Chin's journey of an international student at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia (Semester I, 2018)

 

A journey of an international student at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia (Semester I, 2018)

I am Chin, from the northern part of Laos. Thinking about studying in Australia is a very exciting and awesome feeling for me because never before I've been to study in western-like countries.  But here I am experiencing how does it like to study in Australia. After one semester, I’d like to draw some experiences here at Flinders University and share these experiences, particularly with my Lao friends who are looking forward to studying in Australia.  

Nature of learning

Choosing topics: I’m doing a Master of Environmental Management. While all topics are already planned for you in Lao education system, at Flinders you can choose around 50% of your preferred topics, while another 50% is core topics that are compulsory to take. I think there are some advantages for allowing students to choose the topics of their own because they can focus on the topics they like or want to do in the future. For example, I am doing a Master of Environmental Management, but I can place a special focus on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) through taking the topics that are related to EIA. This, at least, will build a strong foundation for my future career in case I want to be an environmental consultant specialised in the field of EIA. It is very important for universities to prepare human resources who are specialised in a specific field as this will increase their employability. Flinders University achieves this by having optional and core topics.

Lectures vs tutorials: most learning activities are students-cantered. Most classes are divided into lectures and tutorials. In Lectures, professors/lecturers are the main actors who deliver background information and relevant lessons related to the topics. Tutorials are smaller classes that allow students to discuss, reflect and practice the materials learned in the lectures. Tutorials are where students can personally interact and discuss with the instructors. I’d like to mention two learning activities in tutorial classes that are interesting and meaningful to me, which are class tutoring and class leading.

Class tutoring: some topics require students to do class tutoring. Basically, in this exercise, based on what has been studied in the lecture, students have to deepen into the materials and prepare lessons to teach their peers. Based on my experience, I worked with a friend as a team to prepare and deliver 20 min presentation and 40 min in-class activities. We completely took a role as tutors, which was very challenging for me at first. It was challenging because the scope of lessons we facilitated was very broad. We explored the question of ‘Making economic development sustainable: is it possible?’ In order to facilitate peers to achieve an understanding of this theme, my team worked hard to arrange the contents and explored innovative ideas to make the class interactive and interesting. We used Prezi and Kahoot to make the class fun and interactive. Looking back, although this activity required significant efforts, teamwork skills and was time-consuming, I have gained significantly from the activity. These include expanding critical thinking, widening the understanding about the theme, exploring more technologies that could help facilitate in a learning process, improving presentation skills and confidence.   

Class-leading: of all the activities I have done in the first semester, class-leading was the most challenging one. Basically, the lecturer gave individuals the freedom to choose the topic to be led and discussed in the class. The criteria of the topic were provided such as the issue must be a complex environmental issue that there are no straightforward solutions, the issue can come from any geographical locations and it must provoke critical thinking. To be honest, although there are countless environmental issues, I come to realise that choosing a topic to teach your classmates is not easy. In my team, we brainstormed and proposed two issues to the lecturer, but she was not happy about our proposals. Therefore, we had to think about other issues. I did a significant amount of research and finally decided to present the issue ‘hydropower development in Laos’ by using Nam Theun 2 as a case study. My team prepared the contents and study plan (activities to be carried out in the class) for a 90 min- long class. Finally, after hard work, we finished our study plan and teaching materials. Out of about 7 teams, my team was fortunate enough to be selected to lead the class for 90 min. Preparing the materials and study plan was challenging, but leading the class was even more challenging because you have to act like a real facilitator. However, through this activity, I learned that I am capable of doing anything. I just need time, efforts and the internet. I also learned critical thinking, the subject matters, facilitating skills, presentation skills and teamwork skills. Thanks that I could survive that activity! 

Online platform: at Flinders (I think other universities in Australia are also similar), an online platform is a crucial tool in facilitating your learning process. The most important platform is called FLO (Flinders Learning Online). All learning materials including reading materials, lecture slides etc. are posted here. One week prior to the commencement of a new semester, students will know exactly the overall structures of the topics that they enrolled. For example: what they are going to learn, what assignments they have to do and how will they be assessed. Therefore, students have a very clear idea of how hard they have to study in order to achieve their goals. All of this information is posted on FLO. FLO makes it easier for students to access materials or to review the previous lectures at any times. Depending on lecturers, there will be online discussions where students exchange their ideas about the lessons of the coming weeks or of the previous weeks. For the majority of the topics, online discussion is compulsory and is graded as participation scores. 

Assignment submissions: are also done on FLO and similarly, feedback of assignments and grades are received and viewed through this platform. One important value at Flinders University is academic integrity. Plagiarism is not acceptable, which mean no copy and paste other people’s work. Thus, a program called ‘Turnitin’ is used. ‘Turnitin’ has abilities to check whether the submitted documents are copied from elsewhere and it reports the results in the form of a percentage of plagiarism. 

Self-study, self-study and self-study: studying in Australia, students are expected to learn independently. Self-study is crucial for achieving a successful academic outcome. In order to understand the subject matters deeply, it requires a wide range of reading, reading and reading. Every week, reading materials, around three articles per theme, are posted on FLO. To ensure high marks, self-study requires strategies. Thus, I divided my study into an assignment-focused study and a background knowledge-focused study. However, both types of study are interconnected. 

Off-line Library vs Online Library

At Flinders, off-line libraries are equipped with sufficient computers with strong internet connection, comfortable learning spaces and very organised categories of books. The university is open 24 hours. One interesting facility, which is my favourite one, is an electronic massage chair that serves students when there are tired of studying. The libraries also have women rooms that allow only women to use, which is quite strange given that there is no men room. Online-library or e-library is very helpful because almost all the materials needed for self-study or assignments are available here. 

Learning beyond university: there are various activities happening all year-round that I can engage and learn from. For example, volunteering activities, talk-show etc. I’d like to mention one activity which I recently participated. It is called Adelaide Engage Business Project Program for International Students. This program provides opportunities for international students from different universities to help local companies solve their problems. Students are provided with a professional mentor to guide them through the three week-process. Through this program, I networked with local people, friends from China, India and Iraq and also improved my teamwork skills and confidence. 

Overall, whether a university journey will be worthwhile or not, is really up to your determination and dedication. 

That’s all for now. Any new experiences will be updated later. Life is beautiful, and I believe creating a future me starts from myself today.

7/29/18 11:55 PM