Get Ready for Southampton

Highlights

Over 18000 applicants and students took part in Get Ready for Southampton, our custom pre-arrival online course which ran from 2011 until 2019.

Get Ready for Southampton was our highly-successful course preparing international students for living and studying at the University of Southampton in the UK. This self-paced, self-access online course was offered FREE from 2011-2019 to all international students preparing to study at the University of Southampton before their arrival in the UK. The course was run between March and October each year, with a semester 2 entry course running from November to January from 2016 until 2019. It was open to any international student wanted the experience (see below). On the course students could:

International students could find answers to many questions about life and study in Southampton. The resources were interactive and activity-based with multimedia content. They included podcasts, videos and useful links as well as activities to help students learn more.

Student comments about Get Ready for Southampton:

Screenshot from Get Ready for Southampton
Part of the Get Ready for Southampton course

Growing a MOOC

Get Ready for Southampton (GRfS) began life as Arrive UK, a tutored, pre-arrival online course, which was offered to all international students joining our Pre-sessional Course in EAP between 2005 and 2010. This online course was redesigned into GRfS, a course that could be offered to a much larger number of students and include any international student coming, or even thinking about coming, to the University of Southampton. The course grew in size starting from 2011 (1600+ students); to 2012 (2100+ students); and in 2016 reached over 2400 students! At the end of 2016 we also piloted a version of the course for Semester 2 student entry, which was accessed by 100 students, increasing to over 150 in 2017-18. Over 18000 students used the course up to the final offering in January 2019.

If you are an educator and would like to read more about the design of the course, please see:
Watson, J. (2013). Combining international student social and academic transition online. International Student Experience Journal, Volume 1(2), Autumn 2013. pp.31-36. Available online at https://issuu.com/chrislima90/docs/vol_1_2__full

Here is a sample activity from Get Ready for Southampton:

Arrive UK

Between 2005 and 2010, we ran Arrive UK, a free, tutored, pre-arrival online course, which was offered to all international students joining our Pre-sessional Course in EAP. Building on the wide success of this course, Get Ready for Southampton was designed and developed as a course that could be offered to a much larger number of students and include any international student or visitor coming to the University of Southampton.

Student comments about Arrive UK: