A User’s Guide to Study Coaching
You’ve been awarded study coaching as part of my Disabled
Students Allowance. What now?
Please provide Access-SUMMIT with a copy of your approval letter. We’ll need
it on file in order to set up your support. You can do this by dropping a copy off
at the reception desk, faxing it to us, posting it to us or emailing it to us
(approvals@access-summit.org.uk).
Once we are in receipt of a copy of your approval letter, a representative from
Access SUMMIT will get in touch with you about establishing your support. You
are also welcome to initiate contact with us if are looking to put things in place
urgently (support@access-summit.org.uk). Once we’ve made contact, we’ll ask
you some basic questions about your preferences so that we can find the best
match for you.
Following this exchange, a study coach will try to contact you directly (typically
via mobile or email or both). From there, you are welcome to make appointments
as and when needed so that you can address the academic skills you wish to
work on. Most students use their sessions once a week (typically for an hour or
two depending on the number of study coaching hours you have been allocated)
in an effort to keep on top of both assignments and overall skills. But, you are
welcome to use sessions more flexibly if that suits you and your study coach.
Appointments can be booked anywhere EXCEPT a private residence. Many
students choose to work with their study coach either here at the centre or
somewhere on their uni campus. Other options include public libraries/coffee
shops/or distance support (Skype, phone, emails).
What happens in a Study Coaching session?
In the first session, a study coach will spend a few minutes chatting with you
about your immediate and long-term goals. This will be part of a ‘Working
Agreement’ which will help you plan how to use your allowance over the academic
year. So, it’s most helpful if you can bring things like your course syllabus and
impending assignment briefs to this first session. Study coaches receive copies
of your student’s Needs Assessment Report, so they should have some
familiarity with your academic needs and a bit about how your disability impacts
your studies. But, you should also take the opportunity to chat with them at
this time if you wish to raise concerns, goals, or thoughts about your academic
work.
Subsequently, each session will help you tackle, re-think, and accomplish your
academic goals. Your study coach will also record notes after each session to
help keep track of how you use your hours. Your coach may also review your
support and progress after several sessions in order to assess the situation.
The skills you work on with your study coach can encompass a number of
different areas. Some suggested areas of attention are listed below. It’s worth
emphasizing at this point that a study coach CANNOT work with you in a
subject specific manner. (The support is NOT to be extra Nursing, or
Architecture, or Film Study tuition, for example). But they can indeed still work
on real assignments with you from an ‘academic skills’ approach.
Some of the skills which can be covered by study coaches include the following:
Note Taking Skills
-Developing appropriate note-taking skills and style including abbreviations
-Use of diagrams and mind mapping
-Dealing with and utilising hand-outs
-Dealing with references
-Coping with poor spelling, use of IT, work on key words
Researching/Library/Internet Searching Skills
-Locating relevant sources
-Finding information from the Web including effective Search Engine Grammar,
-Scanning/skim reading
-How to store, sort and use material
-Plagiarism and how to avoid it
-Develop referencing skills using accepted referencing conventions
-Discrimination of sources
-Appropriate use of journals and newspapers
Writing Skills
-Composition skills
-Question analysis
-Understand learning outcomes and marking schemes and plan work accordingly
-Honing writing skills
-Encourage thinking by using questions, not by giving answers
-Planning of longer pieces of work e.g. dissertation
-Develop skills with assistive technology where appropriate
Editing Skills
-Check and clarify what you are trying to say
-Demonstrate and facilitate proof reading to aid self-correction
-Reading your written work aloud to help you pick out any clumsy phrasing or
poor construction
-Grammatical errors – point out any errors of grammar, sentence structure,
explain why it is wrong and work with you to find alternatives
-Help you to write in a way that ensures you stay within word limits
-Help you to cut back on word use when you have exceeded word limits
Organisation and Time Management
-Identify time restraints on assignments
-Work out timetable/study plan
-Offer solutions to organisational issues
ICT/Assistive Technology Skills
-Promote independence by encouraging and modelling use of assistive technology
available
-Incorporating assistive technology into skills sessions as and when appropriate
Improving Performance in Examinations
-Revision techniques
-Time management in examinations including the use of extra time where
applicable
-Styles of question and practice sessions
Numeracy Skills
-Help with basic mathematical language
-Understanding of basic statistics and basic know-how of SPSS software
-Use of computation aids, IT programs and calculators
Presentation Skills
-Preparing presentation materials and practicing presentation skills
Stress Management-Empowering you through supportive encouragement and
strategies to develop awareness and academic resilience
-Exploring ways to adjust to the stresses of transition to a new environment and
new working patterns
-Using a range of support strategies available beyond your study sessions to
negotiate realistic personal and academic goals
-Signpost you to other resources/departments which may be of assistance
either within the University or the general locality of Manchester/Salford
Sounds good. What do I have to do?
1. Show up! Once an appointment is booked, please arrive on time. Study
coaches will often have other students lined up before and after your
appointment, so they will have to keep any planned session to time.
2. If you have to cancel a session, try to do it outside of 24 hours. If you
have to cancel a session within 24 hours, your study coach will still charge
for the appointment. Any funding body (Student Loans Company, NHS,
etc…) will only pay for two of these late-cancelled appointments (or
appointments where you
failed to attend) before further approval is needed to continue using the
support.
3. Approve timesheets. Access-SUMMIT use a Web-based program called
‘Opus’ to log timesheets. Your study coach will create timesheets on-line
and you will be emailed a code to copy and paste in order to approve the
timesheets. Access-SUMMIT will invoice your funding body (Student
Loans Company, NHS, etc…) directly with these approved timesheets.
4. Renew your support yearly. Access-SUMMIT requires an up-to-date
approval letter from your funding body for each academic year.
Problems?
Please keep in mind that your study coach has to stay within the parameters and
boundaries of support. For instance, they aren’t allowed to give subject tuition
or to advocate on your behalf to your department or to act as a counsellor. But,
that doesn’t mean that you’re not entitled to try working with a new study coach
if things aren’t working with your current study coach for any number of
legitimate reasons including the following:
-Mismatched availability
-You’d prefer a different working style
-Clash of personalities
If you feel like you’re not getting the most out of your support, please contact
us and we will do our best to pair you up with a different study coach.
You can reach us at: support@access-summit.org.uk or on 0161 275 0989 and
we’ll be happy to discuss your needs and help resolve whatever issue is at hand.