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