Transition to Living and
Learning Workshop:
Academic Skills, Humanities
Prof Adrian Smith (Faculty Director of Undergraduate Studies)
Prof Alex Neill (Associate Dean Education and Student Experience)
26 June 2012
TLLP and Humanities partnership…
• prompted by the 2010 pilot skills module in Social Sciences,
hence close collaboration with its instigator Russell Bentley
(Politics/IR);
• Sarah Rogers and TLLP colleagues keen to extrapolate from the
transitional experience of Humanities ’ Year 1 students lessons for the
University as a whole;
• Sensitive to the change in the fees regime, the Faculty of Humanities
keen to gain a greater insight into the needs, expectations, and
concerns of its Year 1 students, including prior to their arrival;
• Humanities funded to run its own pilot skills component
(HUMA1027), using the Social Sciences module as a model;
• HUMA1027 envisaged as complementing each discipline’s
skills training, but would it be financially and
pedagogically justifiable as a permanent fixture within the
faculty curriculum?
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Outline of HUMA1027…
• Humanities skills component based upon Social Sciences’ autumn 2010
pilot scheme, and intended to complement not duplicate disciplines’
cultivation of advanced study skills;
• training of PGTAs in conjunction with Social Sciences;
• module content, PGTA guide and student workbook adapted to
Humanities’ needs by project administrator Dr Sara Perry;
• weeks 2 to 5 four workshops with PGTAs;
• Blackboard support site and eight on-line lectures linked to the
workshops;
• not compulsory but all Year 1 students urged during induction to
attend;
• 10 Graduate Passport points for students that attended every session.
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HUMA1027 structure (compared to SSs)
Topic
Lecture
Workshop
Accessing support and what to expect
X
X
Effective use of lectures
X
X
Time management and effective reading
X
X
Research practice and referencing, incl.
academic integrity
Good essay writing practice
X
X
X
X
Group work and presentations
X
X
Exam technique and revision methods
X
X
Making the most out of feedback
X
X
Quiz
Managing qualitative challenges
Careers for Humanities students, and
the Graduate Passport
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HUMA1027 feedback…
Key questions in survey of 206 respondents:
Q2: Have you found the module useful?
3.4/5
Q3: Have you enjoyed the module workshops?
3.5/5
Q4: Did you find the workbook used in the
workshops useful?
3.2/5
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Feedback on HUMA1027…
– roughly consistent with the approval rating in the
broader autumn 2011 Year 1 Transition survey
– 50:50 approval:disapproval not that surprising for a
fresh initiative, but disappointing when compared with
the more favourable response generated by Social
Sciences’ 2010 pilot;
– based only on 206 UGs after the final session, but a
harsh observation would be that the other students had
already voted with their feet;
– a second survey, following an amended Mk 2
HUMA1027 in 2012, would provide a more revealing
insight into students’ views of a generic skills module.
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Evaluation…
•
students valued:
– above all, the interaction with the PGTAs (as an alternative to lecturers,
who initially were perceived as distant and unapproachable);
– the opportunity to work informally in a group and as a group (as a
learning experience and an opportunity to socialise);
– an early opportunity to become acquainted with Blackboard;
– advice and reassurance regarding presentations;
– an early insight into the nature of exam and essay marking at university
level;
– the review of marking criteria as a means of gaining an insight into how
assessment operates beyond A-level/IB.
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Evaluation…
•
students identified significant areas in need of improvement:
– content and approach should signal more clearly post-A-level/IB study skills
(some complained of being patronised, e.g. advice on note-taking);
– each workshop crowded and seeking to do too much, not least because of the
initial viewing of the online lecture (if online, why watch it in class?);
– the videoed lectures poorly shot, too crowded re advice, and comprised
solely of a ‘talking head’;
– the timing in the term and the length of the workshops [but mixed signals];
– not enough detailed advice, e.g. re essay writing and referencing;
– overlap and duplication with discipline-based advice on study skills;
– no credits awarded for the module.
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The future…
•
an initial assumption that, with considerable modification, HUMA1027 would
run again, and that the module could be delivered on a more modest budget;
•
an alternative view that the necessary resource allocation from within the Faculty
has an opportunity cost;
•
the seven disciplines helpful in the delivery of HUMA1027 but wary of skills
duplication;
•
a faculty decision not to support a skills component for Humanities Year 1
students in 2012-13, although Social Sciences will continue fine-tuning Russell
Bentley’s original conception;
•
the absence of HUMA1027 reinforces the importance of Humanities’ component
disciplines fine-tuning the subject skills components of their Year 1 Semester 1
compulsory modules:
•
it would be ironic if, at the very moment student expectations are raised as a
consequence of the new fees regime, Humanities disciplines failed to learn from
the lessons learned of the 2011-12 pilot.
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For further information…
Prof Adrian Smith
Director of Undergraduate Studies,
Faculty of Humanities:
as5@soton.ac.uk
“Congratulations on
completing your skills
training, Jonny”
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