Customisable Online Academic Skills Self-Assessment: Development and Initial Feedback Steve Briggs Nick Collis Nigel Upton

Session Overview Rationale for developing the resource Demonstration of the resource –Tutor perspective –Student perspective –Running reports Feedback Next steps 2 Customisable academic skills self-assessment

Rationale Historically, the Professional and Academic Development (PAD) Team have provided a self-assessment booklet for students commencing undergraduate study. The booklet focused on key academic skills including: –Writing –ICT –Maths –Time management and organisation 3 Customisable academic skills self-assessment

Rationale II By working through the booklet, students assessed how confident they felt about different aspects of studying Students also completed exercises to provide an insight into their performance related to basic academic skills If students identified areas where they lacked confidence / competence they were encouraged to access online resources / services provided by PAD 4 Customisable academic skills self-assessment

Benefits of the Booklet Encouraged independent learning Introduction to PDP Source of service promotion Could be a scheduled induction exercise However, whilst we found the concept of the booklet to be sound we experienced problems associated with the paper format Customisable academic skills self-assessment 5

Issues with the Paper Format Cost Non-subject specific Distribution time Fixed content once printed Catering for last minute requests from academics Relevance of content to certain courses (e.g. Maths) Self-assessment meant that trends were not identified amongst student groups Customisable academic skills self-assessment 6

An Online Solution Customisable academic skills self-assessment 7 Given the issues associated with a paper self-assessment resource we considered whether a technology based solution could be applied After conversation with our Learning Technology team it was decided that an online version of the self-assessment (delivered through Blackboard and built using learning units) would be developed This would address many of the problems that had previously been encountered It would also enable trends to be identified in academic skill development needs

Demonstration 8 Customisable academic skills self-assessment

Early Adopters Customisable academic skills self-assessment 9 Academics who approached PAD requesting copies of our self- assessment booklet were sent a copy of the online self-assessment package We promoted awareness of the package through arranging departmental demonstrations Details of the package were included in University induction guidelines – as an option that could be used

Initial Dissemination Customisable academic skills self-assessment 10 We were concerned that PAD / Learning Technology could be inundated with ICT requests related to the self-assessment package We therefore made it clear that ownership and responsibility for revising content sat with academic teams PAD would provide limited assistance with content when requested Learning Technology would provide assistance around installation / running of reports

Outcomes – Learning Development Team As anticipated: –Dissemination of the resource to academics has become much more straightforward – forward instructions with attached zip file –Typos have been easily corrected when identified –Significant cost saving –Requests have easily been catered for 11 Customisable academic skills self-assessment

Outcomes - Academics Customisable academic skills self-assessment 12 “The package itself is great - but as usual it [problems] is to do with implementation” (Senior Lecturer – Faculty of Business)

Issues that emerged Lead time needed to implement Staff having the time to customise content Course team engagement / championing within faculty Integration with other systems (such as PebblePad) Student completion not made compulsory 13 Customisable academic skills self-assessment

Moving Forward Increase the range of template questions to make the resource more resistant to non-customised use by academics. This will be done by requesting input from Librarians / Computer Skills Training / Language Centre) The Centre for Learning Excellence will include details of the package in induction guidance that academic departments should follow We plan to work closely with early adopters who in turn we hope will become our ‘champions’ The package will be as a source of evidence for justifying a request for on course academic skills teaching delivered by learning resources teams 14 Customisable academic skills self-assessment

Questions 15 Customisable academic skills self-assessment