Tour de Campus: Using a smartphone app to connect and engage students during O’Week. A Practice Report

Abstract

It is becoming increasingly important to use interactive activities to engage with students and effectively incorporate social media into the activities. O-Week is an opportunity for higher education institutions to include strategies to connect the students and to assist with students’ sense of belonging within the university community. The “Tour de Campus” activity was designed at the University of South Australia to be used during a campus tour and was included in an O-Week app.  As new students were shown around the campus by mentors, they also answered questions, collected prizes and uploaded photos onto the university Facebook page. The session, at the 17th International First Year in Higher Education Conference in Darwin, Australia, also included a demonstration of the activity and discussion with the audience about ways to use smartphone apps or social media to connect and engage students.