steve rooney and marta ulanicka

When you say, ‘in the curriculum’, you actually mean ‘on the time-table’, don’t

you?

Opportunities and limitations when supporting transition in the mainstream curriculum.

Steve Rooney and Marta Ulanicka

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

A (very) brief introduction

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

Our work consists of…

supporting

departments

resource development

peer-assisted learning (PAL)

study consultations

(incl. Maths Help)

central

workshops

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

Balance of teaching activities

Central Provision

Departmental Provision

2004 - 2008

2008 - 2012

2000 - 2004

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

Drivers, Fuel and Co-travellersDrivers• Demand from students for contextualised academic support • Demand from academic departments to support them in supporting their

students• Team’s commitment to supporting the development of learning across the

institution

Fuel• 3 x full-time Learning Developers (1 post currently vacant)• 1 x 0.3 Learning Developer • 1 x 0.7 Information Specialist

Co-travellers• Academic colleagues in departments• Course Designers and Developers• Librarians• Educational Developers• Learning Technologists

Soon to be more formally aligned

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

Some (inconsistent) observations

Interactive and timely workshop or consultation

Module with strong links to formative and

summative assessment and

feedback

Generic, untimely

content-heavy, workshop

Themed transitional skills module (e.g. year

1, semester 1)

Inte

grat

ed?

no

yes

Embedded?yesno

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

Activities not always as timely as they might be

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

Lecturer A asks for an essay writing workshop in the first week of the autumn term. The

deadline for the submission of the students’ first essay is in January

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

sometimes departmental provision comes at a pedagogic cost

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

You’ve been assigned 50 mins. to ‘teach’ presentation skills to a group of 80 students.

The venue is a tiered lecture theatre

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

provision might remain separated from relevant assessment and feedback processes

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

The assessment for module X (on writing development) consists of one summative

assignment

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

pressure on resources and impact on sustainability

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

In year 1, department B asks you to run two workshops. In year 2 this rises to 4 and in year 3

requests for 8 sessions are made (meanwhile demand from other departments is growing,

too)

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

Over to you (1)

How have you sought, or how might you seek to address and overcome these, and other, challenges in your own interactions with academic departments?

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

Feedback

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

Over to you (2)

Have a look at the examples we’ve brought along and:

1) raise any questions you have2) comment on any experiences you have had of

trying similar approaches3) discuss any concerns, risks, limitations you

perceive

www.le.ac.uk/succeedinyourstudies

Steve RooneyLearning Development Manager, University of Leicester sgr3@le.ac.uk estebanrooney

Marta UlanickaLearning Development Adviser, University of Leicester mmu1@le.ac.uk marta_u