Online resources for physical and life sciences students by Helen Williams

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Even more online support has been made available for students here at Reading seeking work placement and graduate employment. A new online tool dedicated to helping students find opportunities within the life sciences industry has been launched this month by the Biopharma Skills Consortium (BSC), which is led by the University of Reading and comprises seven universities from across the southeast.

Students can readily access advice on how to make stronger applications for work placements and employment. The resources, available on the BSC website at http://www.bsc-biopharma.org.uk are designed to help students further their understanding of the industrial environment and highlight how to make a rapid impact when starting a new job.

The new resource is timely as a High Fliers report released on 14 January 2013 found that a third of jobs will be filled by graduates who have already spent time at a company, through work experience or industrial placements during their degree.

Orla Kennedy, Associate Dean for the Faculty of Science here at Reading explains: ‘The recent High Fliers report shows just how important work placements are for securing graduate employment. This website allows students access to audio clips that provide insights in to working in the bioscience sector and contains guided web links to useful web sites and training materials.’

James Gazzard, Professor of Workforce Futures at the University of East Anglia added ‘in a globally competitive job market university students and recent graduates need support to help them to effectively engage with employers. It is vital that universities develop platforms to support students to articulate their skills, particularly higher level competences gained through work placements.’

Study support for MOOCs – do the Study Advisers have the answer? by the Study Advice team

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The recent announcement that Reading has been selected as a partner in the Futurelearn project to provide free online courses is an exciting move towards new ways of engaging with a potentially massive cohort of students. However, concerns have been expressed about the lack of support for students studying the courses, especially those run by profit-seeking companies. The Times Higher Education Supplement (14 Feb 2013) reports Prof Josie Taylor of the Open University commenting that it is unethical to recruit large numbers of ‘inexperienced learners’ without providing them with support for their learning practices. Certainly if one of the aims of MOOCs is to act as a recruitment tool for future students by providing a taste of the teaching available at institutions, building in the probability of failure seems both wrong and commercially unwise.

Futurelearn’s webpage on MOOCs explained notes that ‘Due to the large number of students studying MOOCs, learning support comes from the online learning community rather than academic staff… MOOCs attempt to encourage students to be independent and self-motivating.’ Students will be encouraged to form online support networks using social media to build peer relationships. While peer learning and support is certainly a valuable and increasingly well-used strategy in universities, such initiatives involve peers already embedded in study at HE level, who are usually supported or mentored by trained staff. Independence and self-motivation are qualities we would all like to encourage in our students – but it’s equally important to recognise when expert guidance is more appropriate and have access to that guidance.

A project supported by the Annual Fund and carried out by the Study Advisers may have a potential answer to this problem. We have been developing a series of ‘bite-size’ screencasts on key aspects of learning practices, focusing on the issues most frequently discussed with students in Study Advice sessions. These avoid the traditional ‘talking head’ format, combining an explanatory spoken voicetrack with visual illustration of the ideas discussed, including animations and text extracts. Students can pause and re-watch parts of the presentations to build their understanding in ways that would be impossible during a lecture presentation.

We hope to launch the screencasts for access to Reading students via Blackboard later in the summer, as well as using them for a ‘flipped learning’ model for Study Advice workshops. If you would like to preview the resources developed so far and give us some feedback, please contact Michelle Reid (michelle.reid@reading.ac.uk) or Sonia Hood (s.hood@reading.ac.uk).

Virtual Careers Fairs by Amanda Duggan

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Virtual_Careers_FairThe Careers, Placement and Experience Centre’s investment, thanks to a grant from the Annual Fund, in a software package for virtual fair technology, has enabled the service to extend its traditional offer of careers fairs and provide students with a virtual environment in which to interact with employers. Continue reading →

Learning on Screen Awards by Nadja Guggi

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Learninng_on_screenCongratulations to Matthew Nicholls, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Classics, who has been shortlisted for a prestigious Learning on Screen Award by the British Universities Film & Video Council (BUVFC) in the Courseware and Curriculum Non Broadcast/Multimedia Award category.

Here is a short clip from Matthew’s entry, ‘Digital Modelling of Ancient Rome and the Roman World’:

http://youtu.be/THM3ovAS6vQ

Matthew has been using digital modelling software to build a detailed model of the ancient city of Rome as it appeared around AD 315. He spoke about ‘Rebuilding the ancient world, digitally’ at the ‘Sharing Good Practice’ event last July and presented on ‘Integrating digital modelling into student teaching and assessment’ at the recent Teaching & Learning Showcase on ‘The use of technologies in Teaching & Learning’.

If you want to find out more, Matthew will talking about his project in a keynote speech at the University’s annual IT Supporters Conference on 18 April – just before heading off to London for the Awards ceremony! Fingers firmly crossed.

Internationalising Student Support Community of Practice (COP) by Matthew Daley

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The Internationalising Student Support COP has been established with the remit to offer opportunities for staff involved with and interested in the development and enhancement of student support and experience in relation to internationalisation; to share best practice and discuss current challenges and opportunities for providing a high quality international student experience for all students. This COP is led by the University’s International Student Adviser in partnership with RUSU’s elected International Students’ Officer and supported by the Associate Dean (Science).

Each meeting focuses on a particular theme and good practice and ideas for improvement on that theme are presented and shared, with the intention of exploring how to disseminate good practice effectively.

The second meeting took place on Thursday 7 February with the theme ‘Tailoring Support for International Students’ and attracted over 30 members of staff from across the University.

Some of the highlights were:

Dr Michelle Reid gave an overview of the collaborations and work Study Advice is involved in with Departments to tailor support for their international students. What has tended to work well is embedded support working with Schools and the Study Advisers work has shifted with a 100% increase in work which focuses on embedding study skills. Some examples of embedding study skills highlighted were workshops on plagiarism and referencing, time management, working smarter not harder and independent learning for students in Food Sciences. Tailored sessions for Study Abroad and ERASMUS students included Adjusting to studying in the UK and preparing for exams.

There are currently two projects that Study Advice is currently working on; the development of screencasts and animations to explain the principles of essay writing and referencing. The other project is a collaboration with the Library and ISLC on producing a toolkit for referencing.

Liz Smith is the PPD Co-ordinator at the Institute of Education and talked about the International Student Enrichment Programme which was set up in 2006. The Enrichment Programme this year has been further developed into a formal non-credit bearing module. The Enrichment Programme (EDM159) currently includes language and study skills sessions, social events and pastoral support. The module is ‘Front-loaded’ with lots of support in the Autumn Term, reducing gradually during the spring and summer terms.

The activities and sessions on the module are divided into 3 themes, ‘Speaking and Listening Skills’, ‘Learning Enhancement’ and ‘Academic Writing and Language Skills’. Some of the sessions delivered include ‘A cultural visit to Reading’, ‘Understanding essay questions’, ‘Participating in Debates’ and ‘Paraphrasing’.

Future meetings and their themes are below and bookings can be made via CSTD:

  • Integration and Languages (staff supporting all students)

–        Wednesday 24/04/2013 – 13.00-14.00

Students like live lectures (and online ones as backup) by Rebecca Reynolds

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Amy with pots 3
Dr Amy Smith, Ure Museum curator

Every year, students on the first year Analysing Museum Displays optional module have a talk from Dr Amy Smith at the Ure Museum, looking at the display there about the Greek symposium. This year I put the lecture online along with a transcript, photographs of the display, and a worksheet. I told them to use the materials instead of attending the weekly lecture that week.

Eighteen students filled in a questionnaire the following week giving responses to the lecture and saying whether they preferred it online, live or both. Nine students would prefer both, eight would prefer the live lecture only, and one student preferred the online lecture only.

Students liked the interactivity of live lectures, so the lecturer can go off script, students can ask questions and also learn from their peers. Students also preferred being in the actual museum, with four students saying this made the lecture more memorable. Two students said that they paid tuition fees for more than online learning. The main advantage of the online lecture was its usefulness for revision and its controllability.

In other words, what students valued was not the lecture format per se but the fact that they were with a real person in a real learning environment. Affective aspects connected with students’ reason for liking the live lecture could include some less easy to define such as the passion for their discipline shown by the lecturer, the fruitful discoveries and moments of realisation which can occur in a learning environment but which may be unconnected with the main topic of the session, and approaches to the subject shown by other students.

Recommendations are to make lectures as interactive as possible, and use online resources as backup. Tutors might also wish to ask students to listen to online lectures in their own time and save contact time for more interactive sessions – however, this holds practical challenges.

The online resource was developed as part of a JISC-funded digitisation project called OBL4HE (Object-based Learning for Higher Education), a partnership between UoR, University College London and the Collections Trust. The Reading side is based at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL).

The full report is here response to educational resources

Project blog: http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/oblhe/

Other resources developed as part of the project are available here (scroll to the bottom of the page): http://www.reading.ac.uk/merl/LearnatMERL/merl-museumstudies.aspx

Contact: Rebecca Reynolds – r.m.reynolds@reading.ac.uk

Presenting the brand new Placement Guide for staff by Em Sowden

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managing placements 3The new placement guide has been written for all University staff involved in managing student placement options, internships, work placement programmes and volunteering schemes in and outside of the curriculum.operational processes involved in managing placements, alongside the details of key people within the University who can provide support. The guide also refers to national guidance on managing student placements, in accordance with the QAA and the University Code of Practice on Placement Learning and has useful templates and downloadable materials for you to use.

http://www.reading.ac.uk/closed/managing-placements/mp-about-this-guide.aspx

Placement Community of Practice

We will be holding our first Placement Community of Practice  of the year on March 5th 12.15pm-13.45pm in HumSS room 44 – lunch will be provided. It is expected that anyone with a placement remit should attend this community of practice to ensure we are sharing best practice across the University. Please contact CSTD to confirm your attendance.

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact Placement and Development Manager, Em Sowden e.l.sowden@reading.ac.uk ext. 8354

Academic Placements by Dr Cindy Becker

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In the Department of English Literature we have been working hard, as have so many of our colleagues across the university, to make the most of the intellectual, personal and career advantages that placement learning can offer our students. We have devised a system of academic placements which is open to all undergraduates studying in the department.

In recent years we have seen a continuing appetite in our students for ‘real world experience’ and we believe that our academic placements offer this in the best sense possible by giving placement providers a tangible benefit from the activities of our students and by offer our undergraduate the chance of high quality, prestigious placements.

To support our work in this area, and to ensure that present and potential undergraduates are up to date with developments, we have created a dedicated webspace to cover this aspect of our work with students. It can be found through our department homepage by clicking on ‘See how our academic placement system works’ or by going to http://www.reading.ac.uk/english-literature/Undergraduate/ell-academic-placements.aspx

The department’s placement tutor, Dr Cindy Becker, would be happy to talk to any colleagues with an interest in academic placements. She can be contacted on l.m.becker@reading.ac.uk.

NSS success: It’s the little things?

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I was asked to contribute this after the Business School scored highly in the NNS survey for Management & Business degrees, and was invited to focus on things the School has done that have contributed to the maintenance of and improvement in our NSS scores that might be shared.

The category includes our Accounting programmes, where staff have been awarded the RUSU Gold Star for the past three years and that must help. Continue reading →