Talis Insight Europe 2019: Going for Gold: Faculty-based research projects at Sheffield Hallam University
1 like665 views
The document outlines a project aimed at enhancing the use of online reading lists at Sheffield Hallam University, addressing student awareness and engagement. Recommendations include improving awareness of reading lists among new students, ensuring timely distribution prior to modules, and increasing online resources available. The findings highlight that a well-structured and accessible reading list correlates with increased usage and student satisfaction.
More Related Content
Similar to Talis Insight Europe 2019: Going for Gold: Faculty-based research projects at Sheffield Hallam University (20)
Talis Insight Europe 2019: Going for Gold: Faculty-based research projects at Sheffield Hallam University
- 1. have you seen the Going for Gold: Faculty-based research projects Julia King and Paul Conway
- 2. Going for Gold • Background • Aims • Method • Results • Conclusions • Recommendations • The Future ... George V pillar box painted gold to celebrate Jessica Ennis's gold in the heptathlon at the London Olympics 2012, Sheffield. Shimmer collection, Sheffield Hallam University.
- 3. Background • Reading Lists Online (RLOs) at Sheffield Hallam since 2013 • Reading lists required for each module • 20-25% of Faculty staff not engaging • Requirement to obtain evidence of student needs and awareness of reading lists
- 4. Going for Gold: Aims • Improve student experience by providing evidence that well structured and accessible online reading lists increases usage.
- 5. Preliminary research • Best practice guidelines • Reading list of month information on the TALIS website • Usage statistics of Sheffield Hallam RLOs
- 6. Evidence: feedback from RLO Survey December 2017 • Completed by 1207 students – ACES - 293 – D&S - 275 – HWB - 406 – SBS - 283
- 7. When you use your RLO, what do you find most useful? • Added notes from the lecturer e.g. 'Chapter 4 provides a good introduction to academic writing' • Items are marked essential, background or optional • Lists in sections - e.g. topics, weeks, lectures • Mixed resources e.g. as well as books there are video clips, journal articles, websites • Shorter lists - no more than 30 items Ranking 1-4 1. Not helpful, 2. Quite helpful, 3. Helpful and 4. Very helpful.
- 8. 1. Not all students are aware of RLO 19% (229 students of the 1207 surveyed) did not have RLOs or were not aware of them. Infographic for this?? + the student quotes 'On two modules I don't have one' 'Not all modules have them or use the RLO' Recommendation 1: Improve awareness of RLO with new starters o Include exercise in all library induction workshops where students locate the RLO for their first module o Module leader for first/early module taken by incoming students introduces students to RLO
- 9. 2. Students find good list structure and annotation helpful Recommendation 2: Increase annotation and revise structure of lists to make them easier to use for students.
- 10. 3. Students want lists earlier INFOGRAPHIC HERE for the 3 points below • 70% of students said they got their reading lists in plenty of time. • 22% said they would have preferred it sooner and 6% didn't mind when they got the list. • 2% of students told us they didn't receive their lists on time. Recommendation 3: Ensure timeliness of introducing the RLO prior to the start of a module. RLO best practice guidelines say: "ensure reading lists are ready 8 weeks in advance of a module starting to allow the Library to obtain alternative formats where necessary for students with specific accessibility or educational requirements."
- 11. 4. Students want more online resources on their RLOs to make it easier to get hold of resources • INFOGRAPHIC HERE for the 4 points below? e.g. speech bubbles? • 'I prefer more items that are available online' • 'The online reading lists are really useful but sometimes the books I’d like to read aren’t available online' • 'Some books are listed that there are only a few copies of and no electronic copy but it's only a big deal when it's a core book'. • 'There are some books that cannot be accessed via the library gateway. I work from home a lot so it would be useful to have all key texts downloadable from the gateway.' Recommendation 4: Increase online items on lists, especially core texts. Increase academic staff awareness of digitisation options.
- 12. Reading Lists / self-discovery • Reading List - provided by your module leaders and available in your Blackboard module (usually in 'Support Resources') • Self-discovery reading - enhance your knowledge by self discovering information. Search on the Library Gateway
- 13. Find your module RLO
- 14. Library Gateway
- 15. Going for Gold: Method Four Faculty-based pilot projects • Level 6 Business students (SBS) • Level 4 Sport students (HWB) • Blackboard Digital Teacher certificate - Distance Learners (D&S) • Computer student with learning contract (ACES)
- 16. Level 6 Business students • Reading list for 'Academic and Professional Excellence' module 18/19: comparison of usage statistics • In 2017/18 the list consisted of 4 items. The list was viewed 55 times and only 2 items were looked at in any depth • In 2018/19 the list consisted of 31 items. The list was viewed 144 times and 77 items were looked at in depth • The most viewed item in 2018/19 was the journal article marked as essential reading
- 17. Level 4 Sport students • Reading list for 'Developing Professional Skills for Physical Activity, Sport and Health' module 18/19: comparison of usage statistics • In 2017/18 the list consisted of 19 items. The list was viewed 26 times and only 4 of the items were looked at in any depth. Once on each occasion • In 2018/19 the list consisted of 49 items. The list was viewed 180 times and the items were looked at 150 times in total
- 18. Examples of Reading List Annotation
- 19. 2017/18 2018/19
- 20. Blackboard Digital Teacher certificate - DL students • PG Cert Professional Practice in Digital Teaching and Learning • New Libguide which complements the reading list
- 21. Digital Teaching and Learning Libguide
- 22. Reading List Tab
- 23. Computing student with learning contract Learning points: • Do differently - session in conjunction with disabled student support • Could show students the RLOs and ask how accessible they are • Query whether Google forms are the best medium for students with VI - look at research
- 24. Conclusions • Reading lists of high quality appreciated by students • Reading lists containing examples of good practice more likely to be used • Not always used to their full potential e.g. not considered as dynamic • Has to be the academics who engage students with reading lists
- 25. Recommendations for Faculties Ian Hudson, Beyond Obstacles Lies Our Future, degree show work Sheffield. Shimmer collection, Sheffield Hallam University. • Improve awareness of RLO with new starters • Review then promote Hallam RLO best practice guidelines to ensure that reading lists demonstrate best practice • Ensure timeliness of introducing the RLO prior to the start of a module • Increase number of online resources, especially core texts
- 26. The Future ... • Liaise with Disabled Student Support Team to get feedback from students with a learning contract • Automatically embed • RLOs into Blackboard • modules • Link to RLOs on opening • page Astronaut in outer space. Freepik.
- 27. Any questions?
Editor's Notes
- #5: What we're going to explore in today's class
- #6: Looked at Talis reading lists recreated by other Universities to learn from good practice (effective reading) from other universities - i.e. the Universities of Reading, Warwick and King's College London Looked at digitisation statistics to see which faculty engages most with this service and see how the reading lists with digitised readings attached are laid out. The majority of the RLOs with the most digitised readings have the importance set and/or are grouped into sections, with some annotations. The one RLO which is not structured like this is very short! Looked at the usage statistics of SHU RLO and see if there is a correlation already between usage and list design
- #7: SBS: Finance, accounting, economics, international business, business management, human resource management and organisational behaviour, strategic management, food, tourism and hospitality, languages and business, marketing, events management, banking HWB: Allied Health Professions, biosciences and chemistry, nursing and midwifery, sport and physical activity, social work and social care, youth work ACES (now Faculty of Science, Technology and Arts - STA): art, design, communications, media arts, journalism, cultural management, computing, mathematics, aeronautical, electrical, materials and mechanical engineering D&S (now Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities - SSH): architecture, built environment, criminology and community justice, education, English, environment, film, theatre and performance, forensics, geography, history, law, planning, regeneration and housing, psychology, sociology and politics, teacher education
- #16: Examples of RLOs for students from each of the University’s four Faculties were chosen. Different areas of research were selected and students with various needs and circumstances were targeted
- #18: Reading list for Developing Professional Skills for Physical Activity 18/19: comparison of usage statistics between this year and last. In 2017/18 the list consisted of 19 items. The list was viewed 26 times and only 4 of the items were looked at in any depth. Once on each occasion. In 2018/19 the list consisted of 49 items. The list was viewed 180 times and the items were looked at 150 times in total. Not all the items were looked at. The items towards the end of the list were looked at least and most of these were web pages. The following 3 resources were looked at most 1) Skills for Success – personal development and employability : S. Cottrell 2015 – 19 views 2) A handbook of reflective and experimental learning theory and practice :J. Moon 2004 – 17 views 3) Reducing health inequality resources : web resource. 11 views I had hoped all these three might have been annotated, to indicate that annotation generally increased usage, but this is a much bigger sum that could perhaps be looked at another time. Survey launched in December had a very limited response, (4) but all the respondents liking the structure and annotation of the list.
- #20: Dashboard usage figures for Sport: 'Developing Professional Skills for Physical Activity, Sport and Health' module 2017/18 compared with 2018/19
- #21: PG Cert Professional Practice in Digital Teaching and Learning (Task 5b) Updated 18.2.19 Initial meeting was held with course leader, and Head of Learning & Teaching. This is a new postgraduate certificate which Sheffield Hallam is running in conjunction with Blackboard, and delivered as a distance learning course through Blackboard to students around the world. Four modules in total. Currently have developed the reading list for the first module, working in conjunction with the Course Leader. https://shu.rl.talis.com/lists/A38C7339-23B3-8309-E0CD-CBFE4842B780.html The reading list adheres to the following principles to make it suitable for learners at a distance. All content is available online / digitised format accessible away from SHU home campus Due to the different starting points for learning for learners in different countries, basic material is signposted and annotations provided to ensure a scaffolded approach to learning. Different formats of material are used to help meet different learning styles of learners. Materials are included to provide support for the formative research activity, and scaffolding for the summative task creating an electronic interactive academic poster. Links across to a new libguide which complements the reading list are provided https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/c.php?g=663376&p=4694660 (Note the materials provided in the libguide will also be used for off campus SCIIT students). The plan is to review usage of the items on the reading list and libguide and feedback to the course leader. There has been a delay on this project due to the course starting later than expected so at present there is no feedback available on use of the materials.
- #24: Computing student with learning contract The computing student is going through a Fitness to Study, so Mechanical Engineering students and academics are now being approached. Mech Eng student happy to contribute feedback on reading lists- what is the best way of doing this? Usability observation? Survey? 17th July 2018 Student to fill in the existing reading list survey, with additional questions to take into account the accessibility side of using a reading list. Use survey response to add to the Best Practice guidelines. Information to be shared with the Faculties afterwards. 18th July - follow up meeting Questions used in the previous RLO survey replicated exactly in the survey going out to the visually impaired student. To change any of the questions might be leading and it would be interesting to see if their answers differ at all from previous respondents. Should we actually send the RLO survey out to all the students who we currently contact through the Accessible Formats service so as to get a wider opinion (rather than just the ACES angle)? Learning points Do differently - slot with student disabled support - could show students the RLOs and ask how accessible they are And - are google forms (the way the survey was sent out) is the best medium for students with visual disabilities - look for any research done on surveying students with visual disabilities - possibly using word document or email