Institutional-level integration of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI)

Theresa Kwong, Kevin Downing and Eva Wong
City University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong SAR, China

The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) was first used in 1996 and proved useful in identifying students' generic learning strategies and skills. From the 2006 entry cohort, all first-year undergraduates at City University of Hong Kong were required to complete LASSI online through the Administrative Information Management System (AIMS); and each student has to take LASSI at three specific times during their undergraduate careers. With the cooperation of H&H publishing, City University has developed a program within AIMS to upload the LASSI results of individual students so that they can view their scores from time to time. This provides each student with a reminder and the possibility of reviewing his/her progress in learning and study strategies. In addition to helping our students develop their learning and study strategies, the integration of LASSI and the university's information system provides academic staff with aggregated LASSI scores for their students. This allows teachers to assess students' relative strengths and weaknesses in learning and study strategies for each programme/course and design appropriate teaching and learning activities to assist them. City University is now providing LASSI data at programme and departmental levels in order to give a broader overview to staff within faculties/schools so they can take measures to help students achieve their academic goals. In terms of research, the input of LASSI data to the City University AIMS allows administrative personnel to correlate LASSI results with the other detailed information available in AIMS.