School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

Countdown to University Study. A review of the pilot year.

A University Academic Development Fund (ADF) project

Andrea Jackson & Andrew Smith

Aims of the project

Project development

View the resource

Evaluation of the pilot year

Next steps

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHEROutline of presentation

• To produce a resource that would be available to students from the time their place was confirmed at Leeds in order to aid their transition from school to University by communicating:

– What it is like to be a student studying here at Leeds

• the opportunities that University life has to offer / how to prepare

– people they’ll meet & the exciting research that occurs within the Faculty;

• enhancing academic community awareness

– What is expected of them within their discipline and within the institution

• becoming an independent learner / what we mean by critical thinking

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHERAims of the project

• To produce a resource that • was both supportive and informative• interactive and visually appealing• could be tailored for use by any School within the University

(generic and subject specific elements)• would be of use to prospective students

• To trial the resource on new undergraduate students (approx 400+) within the Faculty of Environment (Schools of Earth and Environment, Geography, and Transport Studies) in autumn 2009.

Aims of the project

Spring to Autumn 2008 – Focus group work with both secondary school students at Roundhay

School and incoming undergraduate students• Understand issues related to transition from school to University & develop

provisional content headings – Employment of a part time project officer, Andrew Smith– Liaison with staff across University for support – VLE team, CSA, ISS

Autumn to end of 2008– Further focus group work with current undergraduate students (new and

later years)• Trial designs and refine content headings

January to July 2009– Working with staff across University to write, film and develop content

• School & Faculty staff, Students, Skills centre, Media Services• 2 versions produced (School of Earth and Environment, School of

Geography)• Trials of resource (staff and students)

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHERProject development

• Throughout the project– Andrew photographing fieldtrips– Project meetings with interested parties – feedback / ideas

• August / September 2009– Incoming students to School of Earth and Environment were sent an

e-mail on August 26th inviting them to join up to a School Facebook site which included a link to the resource

– ALL students received invitation to visit the site either via web or VLE in letter sent at end of August / beginning September

• October 2009– Focus groups with incoming students to evaluate usefulness and

effectiveness of the resource

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHERProject development

– Please log on and visit a web based version of the resource

www.see.leeds.ac.uk/countdown/SEE

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHERView the resource

• What to do now – key dates, kit list, things to bring, international & mature student links, peer mentoring, student societies, links to university information.

• Your course – video welcome from programme manager, outline of programme, optional activity, links to teaching staff, links to information about study abroad and work placement opportunities.

• Freshers’ Week – School and University events.

• Learn about Research – What is Research? Why do we do research? What do we do? What research will you be involved in as part of your course and what are research are students involved in now?

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHERContent I

• People – photographs and links to key support and academic staff.• University Life – what life at University is like, study at University, critical

thinking, student portal, Partnership Agreement.• What students say – video case studies of current students.• Galleries – story books of fieldwork activities.• Glossary of terms• Facebook (for Earth and Environment only).• Ask a question

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHERContent II

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHER

Evaluation – number of visits (Aug 21st until Dec 31st)

School of Earth and Environment (212 UG intake)

181 unique visitors have visited 390 times and viewed 2656 pages, 6.8 pages per visit.

School of Geography (203 UG intake)

102 unique visitors have visited 178 times and viewed 1355 pages, 7.6 pages per visit.

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHEREvaluation – origin of visits

School of Earth and Environment

Visits from 13 countries including UK, Malaysia, US, Thailand, Brunei, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Portugal.

School of Geography

Visits from 4 countries including UK, Oman, Ireland, Australia.

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHEREvaluation – top content

School of Earth and Environment

What Now

Course

Freshers’ Week

Kit List

Research

School of Geography

What Now

Freshers’ Week

Course

Research

Kit List

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHEREvaluation – Facebook

•Conversation focused around where students were going to be living.

•Current students used the site to advertise RocSoc and helped answer questions that students had about fieldtrips, choosing modules etc

New students

(65%)

second years (12%)

third years (3%)

PGT (3%)

non Leeds (17%) Based on sample of 78 out of the 188

members.

Implies 122 members are new students

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHEREvaluation – Focus groups

What students liked

• Key dates• Kit list• What to do now• Freshers’ Week page• Personalised message from programme manager• Seeing the staff that were going to be teaching them• Case studies / what students say• University life pages• Galleries and storyboards• Information on peer mentoring• It was good for Foundation Year students, didn’t feel excluded.

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHEREvaluation – Focus groups

What students would have liked additionally

Subject based Information– Link to modules / more information about specific modules– More photographs of fieldtrips so know what to expect– Videos about research projects / make research pages more interactive– Day or week in the life of a student and an academic

Skills and employment– What to expect in lectures e.g. how to take notes, and tips for preparing

for a change in teaching style– Example of a lecture e.g. Dynamic Earth– more information on employers and hear from graduate students– Examples of jobs that students do outside of their study

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHEREvaluation – Focus groups

Social– Facebook (Geography) & link to GeogSoc– Greater EnviSoc and RocSoc involvement– Photos depicting more ‘social’ and ‘community’ aspect of the school – Virtual tour of School building

Generic information– A set of pages dedicated to the first two weeks of term and what to

expect– More information on the Freshers’ Week page – actual links to

shopping, tourist locations rather than just images– More information about accommodation and fees– More explanation of credits & modules – how they add up– Explanation of the week numbers and of the timetable (what means

what)– Elective fair information as don’t really understand what this is

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHEREvaluation - Reflection on the project

• Things always take longer than you imagine

• Get a team of people on board with you

• Write draft text for others to edit

• Use professional filming

• There’s a good network of people across the University to help / provide advice. A lot of good practice to follow.

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHERLast year’s hopeful outcomes

• Enhanced first year experience • Improved engagement of students with their discipline, School, and

the institution

• Difficult to determine but all of the students questioned said they had found the resource useful in preparing them for University.

• There is much room for improvement…….

School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHERNext steps

• Advertising to prospective students

• Improve upon content in light of feedback

• Improve navigation

• Greater involvement of students in creating content

• Build upon as induction guide.

• PGT version?