Motivation, aspiration, and engagement

3.20-3.45pm

Students’ motivation to engage at university throughout the first year

Dr Claudia Rivera Munoz, University of Melbourne

First-year students' engagement at university can facilitate their successful transition to higher education. Attending in-person classes, interacting with peers and teachers, and participating in campus activities can foster students' understanding of the academic and social environments at university (Kuh et al., 2010; Lizzio, 2006). However, recent empirical studies and media reports have indicated shifting patterns of student engagement at university, including poor class attendance and limited peer interactions outside the classroom (Cassidy, 2025; Rivera Munoz et al., 2025). While these patterns have been observed for some time (e.g., James & Seary, 2019), they appear to have been exacerbated in the post-pandemic era.

The present semi-longitudinal qualitative study examined first-year students' motivation to engage at university and their patterns of engagement over two years at a campus-based Australian university. Fourteen undergraduate students completed brief written reflections about their university engagement over two semesters in their first year and midway through their second year.

Preliminary findings suggest that students' engagement at university fluctuated during the first year, with students reporting differing patterns of engagement across the two semesters. While various factors appeared to enhance students' motivation to engage at university, including positive peer connections and individual goals, health-related issues and the high cost of attending university (e.g., commuting time) seemed to undermine their motivation to engage. This study contributes to understanding the evolving nature of individual students' experiences in the first year and highlights key factors that may encourage students' motivation to engage at university, thereby informing policies and practices surrounding the first-year experience.

From  VET to HE: Making sense of student journeys across educational sectors

Shariqua Ahmed, Monash University

The Vocational Education and Training (VET) to Higher Education (HE) pathway has become an important route into university in Australia. Yet, most research within this area has looked at the early stages of this transition, often describing how students adjust to the immediate academic and institutional demands of university. What remains underexplored is the later stage of this pathway, when students are nearing the completion of their HE degrees. At that point, they are in a stronger position to look back on the whole journey and reflect on what it has meant for them personally, socially and academically. This research takes up that challenge. It asks: how do students approaching the end of their degrees describe the shifts in their aspirations and sense of self across the VET to HE journey? The later stage of the pathway is a valuable point of focus, as it allows students to look back on their pathway and consider how their original aspirations sit alongside their experiences of university. To guide this inquiry, the research is framed by Knud Illeris’ ideas of transformative learning and identity, which emphasise that learning is not always a straightforward process. This approach provides a way of examining how the outcomes of such educational journeys may involve growth and the redefinition of aspirations and identity, but may also include periods of uncertainty, defensiveness or resistance. Therefore, the focus of this presentation will be on why the later stages of the pathway matter, and how Illeris’ framework can help capture the complexity of these experiences.

The Science Enrichment Planner: Enhancing student engagement through a digital platform

Keshara de Silva, University of Melbourne

Student feedback from Staff-Student Reference Committee and surveys has shown that Science students often miss out on Faculty opportunities. It’s not due to lack of activities, but that students don’t always get the right information at the right time, which makes it hard to plan ahead. As a result, they miss chances to build connections, develop skills, and strengthen their sense of community. This new tool aims to connect students with resources, support, and community and to help them take a more holistic and self-directed approach to their student experience. The focus is on supporting transition, building a strong culture of belonging and giving students the confidence and resources to succeed in their study journey. The Faculty is trialling the Science Enrichment Planner, an interactive, gamified platform that brings together Faculty offerings across the year. Students can browse events, add activities, create a personal planner and track their engagement. Activities are categorised by outcomes that are identified in the literature as key success factors i.e. academic success, community and connection, helping students make more informed choices about how they want to engage. Promoting the platform at Orientation and adding gamification elements with small rewards boosted engagement and allowed the team to track participation. This made it possible to tailor communication, for example by following up with students who had ‘favourited’ events but not attended. Analysis also showed different patterns of engagement with social versus academic activities. Student feedback highlighted areas for redesign to improve user experience. The platform was refined and extended to more students. The tool has shown strong potential to improve student awareness and engagement. By giving students a clearer view of opportunities and helping them plan proactively, it supports belonging, wellbeing, and success, and aligns with the University’s Advancing Students and Education Strategy.

Motivation by design: Embedding Self-Determination Theory in LAW2442 Business Law via gamified simulation

Lloyd England, RMIT University

This initiative aimed to redesign RMIT University’s large, compulsory Business Law course (LAW2442) to enhance student motivation, engagement, and learning outcomes. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the project sought to support students’ foundational psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—through an immersive, mastery-based gamified simulation. The redesigned course is structured around a narrative simulation in which students act as trainee advisors at a fictional statutory body, BizRight. This structure mirrors a mastery-based simulation that turns traditional, dense business-law content into an interactive experience. Students progress through tasks of increasing complexity—drafting client emails, checklists, infographics, and mindmaps—embedded within weekly learning activities, housed in the LMS. This approach aligns with SDT: students exercise autonomy by choosing their differentiated levels of content difficulty, competence through tiered, scaffolded challenges, and relatedness via narrative and GenAI digital human “managers.” Preliminary feedback indicates increased motivation, student identification with the content, and higher confidence in applying legal concepts practically. This model shifts content delivery from traditional, weekly accommodations toward proactive, autonomy-supportive learning activities that benefit all learners. The integration of SDT and gamification creates a compelling, personalised, inclusive learning environment suited to large cohorts and diverse student backgrounds. Drawing inspiration from SoTL and psychology literatures showing benefits of gamified simulations, the SDT-informed pedagogy delivers a research-backed rigorous, scalable, and transferable framework for educators. Colleagues across disciplines can adapt this course design and ethos to enhance student satisfaction, competence, and retention—aligning ed-tech driven pedagogical innovation with institutional goals for accessibility, engagement, and equity.

Full program

Abstracts