Paddy and Michelle ran a workshop showcasing our online transitions course, Study Smart, at the AMOSSHE Student Services conference recently. The workshop, attended by over 50 delegates, highlighted the ways we’d used Study Smart to increase student confidence and create a sense of university community before arrival. The audience from university Student Services teams across the country were keen to share experiences and learn from our leading example of an online, pre-arrival course. They were interested in how we’d used the FutureLearn platform to create a safe and honest space for students to share their excitement and anxiety about starting university study.
After attending many purely T&L events, going to the national Student Services conference gave a much wider picture of the social and wellbeing issues that we, as university staff, help students negotiate during their time with us. Common themes raised in our workshop were the desire to create communities that included different student groups (mature students, commuter students, care-leavers); how to maintain community beyond Welcome Week; and the difficult task of evaluating the impact of these social events.
Our session ended with a ‘draw your university community’ activity which participants really enjoyed. Each person’s drawing revealed different features of their university that stood out as important. The act of drawing tapped into more intuitive and emotional responses, and provided a fun activity that also prompted much deeper reflections on ideas of social cohesion.
We are all, in our different roles, aiming to help students feel a sense of belonging to our universities. The workshop showed that we are all aware of the importance of enabling students to form meaningful connections with many different groups – personal, local, and wider – during their time at university. Study Smart helps students find a common start point and shared experiences before they arrive, but it is only the beginning…
Dr Allán Laville School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences a.laville@reading.ac.uk
Overview
In line with the Equality Act (2010) and Department of Health (2011), sexual orientation needs to be considered in the training of the psychological workforce. Since 2011, I have been developing clinical teaching on sexual orientation with student satisfaction rates of 95-100%. This blog details my journey in the continual development of this training.
Objectives
To deliver clinical training on sexual orientation that meets the requirements of the British Psychological Society Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (BPS PWP) national curriculum. PWPs work with individuals with anxiety and depression who are aged 16+.
To support students to be critical of the current psychological literature on sexual orientation and what action plans need to be completed as part of their own clinical development.
Context
As part of the BPS PWP national curriculum, we need to have excellent standards of Diversity and Inclusion teaching. This is contained within the Values, Employment and Context module (PY3VEC1 and PYMVEC) in both PWP training programmes at the University. I was tasked, by the Director of Training in the Charlie Waller Institute (CWI), to create teaching on sexual orientation as this was previously not included in the module overview.
Implementation
The first step was to review the current literature on sexual orientation and tie it to mental health. Overwhelmingly, the literature suggests that individuals who identify as Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) are at a significantly higher risk of developing a common mental health problem than individuals who identify as heterosexual.
The second step was to explore national policies and approaches, i.e. Department of Health (2011), to supporting individuals who identify as LGB. It was interesting to see that data collection for sexual orientation is disproportionally under-collected compared to other protected characteristics e.g. race, age, within the Equality Act (2010). This was concerning as data by sexual orientation is not well understood, yet LGB individuals are at a higher risk of developing a mental health problem as well as risk taking behaviours.
The final step was to create a training session that incorporated current literature, tied to national policy, which clearly highlighted how we can work with sexual orientation within clinical practice, such as considering risk as well as appropriate signposting.
Impact
The student satisfaction scores were overwhelming positive with comments such as ‘this training is awesome’ and ‘this training really made me think about sexual orientation, and I hadn’t thought about it before’. The training has now also been delivered to High Intensity Cognitive Behavioural Therapists in CWI as well as at the National British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies Conference at Imperial College, London. Overall, I think that the activity did meet the objectives however, an unexpected outcome was the need to publish the key factors of this training session to better inform the wider workforce.
Reflections
The continual review and updating of this session made sure that it is still relevant for each cohort and meets the requirements of the national curriculum. One large factor that led to the success of this activity was the engagement and contribution of the students. Each time I deliver this session, there are different viewpoints, which challenge my thinking, and this is so valuable for me to develop as a clinician and as an academic.
In relation to better implementation, the earlier versions of the session did not include very much on multi-discrimination and so, it now includes discussion points on considering intersectionality within our clinical practice. This has been received well by students and further promotes critical thinking. It also ties more closely with the intersectionality inclusion aims of Stonewall, Europe’s largest LGBT+ charity.
Follow up
I have now been approached by the Director of Children and Young Persons (CYP) programmes in CWI to consider how sexual orientation training can be delivered to CYP clinicians. This will be an interesting task as I will need to consider generational differences as well as how my work can be applied to a different group of clinicians.
Laville, A. (2017). The importance of data collection, signposting and ‘appropriate’ awareness in working with sexual orientation. CBT Today, 45 (4), 14-15.
Department of Health and Social Care. (2011). NO HEALTH WITHOUT MENTAL HEALTH: A cross- Government mental health outcomes strategy for people of all ages. Analysis of the Impact on Equality (AIE). London: Department of Health and Social Care.
In my Part 2 module ‘Ancient Sport’ I offer students a choice between a traditional essay and an ‘outreach project’, which requires them to communicate an aspect of ancient sport to a non-academic audience, perhaps for schools or for the general public.
Objectives
To develop students’ communication skills in an attractive way
To diversify assessment in a relevant way (I first taught the module in an Olympics year)
To foster students’ sense of their own employability by developing a range of skills.
To engage students more fully in an assessment that draws on creativity and imagination.
I also hoped that students would have fun with the assessment, which they definitely have done.
Context
The module ‘Ancient Sport’ investigates Ancient Greek and Roman sporting activities with a focus on relating these to concepts of gender, desire, citizen identity, political power, and empire. The histories of art, architecture and engineering are also important. Amy Smith, the Curator of the Ure Museum, suggested the outreach project when I started planning the new module. I consulted with other colleagues in Study Advice, and the then Teaching and Learning Dean, in order to design the assessment effectively. I monitored the success of the outreach project via evaluations and discussion with students as well as via assessing the work itself, and recursively amended rubric and feedback sheet in order to communicate what students needed to do, and to guide their practice by clarifying criteria.
Implementation
Each outreach project has to be accompanied by a commentary on a relevant ancient text, a bibliography of secondary literature, and a reflective essay. I start talking to the students about the assessment choices at the beginning of term. Towards the end of term, students discuss their chosen project with me and get some feedback on how it is developing. The module includes a workshop on outreach communications, run by Kim Shahabudin, a colleague from Study Advice, and we share with the students the specific rubric and feedback form which I have developed to address the various elements of the assessment. We also situate the assessment in the context of employability, pointing towards the importance of being able to reflect on one’s own work, as well as stressing research and communication skills.
Impact
The outreach project assessment has been very successful, with many evaluations picking it out as a strength of the module. In informal conversations, it has become clear that students understand the link with employability, e.g. with their ambitions towards teaching, journalism or museum work. Over the years students have produced work such as videos both educational and entertaining, board games, museum trails, short stories, comics and magazines. I have been impressed by the effort, imagination, humour and creativity that students have put into their work, and also by their ability to reflect on their achievements, any limitations of their projects, and the decisions that they had to make along the way. I have been particularly gratified when students who have struggled with the traditional essay, for a variety of reasons, have found an assessment activity in which they can really shine. We have used several projects on Open Days and in workshops for local schools.
Reflections
What has mainly contributed to the success of this activity is simply the effort and commitment of the students, and I am very glad to have elicited such good work. This activity has also been very well supported by colleagues in Study Advice and in the Ure Museum, for which I am grateful. The activity has required me to rethink things like assessment criteria and rubrics, which I have found useful overall in my teaching.
Follow up
I find it very productive to approach assessment as a way of fostering employability and a variety of skills. As Departmental Director of Teaching and Learning I am keen for the Department to continue to extend such opportunities for students to engage with a variety of assessment. I have given extra publicity to our Independent Project module, which offers an alternative to the dissertation. Although I shall rest ‘Ancient Sport’ for a while, I shall develop a creative writing assessment in a Part 3 module. We are going to investigate the transformations of the figure of Helen of Troy, across different literary genres and periods, and students will have the opportunity to produce their own version of Helen, in poetry, short story, script, or other text. Reflection as well as research will be a significant part of this assessment.
In 2017/18 we reviewed and revamped our flagship professional practice scheme known as ‘real jobs’. The impacts include: a significant increase in the number of students regularly attending feedback sessions and engaging with the process; a large number of highly presentable concluding reflective reports from students; a reduced impact on staff resource due to better management of information and processes; and greater level of clarity among the student body about the existence and benefits of the scheme.
Objectives
Boost student engagement
Embed contemporary workflows
Streamline assessment and feedback
Centralise information and information management
Initiate a briefing session for all students, for the first time
Generate more competent (and compelling) outcomes. Our new blog at typography.network/real-jobs collects students reflective reports on these projects
Increase student exposure to industry professionals
Give feedback as jobs are completed, rather than right at the end of the course
Provide students with personal, engaging stories to tell on job applications and at interviews
Context
This work is part of TY3PRP on our BA Graphic Communication course. The genesis of these changes came from a sense that the current system was stretched due to increasing student numbers and lack of staff time. We needed to centralise and standardise more procedures in order to free up most staff to function better in their primary role (as design supervisors) and leave issues relating to project management, industry practice and print production to new staff members with a more dedicated set of roles (specifically in professional print production and professional design management). We also sought to address the fact that Real Jobs had never been fully integrated into the modular system on which the University now runs, making it an outlier in many areas (including assessment, timetabling and briefing) and thus causing confusion to students.
Implementation
Surfacing the issues
The project was initiated following detailed discussion with Rob Banham, our DDTL, based on his experience of running the Real Jobs scheme for around a decade. We also took advantage of the training and techniques offered on the University’s Academic Practice Programme (which Geoff Wyeth and I participated in for 18 months) to assess, flesh out and test Rob’s analysis of the issues. It became clear the scheme was characterised by lack of clarity (with no real assessment criteria or workflow) and lack of student engagement (with the keenest students always doing well, but the majority shying away from the scheme). It also felt excessively manual in its admin – reliant on the generosity of staff time, rather than robust processes.
Planning for professionalisation
Over Summer 2017 I planned a new process, taking in feedback and concerns from a wide range of staff and students, trying to address a wide variety of issues and encode solutions into:
A Filemaker database of jobs, clients and students (for staff admin use only)
A Trello online project management board (used by supervisors and students). The board acts as a contract, a step-by-step process and a live project management tool, mirroring many aspects of life as a professional designer
A blackboard organisation – so the scheme has a VLE for the first time
A new annual briefing session for all Part 1 students, late in the year
A revised format for weekly Real Job meetings
A new rubric, mapped to new assessment criteria
Launch
We launched formally in Autumn term 2017, with most of the tools in-place.
In order to get all students up to speed, we ran the induction briefing session for all three year groups. The induction was crucial to the success of these changes. By bringing in staff, graduates and potential clients, we carry all students through a model for the new process over a two-hour session. They experience a dry run of the whole thing, and hear reflections from students and clients who’ve already been through it. The goal is to bring active awareness to the scheme and its process, so that when they attack projects for real, the barriers feel reduced.
Impact
The outcome is an entirely new process, much more tightly focused on student understanding, user needs and a more engaging and defined set of tasks – while still allowing students to explore projects in their own way.
Attendance at Real job meetings has gone from an average of around 9 students per week to something more like 30 or 40. A increased calibre of discussion has also been noted by staff.
Final reports have been transformed into more professional, thoughtful, meaningful and marketable blog posts.
Assessment is simpler. More time consuming, but more thorough, and clearer.
Higher throughput of jobs.
Students who DON’T wish to pursue a career as a professional designer now have a parallel route, through Experiential Learning Assignments that let them write about design rather than practice it.
Reflections
The changes work because there has been a top-to-tail review with solutions carefully targeted across a range of goals. Most of these solutions are working as expected, though there is room for improvement
As a Department we still lack the resources to truly ensure that all students and all jobs stay on track. We have more visibility and better insights, but process steps can be skipped without immediate remedy.
The assessment process is more involved than planned, and is not yet happening as jobs are completed, but still at the end of each year.
It’s hard to measure the impact on employability.
Only a few students take advantage of the offer of a thorough pre-press check on their work.
Follow Up
We have continued to refine assessment criteria and rubric style, in an effort to simplify things for staff and students.
ELAs (which let students get credit for non-design aspects of their studies) are being rolled out slowly.
A module review is needed to assess whether students are entirely satisfied with the way the scheme runs. Anecdotal evidence suggest some students still find the prospect of these projects daunting, and they find ways to avoid engagement.
Overview
The work undertaken was to engage UG students in design history and printing history through its lettering, printing, and graphic design collections. The impact was improved attendance and greater engagement of students with history modules, increased use of collections by staff in other modules, development of new modules, and UROPs.
Objectives
• Increase attendance and engagement in the UG module history of graphic communication
• Improve students understanding by revisiting topics covered in lectures
• Encourage students to develop skills in analysis and debate
• To enable students to learn through task-based learning activities, rather than traditional seminars
Context
TGC’s approach to teaching design has always involved history, theory, and practice. Over time, changing practices and new technologies in design and printing meant that the history of the subject has become less connected with current design practice. UG students were therefore less inclined to positively engage with modules with a historical focus. The activity was undertaken to make history teaching in TY1HG (now TY1HG1) more dynamic and engaging, using interactive sessions with TGC’s collections, and task-based learning, in place of traditional seminars.
Implementation
• New module outcomes and seminar content for TY1HG1 (History of Graphic Communication 1), with task-based learning, relating to material from TGCs collection
• Additions to TGC’s collections
Impact
The revised module content achieved its immediate aims of improving student attendance and engagement in seminars, with students frequently commenting positively in module evaluation about the inclusion of collections-based seminars. Students were also more engaged with associated lectures, and with the coursework submissions and examination in the TY1HG1 module. There were also further, unexpected outcomes. The popularity of the revised module led to student requests for additional opportunities to study the history of the subject and new modules were introduced in Part 1 (TY1PRI: History of Printing and Printmaking, TY1HG2: History of Graphic Communication 2) and Part 3 (TY3ES: Ephemera Studies). There was also an uplift in the number of students using collections in general, and TGC’s collections in particular, as the basis for dissertations in Part 3. Staff also began to employ collections-based sessions in practical design modules across all three years.
Reflections
The activity was successful for a number of reasons. Students have the confidence to participate in seminars because the task-based learning activities mean that they can discuss questions in pairs or groups before sharing their answers. This is particularly appreciated by students with learning styles not suited to traditional seminars, or from WP backgrounds who tend to be intimidated by them. Students also find the hands-on nature of these seminars much more engaging than a straightforward discussion of sources and, perhaps most importantly, find the seminars a useful way of consolidating their learning from associated lectures. The activity had wider impact because the good practice and positive student feedback were shared through staff and student evaluation and review of teaching. The activity could have been better implemented by involving students in developing the revised module description, by de-colonizing the module curriculum (which we will be working on over the next 12 months), and providing students with more training regarding how to handle collections materials.
Follow Up
The TY1HG1 module has continued to evolve, with the introduction of new seminar topics, classes looking at University Special Collections and (as outlined above) new modules and increase use of collections in practical project teaching.
Tamara Wiehe School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences t.wiehe@reading.ac.uk
Overview
Students on our programme – MSci Applied Psychology (Clinical) – are training to become qualified Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) so employment is naturally embedded in the curriculum. However, the existing career development session was originally designed for students on the postgraduate course so it required some adaptation for undergraduates. This is where the MSci Graduate Showcase event came in! I organised and facilitated a 45-minute ‘speed dating’ type event where our previous students who are employed in a range of roles in clinical psychology came to share their experiences and support our current students with their career development.
Objectives
To learn about a wide range of career options within clinical psychology from MSci graduates.
To consider the steps to put in place during Part 4 that will help students work towards their chosen career path.
Encourage networking between graduates and current students.
Context
Aspects of the original career development session were used to create the new session. It was appropriate to keep the event on the final teaching day of the year as this is when students are close to qualifying and are starting to think about the next steps in their career. However, the original session was created for postgraduate students who are employed by an NHS service so the career options reflected this. Educators used their experience as practitioners to make the session as engaging as possible but we all felt as though it needed a new lease of life. The new event aimed to address these two issues by discussing a wider range of career options in clinical psychology for our undergraduate students and by inviting some of our MSci graduates who are employed in the field back to the University to share their first hand experiences.
Implementation
After delivering the same session about 5 times over the past few years, I knew it was time to make some changes when it came to planning the event for the current cohort. The following steps took place over the past 4 months:
Identifying the issues with original session and sharing these with the programme director to see if there was scope to make changes.
Planning the event with the programme director to ensure it met the learning objectives and remained in line with the national PWP curriculum and BPS standards.
Contacting some of our MSci graduates to invite them to the event.
Sharing the plans for the event with our current students so that they had time to prepare.
Confirming the MSci graduates attendance and sharing ideas on how to engage students during the event.
Organising the layout of the room so that students were sat in small groups and formatting the activity using the ‘speed dating’ approach to maximise engagement.
Facilitating the event on the teaching day.
Evaluating the outcomes to then amend the event for future cohorts.
Impact
The event was a success and met the learning objectives!
Our students said that they enjoyed speaking to people who are currently doing the role and a wide range of roles were represented. They learned about how the graduates got to where they are now as they were sat in the same position not too long ago and also where they are heading. It gave them time to think about the next steps in their career.
Our MSci graduates said that the students were engaged as they were asking lots of relevant questions and it also gave them a chance to reflect on how far they have come and where they are heading.
Whilst looking around the room, I felt a sense of pride for how far both my current and previous students have come since I’ve known them. They are all extremely dedicated and passionate about their chosen career path and will go on to make a real difference in the world, what a testament to themselves and the University.
Reflections
I believe that the event was successful due to three main reasons:
I created a session that reflected the needs of the students and made sure that the atmosphere was relaxed to encourage engagement.
The students who took part were engaged and willing to learn from others who were in their position not too long ago.
The MSci graduates were willing to volunteer their time and expertise for the event.
In terms of improving this event, our students suggested that we could find someone who is currently training to become a clinical psychologist; this is something we will explore when preparing for the event next year. I reflected that we needed to number the tables (simple really!) to aid the transitions when moving the graduates around the room.
Based on the success of this event, we definitely want to continue it with future cohorts. As well as the above suggestions, we will review any further comments that arise from more formal student evaluation and amend the event for future cohorts.
In the 2009 hit film ‘Julie et Julia’, real life American office worker Julie Powell (Amy Adams) spends a year cooking her way through culinary legend Julia Child’s ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ and ‘blogs’ about it. Powell picks up a following and generates a dialogue with her readers who comment on her posts and offer her advice, from how to prepare a lobster to how to bone a duck. Blogs are, of course, more than just about French cooking. There are blogs about all sorts of things. They have never been bigger and have become an increasingly useful tool in education too. In this article, we’ll explore this tool and find out how it’s been used for summative assessment on the BA in English Literature.
What is a blog?
A blog – short for web log – is a personal online journal that can include various media and is intended for sharing with others, like an open web-based diary. Most blogs have some kind of commenting system so that people can share their thoughts on entries. Blogs encourage students to clearly express their ideas and engage in social learning.
In Blackboard Learn, instructors can create and manage blogs from within a course. Enrolled users can then view and create entries and comments in them. They can be used for various purposes and as a tool for both formative and summative assessment, providing an alternative to more traditional methods.
Case study: Using blogs in English Literature at the University of Reading
Dr Chloe Houston has used the blog tool this year in a new third year module, ‘Utopia: The Ideal Society in English and American Literature’. Chloe was interested in diversifying the assessment methods experienced by her students and in moving away from the conventional essay. Aware that after graduation, students could be expected to write in a variety of media for a range of audiences, she was keen to give them the opportunity to write in a different format and share their ideas with their peers.
In getting ready to use the tool, Chloe did a good deal of preparation which was key to her ultimate success, contacting TEL CQSD for advice and researching academic blogs. She set up a Blackboard blog to be used as 50% of the module’s assessment in which students were expected to post entries during the term. An inexperienced blogger, she made use of a post-graduate student with relevant experience to help prepare the students and provided support materials. Mid-term evaluation suggested students were enjoying working in this way and end of module evaluations confirmed this, with the additional benefit that Chloe found the assessments more varied and interesting to mark! When asked if she had any advice for other staff thinking about trying out blogging, she exclaimed, “Immerse yourself in the blogging culture and just do it!”
Student Josie Palmer was one of a number who reported positively on her experiences of using the blog tool: “With students having grown up around technology… I feel a blog is a positive step forward in the way work is assessed. It’s easy to access and manage, it’s interactive, as you can read other student’s work and comment on what they have written… This differs greatly from essays… [The blog] gives students the opportunity to upload work and receive feedback more frequently… We are given more of an opportunity to explore ideas in different ways, with a simple format, as opposed to putting all the work collected over a term into one final essay. I think that as a format of assessment the blog works brilliantly!”
In this short video, Chloe discusses her use of the blog in her module:
What next?
If this article has inspired you to find out more about using the blog tool in your own teaching, please see Blackboard’s Support for Staff tab and/or contact the TEL CQSD team for advice. You can also subscribe to the TEL team’s very own blog at http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/tel/
Bibliography
Salmon, G, 2013. E-tivities: The Key to Active Online Learning . 2nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge.
Hammond , M , (2006). Blogging within Formal and Informal Learning Contexts: Where are the Opportunities and Constraints?’ In Networked Learning. University of Warwick , 2006.
Julie et Julia , 2009. [DVD] Nora Ephron, USA: Sony Pictures.
Having attended a few Advance HE (HEA) conferences, this was my first time presenting at an external T&L conference. I was quite nervous in advance – swatting up on the T&L literature, preparing fully copyright compliant materials (they publish your ppt) and rehearsing the talk to nail the timings, but the friendly attitude of the organisers and delegates meant I needn’t have worried.
The conference brought together about 200 delegates from across STEM, though many of the topics could apply across the humanities too. Spread over 2 days, 7 parallel sessions run, giving a wide range of topics and making each session small enough for real discussions and an opportunity to meet others interested in similar approaches. Representing the School of Biological Sciences (SBS) including the division of Biomedical Engineering, I was presenting on a project investigating cutting edge haptic (touch/VR) technology in teaching cell biology. Philippa Boyd from Construction Management and Engineering also presented on empowering diversity in STEM recruitment.
Here are some of my highlights:
Some uni’s have moved to online exams! Taken in invigilated computer suites, you need to consider the risks and benefits e.g. Keyboard noise so loud that students are given ear plugs but still complain! Need 5 to 10% capacity overhead for computer crashes etc. Marking faster (quick marks). Intelligent Assessment Technologies (online exam software) allows diagrams, anonymous marking, double marking, exam feedback to students.
Aston uni has a “my progress” student dashboard, based on attendance and attainment, giving a star rating system (gold, silver, bronze, lead) – students love it.
Creating an inclusive timetable – at Kingston Uni distance travelled to uni correlates to NSS qu 16 score. Average commute for white students is 3.7 miles, whilst for BME students it is 7.2 miles. Because they have a higher proportion of commuters their timetable tries to avoid days with only 1 hour (£25 commute for 1h), avoid 9am or end of day, and to cluster sessions together.
Peerwise Package – students can upload their own MCQs to a class bank for each other. May be useful here at Reading as we don’t release past MCQ papers to students. Can make it a summative exercise to drive engagement.
Stats best taught using real examples. Opendatastat.org (made by Mario Orsi from UWE Bristol) is a bank of curated datasets from open sources, each linked to activities and tutorials and quizzes. Could be used to teach stats or as data for projects. Mario is happy to be sent more datasets if anyone has any.
scientistsarehumans.com – A blog site sharing human stories. The presenters suggested that minority groups (by definition) will always be the statistical outliers, so reporting stats doesn’t always help. They suggested that real life stories have much greater impact. This website posts short stories where individuals share what it is like… to cope with mental health issues whilst doing a PhD; to be the only girl in the class; to be the only black person in your Year group. The organisers hope that understanding personal stories can kick start the processes leading to positive changes. Their motto is “be more kind” – Set kind deadlines, give kind lectures (think inclusive), give kind feedback (constructive criticism and praise, but doesn’t have to be all good comments), develop a work-life balance.
When the EMA Programme ran a staff survey earlier this year, we were really interested to see the response to the use of the QuickMark function on Turnitin Grademark. We asked 47 colleagues from the Institute of Education, the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development and the School of Archaeology, Geography and Environment Science what they considered the most important benefits of online assessment to be. 28 identified the use and reuse of QuickMarks, more than any other potential benefit. Colleagues highlighted how the use of QuickMarks could save marking time, could lead to clearer feedback, and could trigger broader conversations around marking criteria. In addition to this, a focus group carried out at the IoE in 2018 showed that students particularly appreciated the use of Quickmarks when they were used to provide specific examples of errors described more generally in the rubric and narrative comments. More recently, an EMA Programme evaluation exploring student responses to online submission, feedback and grading found that, out of 314 responders, 78% said that it would be useful if in-text or QuickMark comments could include a link to a Study Advice resource.
These responses fed into some thinking that the Programme team had already been doing around QuickMarks, particularly surrounding how we might gain the maximum benefit from this feature in terms of student engagement, learning and feedforward.
We were aware that some colleagues within the Institute of Education had worked together to develop a set of shareable, discipline specific comments. We wondered whether we could draw on this idea to develop a set of shareable, institution specific QuickMarks to help save marking time and enhance the quality of feedback but which would also appeal to colleagues in all disciplinary areas.
This thinking led us to create a small project group made up of Emma Mayhew (EMA Programme), Geoff Taggart (EMA Programme), Michelle Reid and Erika Delbecque (Study Advice). We worked together, and liaised with colleagues, to create a set of 21 commonly used comments.
But we wanted to go a little further than this. We were also really cognisant of the need to support feedforward and, to do this, we decided to include a hyperlink at the end of each shareable QuickMark comment to direct students to sources of support created by the Study Advice team and wider Library resources.
As an example, if a marker believes that a student has included an inappropriate source for an academic piece of writing, they might like to use the following shareable QuickMark:
This is not an appropriate source for an academic piece of work. Evaluate your sources whether they are books, journals, websites or other texts, and consider whether they are suitable to support the point that you are making. For more advice, see this guide from the Library:https://www.reading.ac.uk/lib-literature-searching.aspx
In this way, the new QuickMark sets underline the role that students have in their own self-learning and also highlights the range of existing supporting video and written material available to enhance student assessment literacy.
We divided the QuickMarks into categories-referencing, structure, style and critical analysis-and invited colleagues to download one or more of the categories, pulling them into their own QuickMark libraries which are available to them each time they mark. The new QuickMark comments can be used as they are but we would also encourage colleagues to edit the QuickMarks, keeping the hyperlink, but amending the text to add further discipline-specific context, or adding text to reflect feedback for an individual student.
We have housed these QuickMarks on the EMA online resource map which provides direct links for academic colleagues and professional staff to key university resources ordered around the Assessment and Feedback lifecycle. The QuickMark sets can be found in the light blue ‘marking’ section. They can also be found directly on the EMA Programme site.
To support their use, we created a 90 second screencast to show colleagues how to download the comments and amend the QuickMarks. Click on the image below to view this.
We have disseminated this resource through the T&L community within the University and also through the TEL Practitioner Forum. After only six weeks, we counted 194 views of the QuickMarks site and, in total, 413 QuickMark comments were downloaded by colleagues. The set focused on essay writing structure has been the most popular with 29 downloads of the whole set.
The response from colleagues so far has been very positive. Comments include:
‘Because I haven’t used QuickMarks before and was not sure of what they might be used for, the generic QuickMark sets gave me a good starting point.’
‘I like the way you can tweak them to fit into your own assessment criteria and group them into your own personalised set.’
We hope that these institution specific QuickMarks sets will be a useful additional tool for colleagues. If you do have any questions about these sets and how to use them or if you would like to provide further feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Kerry Webb, Associate Director (Academic Liaison and Support), The Library k.j.webb@reading.ac.uk
New Library LGBT+ research guide
We’re all working hard to make our LGBT+ students feel welcomed and included at UoR. One way the Library aims to do that is by highlighting the resources we hold to support the study of LGBT+ topics. In celebration of February’s LGBT History Month, the Library has introduced a new online guide to support research into LGBT+-related topics. The guide takes the same format as our subject guides but focuses on the range of materials available from the Library and Special Collections relating to LGBT+ topics.
It has been created, in consultation with staff and student representatives from RUSU, to help staff and students find some of the key resources the Library can provide in this area, as well as point you towards other useful online resources, libraries and archives.
We are planning to create a series of similar cross-disciplinary guides to support research around topics such as disability, race and ethnicity, and gender. If you would be interested in working with us on any of these, either by suggesting resources, commenting on the content of the guides, or meeting with us to talk through your own research interests in these areas, we’d love to hear from you – and your students. Please email Kerry Webb if you would like to be involved in some way or would like to share with us your ideas for additional guides.
Suggest resources to help diversify our collections
