Transition to Living and Learning Workshop: Academic Skills, Humanities

1. 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

2. 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? 2

3. 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. 3

4. HUMA1027 structure (compared to SSs) 4

5. 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

6. 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. 6

7. 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. 7

8. 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. 8

9. 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. 9

10. For further information… Prof Adrian Smith Director of Undergraduate Studies, Faculty of Humanities: as5@soton.ac.uk “Congratulations on completing your skills training, Jonny”