The Academic Learning Centre’s innovation to supporting diverse cohorts with academic literacy through an embedded approach

Australia’s responses to changes in the diversity of the educational sector have within them the potential for a number of viable future alternatives. Tertiary education’s contemporary dilemma of greater need for assistance in the transition of a growing, diverse cohort, and the effectiveness of traditional add-on and remedial offerings have brought to light a number of differing approaches. Consensus does appear to surround the innovation of embeddedness, where fundamental academic literacy is integrated into first-year core courses. This operates as both a pedagogical device intent on creating a level playing field for students, and as a rapid induction into the relevant academic discipline. Research supports the educational outcomes for the students involved and fiscal outcomes will almost certainly be positive as the primary source of its concern, student attrition, diminishes. In the past year the Academic Learning Centre (ALC)has developed a multi-pronged approach, and has built support for its embeddedness innovation in courses whose students contribute to the high attrition figures in the programs. We have created a cross-collaboration between library, faculty and student academic services that had not previously existed at CQUniversity. We are moving away from add-on services towards preventative pedagogies, and our expectation of increased retention rates is high. The study is ongoing as interest grows within faculties.