Rebecca McCready Learning and Teaching Advisor School of Medical Sciences Education Development

1. The IT Skills Certificate of Attainment Rebecca McCreadyLearning and Teaching AdvisorSchool of Medical Sciences Education Development

2. Content • Which IT skills and why? • Teaching in the curriculum • IT skills assessment models • The Certificate • Feedback • Improvements for 2011/12

3. Which IT skills? • Essay Management • Using Word • Images and tables • Long documents • EndNote (with Library) • Data Management • Excel • Access • Presentation Skills • PowerPoint • Posters

4. Why is it important? • The 1997 Dearing Report review of HE: • Recommendations on key skills including use of information technology. • Yorke (2006) • Greater and more complex use of IT in curriculum. • Development takes time and practise. • Yorke (2006)

5. Teaching in the curriculum Essential to link skills taught to skills assessed BSc PSYCHOLOGY Essays Data Presentations Presentations Support for dissertation Data Essays Presentations Essays Dissertation Support BSc BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

6. Integration is important “In no case can skills development be ‘boxed off’ from the rest of the curriculum, since students develop through a range of curricular (and extra-curricular) engagements.” • Yorkeand Knight (2006)

7. Assessment Model: Biomed Sci Formative feedback Summative assessment Formative feedback All attended and completed = Certificate awarded Formative feedback Formative feedback

8. Assessment Model: Psychology Stage 1 Summative assessment Also includes Library Skills assessment All attended and assessed = Certificate awarded

9. Skills assessed – PSY1001 • Marked by Library staff (5%): • Search grid; • Medline or PsycInfo. • Marked by IT staff (5%): • School template; • Use of styles; • Next page breaks; • EndNote and APA 5th style. • Marked by Module Leader: • Presentation skills (10%). • Essay content (80%).

10. Skills assessed – Certificate only • PSY1010 report: • Captions and cross-references; • Management of images and tables. • Excel: • Coursework submission in PSY1010.

12. Feedback provided

13. Why assess? “Curriculum goals should be assessed because that which is assessed gets taken seriously. That which isn’t, doesn’t.” • Yorke and Knight (2006)

14. Resits

15. Student success

16. Skills covered detailed on back. Distributed March 2011. ~60p/certificate

17. Why provide a Certificate? • Students need to be ‘knowing students’. • Knight and Yorke (2006) • Need help with claims to complex achievements that cannot be assessed by more traditional means. • Knight and Yorke (2006) • Employability skills should be assessed. • UKCES (2010)

18. Feedback from Psychology

19. Feedback from Psychology

20. Feedback from Psychology } 15%

21. Feedback from Psychology } 12%

22. Feedback from Psychology

23. Improvements Course revisions • Information Skills Assimilation: essay formatting skills only. • Writing a lab report: • Managing images and tables; • Using captions, cross-references; • Inserting equations. Admin improvements • Clarify and simplify requirements. • Simplify the administration. • Provide feedback electronically. • Make the physical certificate more generic. NEW

24. Conclusion Key skills need to be • The Certificate: • Focuses learning; • Encourages uptake and use; • Raises awareness of skills learnt; • Rewards achievement; • Provides evidence of employability skills.

25. References • Knight, P. T. and M. Yorke (2006). Employability: judging and communicating achievements. York, Higher Education Academy. • UK Commission for Employment and Skills (2010). Employability: Incentivising Improvement. London, UKCES. • Yorke, M. (2006). Employability in higher education: what it is – what it is not. York, Higher Education Academy. • Yorke, M. and P. T. Knight (2006). Embedding employability into the curriculum. York, Higher Education Academy.

26. Further Information • Contact Rebecca.McCready@ncl.ac.uk • x4542 • Visit http://fms-itskills.ncl.ac.uk. • To discuss delivering and supporting IT skills in your curriculum