Reflections from J-WEL's first year experience workshop
This article comes from Kathleen Burke, the new postdoctoral research associate, global engagement for J-WEL. Kathleen joins us from the Stockholm School of Economics where she earned her PhD from the Department of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology. Her research investigates the role of universities in building entrepreneurial ecosystems across multiple regions and sectors. At J-WEL, she is interested in understanding how global engagement can foster social impact with, in, and for different learning communities and contexts.
Kathleen’s introduction to J-WEL’s member network was at September’s First Year Student Experience workshop, where she got a firsthand account of some of the challenges facing higher education professionals across the globe and witnessed knowledge exchange and engagement unfolding in a live program setting. Below, she shares her key takeaways from the week.
The MIT Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL) encompasses a member network of universities and foundations aimed at driving positive educational transformation. J-WEL’s members share our vision of education designed for everyone to thrive. Part of this mission comes with an attention to student populations who are not served by traditional education systems, and we are seeing J-WEL member institutions called to meet these student needs in service of benefitting their wider community.
From conversations with members, a shared question emerged: How do incoming students enter into, acclimate to, and thrive in university life? The question of the First Year Experience (FYE) inspired a weeklong workshop at MIT, where participants learned about how MIT and their fellow attendees approach their students’ first year. Four interrelated themes prevailed throughout the week: Learning by Doing, Engagement with Real-World Challenges, Inclusion as a Way to Build Community, and Empowering the Future Graduate.
Starting at the finish line: picturing a graduate
Prior to members coming on-campus for the workshop, Monique Fuchs, entrepreneur-in-residence at MIT DesignX, conducted discovery conversations with members about what challenges they face with the first year experience. From this, she identified themes of focus amongst members, ranging from engagement (i.e., programmatic activities) and academics (i.e., curricular- and career-related activities) to support systems for students, faculty and staff, and leadership strategies. Learning from the members helped to frame distinct categories where universities can experiment with strategies for student success to catalyze positive change. These insights exemplified a myriad of approaches to supporting students academically, socially, mentally, financially, and professionally. It also showed a common need across members to instill a culture of empowering and respecting students, and to align academic and student support programs with visions for student success (i.e., mental wellbeing, social responsibility, career readiness). The workshop programming was designed with these conversations in mind.
Building on these foundations, J-WEL Faculty Director Anjali Sastry delivered a thought-provoking presentation, “Learner Destinations,” prompting J-WEL members to envision ‘portraits’ of what graduates can become through their student experience. Thinking in this manner involves communicating what you aim to enable for your students, and for the world. Indeed, members expressed that they are already ‘portraitists’ within their universities, and they were actively researching student needs to enhance their effectiveness.
Maura Pompa, professor and pedagogy specialist at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), said that they are already investigating which skills, values, and characteristics are conducive with student success. Given the scale of UNAM, which has a student population of over 340,000, understanding common needs can help inform decision making. Jorge Meza Aguilar, director of admissions and experience at Universidad Iberoamericana, launched a collaborative research project in 2022 to understand the patterns of student interactions with peers, faculty and staff. The resulting experience map highlighted the importance of reaching students through various communication channels. At Universidade de São Paulo (USP), strategic planning for the FYE with key university stakeholders is well underway. USP Provost Aluisio Segurado indicated a need to understand the unique needs and perspectives of the increasing population of their students who are coming from lower income regions in Brazil. While university supports are well-intended, members indicated a broader need to evoke a passion for learning, thus cultivating self-efficacy among students.
Learning by doing (and failing)
The workshop emphasized MIT’s philosophy of the significance of prioritizing process over product in educational practices. In fact, most MIT problem sets (a common type of homework) are specifically designed to be too difficult to complete independently, thus requiring students to work together. This concept resonated throughout the week, particularly during discussions about teaching methodologies and co-curricular programs that foster deeper student engagement.
Site visits to MIT learning labs and communities truly brought this to life. Terrascope encourages students to tackle real-world challenges through hands-on experiences and students in the Experimental Study Group (ESG) master complex topics through small-format study groups. Both emphasize the importance of the journey of learning. Members shared their own initiatives that mirror this philosophy, such as integrating social impact-oriented teaching and creating support networks for students. We learned examples of how J-WEL members are implementing social impact-oriented teaching and research (i.e. combining academic support groups and club sports teams in South Africa; organizing social meetings with students and faculty in Mexico; creating policies to support economically disadvantaged students in Brazil; and anti-stress workshops for international students in Latvia). At the New Uzbekistan University, they are exploring pathways to diversify teaching methods and enhance the student experience.
J-WEL members also explored a Technology Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) classroom and the Edgerton makerspace. Here, participants witnessed how active learning environments encourage collaboration and experimentation, allowing students to grapple with challenging problems and learn through their mistakes (in keeping with an MIT mindset of “conscientious disobedience,” embracing innovation while challenging traditional educational norms). What stood out to members was how learning environments can translate to informal spaces to bond, snack, and work in a relaxed atmosphere. A group of participating MIT students described these intangible benefits as collisions – the in-situ interactions which lead to collaboration, experimenting, exploring contrarian views, and finding fulfillment in university life.
With insights from the MIT Office of the First Year, members discussed the nuances of academic rigor and practical value, as per the MIT motto of mens et manus (mind and hand). Member interests in implementing interdisciplinary coursework, such as supporting communications skills amongst STEM students, coincides with wider shifts to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into existing coursework. For these changes to happen, members expressed that a supportive, and inclusive, university culture is essential to prepare students for a changing world.
Engagement with real-world challenges
Throughout the workshop, the focus on active learning strategies was closely tied to giving students the opportunity to explore and address real-world challenges. Building on the notion of the adapted “Learner Destinations,” envisioning the ideal outcomes for students, members were interested in recognizing how active learning can equip graduates to address societal issues.
From the MIT leadership perspective, discussions with VP of Research Ian Waitz uncovered key findings from a multiphase experiment, started in 2018, that was conducted to inform the redesign of the General Institute Requirements (GIRs). The experiments tested the mechanisms driving student behavior and performance from the first year onwards, aiming to foster students’ exploration with subjects and topics in which they might not otherwise enroll. This approach is one way that MIT shapes graduates with a passion for solving real-world challenges.
Director of Special Projects, Ndiya Ngqulu of Walter Sisulu University (part of the THENSA consortium), echoed the need to link students’ coursework with industry projects. The Terrascope visit reinforced how this can work when students are given real issues to solve in the classroom and are put in front of corporate, government, and community audiences. These presentations were particularly interesting to members who are actively thinking about ways to bridge academia with industry.
Inclusion as a way to build community
As the workshop progressed, discussions turned to the challenges faced by vulnerable student populations. Traditional education systems historically have not allowed for all students to thrive, or even enter the system, thus limiting the impact that an institution can have on its community. Experts in student advising and psychosocial support from MIT, Boston College, and Harvard College discussed student-centered advising practices, emphasizing the need for inclusive and supportive environments that encourage all students to thrive.
As participants collectively developed robust plans to enhance their FYE initiatives, efforts to foster inclusivity were highlighted, including initiatives supporting first-generation, LBGTQ+, and minority students.
To assess the effectiveness of such initiatives, members participated in designing experiments aimed at improving the FYE. Thinking through what each campus needed enabled members to envisage ways to test which support services need to be more visible, updated or modified, or realigned with university values and goals and desired impacts. By the end of the workshop, members collaborated on plans to implement these insights on their campuses, recognizing that student experiences are always evolving.
Empowering the future graduate
Another key thread of the workshop was the visualization of what students can become through their educational journeys. Through the “Learner Destinations” and other hands-on activities, members articulated diverse visions of their graduates, which included qualities such as adaptability, problem-solving acuity, and social responsibility. Reaching the intended “destinations” could involve gathering observations of graduates and the supports they accessed, and eventually conducting experiments to test which skills, values, and characteristics were more conducive to the learning journey. Members began testing ideas of what a graduate can become in the future, and incorporating new ideas into an “Experiment Wheel” template. This exercise allowed participants to consider how educational processes can be tailored to help students achieve these ideals, fostering a mindset that encourages exploration and growth.
Discussions around the FYE included how institutions can create environments that support these aspirations. By emphasizing the importance of diverse learning journeys, reflecting a multiplex of capabilities, qualities, and behaviors, J-WEL members recognized that each institution plays a pivotal role in empowering student identities and trajectories. As members shared strategies to visualize and cultivate these outcomes, it became clear that fostering an innovation mindset (a shared goal across members attending) involves not just teaching content, but also nurturing the personal and professional development of diverse student populations.
A community of transformation
Reflecting on the week, it was clear that J-WEL creates a unique space for its members to come together as a community, learn from each other and MIT, and co-create ideas to drive educational transformation. These members are incredibly committed to not only producing smart, innovative graduates, but also building resilient and adaptable communities.
Moving forward, I am thinking about how J-WEL can continue to facilitate opportunities for its members to actualize their visions for transformative learning environments. These conversations will pave the way for future initiatives aimed at enhancing learning experiences across the global network, which will be a major focus of my postdoc work. I look forward to keeping the conversation going and welcome all members to connect with me.
Members can find session recordings, workshop materials, and the complete program on J-WEL’s member site, Connector. To get in touch with Kathleen, email her at mkfb89@mit.edu.