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Boosting ISB Response Rates

The International Student Barometer is currently open and, as with any survey, there are actions that could be taken to help boost response rates.

Mobile Devices

Actively encourage completion using a mobile device. Most people have at least one mobile device and the ISB Survey can be completed on any device by following the personalised link emailed to students. Wireless access is being continuously improved across campus (as a result of student feedback!) which should make this really easy and convenient.

If possible arrange dedicated information sessions or set aside a brief amount of time at the start or end of timetabled sessions for students to complete surveys on their own devices.

Engage Students

Task student ambassadors or stage reps with encouraging their cohort to take part in surveys by posting on School/Programme social media. Encouraging discussion among student cohorts may lead to positive suggestions for improvement. Announcements could also be made on Blackboard community or module pages.

For all internal and external surveys it is important to ensure examples of improvements made both in house and across the wider University in response to results are communicated to students. Try to highlight what has been achieved at local level in response to past surveys of any kind and direct students to the ‘You Said We Did‘ webpage for examples of how student feedback has helped shape the student experience.

Prizes to be won!

Don’t forget to remind students that in return for their valued opinions, all respondents are entered into a prize draw (see terms and conditions). In 2017, the prizes include:

  • 1st Place prize: 5-inch iPad Pro (one available to win)
  • 2nd Place prizes: iPad mini 4 (two available to win)
  • 3rd Place prizes:£20 Amazon gift card (20 available to win)

What does it matter anyway?

The Student Voice is an essential component of how the University does business. We need to hear about student experiences and work with students to improve the student experience for them and for future students. While feedback can be gathered in other ways such as through Student-Staff Committees, student surveys give the opportunity to capture data that can be compared easily between academic years and stages. Positive and negative responses are equally as important as we need to know what we do well so it can be rolled out as best practice, and where we can improve to help students have the best experience possible.

The higher the response rate to a survey, the more representative the findings should be.

If you have any queries regarding the ISB or any examples of efforts to boost response rates you would like to share please contact us.

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NUTELA 3Ps: Collaborate and Conquer with Office 365 Groups

Do you need to organise and work with a team on a project? Office 365 Groups is a collaborative tool, enabling you to work collectively when writing documents, creating spreadsheets, working on project plans and scheduling meetings.

The benefits of using Groups in Office 365

Members of a created group will have access to a shared:

  • Inbox for group conversations.
  • Calendar that all members can see and contribute to.
  • 1TB Files Library in OneDrive to store, share, and collaborate on documents, workbooks, presentations, or just about any kind of file.
  • OneNote notebook to gather ideas, collaborate and store research/meeting notes.

Accessing Groups in Office 365

  1. Sign in to your Office 365 account with your username in the format universityID@newcastle.ac.uk and your university password. E.g. nmc84@newcastle.ac.uk or b1013456@newcastle.ac.uk
  2. In the list on the left you should see an expandable section called ‘Groups’ with options to ‘Discover’ or ‘Create’ Groups.

Using Groups in Office 365

Create a group in: Outlook on the web | Outlook 2016

Join a group in: Outlook on the web | Outlook 2016

Have a group conversation in: Outlook on the web | Outlook 2016

Schedule a meeting on a group calendar in: Outlook on the web | Outlook 2016

Share group files in: Outlook on the web | Outlook 2016

Things to consider

Time Sensitive Group Projects:Consider creating a  Microsoft Team for your group. This further enhances group collaboration by offering instant messaging on desktop and mobile in addition to the ability to schedule video meetings and screen sharing.

Audience:  Groups/teams can be made public or private and you can invite members outside of the University to a group or team.

Group/Team Name:  Searchable to all staff and students within the University so please take care when naming your group.

Spring Cleaning: Leave the Office as you found it by deleting your inactive groups.

Make it Private and add a Description:  Add a description to your private group as this will help prevent unwanted joining requests from staff and students.

Group Members Visibility:  Staff and students can see who is a member of a group, even if it is private.

Additional Resources

Office 365 at Newcastle University

Introducing Office 365 Groups

Learn more about Office 365 Groups

Training: Unite your team with Groups

Frequently-asked questions (FAQs) and further ‘How-To’ documentation

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LTDS Working with QAA

QAA/Jisc/HESA Business Intelligence Labs

Over the past few months three members of the LTDS team have undertaken the role of ‘Development Team Member’ as part of a QAA team within the QAA/Jisc/HESA Business Intelligence labs project. The idea is that members of the Higher Education community develop data ‘dashboards’ that analyse existing data in new ways. If deemed of interest to wider sector these dashboards may be published on HESA’s HeidiPlus Community Dashboard site.

Using ‘Agile’ methodology and working with colleagues from Durham, Cardiff Met, Queen’s University Belfast and Bournemouth University (alongside support from a QAA ‘scrum master’ and data and tableau experts), we set out to develop a data dashboard that would allow a university to consider the student journey/value added/learning gain, by looking at different factors and how they affect outcomes and leaning gain, so that support and gap areas and effectiveness of interventions can be identified.

Working remotely with only four face to face meetings the team narrowed down the data source to HESA and DLHE data to analyse the outcomes of students from different backgrounds and answer the following questions;

  • How can we demonstrate that as an institution we add value to students?
  • Does everyone get the same level of value from studying or do some groups continue to be disadvantaged?
  • How do our outcomes compare with the sector
  • How do we compare at subject level with our comparators

The final outcome was a set of data dashboards that can aid an institution to assess their position in terms of adding value. The dashboards were presented to a Jisc/HESA experts group with a voting session at the end. The work produced by the team received strong support and it is hoped that some of it will be earmarked to be made available in Heidi Plus Community Dashboards Beta in 2018.

You can find out more about the Business Intelligence labs project by following the link. If you would like further information regarding the project please contact LTDS@ncl.ac.uk

 

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Assessment & Feedback Event – 1st Nov – all welcome

Assessment and feedback continue to be a source of student dissatisfaction across the sector. In particular student surveys highlight concerns about the alignment of feedback to marking criteria and inconsistencies in both the application of criteria and quality of feedback received.

The HaSS Faculty will be holding a workshop, to discuss these issues in the context of student transitions, on:

Wednesday 1st November 2017
1300-1600 (lunch will be provided)
Lindisfarne Room, Hadrian Building

Though hosted by HaSS, anyone interested in this event from any faculty is welcome to attend – please feel free to disseminate details of this event to your colleagues.

The session will explore the following questions:

  • How can we better understand assessment and feedback in the context of student transitions?
  • What are the assumptions inherent in our assessment criteria and feedback?
  • Can electronic assessment and feedback tools enhance students’ academic literacy?
  • Can we develop a ‘student as partners’ approach in assessment and feedback?

It will be particularly relevant for Degree Programme Directors and Module Leaders, whose input will help identify some key priorities for further action.

It will include presentations from Rowan South (Education Officer, Newcastle Union Students Union), Graeme Redshaw-Boxwell (Learning and Teaching Development Service) and Sarah Graham (Combined Honours).

To attend, please complete the booking form.

If you have any queries in the run up to the event, please contact susan.mclean@ncl.ac.uk.

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International Student Barometer

Monday 23 October sees the launch of the 2017 International Student Barometer (ISB), in which Newcastle University is undertaken for the thirteenth year.

The ISB gives European Union and international students the opportunity to give their opinions on their experiences at Newcastle, from arrival at the University, through to teaching, accommodation and employability

We will survey all full-time and part-time EU and international undergraduate, taught and research postgraduate students, as well as study abroad and exchange students, based here in Newcastle and at Newcastle University London. We are unable to survey non-UK based and distance learning students as part of the ISB.

What is the ISB?

The annual ISB, which is run by i-Graduate, asks European Union and international students in around 200 universities across the world about their course and learning experiences. In 2017, the ISB will run at Newcastle between Monday 23 October and Friday 1 December.

What questions does it ask?

The survey includes questions about the whole student learning experience, including:

  • Pre-Arrival (including decision-making, application, and funding)
  • Arrival (including registration, and welcome/induction)
  • Learning (including teaching, assessment, and employability)
  • Living (including living costs, sports facilities, and accommodation)
  • Support (including personal tutors, students’ union, and wellbeing)

Who benefits from the ISB?

Schools, professional services and NUSU examine the anonymised ISB data internally to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses. This information can be used to help effect changes designed to enhance or improve the student experience for both current and prospective students. Schools should make sure that the results of the ISB are considered by Boards of Studies and that they provide all students with feedback on key actions taken or planned in response to the outcomes of the survey (and about those elements which will not be acted on and the reasons for this).

Some examples of changes implemented in recent years can be found at https://internal.ncl.ac.uk/yousaidwedid/actions/

Want to know more?

More details about the ISB, including access to previous year’s results, can be found at http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ltds/student/opinion/ISB/index.htm or obtained by emailing newcastlestudentsurveys@ncl.ac.uk

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Essay Mills and Contract Cheating

Wednesday 18th October 2017 marks the second International Day of Action against Contract Cheating, promoted by the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI).

Contract cheating occurs when one person completes academic work, such as an essay, assignment, test or exam, for another who then submits it for academic credit. This behaviour undermines academic standards and devalues the qualifications of those who do not cheat.

In 2016, in response to serious concerns among higher education providers and from government, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) published a report on the growing threat of third parties helping students to cheat, known as custom essay writing services, or ‘essay mills’. Following this, QAA has now this month published guidance for students and universities on tackling this problem and promoting academic integrity in higher education. It sets out the steps that universities can take to deal with forms of contract cheating, and recommends:

  • clear information for students on the risks of cheating, including academic misconduct being reported to relevant professional bodies
  • support for students to develop independent study skills, including academic writing
  • using a range of assessment methods to limit opportunities for cheating
  • blocking essay mill sites and taking action against essay mill advertising on campus
  • smarter detection, including new software and greater familiarity with students’ personal styles and capabilities
  • appropriate support for whistle blowing – to protect accuser as well as accused
  • student involvement on academic misconduct policies and panels.

Newcastle University is committed to defending academic integrity and freedom, and will be considering how best to take account of this guidance within its own policies and procedures.

The International Center for Academic Integrity has published an institutional toolkit against contract cheating that can be downloaded here.

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Teaching Rooms Finder website: helping inform your teaching

The Teaching Rooms Finder web pages have been designed to provide up-to-date information about centrally managed and supported teaching rooms so that you can quickly find out which facilities and furniture are in the room that you have been allocated.

For teaching rooms across campus you will find:

  • A location map of the building where the room is located, including the university map reference
  • Photographs of the teaching wall and the furniture layout
  • Information about the capacity and room type
  • Information about the AV
  • Information about accessibility

Making informed choices:

A search option provides you with filters that will enable you to find a teaching room type or style that meets your pedagogic requirements. This information can then be used when completing a timetabling request so that the timetabling team will have a better understanding of your needs.

Let us know what you think:

The Teaching Room Finder web pages have been designed by a cross-disciplinary team and we really hope that they provide a useful service. However we would like feedback from users so that we can make any necessary improvements.

Any comments can be made via the form provided on the feedback page.

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ULTSEC Innovation Fund Submission Dates and Workshops announcement

The submission dates for ULTSEC Innovation Fund have been announced for 2017/18.

Responsive project proposal submission deadlines

Autumn – Monday 20th November 2017 4pm

Spring – Thursday 12th April 2018 4pm

Summer – Wednesday 30th May 2018 4pm

Strategic project proposal submission deadlines

Semester 1: Monday 22nd January 2018 4pm

Semester 2: Monday 21st May 2018 4pm

We will be running some webinars and workshops which will be available to book via the Learning and Teaching Development Programme shortly.

The dates of the workshops are:

  • 19th October 2017 10 .00am – 11.00am Training Room 4 Herschel Building
  • 23rd February 2018 10.00am – 11.00am ARMB 3.41

The dates of the webinars are:

  • 17th October 11.00 – 11.30
  • 19th January 10.00 – 10.30
  • 20th February 10.00 – 10.30
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Resources to support designing, developing or delivering flipped, blended, or online learning

If you have been thinking about more flexible forms of module or programme delivery, then there are some resources which you may find helpful.

You will find:

  • An introduction to online and blended learning
  • Some definitions of online and blended learning
  • How LTDS can support online or blended course development
  • Some tips on designing online or blended learning
  • Advice on producing online or blended learning

There is also guidance on tailored workshops available and a ‘How To Build a Great Futurelearn Course’ course (approx 8 hours) which we can add you to.  For further information or to discuss your ideas contact online-courses@ncl.ac.uk

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Why is my list of tutees displayed incorrectly at the start of the academic year?

At the start of the academic year, some staff members have reported that students are appearing in the wrong year, or across two years. Some images are set as graphics rather than the student photograph.

Previous tutees show in ePortfolio because of a ‘grace period’ for students from the previous academic year which we apply so that returning students don’t ‘disappear’ as they come to the end of their registration period. This is to support students if there is a delay in them registering (as is frequently the case) and also it enables returning students continuing access to various systems over the summer prior to the formal start of the academic year – especially important for the numerous programmes which start before the main start of the academic year.

Our practice has been developed over the years to address the short period where registration data is so fluid that it cannot be the sole basis for identifying current tutees.

This problem is compounded because it is common practice by Schools to assign tutees to tutors on SAP for an indefinite time, so we cannot reliably use the recorded end date. We have also include admissions data so that tutors can see new tutees prior to registration.

From the 2nd of October, the ePortfolio system will revert back to registration data as the vast majority of students will have had time to register.