QA48Form2 PGR/PGT SSLC Annual Report
STAFF / STUDENT LIAISON COMMITTEE
ANNUAL REPORT FOR POSTGRADUATE
RESEARCH AND / OR TAUGHT SSLCs in 2012/13
It is the responsibility of the Chair to ensure that a SSLC Annual Report is completed, in consultation with
student and staff members of the Committee (QA48 Section 7.1), by Friday 2 August 2013.
Please type this Annual Report and return electronically via email:
To: Academic Representation Centre, Students’ Union, academicreps@bath.ac.uk
CC: Learning and Teaching Enhancement Office, learningandteaching@bath.ac.uk
1. Which degree programmes are covered by this Staff / Student Liaison Committee?
MSc/PGDip International Construction Management [by distance learning]
Is this SSLC for:
Postgraduate Research programmes only?
Postgraduate Taught programmes only?
(Delete as applicable)
No
Yes
2. Membership
Name
Chair
Dr Alex Copping
Secretary
Rosie Hart
Student?
Staff?
(Delete as applicable)
No
(Delete as applicable)
Yes
(N/A; should be a
member of staff)
(No; must be a
member of staff)
Yes
Online Election Process Contact
(i.e. the member of staff within the
academic department responsible for
liaising with the SU over the annual
online election process)
Number of staff members:
2
Number of PGT student members:
42
Yes
Number of PGR student members:
Invited to attend?
Receives Minutes?
(Delete as applicable)
No
(Delete as applicable)
Yes
Faculty Reps, Students’ Union, on the Board of Studies
No
Yes
Education Officer, Students’ Union
No
Yes*
(Not routinely invited to
attend)
(Not routinely invited to
attend)
(Not routinely invited to
attend)
(Not routinely invited to
attend)
Yes*
Subject Librarian
(SUeducation@bath.ac.uk)
Secretary to the Board of Studies
Secretary to the Faculty / School Learning, Teaching and
Quality Committee (for PGT programmes)
Secretary to the Faculty / School Research Students
Committee (for PGR programmes)
Representation and Research Manager, Students’ Union
(academicreps@bath.ac.uk)
Yes*
Yes*
Yes*
* Should routinely receive minutes of SSLC meetings
3. Meetings
How many times has the SSLC met during this academic year?
Once
If there were fewer than 4 meetings this year, please indicate why
We arrange an open SSLC meeting during
the residential study week. [ICM students
attend one seven day residential at the
University of Bath each year]
4. Items, Issues and Good Practice
This table is to record key issues and topics. These will be used to inform an institutional-wide report from the
Students’ Union detailing items that both the University and Students’ Union should consider in 2014/15.
Example areas (this is not a
comprehensive list of topics
covered; feel free to add details
of others issues covered by
your SSLC)
Last year’s SSLC Annual
Report
Programme content and
delivery (but not individual
lecturers), changes to existing
units / programmes and
proposals for new units /
programmes
Information to support
(PGT) students in making
informed Unit choices
Assessment and
Feedback, including
examinations (if applicable)
Feedback Policy
Record key items
discussed
Any example(s) of Good
Practice
Examinations, Unit
AR50314, SAMIS,
Moodle and residential
session recordings
Structure of on-line
group activities for
AR50314
Examination feedback
Survey results (e.g. PTES,
PRES, Unit & Programme
Evaluations)
External Examiners
Reports and University
response
Timetabling
Group work
Skills development and
training, including
research skills training
Student support (including
progress monitoring,
supervisory arrangements [but
not individual supervisors] and
the Personal Tutor system)
Library provision (Was the
Subject Librarian invited to
attend to discuss relevant
issues?)
IT and e-Learning
provision (Was a member of
the relevant team invited to
attend to discuss relevant
issues?) YES
Structure of the
dissertation workshop
Tutor response times
Length of forum
postings, structure of
Moodle forums,
presentation of Moodle
areas
Other academic
resources (teaching
accommodation, research
facilities and electronic
resources)
Careers provision (Was
a representative of the Careers
Service invited to attend to
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Any action taken
discuss relevant issues?)
Other issues or SSLC
initiatives
5. Unresolved issues
Which of the issues discussed during this year remain unresolved and what steps are being taken to resolve them?
Please see attached the minutes of the 28 June 2014 SSLC meeting for details of issues
discussed.
6. Online election process contract for 2013/14
Who will be the Online Election Process Contact for the academic department? (i.e. the member of staff within the
academic department responsible for liaising with the Students’ Union over the annual online election process to promote and to
market the online election process for student representative)
Name:
Email:
Ext.:
7. Authorisation
It is the responsibility of the Chair to ensure that a SSLC Annual Report is completed, in consultation with student and
staff members of the Committee (QA48: Section 7.1).
Chair of the SSLC
Signature:
Print Name: Alex Copping Date:23 July 2014
In the absence of the Chair, the Annual Report may be signed-off by the Director of Studies or Secretary of the SSLC
Signature:
Print Name:
Date:
When you have completed this form, please return via email by Friday 2 August 2013:
To: Advice and Representation Centre, Students’ Union, academicreps@bath.ac.uk
CC: Learning and Teaching Enhancement Office, learningandteaching@bath.ac.uk
The form should be returned by this deadline even if you have further meetings scheduled in the current
academic year; the draft form should, where possible, be circulated to members of the SSLC for comment by
email.
The Secretary should keep a copy for departmental records AND place on the agenda for the first meeting of
the SSLC in the new academic year.
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University of Bath
Minutes
of
Meeting
Faculty of Engineering & Design Graduate School
___________________________________________________________________________________
Meeting:
MSc International Construction Management Staff/Student Liaison Committee
Place:
CB 4.16
Date & Time:
Saturday 28 June 2014, 17.15
Present:
Staff
In Attendance:
NO
Students
Dr
A
Copping (Chair)
Mr
M
Hancock
All Residential1 & 2 attendees – list attached
Miss R Hart
ITEM
ACTION
Minutes of last meeting
The Chair distributed a copy of the minutes to attendees of the meetings and invited
comments and discussion on the following:
2- Examinations: In response to students asking if closed book exams could be taken using
a PC rather than in written form, the Chair reinforced the university’s stance:
The only students allowed to use a pc are those who have been assessed by learning
support as needing this.
3- AR50314 Consolidating Theory and Practice: AC explained that the CTP unit was now in
its third incarnation and had progressed in structure from a reflective diary to portfolio
submission.
4- Moodle: Confirmed as item agenda for this meeting.
5- Recording of residential sessions: AC noted that all sessions on Wednesday 25th had
been recorded in order to make them available via Moodle to those who did not attend the
workshop.
6- SAMIS: Students commented that SAMIS on the web remains to be difficult to navigate
1
Introduction from the Chair
The Chair welcomed all members to the committee and explained the purpose of holding the
onsite meeting alongside the online SSLF.
2
Feedback – You said, we did
The Chair presented a slide entitled ‘You said, we did’ which clarified responses and changes
put in place following student feedback.
2.1
Tutor responses: The Chair advised that students could expect a response from tutors
within 3 days (whilst a unit was live) but explained that many unit tutors did not only work for
the International Construction Management programme and were not full time.
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NO
ITEM
ACTION
2.2
Moodle forums: Several attendees of the meeting commented that the structure of forums on
Moodle was not helpful. They enquired as to whether there could be some adaptation of the
format in order to make it more conversations, citing ‘Whatsapp’ as an example. RH agreed
RH
to raise this point with the Technology Enhanced Learning Development Officer, Yvonne
Moore following the meeting.
Comments from Yvonne Moore:
The structure of Moodle forums is fixed by the software and the appearance of them is
linked to the site theme that the University uses. The summer upgrade may result in a
slightly more 'webby' view but the structure will remain the same. There are some options
the students can use to display the forums differently but the 'nested view' is likely to
make the most sense. So unfortunately there's no way to change the forum appearance at
this point. Perhaps we can produce a guide to provide 'best practice' advice for using the
forums effectively.
2.3
AR50123 Construction Law: Students complained of poor communication from the tutor of
this unit. Comments included; little or no responses to queries posted on the forum, minimal
and superficial feedback to assignments. AC confirmed he would investigate.
AC
2.4
Exam feedback: The Chair explained that individual feedback is not issued following
examinations. Members of the meeting asked if a set of model answers could be issued
following the release of marks. Although it was clarified that perfect answers did not exist, AC
AC
agreed to find out if the marking guidelines could be distributed.
2.5
Amendments to unit materials: MH confirmed that the correct method for reporting typos and
dead links in unit materials & on Moodle was to contact the unit tutor in the first instance. RH
requested that technical issues be reported via: fed-dltech@bath.ac.uk
3
AR50314: Consolidating Theory and Practice
Discussion took place regarding the CTP unit. AC invited feedback from those in attendance,
points made as follows:





Structure is repetitive due to 6 portfolio submissions and would be easier if there was
just one final submission.
Skills audits are good, no issues reported.
There were technical issues with signing up to exercises.
A longer period for discussions would be helpful with discussions starting earlier in the
unit.
Discussion topics sometimes lacked direction.
AC confirmed that comments would be considered in ongoing development of the unit.
4
Moodle
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AC
NO
ITEM
ACTION
Forums: Discussion took place around the length of forum postings. Some complained that
posts were often too long and it put them off taking part in discussions. RH agreed to enquire
RH
regarding the possibility of adding a word count restriction:
Comments from Yvonne Moore:
There aren't any settings for capping the word count. This would need to be an added
instruction from the tutor when the discussion activity is set up. (E.g. "Respond in the
discussion forum using 500 words or less"). There is a setting to produce a word count after a
forum post is published - it doesn't show up when the student is typing, only after the post is
submitted, which is a bit frustrating. If word counts are important then students are better off
using Word and then pasting in.
Layout format: Students commented that the layout of some units within Moodle was different
and requested that this be standardised across all units. AR50123 was reported to have a
different layout to others.
Comments from Rachel Applegate:
We have been working towards adopting a standard course layout for all courses.
Unit AR50123 Construction Law has now been updated in the standard course layout (this
had not yet been done in the previous study session). It is slightly different from the other
courses because of the differences in assessment and the online learning activities, but
overall it now follows the standard course layout so the menu and navigation will follow the
pattern for other units.
In general the Moodle course areas are designed with consistency in mind but due to the
continuing rolling process of review and update there may be times when they appear to be
different.
5
Dissertation Workshop
Attendees of the dissertation workshop commented that the individual sessions were not long
enough. It was felt that a second individual session towards the end would help to consolidate
the content of the workshop and to give them time to process and respond to discussion
which took place within the first session.
6
Any Other Business
Content of residential workshops: comments included site visits and more external speakers.
Next SSLC Meeting to be timetabled during June Summer Schools in 2015.
The meeting closed at 18.00
List of students attending
Surname
Adebiyi
Akonobi
Alam
Albastaki
Au Yeung
Boles
First name
Joseph
Dubem
James Ohurey
Khalid
Douglas
Zachary
ID
149000196
129465944
139384435
149400271
040568265
129461588
Residential 1
Yes
Residential 2
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
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Yes
Brown
Chan
Chan
Chopra
Fashola
Fotakopoulos
Geoghegan
Gopalakrishnan
Grant
Hammouz
Jichi
Jones
Knopp
Kong
Leustean
Lipman
Manolis
Marlow
Mccaughey
Mitchell
Modrich
Mootien
Mudyiwa
Mussa
Nair
O’ Boyle
Oikonomou
Padgett
Rasheed
Shaker
Skillett
Wadhia
Walmsley
Westnutt
Williams
Yadav
John
Sum Yuen
Derwin
Ketan
Bashiru
George
Hugh
Venugopal
Douglas
Mohanad
Odai
Adeyinka
Tonya
Weng
Mihai
Nicola
Isaak
Nicholas
Gedidiah
James
Ralf-Uwe
Ganessen
Garikai
Mariyam
Anjali
Owen
Georgios
Michael
Reena
Arash
Guy
Prashant
Richard
Paul
Chris
Anil
129402732
149267397
139472204
149327668
139472961
149022855
129461290
129453435
129467443
149017943
139376784
129437804
129461599
029111189
149273549
149391924
139396003
050169612
129464637
053318552
129437790
089166181
129448855
129448925
129460145
119327612
109192884
139274549
149168360
139475102
059084389
139479498
129467029
119452718
139458080
139481561
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
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Yes
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Yes
Yes
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