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Detailed brief for the student focused publication
Contents
Aims, Scope and Objectives
There are many publications for staff based on pedagogy, our own ‘Planet’ being one of them. There are also many publications that are dedicated to helping students both with learning and other aspects of student life. There is, however, very little published on how these two very different bodies of people can understand each other, which is surprising when they work in such close proximity. The GEES Subject Centre believes that a student focused publication could address this gap being helpful to both parties, simultaneously. Students would contribute articles about their experiences within the GEES disciplines. Reading about other experiences, advice and information would support them and help them make the most out of their learning experience. Staff in turn would gain an insight into what it’s like to be a 21st century student. The Subject Centre has promoted using student feedback in decision making for a while now and this publication will promote this cause and help cover broad topics.
Until this point the GEES Subject Centre’s involvement with students has been indirect. The benefits felt by students have been facilitated through staff and they are usually totally unaware of the work carried out. Throughout this project other avenues for supporting students will be explored.
To summarise there are 4 main aims of this project:
- To receive feedback from the students about their own learning experience and share that with lecturers.
- To promote GEES Subject Centre work to the student body.
- To lead the way in involving students in decision making.
- To enable the GEES Subject Centre to improve its services by assessing its own impact on the students learning experience.
To achieve these, the publication must be attractive and informative. The over arching theme will be ‘the Gees student learning experience’. Most of the articles will be written by the target audience and will include; relevant advice and information, details on what the GEES Subject Centre does or offers them and articles on issues that may affect students and staff. It will be distributed throughout the UK to staff and students in GEES departments; we may also consider circulating it to schools as a careers advice tool.
General points to consider
- This is aimed specifically at GEES subjects, although it’s accepted that some of the material will be generically relevant.
- This is not a ‘student guide’.
- This is a UK wide project, however it is not meant as a representative survey. A conscious effort is being put into getting a wide range of authors but it will be anecdotal.
- As this is a pilot scheme and may not be repeated for sometime, if at all, the articles must have a shelf life of at least 3 years.
Contents of publication
These are the subjects and articles that have been chosen to be potentially written up. Please note this is not an exhaustive or guaranteed list. They have been arranged into broad topic areas, these are for ease of reading and to make sure that all key issues are covered, they are not necessarily chapters, sections or titles.
What is GEES about and why do people study it?
Advice
“What advice would you give to a new student?”
This is the title to this year’s Subject Network student essay competition. It’s thought that to use this alongside a lecturers answer to this question would produce an interesting contrast.
Recruitment
Why do students take GEES subjects?
Helen King is currently undertaking research into what are A-level students’ perceptions of our disciplines? This will cover both, students who already study it and those who don’t. In addition, Paul Wright (Southampton Solent University) and Alison Stokes (Experiential Learning CETL) are undertaking
research into undergraduates’ perceptions which we may be able to tap into.
Employability
Profiles of ex-GEES students who are now employed in a variety of sectors.
An analysis of a graduate survey carried out by Sharon Gedye.
Small profiles on famous people who took GEES subjects.
Widening Participation
For a new perspective, it is thought that an article on what it is like to be a student ambassador, including the difficulties they encounter attracting marginalised groups, would be of interest to students and staff alike.
Are students looking for value for money? If so, what factors do they believe affect this. For example; do they look at their potential earning as a factor when choosing a course, a university or higher education at all?
Getting to know each other
What is a student?
An analysis of UCAS data on common characteristics e.g. age, domicile
What is a successful student?
Alison Stokes is currently carrying out research into what students, lecturers and employers think the answer is to this question.
Youth culture
Many lecturers base their methods on their memories as a student. Times, Cultures, fashion and technology have all moved on and what lecturers remember, may not apply today. This article will be based on a discussion between lecturers and students on what it is like to be a 21st century student, compared to when lecturers were undergraduates. Subjects to be covered will include (although this is by no means complete): technology, attitude to work, future plans, learning styles, expectations of their course, previous study, reasons behind choice of subject and external stresses on students.
What is a lecturer, what do they do?
Based on a tutorial programme run by ULC, students’ interview their lecturers about other work that they are involved in, references for articles on how useful this is as a teaching tool will be provided.
Aspects of the course
Field work
How has fieldwork been affected by top up fees? An article based on research carried out by Chris Elders at Royal Holloway University of London funded by the GEES Subject Centre’s small-scale project programme.
Tips and good examples. ‘How to get the most out of your fieldwork’, written by students and staff
Feedback
An airing of views on feedback by students and lecturers. This will cover common complaints, for example students may say that the feedback they receive is brief and the writing illegible, whereas lecturers may comment that they don’t believe that anyone takes notice of it anyway. This could also highlight misunderstandings caused by ambiguous language.
Tips and good examples. ‘How to get the most out of your feedback’, written by students and staff, perhaps from University of Wales Swansea department of Physical Geography and Environmental Science, or The Open Universities department for Human Geography as they received the highest NSS scores in this area.
Guidance
This has been highlighted as a key issue in the NSS. Within the GEES subjects the Open University received noticeably higher marks than any other institution. An article by either a member of staff or a student from the Open University on why they believe they came out top would be helpful to other institutions.
It has been considered that Open University students may have a different work ethic i.e. are students prepared to work unassisted and therefore any guidance is a bonus? An article on this would be of equal value.
Threshold Knowledge
What is threshold knowledge? A comparison between the topics students find hard to grasp and the topics staff believe they do and therefore presumably put the most effort into teaching.
GEES Subject Centre work
Mini projects
The working title for this is The Good GEES Guide as Helen King took the inspiration from the Good Food Guide. The aim is to have our work critiqued by the customers, just as food is in the original. To this end we will select a few of the mini projects funded by the GEES centre and ask the students who now use the product of that research to review it as a learning tool/programme.
Follow up of Environmental Ethics Event
This term, a student and staff environmental ethics workshop is being provided. A short article on how this has affected the students and staff alike would be an assessment of both our traditional work i.e. just staff and this new approach of including students in the process.
Opened up to the floor
If any students or staff feel they have a dissertation, project or even a burning issue that they would like to raise we’ll consider all contributions.
Format
The publication is still very much in the design stages however it is expected to be printed as a short magazine. It has been agreed that to make it too formal would perhaps alienate some of our readers so it has been suggested that a ‘coffee table’ style might be appropriate, quantity and colour have yet to be decided and a name hasn’t been chosen yet either, although a suggestion list is being drawn up.
The articles will be written in formal English and be referenced using the Harvard system. The emphasis is however on ease of reading rather than technical language.
It is likely that it will be supported by this web page including any additional material that could not be fitted in and any links to relevant sites and sources of further information.
The hardcopy section will be printed in June (with a view to launching it at our summer residential event) and distributed in August/September in time for new and returning students. The webpage will be continuously updated in the mean time and be completed by June.