Dr Sally Chappell School of Life Sciences University of Nottingham

Students apply online to individual universities Applications considered by course teams Student responds to offer How many? Or do they? Deadlines? Interviews?

 Not always that clear! ◦ Some students accept, then don’t turn up ◦ Some students don’t register a decision – some of these will turn up  How do we get a better idea? Offers made to students – conditional/unconditional Students firmly accept or reject the place List of students starting the course

in June – invitation to register Reminders in July/August Course starts at the end of September All possible students (those with an offer irrespective of decision) 48% started the course Those students who registered for the background material 91% started the course

I found ATutor fantastic to use as a preparatory system for the course. I strongly recommend the establishment of ATutor in other courses, as I found it very informative and personally I came well prepared for my MSc. I had a year out before attending the masters course so found it useful to revise basic knowledge. It is a great idea and should definitely be done for future students, because I think the students who did not use it found the first few weeks more difficult because they had forgotten some rather basic concepts.

The forums are a really good idea. It was nice to have everyone introduce themselves before moving up to Nottingham. I did talk to other students and had the opportunity to meet them before the start of the course. I didn't use the forum to ask questions about the background material because I didn't have any problems, however I think this is a very useful way to start studying and be prepared for the course.

Having additional links on the site, for example including links to the school, background reading textbooks and links on the Nottingham university (such as accommodation, funding, academic support services) I could add some information about the modules of the MSc. I found it difficult to find in UoN web page detailed information about assessments or topics that will be covered in the modules. If I had the opportunity I think I would make it compulsory when logging in to include a photo of yourself and some background info (where are you from, what have you studied, where are you living in Nottingham?)

 Improvement in the teaching sessions after the provision of background material ◦ No real change in assessment grades  Enables students to get to know each other prior to the course start ◦ Encourages early working relationships ◦ Useful for International students moving to UK

 Do we need to include more problem-based learning, rather than just a set of resources?  Can we use the same VLE for pre-course and in-course learning? It would be good to use only one system, so students can start to get used to Moodle from the very beginning of the course because Moodle is a platform that we have to use during the entire year.

 Dr Paddy Tighe (School of Life Sciences)  MSc students from 2014/15 and 2015/16