Published
28-10-2025
Type of Work
Conference Presentation
Project Affiliation
Crew Connect
Abstract
Creating the conditions that foster student engagement and success remains a key issue for SAE University College. As demonstrated by the “Student Surveys” and their focus on student satisfaction - I will reflect on an alternative approach that uses a more expansive, holistic, and ontological perspective that considers who and what students want to be, and are becoming. This paper presents ‘Crew Connect,’ an event on the Brisbane campus that works as a pedagogical intervention designed to address this gap by fostering curiosity-driven inquiry and collaboration. The event functions as an open-ended challenge, inviting students to soft-pitch creative projects to their peers and crew on each other’s work. By also acting as an icebreaker, the event stimulates affective and social engagement across the stages and disciplines of the degree, to build a pseudo professional community among the students. The soft-pitching process compels critical inquiry, and the act of crewing on projects channels in-class projects into more active social (i.e. transferrable skills) engagement in their projects and therefore more project-based learning. A post-event survey provides a feedback loop that serves as a tool for reflective practice. This event and the collaboration and community it aims to build a link between collaborative pedagogy and the development of students’ professional identity.
Citation
Pickering, V. (2025). Campus Community Connections: Crew Callouts Encouraging Collaboration. [Conference Presentation]. Creo.