The University of Western Ontario launches LegUP Project

The transition from high school to post-secondary is often challenging for students. With this in mind, Daniel Belliveau (Director and Associate Professor at Western University’s School of Health Studies) began the LegUP Project.

Licensed by Creative Commons, the LegUP Project was first introduced at Western’s School of Health Studies as a six-week online program to provide interesting content in each student’s chosen field. University preparedness skills such as research, inquiry, and cooperative learning are blended into lessons to aid learners as they ease into post-secondary education.

LegUP’s latest proposal aims to expand the pre-university transition program to three other popular disciplines: Biology, Psychology, and Engineering. Mentored by faculty, LegUP plans to create a series of Open Educational Resources that address recurring problems in each discipline.

Once developed, the OERs will be offered alongside multiple university readiness skills: cooperative learning, self-directed learning, assessments and test taking strategies, reading and learning, inquiry and experimentation, and academic integrity.

Daniel and his team intend to include full Storyline360.zip files for any Ontario institution interested in leveraging these resources. The files can be downloaded and edited using Storyline, then hosted in a school’s learning management system if desired.

The LegUP Project will be evaluated based on its effectiveness in reducing failure to progress rates, introductory course failure rates, and unanticipated student transfers to other programs. If past success is any indication, LegUP will continue to offer learners engaging content and an overall enhancement to their post-secondary experience.

Interested in learning more about the LegUP project? View a LegUP Biology module under development here: http://ow.ly/DuxI30j6y9z