Direct Entry Students

Leading up to the pre-enrolment orientation day that I had planned for the Newquay and Falmouth direct entry students, I was a tad nervous about doing a good job and meeting their expectations. I felt like I had a lot riding on my shoulders to ensure the day was a success, not only for the students, but also for myself.

To prepare for this session, I contacted Susan Hayley in the school office for maps, Colin Munn for the correct degree handbooks, and the admissions team to provide bags. I collected various bits of information and resources that I stuffed each bag with that would help students not only be aware of university resources, but also know where to find them. I arranged parking on campus for their mini-bus and greeted the students as they arrived on the 5th floor of the Davy Bldg.

The programme leads gave short presentations about their respective degree courses and Pete introduced the South Africa field course for those students that had elected to attend in September. After the lecturers left, I asked the students to introduce themselves and tell me what their interests in marine biology were, essentially why they wanted to study it. By listening to the students talk about themselves and their interests I was able to signpost them to staff they may wish to work with in the future. It also allowed them to ask questions relating directly to their interests.

After the introductions, I systematically went through each piece of information found in their bags with them to ensure 1) they knew what was in there and 2) giving them yet another opportunity to ask questions about services and resources available to them. Some of our current students from the three degrees (across years) arrived around this time. I felt it would be a great idea to provide time over lunch for peer-to-peer discussions. I believe both sets of students enjoyed the experience.

After lunch, two current first year MBCE students (and PALS leaders for next year) arrived. I introduced these students so that those going to SA would recognise at least two people. To close out the day, me and two current 3rd year students took the direct entry students on a tour of the facilities located within the Davy Bldg (Lab Plus, the ecology storeroom, molecular lab, 6th floor labs and CT rooms). Two of our technicians introduced the students to the resources and gave them examples of the types of activities/research they might wish to undertake during their degrees.

Before the students departed, I asked them for feedback on the day. One of the major complaints was the lack of (smoke) breaks during the day and that there was too much walking around the Davy Bldg (up and down stairs). On the whole though, the feedback was tremendously positive and they went away feeling very informed about (and overwhelmed by) the resources the university offers students. Most were excited to be arriving in September. Others were a bit scared, but by the end of the day, most all of the students seemed excited by their prospects. I consider that a job well done.

Enhancing your teaching: Focusing on large groups workshop (+ Eric Mazur)

I attended this workshop today led by Priska in ED. Interestingly enough, she showed us a video featuring Eric Mazur (Applied Physics Prof at Harvard) and his interactive teaching style he uses in large lectures. I say interesting because two days previous I watched the 1.5 hour long clip (Confessions of a converted lecturer) on the PGCAP module website. I found how he engages with students inspiring, especially teaching a difficult subject like Physics. Using his ideas such as pre- and post-tests to see where the students are at, at the beginning and end of their learning journey provides good feedback to teaching staff to better unpack the critical areas of the subject content that students are strugggling with.

I also liked his idea of giving the students reading to do prior to coming to lectures, and then spending very little time lecturing during the scheduled time, but rather asking & answering questions and discussing questions and answers with peers. By using 'clickers', he gets instantaneous feedback as to whether or not students understand the topic being covered. This type of approach will require a fair amount of work in the development of the module as you need to design really good questions, but once you have a bank of questions to pull from, leading the discussions and facilitating students' learning should be easier and less time consuming.

As for the rest of the workshop, it was interesting that there was a person that teaches in education in the group that was fairly argumentative. He thought what students said about how they learned was total crap.... really?? Don't they know how they learn? He said that some students using 'learning styles' as a crutch or rather, an excuse... For example, "I'm sorry, I can't learn that because you are not teaching it in a way that I learn." I can see his point to a degree, but isn't it our job to teach the content in a VARIETY of ways to engage with the widest audience possible? I think that it is the role of an educator.

Through the discussions that took place, we talked about TEL in the classroom. The argumentative man said something about using Twitter in the classroom. I asked about what he was doing to engage the students in that way. He uses the module code as a #hashtag and can then address any questions/concerns/etc by looking at the comments/questions the students have posted and lead their learning in that way. I thought that sounded like a great idea. I will ask the 2nd years whilst in South Africa what their thoughts are on such an approach to Q & A sessions.