Presented at LILAC 2016

1. Adjusting academic expectations:
Improving self-confidence and independence in
international postgraduate students
John Hynes (Teaching and Learning Librarian)
Dr. Lee Webster (Lecturer: Manchester Enterprise Centre)

2. OUTLINE
MSc in International Fashion Retailing
Academic expectations
Library input & new approaches
The collaboration
Did it work?

3. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/collaborate/support/priorities/
MSc in International Fashion Retailing

4. MSc in International Fashion Retailing

5. MSc in International Fashion Retailing

6. MSc in International Fashion Retailing

7. 2015/16 intake – 72
ALL international students.
All Asian (predominantly from China).
All under 30 (predominantly female).
Most are visiting the UK for the first time.
All the students have an interest in fashion, ranging
from a casual interest through to having their own
(family) businesses.
MSc in International Fashion Retailing

8. ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS
“A common theme (anecdotally and
from conversation with International
office) is that Chinese students are
used to ‘obeying orders’ for want of a
better term… They are also very
deferential to older men…”
“Most of the researchers seem to share the view that Chinese students
are governed by the fundamental rule of ‘respect for superiors’ and
‘loyalty and filial piety’, with Confucianism as the central element of
Chinese identity (Chan; Woodrow & Sham)” (cited in Liu, J. 2009).

9. ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS
“So much of the first semester just
gets wasted…. Some of them don’t
even know why they are in
Manchester! It’s a lot to deal with in
less than a year…”
“Using agents saved lots of hassles, but you did not know much about the
courses you were studying. Agents normally tell you which one is good, I did very
little research about my course before I came (University B/Student R)”
(cited in Quan et al. 2016).

10. They know more
than they think they
do… It’s up to us to
help them realise
and articulate that…”
“My own experiences in China had been that while some students struggled with
making the learning transition to UK-style study, others had generally been active,
engaged and had achieved academic results above the normal distribution of
cohorts of their UK counterparts” (Turner, 2006).
ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS

11. ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS
Course unit aims
o Explain the tools and techniques of research investigation suitable for postgraduate
masters dissertation preparation.
o Develop skills to search for and locate appropriate academic and commercially
relevant information, critically analyse and reference it appropriately.
o Evaluate various methods of primary research investigation including research design,
quantitative and qualitative data gathering and results analysis.

12. Referencing
Evaluating informationFinding information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractive_index /www.flickr.com/photos/53326337@N00/4106670906 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Army_52864_
ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS

13. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Campagnolo_Tool_Kit_Super_Record_Wooden_Box_Nr._16.jpg
Academic literature
Industry news
Company information
Market research
ACADEMIC EXPECTATIONS

14. LIBRARY INPUT & NEW APPROACHES

15. Working in partnership
with academic staff the
curriculum-linked
programme will
provide taught
students with the
opportunity to develop
transferable skills
within their
programme.
Statement of scope for the CLP

16. Programme
aims
Align all
support delivered to
assessments
or specific learning
objectives within
the module or
programme of
study
Deliver at least
one embedded
session in the
1st year of all UG&
PGT programmes
Have a positive
impact
on students’ study
practices and their
academic
performance
Work in partnership
with academic staff
to design,
develop and deliver
a blended programme
of academic skills

17. LIBRARY INPUT & NEW APPROACHES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_pilot#/media/File:Defense.gov_News_Photo_060803-F-2907C-107.jpg
Flipped
classroom
Problem based
learning
New approaches to face-face were piloted
Incorporate
academic skills

18. Approach Benefits Risks
Assign students an individual piece of work to do
with relevant online support before a face-to-face
session. Elements of the session are then built on
discussion around the piece of work.
Ability to address more learning objectives if using a
blended approach.
Online support targeted to specific outcomes.
Ability to implement active learning techniques in the
face-to-face session.
Students may not do the work if it isn’t assessed.
Support from teaching staff required.
Assign students a group task to do with relevant
online support before a face-to-face session. The
groups then present, discuss or debate their
findings in the session.
Ability to address more learning objectives if using a
blended approach.
Online support targeted to specific outcomes.
Ability to implement active learning techniques in the face-
to-face session.
Students may not do the work if it isn’t assessed.
Students may find scheduling time for group work difficult.
Students may be reluctant to speak out in large cohorts.
Support from teaching staff required.
Assign students a piece of work that they need to
submit before a face-to-face session. The session
is then tailored in response to the work
submitted.
Session is directly relevant to the students’ needs.
Ability to address more learning objectives if using a
blended approach.
Online support targeted to specific outcomes.
Ability to implement active learning techniques in the face-
to-face session.
More preparation time required from those delivering
sessions.
May be impractical for large cohorts
Students may not submit the work if it isn’t assessed.
Buy-in from teaching staff required.
Agenda-setting at the beginning of sessions to
inform what areas are covered.
Session is directly relevant to the students’ needs, needs
rather than relying on what the academic tells us they need.
Useful in circumstances where we’ve not had enough
information from the member of teaching staff involved.
Students’ self-identified needs may be misaligned with what
we’ve been asked to deliver
Using a variety of interactive activities in large-
group settings.
Increased engagement for larger groups.
Ability to implement active learning techniques.
Potential challenges in room layouts not being ideally
suited.
Students may be reluctant to speak out in large cohorts
(though there are a number of pedagogical techniques that
can help to address this).
Agenda-setting at the close of sessions to
establish what students need further help with.
Output to inform what other support to signpost
students to via Blackboard.
Ability to point students to support relevant to their specific
needs rather than relying on what the academic tells us they
need.
Helps to emphasise the idea that they need to continue
More administrative load on the e-learning team.

19. OUTLINE
Week 2: Referencing in writing
Week 3: Finding information (introducing group task)
Week 4: Group presentation
Week 5: Submit reflective piece

20. https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/61920bc3-cbd1-4d87-9811-b0cede3b2a8b
Referencing scenarios 1

22. FINDING INFORMATION / GROUP TASK

23. THE COLLABORATION
To learn about a
new resource
To work
collaboratively
To gain experience
of presenting to
colleagues
To be critical
To relate new
knowledge to prior
experiences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem-based_learning#/media/File:Awesome_PBL_group.jpg

24. THE COLLABORATION
Library search
/ Google
scholar
Business
Source
Premier
Mintel
Factiva Thomson One
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem-based_learning#/media/File:Awesome_PBL_group.jpg

25. THE COLLABORATION

26. Go to your
group’s area on
Blackboard
Use online
training
material for
your resource
Search for
information
Find 2-3 useful
information
sources
Use the
evaluation
checklist
INSTRUCTIONS

27. Easy to
use?
Would you
recommend
to students?
What did
you find?
What can
you tell us?
And…
PRESENTATIONS

28. DIFFERENCES

29. DID IT WORK?

30. catalogs you can choose
Easy to find
information!

31. Reports found about Fashion Online
Mintel estimates that online sales of clothing and footwear will increase by 14.5% to reach £10.7 billion in
2014 as the overall sector has continued to see robust growth and as consumers become more
accustomed to shopping online.
The growth rate in online fashion sales has, however, slowed from a high of 19% in 2012 and we expect a
gradual slowing of the dramatic increases we have seen over the last few years as a natural consequence
of a maturing market. We forecast the market will grow to reach £19 billion by 2019.
http://academic.mintel.com/display/7
13413/
• the Market Value
Best- and worst-case forecast of online sales of clothing and footwear, 2

32. Features
• Variety of information
(research reports, data
statistics and analysis,
professional articles, etc.)
• In-depth market study,
more relevant and
authoritative.
• Filter information can be
targeted, easy to to find!
• Recommend it to
others!
Compared to other search
tools used before (such as
baidu, wikipedia, google),
It is quite technical and
helpful to find information
about market research
reports.

34. “I used to use Baidu to
collect information. After
this trying i will change my
regular ways and turn into
some new tools like
Thomson ONE and Mintel.
Personally, i think this kind of
trying is worthwhile because
it help us know much more
about information collection,
which will be definitely
helpful in my future
research”
On: Resources

35. “I downloaded all the slides of the
presentation present by my classmates
about group research, which introduced
clearly usage methods and experiences
about some main recommended search
tools and databases .The experiences
from classmates are really practical in
using these tools.
On: Resources

36. “When we gathered
together discussing about
our presentation content
and work division, I felt a
little embarrassed because
our group seemed to lack
unity, everyone was not
active in talking and they
just wanted to confirm their
own tasks and finished the
discussion then left as early
as possible”
.
On: Collaborative working

37. “However, we always keep
silence during classes
because we afraid of our
answer is wrong and lack of
confidence about our spoken
English.
I think this is a common
problem among Chinese
student and we need to
overcome it”.
On: Collaborative working

38. “I still do not enjoy creating
and presenting
PowerPoint’s in front of a
class, it is certainly not my
preferred method of class-
based learning and puts the
seemingly unnecessary
pressure of performance on
academic study”.
On: Presenting

39. “The whole processing was
very impressive because I
think it made us work very
hard on our task which
improved our ability of team
cooperation and
communication skills”.
On: Presenting

40. “Generally speaking, I would use the
Library Search more in the future and
I highly recommend it to others. From
a postgraduate student’s
perspective, it should be one of our
frequent-used search tool to
guarantee the quality of our used
resources. It is convenient for
University students and we may save
a fortune by using it”.
On: Being critical

41. “First challenge is the complexity of
Factiva. As a professional business
acadamic database, Factiva is
extremelly different from the search
engies we used before. The interface
of Factiva is not user-friendly or
smart. It is more like a professional
accounting software in 1990s. There
are too many filters you need to
choose, or the useful information
would be concealed”.
On: Being critical

42. “I felt that in some instances we were
being lectured on a very basic level as
to our academic practices, so it did
take some time before meaningful
instruction began…. typical topics
like the dangers of plagiarism and the
importance of references were
repeated to us… these are topics
that I have been obligated to
memorise since high school”.
On: Being critical

43. “At the same time, we compared the
Google Scholar with the Baidu
which we have used in the past and
found that Google Scholar is more
professional and authorative”.
On: Previous experiences

44. “Finally, our group remembered
reflective model that teacher
mentioned and taken reflective
conclusion into consideration. After
talking about almost three hours,
reflective conclusion was that
combination of all search tools,
including MINTEL, BAIDU and
GEOGLE, should be fully utilized in
the future”.
On: Previous experiences

45. REFLECTIONS
Eyes were opened; new skills acquired.
Tendency to focus on functional benefits
Technical issues de-railed focus in some cases
More work needed to cement links between skills and academic
competencies

46. Liu, J., 2009. From learner passive to learner active? The case of Chinese
postgraduate students studying marketing in the UK. International
Journal of Management Education, 7(2), pp.33-40.
Quan, R., He, X. and Sloan, D., 2016. Examining Chinese postgraduate
students’ academic adjustment in the UK higher education sector: a
process-based stage model. Teaching in Higher Education, pp.1-18.
Turner, Y., 2006. Chinese students in a UK business school: Hearing the
student voice in reflective teaching and learning practice. Higher
Education Quarterly, 60(1), pp.27-51.
REFERENCES