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

A (very) brief introduction

Our work consists of… study consultations (incl. Maths Help) supporting departments study consultations (incl. Maths Help) resource development central workshops peer-assisted learning (PAL)

Balance of teaching activities Central Provision Departmental Provision 2000 - 2004 2004 - 2008 2008 - 2012

Drivers, Fuel and Co-travellers 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

Some (inconsistent) observations Integrated? no yes 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) Embedded? yes no

Activities not always as timely as they might be

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

sometimes departmental provision comes at a pedagogic cost

You’ve been assigned 50 mins You’ve been assigned 50 mins. to ‘teach’ presentation skills to a group of 80 students. The venue is a tiered lecture theatre

provision might remain separated from relevant assessment and feedback processes

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

pressure on resources and impact on sustainability

In year 1, department B asks you to run two workshops 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)

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?

Feedback

Have a look at the examples we’ve brought along and: Over to you (2) Have a look at the examples we’ve brought along and: raise any questions you have comment on any experiences you have had of trying similar approaches discuss any concerns, risks, limitations you perceive

Steve Rooney Learning Development Manager, University of Leicester sgr3@le.ac.uk estebanrooney Marta Ulanicka Learning Development Adviser, University of Leicester mmu1@le.ac.uk marta_u