Progress on Using Student Ambassadors to Broaden Maths Support Services John Little supported by the...
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Transcript of Progress on Using Student Ambassadors to Broaden Maths Support Services John Little supported by the...
Progress on Using Student Ambassadors to Broaden Maths Support Services
John Little
supported by the MSOR Network and sigmahttp://studentmathssupport.wordpress.com/
overview
definition of role
aspects of recruitment
planned & actual activities
outcomes to date
recommendations
definition of role
“ambassador” = a diplomat sent on a mission to a foreign country?
definition of role
to promote services at library sites
to gather student proposals for newresources and workshops
to evaluate existing and proposed tutor developed resources
to make own resource proposals
definition of role
to be ambassadors for target groups
to help broaden services for target groupse.g. distance learners
to work as partners in service development
redefinition of role
anticipated direct student engagementat library sites did not materialise
changed emphasis towards development of ambassadors’ own ideas and evaluation of tutor resources
in future a mix of the two
aspects of recruitment
initial aim was to recruit one ambassador for each of eight Schools that make use of maths/stats/numeracy support
recruiting seven meant this really was a recruitment process and not a selection process
probably better to have fewer ambassadors and more selection
aspects of recruitment
probably better to have fewer ambassadors and more selection:
• to ensure commitment to tasks• to maximise ambassador availability• to make management and communication easier• UG 1 or 2 possibly more flexible than PG• consider recruiting FT UG for the summer for non face to face activities
aspects of recruitment
meet the ambassadors:
each contracted for 35 hours at £7/hourplus shared access to two moodle materials developers
AmbassadorFaculty School COURSE Stage MSOR FacultyMSOR SchoolLex Ryder HSC AppSS SOCIAL WORK (PMSFTSSSW)5 AppSS & NursingTolu Boladuro DT COMP COMPUTING: INFORMATION ENGINEERING (PMSFTCMIE)5 CompAgata Zaremba ABS COMM INTERNATIONAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT (PMSFTBSIM)5 ABSEMMANUEL OLORUNFEMI DT ENG OIL AND GAS ENGINEERING (PMSFTMEOG)5 Eng & Scott SutherlandKOKOUVI ADODO DT PALS PHARMACY (UMPFTPHPH)1 PALs & Nursing??ANA YORDANOVA ABS COMM COMMUNICATION WITH PUBLIC RELATIONS (UBAFTIMCP)3 ABSABIOLA AKANNI ABS DoM PURCHASING AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (PMSFTBSPS)5 ABS, Comp, PALs, Scott Suth, Health SciERNEST BOAKYE-YIADOM ABS DoAF OIL AND GAS ACCOUNTING (PMSFTBSOA)5 ABS & EngDANIEL BASSEY ABS DoM PURCHASING AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (PMSFTBSPS)5 ABS
planned & actual activities(in addition to role definition)
• contacting Student Union reps to promote role => positive engagement via phonecall/e-mail
• contacting class reps as a source of resource proposals => very little response
• development of management reports for year on year comparisons as update of less efficient predecessor process
planned & actual activities(in addition to role definition)
• four ambassadors attended one of our two departmental annual planning days and so are directly feeding into our annual plan
-mainly in a recommendation on how to improve our communication with students
planned & actual activities
the main departure from what wasplanned was creation of mini projects:
• blog maintenance => not much engagement• moodle viewing figures follow up => eventually passed to moodle developer• evaluation of third party resources => aiming to match to resource proposals • an internal policy review => awaiting report from ambassador
planned & actual activities
the main departure from what wasplanned was creation of mini projects:
• a review of what other HEIs do => awaiting report from ambasaador• creation of a communications strategy => awaiting final proposal from ambassador• comparison of different moodle content styles => three detailed responses from ambassadors
outcomes to date
ambassador blogged feedback on / evaluation of up to 22 proposed resources
ambassador creation of five new potentially usable resources
ambassador feedback on / evaluation of up to 6 generic YouTube clips=> probable re-recording of audio
outcomes to date
ambassador distillation of resource feedback / evaluation =>
• slides for Articulate conversion too bland• positive about links to video, quizzes and third party resources
outcomes to date
broadening of service?
capacity to share data quickly
recruitment of one or two maths/stats/numeracy ambassadors confirmed as partof departmental annual plan
outcomes to date
broadening of service?
we have gained more insight into “hard to reach” faculty through having Business School ambassadors
outcomes to date
capacity to share data quickly
we can now not only produce automatic year on year comparisons; we can alsocategorise our data according to target groups and share with management
outcomes to date
recruitment of one or two maths/stats/numeracy ambassadors confirmed as partof departmental annual plan
=> organisational learning
indirect outcomes to date
• filming of five students’ service feedback(including some from one ambassador)
-partially arose from discussion at meeting with MSOR mentor
• realisation that thesis acknowledgementhelps promote stats support
recommendations
• beware that you will get a mix of levels of commitment and productivity
• wordpress blog works quite well as a means of collating and sharing project information
recommendations
• try to get a mix of UG and PG students
• a maximum of 4 ambassadors to 1 staff
• consider FT UG summer ambassadors
summary
definition of role
aspects of recruitment
planned & actual activities
outcomes to date
recommendations
bibliography
BBC NEWS, 2009. UK University drop out rate increases [online] BBC. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8083373.stm [Accessed 21 May 2012] COOPER, B., GILLARD, J., GRAHAM, D., WHITE, J. and WILSON, R., 2011. Summer Internships in sigma-sw. MSOR Connections.[online] 11(3). MSOR. Available from: http://mathstore.ac.uk/headocs/Connections_11_3_Cooper.pdf [Accessed 28 May 2012] HEWSON, P., 2011. Preliminary Analysis of the National Student Survey. MSOR Connections. [online] 11(1). Available from: http://mathstore.ac.uk/headocs/Hewson.pdf [Accessed 21 May 2012] STREETING, W. and WISE, G., 2009. Rethinking the values of higher education –consumption, partnership, community? [online] Gloucester. QAA. Available from:http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Documents/Rethinking.pdf [Accessed 28 May 2012] NUS, 2012. Student Experience Research 2012 Part 2: Independent Learning and Contact Hours[online] London. National Union of Students. Available from:http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Publications/InformationAndGuidance/Documents/Student-Experience-Research-2012-Part-2.pdf [Accessed 28 May 2012] TAYLOR, M., BOND, O., ANDERSON, C., KENNEDY, A., 2012. Summer Internships in sigma-sw. MSOR Connections.[online] 12(1). MSOR. Available from: http://mathstore.ac.uk/headocs/Connections_12_1_Taylor_et_al.pdf [Accessed 28 May 2012]
SWAIN, H., 2012. Should students be given the power to decide how universities are run? [online] Guardian. Available from:http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/11/universities-giving-students-more-power[Accessed 14 June 2012]