Improving student awareness of programme information through strategically-timed messaging

Improving student awareness of programme information through strategically-timed messaging

By michaelkilmister Comment Closed

 

By: Dr Jayne Freeman, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, j.e.freeman@reading.ac.uk
Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash

Overview

This case study reflects on an approach to enhance awareness of programme-level information in Psychology. Students often appear to have a lack of knowledge about key aspects of their programme. To address this, I introduced an approach of staggering the delivery of key programme-level messages in compulsory modules.

Objectives

  • To enhance undergraduate Psychology students’ awareness of programme-level information by delivering strategically-timed messages in compulsory teaching sessions across the academic year
  • To evaluate students’ perceptions of the usefulness of having programme-level information delivered in teaching sessions

Implementation

I developed a schedule for the timely distribution of programme-level information in compulsory teaching sessions for Part 1-3 Psychology students. This involved creating a table with a list of the key information that students might need to be aware of and some suggestions for when and in which module each message might best fit. For example, information about how to use assessment feedback was timed for when the first assessment marks were due for release. The table also specified the number of slides or approximate amount of time that would be needed to share the information and a suggestion for who might deliver it (e.g., me as Programme Director or the lecturer taking the class). I also included a link to the slides for staff to see the details of the information to be disseminated.

I then shared the table with teaching staff and asked them to indicate whether there would be sufficient time to fit the information in their lectures. In most cases, staff were able to accommodate the messages, or they suggested alternative sessions where the information could be delivered.

Table listing academic topics, timeline, duration, presenters, and suitability for different modules in the autumn term.
Figure 1: List of programme-level messages to be delivered to Part 1 students across Autumn term 2023/24

Impact

At the end of the academic year, students were asked to indicate how helpful it was to receive programme-level messages in lectures and whether they would prefer to receive such messages in lectures or in standalone briefings. They were also asked to say what they had learned from the messages that they hadn’t known before. Approximately, 83% of students reported that they found it quite or very helpful to have the messages in lectures and 65% said that they would prefer to have the messages delivered in lectures than in standalone briefings. Students reported that they had learned about a range of different areas, including student support, the library, marking criteria and other aspects of academic literacy. This suggests that the messages were providing students with important information that they had not obtained from elsewhere.

Reflections

Standalone briefings may not always be the best way of providing students with key messages about their programme as the information might not be reaching students at the optimal time. For example, information about late submission penalties presented in a start of year briefing may well be forgotten by the time students come to submit their first assessment. By strategically timing messages in compulsory lectures, students will have received the information when it was more relevant to them, thus hopefully enhancing its usefulness.

In light of the findings, we will continue to disseminate programme-level information through compulsory lectures (in addition to start of year briefings). However, for next year, I think it will be important for me to work with students to find out what information they consider would be useful and to identify what the optimal timing would be from their perspective, as this might not align with the timeline that I had proposed.

Co-presenting with Students at Conferences and Engaging them in the Teaching and Learning Dialogue

By edwardwhite Comment Closed

Dr Madeleine Davies (Department of English Literature) and Bethany Barnett-Sanders (Part 3 student, Department of English Literature)

Engaging students in academic conversations outside the classroom presents challenges but recent activity in the Department of English Literature suggests that there are several ways of creating opportunities for this engagement. DEL has worked with Part 2 and Part 3 students on a range of initiatives that has involved them in conference organisation (‘Postmodern Biofictions’), event management (‘Celebrating Forgotten Women’) and editing work (The Creative Writing Anthology and Second Sight: The Margaret Atwood Learning Journals).

In April I was finalising work on the TLDF-Funded ‘Diversifying Assessment’ project in DEL which, connecting with the Curriculum Framework, had involved convening student focus groups. These groups generated productive perspectives on our assessment and feedback practices. I decided to disseminate the results of the project at the Change Agents’ Network (CAN) conference (Winchester) and I felt that it was important that one of the students involved in the focus groups should co-present in order to express the issues from a student point of view.

The CAN Conference was extremely interesting and several papers commented on a range of student engagement projects; however, students were generally absent from the sessions. Our ‘Diversifying Assessment’ presentation, however, expressed both staff and student viewpoints. Bethany Barnett-Sanders, my co-presenter, comments here about her experience of joining me at the conference:

‘Attending the CAN conference with Maddi to help deliver a presentation on diversifying assessment was a really valuable experience. The whole process, from the initial focus groups to the presentation, was so affirming. I participated initially in the focus groups run by Maddi because assessment is an issue that I feel quite strongly about: as the situation stood at the beginning of the project, the department favoured the assessed essay + exam model which, from the student perspective, is not very popular. This model seems to be the default assessment pattern and so I relished the opportunity to find out why and to share my thoughts on what assessment could look like. As a student, being asked for my thoughts on a topic that is so integral to the university experience was both pleasantly surprising and incredibly encouraging; it allowed me to feel as though I could really shape the programme for myself and others and it enabled me to engage in my degree in a way that I never had before.

When asked to present at the conference with Maddi, it was great to know that those groups had led to a place from which real change could be generated. I agreed to present not just for the valuable public speaking experience that would be useful to have on my CV but, again, to take advantage of the opportunity to share the student’s perspective on assessment, something that affects them more than anyone else. Presenting at the conference was quite a nerve-wracking experience, but one that I’m very grateful I’ve had. I think involving students in these conferences is a fantastic idea as it allows for different perspectives on issues that would otherwise be left unchallenged and encourages collaboration between students and staff.

Having a room full of people, who were all there to learn from each other, listen to our presentation, was a big boost to my own confidence. I also really enjoyed listening to Maddi’s perspective on assessment as it allowed me to consider things that I hadn’t before. It was also lovely to spend time with one of my lecturers outside of the seminar room and I think it allowed for a very natural, open dialogue to take place about a whole range of things, which is harder to come by in formal contact hours. The conference was also a great learning opportunity, as it allowed me to listen to what other universities are doing and reflect on that from the student’s perspective; judging by the majority of the attendees and by the lack of students in the rooms, this isn’t something that happens regularly at these events.

I hope that the success of our presentation encourages other universities and other members of staff within the department to invite their students to share their opinions at these events in the future.’

I was thoroughly impressed by Bethany’s professionalism in delivering her comments at the conference – she was a credit to the university. My conversations travelling to and from the event with Bethany also helped to deepen my own understanding of the assessment issue from the students’ viewpoint: for example, I had thought that risk-aversion informed our students’ antipathy towards exams – Bethany confirmed this but allowed me to see how this is a natural consequence of a fee-paying, ‘high stakes’ environment.

I will certainly involve more students in T&L conference presentations in the future: my experience of this is entirely positive and it allows our students to engage in important conversations with us about their education. Further, within a landscape where graduate employability is key, we have here an opportunity to enable our students to build their experience and to gather skills that may not be available within formal teaching environments.

Student Researchers from the department of Art to present at RAISE 2013 by Christine Ellison

By edwardwhite Comment Closed

OSCAR 1

 

As we continue to develop OSCAR the online student community in Art our students are becoming more involved and more integral to the development of the project. Together we are researching innovative ways to integrate the social network, designed to support our studio modules, across all of our programmes in Art. We have been invited to present at the RAISE conference in Nottingham this September which we are delighted to be able to attend with support from Digitally Ready. The theme this year is The Future of Student Engagement: Partnerships, Practices, Policies and Philosophies. I am working with two BA students (from our OSCAR student research group) on a joint presentation about the collaborative process of developing OSCAR. We will address student engagement particularly in relation to partnerships and practices highlighting our current focus on developing students’ professional online profiles.

OSCAR 2The ‘member profile’ feature recently added to OSCAR enables students to start shaping a profile that represents them academically and professionally. Most students have several online ‘faces’ across the likes of Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, etc. We are keen to support them in shaping these identities and in learning how to ensure they are confident and informed about how these platforms represent them. They are increasingly aware of the importance of an online profile that can be separate from their social activities. And we as staff are keen to emphasise the value of an academic/professional space that is not public facing like sites such as LinkedIn.

We want to nurture and encourage a space where students learn how to shape their profile online in a sheltered environment. Learn is the key worked here. The time at University is an important pre-professional time where things should be tried, tested and developed. We want to foster an approach to building professional online identities that can evolve and develop without the consequences of immediate publication on a public facing network. The member profiles on OSCAR offer students this opportunity. They can build a profile through emphasizing their academic interests that enables them to connect with other students on different programmes and at various levels, whilst shaping their professional statement, CV, blog, website etc. in a subject specific peer group.

The students representing us at RAISE have the added opportunity of presenting at this high-profile conference. I am excited about the potential impact of this next year on the student research group, the wider student community in Art and the OSCAR learning environment.