. At most universities, all of those commitments are still there, and then suddenly the semester starts. It goes for 13 to 15 weeks, and during that time you'll usually study about four or five subjects at once. That means you could have three, four, or five assessments due in the same week. When exams come, you have to be across all the information and all the skills you've developed for that critical exam period, usually in week 15, 16, or 17.

At Southern Cross it's a little bit different. We know our students still have their lives outside university: sporting commitments, family commitments, part-time jobs. And when they study with us, they begin by studying just two subjects at a time, only two subjects over six weeks. The maximum number of assessments they have to juggle at any one time is two. If you can imagine juggling four or five assessments and compare that to juggling two, which is simpler, I think we all know the answer. The Southern Cross student experience means less stress, greater focus, and greater depth, because you can immerse yourself in the learning.

Some of you may be interested in what a six-week term actually looks like. By and large it'll look the same across the disciplines. For each subject, which we call a unit, you'll have one workshop per week and one tutorial per week. The workshop goes for an hour and the tutorial for two hours, so that's three hours of class contact each week per unit. If you're studying two units full time, you'll have six hours of class contact a week. You'll probably study for about 20 hours a week per unit, so you need roughly 40 hours a week available to study full time. Part time is around 20 hours. The rest of your study beyond the class hours is self-study, and you'll have online resources that are media-rich and interactive: videos, activities, and feedback as you go. That way, when you come to class and sit with your peers and your academics, you'll already have some understanding of the material and you'll get to test it and use it in class.

If you're studying something like nursing, that might be in a clinical setting, dealing with patients or simulated patients, testing your knowledge of anatomy and physiology. If you're an engineering student, you might be working through a case study of how to apply knowledge in a mechanical or civil context. While that three hours of class time per unit and 20 hours of self-study per unit is broadly consistent, what you do will be very different depending on your discipline. Nurses will be engaged in health-type scenarios, engineers in engineering scenarios, with a very strong flavour of practical application in your area of study.

What students and employers say about the Southern Cross model

You might be wondering: this all sounds very good, but what do students think about the Southern Cross model? The first thing they tell us is that the focus helps. They feel they can do a deeper dive, engage with the knowledge and the skills, develop their understanding, and get feedback, then move on. They're not waiting 15 weeks to find out whether they understood algebra or physiology and anatomy. They're getting feedback as they go, and they finish a whole unit in six weeks. That's really good for confidence. It builds confidence more quickly and lets students know how they're tracking.

Another thing students are enjoying is the active learning. In many traditional university settings you go into a lecture with 300 or 400 students, sit there and take notes, then sit in a smaller tutorial, but actually most of the time you're out there by yourself, reading books and PDFs, not really knowing how you're tracking. In the Southern Cross model, when you're on campus you're actually doing things and getting feedback: working through case studies, solving problems in groups, with a strong focus on group activities. Students tell us that's great, because it's not just academic and theoretical. It's about applying knowledge, and they say that is really important and is helping them progress in their studies.

Perhaps even more importantly, our community, the employers around us, tell us that our students have the skills they need to succeed. That's significant, because many of our students are studying education, health sciences, engineering, or the legal profession, because they want a career. They want to change their lives. And our employers are telling us that students who come through the Southern Cross model are equipped to do just that, which is why they go on to get great jobs.

Pass rates, withdrawals, and the evidence behind the model

How is this playing out for students in terms of success in their studies? About five or six years ago, before the Southern Cross model, students passed about 75% of the units they attempted. That means about one in four of the subjects they were trying, they were failing. That's not great, and it's something we wanted to fix. Now, five or six years later with the Southern Cross model, we're sitting over 90%. Over 90% of the units students attempt, they pass. Essentially the same academics, the same subjects, but what's different is the learning experience. That greater focus and more active learning is really helping our students succeed.

We've also seen something very interesting with withdrawals. Before the model, about 13% of students would start their studies with us and then withdraw before the census date, thinking, "I can't do this." That's gone down to 7%. It's almost halved. The majority of students who start continue on with their studies, and we think that's great.

Many people ask: we're going from 15 weeks to six weeks, surely that's just cramming information into a shorter space of time? That's a myth. Previously there were four subjects running across 15 weeks. What we've done is cut that in half: two subjects over six weeks, then two more subjects over six weeks again. Students are dealing with the same volume of content. They're just given greater focus. They don't have to jump from accounting to marketing to HR. We say, instead, just focus on marketing and accounting for the first six weeks. It's not about cramming at all. It's about focus, about giving people a deeper dive into the same information. It's a bit like, instead of trying to listen to four people talk at once, just having a conversation with a couple of people. It allows for deeper engagement.

Assessment at Southern Cross: beyond memorisation and exams

As I mentioned, we're not great fans of exams. Exams have their place and sometimes they're necessary. Some professional accrediting bodies will require them if you're going to go out and practise. But are exams actually the best way of assessing understanding and knowledge? No, they're not. What exams rely on heavily is memorisation, and sometimes we really don't need to know if a student has memorised something. We need to know if they understand it. So what we do is create assessments that reflect the types of things students will do out in the world when they leave university.

We have projects where students might go out into a business, look at a problem, and apply a skill to that business problem. If you're studying health sciences, we use something called occupational skills examinations, which sound like exams but are very different from sitting in a room with a pen and paper while invigilators walk around. In an occupational skills examination you have a practice clinical setting and you have to undertake something you would do in a real health setting: draw blood, administer medication, take a pulse, depending on the skill being assessed. That's really what we're about. Moving beyond checking whether someone has memorised something, to seeing if they can apply knowledge, solve a problem, and use concepts and skills in a context that reflects what they'll actually do when they leave university.

Flexibility, time out, and planning your year

If you're thinking about the year ahead, you might be wondering about taking a break at some stage, or whether family commitments might get in the way. What happens if you start the academic year and need to take time out? The answer depends on what you're studying. Some of our degrees have multiple intakes and a great deal of flexibility. If you're studying something like a Bachelor of Business, for example, it's relatively straightforward to step back for a time. You'll need to plan that with your course coordinator and then pick up your studies later on.

If you're studying something like a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine, it's much more difficult, because some subjects at the end of the year require you to have learned earlier material first. We don't want people going out into the field and dealing with livestock or people's pets if they haven't yet understood the basics of physiology, anatomy, and biochemistry. That logic applies in other degrees too, such as nursing, midwifery, and sometimes engineering, where foundational skills need to be developed before you go on and start applying them. So whether you can take time out and come straight back depends on your degree. I encourage you to reach out to our student support team and ask them before you start, because they'll be able to help you plan your year.

Support services available to Southern Cross students

Studying at university is great fun, and it's also hard work. If you're really going to learn skills and develop knowledge, you need to engage very deeply and continuously with your studies across the six-week term. It's a busy time, and sometimes when we're busy we need support. At Southern Cross University, we have many forms of support. We have first-year advisors, and I encourage you to reach out to yours. They can help you with all manner of things. For example, if you're having trouble with an assessment and you're not sure you'll be able to submit it on time, reach out to them. They can tell you about special consideration, how to apply for it, and how to get an extension.

First-year advisors aren't the only people here to help. We have your course coordinator, your unit assessor, the academics you should go to if you have questions about content or you're struggling to understand something. And sometimes studying at university brings other struggles, and there might be other people you need to reach out to. Our student services team is there for that, whether it's something financial or something personal. There are people at university you can talk to any time. We have a 24-hour student support line. There's never a dumb question. If you're worried or troubled, please reach out. That's why we're here.

Generative AI at Southern Cross University

We live in a very interesting time with the rise of generative AI, and you might be wondering what role it plays at university. Some people have heard that universities don't let students use it, and that is the case at some institutions, or they allow it only in a very limited way. The fact of the matter is, at Southern Cross University we understand that generative AI is here and it's here to stay, and it's part of all of our lives. So why wouldn't we use it in our studies? When you drive somewhere, do you pull out a paper map? No one is using a paper map. Technology makes our lives simpler, and we've embraced generative AI at Southern Cross.

How we use it differs from degree to degree and discipline to discipline. There are some instances where we can't use it. Think about health sciences: if you're on a nursing placement in a hospital ward and you see a patient's record and think, "I'll just take a photo and ask AI to explain that to me," you can't do that. Patient privacy comes first. There are other instances where generative AI is unethical or impractical to use, and in those cases we say it is not to be used. But otherwise we do encourage its use, and you'll need to talk to your unit assessor and course coordinator to understand how to use it appropriately, because it will differ whether you're studying engineering or humanities. Generative AI can be a very beneficial tool for students in their learning and their future careers, and we think it's very important.

Advice for students starting their first six-week term

What advice would I give to students about to study in a six-week term for the first time? The most important thing is to go to orientation. Orientation happens in the week before studies commence, and it's a great opportunity to connect with other students who will be your peers, might become your friends, and who you'll be working with on assignments and going through the learning journey with. Making that connection is really important. I'd encourage you to trust yourself, back yourself, get out there, and meet people. You'll need to depend on them and get to know them as you go. So try doing that at orientation.

Connection with students isn't the only important thing. Orientation is a fantastic opportunity to learn all about the university's support services, and you don't know yet what services you're going to need throughout the year. Going to orientation will help you understand how to use the library, how to research, and all those other support services I mentioned: counsellors, financial support, advocacy, first-year advisors. That's really where you find out about all of that. Go to orientation. It's super important and will set you off in the right direction at the beginning of your journey.

Choosing the right university for you

You're about to make a big decision about which university you're going to study at, and you have lots of options before you. I'd encourage you to think about it deeply. Reflect on all the information that's out there and ask a lot of questions. There's no single right answer about which university is for you, but there are better answers. Find the one that best fits your interests, both in terms of what's being taught and how it's being taught. Think about how you'd like to learn, what you'd like that experience to look like, and which university offers the closest match to the things you're interested in. If you keep those things in mind, I'm sure you'll find a place where you'll have a great experience and move toward your educational goals. I wish you all the best with it.

A student's story: from struggling at school to high distinction

When I got my first grade at uni I just laughed out loud. It wasn't just a pass. I actually got a high distinction. And I'd always done terribly at school. I did the PSP course at SCU, which gave me the foundations of what you need to be able to study at uni. And I didn't fail. I got good grades, so I was like, hey, keep going. I studied a Bachelor of Psychology, did alright, so I kept going and got into honours. Now I'm writing a thesis. Getting that first grade was the first time I felt like I can actually do this. And it has led me to where I am now. I'm really grateful for it.

Have you got something out of this session? If you have any questions at all, you can head to choosingyouruni.com and ask Lumen.