Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 11 Summer 2019 | Page 28

learning skills, reflective learning and helped to gain new knowledge and skills. The overseas electives programme has been operational since 2012 and has enabled the successful completion of approximately 300 Overseas Electives. Provided experience in different clinical settings, exposure to a variety of clinical presentations, tropical medicine and cultural differences. Experiences helped in both personal and professional development. Majority stated that their electives experience in Sri Lanka will be useful in their post graduate career choices. In conclusion, both local and overseas electives provided students with a variety of learning opportunities, and helped to generate new knowledge and skills. Societies, sports and socials: fostering wellbeing and belonging for success Julie Hulme ([email protected]) Abstract: According to Thomas (2012; 2017), a sense of belonging is central to students' success and persistence in higher education. This presentation reports the findings of three, student-led final year psychology research projects, exploring the impact of extra-curricular activities on student wellbeing and their sense of belonging to Keele. All three projects used online surveys to investigate engagement in activities, with particular focus on sports, dance, and non-physical societies, to determine whether social engagement, physical activity, or both, were important in developing a sense of belonging and student psychological wellbeing. Overall, it seems that participating in social activities can enhance students' sense of belonging at University, while engaging in physical activities can improve students' wellbeing. Activities that combine both social and physical activity enhance both belonging and wellbeing, to the same extent as those that are carried out separately. These findings suggest that it may be beneficial for students to participate in extra-curricular activities. This may be particularly advantageous for those who identify less clearly with the University community (such as commuter 28  students or mature students) and for those who are experiencing low levels of psychological wellbeing. Social Learning: Redefining Contact Time and Workload * Katherine Haxton ([email protected]) Abstract: What do students do with their time? It's a key question and one the student workload project in Chemistry seeks to address. By analysing timetables, and teaching and assessment patterns, a typical workload for our students can be obtained. Social learning, particularly related to the flipped classroom, results in an increase in 'non-contact-contact-time'. Preparatory activities may range from assigned reading through to edited lecture recordings, and these are estimated in the workload project. My findings show that our module proposal system needs to better account for 'non-contact-contact- time' associated with social learning practices, the need for recommendations on the quantity of contact versus self-study time in modules, and for assessment planning to take a reasonable working week into account. Small changes in how we structure a semester may have a marked impact on student achievement as well as potential benefits in reducing the pressure some students may feel completing assessments. This in turn may allow them to engage in social learning more effectively.