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UG Study Skills Support in Social SciencesDr Russell Bentley (Deputy Head Education, School of Social Sciences)
13th January 2011
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Outline of the Pilot Scheme• Problem: No cross-discipline study skills support offered in
Social Sciences
• Vision: All Social Sciences students should have the opportunity to develop a wide range of study skills to support the transition to university
• Action: Employ undergraduate on summer placement (plus 3 hours p/w during term) to work with Russell Bentley (academic lead) and Sarah Rogers (TLLP team) to develop:
– Timetabled, non credit-bearing, non-assessed workshops, delivered by Social Sciences PGTAs (6 workshops)
– Online lectures on study skills topics (10 lectures)
– Online quizzes to help students assess their abilities (3 quizzes)
– Supporting materials (referencing guide, resource books)
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Outline of the Pilot Scheme• Called “Social Science Labs”
• Blackboard site constructed to give it coherence and access to resources
• Workshops were timetabled to encourage attendance, and email reminders sent
• International student stream provided by CLS
• Graduate Passport points given to students that engaged:
– 10 Graduate passport points if they attend more than 50% of the workshops
– 10 Graduate passport points if they attend more than 50% of the CLS classes
– 5 Points if they complete the activities on Blackboard
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Outline of the Pilot SchemeTopic Lecture Workshop QuizAccessing support and what to expect
X X
Effective use of lectures X XTime management and efficient reading
X X
Research practice and referencing, incl. academic integrity
X X
Good essay writing practice X XManaging qualitative challenges X XGroup work and presentations X XExam technique and revision methods
X X
Making the most out of feedback XCareers for Social Scientists and the Graduate Passport
X X
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Support for the Pilot– £3k from the HE Academy Economics Subject
Centre
– £4k from the Transition to Living and Learning Project
– £7k from the Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences
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Costs• Placement student
• PGTA demonstrator costs for delivering workshops
• Print costs for:
– Referencing guide
– Resource book for PGTAs
– Resource book for students
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Evaluation• Students value:
– Online lectures (80% of respondents thought them high quality)
– Workshops (of the respondents that regularly attended, 87% thought them high quality)
– Blackboard
– Informality
– Variety of topics and information
– ‘Hot tips’
– Opportunity to have some discussion with peers and do group work
– Meeting new people
– Access to PhD students
– Booklets in each workshop
– Essay preparation
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Evaluation• Favourite topics from workshops included:
– Referencing and academic integrity
– Session about careers, graduate passport and alumni
– Essay preparation
– Time management
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Evaluation• Students don’t like:
– Lack of relevance to programme of study (Economists resent having to learn about essay writing)
– Online tests
– ‘Repetition of things we already know’
– Having to do presentations
– Online lectures
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Highlights…• Getting external funding; the pilot will be presented at National HE
Academy event in summer
• How well the international student stream worked
• Popularity of the Referencing Guide
• Commitment and entrepreneurial spirit of placement student
• How much the UGs appreciated access to PGR students
• Attendance
• How well timetabling of sessions worked (thanks to CTU)
• How many of the students managed to enjoy the labs (71% of respondents) as well as finding them useful (77%)
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Next Steps
• Embed in the curriculum by attaching to core modules, as with library skills
• Work with current PGTAs to improve content for next year
• Use current PGTAs to train next batch
• Credit
• Allow some discipline-specific tailoring
• Measure performance of students who did engage with the Labs against those who didn’t
• Ensure collective ownership by sharing leadership with colleagues
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