1. 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

2. A (very) brief introduction

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

4. Balance of teaching activities
Central Provision
Departmental Provision

5. 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

6. 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

7. Activities not always as timely as they might be

8. 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

9. sometimes departmental provision comes at a pedagogic cost

10. 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

11. provision might remain separated from relevant assessment and feedback processes

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

13. pressure on resources and impact on sustainability

14. 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)

15. 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?

16. Feedback

17. 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

18. Steve Rooney Learning Development Manager, University of Leicester estebanrooney Marta Ulanicka Learning Development Adviser, University of Leicester marta_u