RMDrillHall: Harriet Davidson Establishing a new relationship for curriculum design and delivery
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RM Drill Hall April 2018
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RMDrillHall: Harriet Davidson Establishing a new relationship for curriculum design and delivery
- 1. Academic Liaison Librarian (Skills) University of Sunderland Library and Study Skills Harriet Davidson Establishing a new relationship for curriculum co-design and delivery
- 2. University Library and Study Skills Approx. 20,000 students (7000 off campus) Two campus libraries Widening participation
- 3. Integrated Foundation Programme (IFP) • New four-year degree route • 40 degree courses now accessible, within 6 subject pathways • Foundation Year equipping students with essential study skills and subject specific knowledge to prepare for a degree course • Includes a 40 credit module, “Succeeding at University and Beyond”, to prepare students with the skills and attributes required for degree level study and graduate employment
- 4. New Service – New Model Study Skills Team Academic Liaison Librarian (Skills) Study Skills Advisers Study Skills Support Assistant Academic Liaison Librarian Team
- 6. • Our model drives service culture, design and delivery • Flexible and adaptable approach • Evidence the impact of engagement
- 7. ‘Succeeding at University and beyond’ Module Help students to develop and improve their transferable skills Skills and abilities relevant and helpful across different areas of life: socially, professionally and at university develop the practical, reflective and academic skills needed at University Module Aims: Students will be able to construct an argument, reference correctly, research and locate information, read key primary texts, evaluate and be able to reflect on the process involved
- 8. ‘Succeeding at University and beyond’ Module content includes: • Critical reading, writing and thinking skills • Locating, evaluating and recording sources of information (including referencing) • Reflective statement writing • Being digitally literate & understanding the information landscape • Communication and collaboration • Presentation skills • Understanding the job market • Career development planning
- 9. ‘Succeeding at University and beyond’ collaboration ⁻ Programme development team ⁻ Contextualising Study Skills within subject pathways ⁻ Connectivity to subjects – a thread that runs throughout ⁻ Change for pathway leaders too ⁻ Moving away from ‘support’ to full integration ⁻ Time restraints forged relationships
- 10. Delivery Library/Study Skills providing resources Library/Study Skills delivering Library/Study Skills providing resources Pathway Tutor delivering Pathway Tutor providing resources Pathway Tutor delivering Careers or SU providing resources Pathway Tutor delivering
- 11. Integrated Foundation Programme Review and Evaluate Development for 2018/19 Consolidation of programme into a 20 credit module Greater focus on entrenching skills within a subject specific module Feedback vital in developments
- 12. Conclusion Inclusion at programme design level has huge benefits for building productive collaborative relationships Constantly evolving and evaluating our approach to best support our academics & our students
Editor's Notes
- As you can see I have a lovely bracket in my job title, although I look after a subject area within our School of Culture, I have an additional focus on ‘Skills Support’ This paper will share how we are working in partnership with academic colleagues across all faculties to co-design and deliver curriculum content on a module within an innovative Integrated Foundation Programme (IFP). I’ll look at how our service is structured and how we came to be included in such an important programme
- To give you a bit of background about our service and how we came to be involved in the Integrated Foundation Programme. At the end of 2016 we were part of a University wide review and the shape and focus of our service changed. We were no longer just the University Library Service, there was a key shift to include Study Skills within the library provision. We had offered a limited Study Skills support up until this point. Now we were expanding that service & putting it almost front and centre. This change in name has led to a change in reputation too, as a service primed to support curriculum design and build embedded study skills across all levels of the University.
- The programme and relationship management I’m focussing on this afternoon is the new Integrated Foundation Programme. This is a four-year degree route incorporating a special Foundation Year to provide students who may require a more supported transition into HE with the skills and subject knowledge needed to progress to an honours degree. 40 credit module runs throughout the first year
- The opportunity to take a central role in the development of this new programme can be attributed to recognition of our Study Skills leadership. This leadership has arisen from the establishment of a new Study Skills Team within the Library and our subsequent new approach to skills provision through a Study Skills Model and cross-subject shared skills delivery. Our team grew from 2 part time skills advisers, to 3 full time Study Skills Advisers & one part time adviser with a focus on numeracy. Our Liaison team has also moved forward in the provision of shared delivery. Not only did we have to communicate our new service to our university colleagues but we also had to build relationships with new colleagues, who came from different services and had to find their place within our service. Unsurprisingly, forming a team and creating a productive space for teamwork took a little time and some work. Especially in a service where there aren’t necessarily clear lines between what a Study Skills Adviser would do & a Liaison Librarian when we think about designing and delivering skills sessions. Referencing is a key one, which falls firmly in both camps.
- To help the communication of the new service & to set out clear boundaries for our service the Study Skills model was developed at the beginning on 2017, and covers the key elements and focus of the support we offer. Outline the areas of support Online Resources Assignment Skills Embedded Skills – booked via an online form which requires learning outcomes to be stated & opens the door to discussion about impact on the curriculum of such a session. Drilling down to the desired outcomes, and not just providing a very generic ‘library skills’ session. Designing session content with academics was a prime driver for such a process. Although it may seem like we are places barriers to building relationships with academics, it is moving us away from just being a ‘fill in’. We are explicitly asking for clarity on where our sessions fit into the wider programme. The liaison team then take the initial booking information and create specific sessions with module requirements at the forefront. One to Ones –
- About building relationships with our academics. Although we now ask academics to complete an online form to book Skills Sessions, the format encourages greater engagement with our academic colleagues. It promotes conversations to come away with tangible learning objectives rather than the old ‘the library can fill an hour here’. One to ones, can provide us with the evidence to go back to an academic & say “we’ve had a number of requests for help on this matter, and this is what we can suggest” We collate feedback and statistics to show our impact, and where we can build in the future
- We’ll move on now to explore how the Library worked in partnership with academic and Careers Service colleagues to create the content and curriculum for the ‘Succeeding at University and Beyond’ module which has a real focus on developing the skills of foundation year students to prepare them for further study on the degree of their choice. The IFP has six separate Pathways: Business and Tourism; Computing; Engineering; Health Sciences and Wellbeing; Media, Humanities and the Creative Industries; and finally Social Sciences and Law. This covers all the faculties within the University. Each pathway completes this core module ‘Succeeding at University and beyond’ A team of Academics and University Services Staff which included ourselves and our Futures team (Careers and Employability) designed and delivered the module. The module looks to … The Module aim is that … It is usually very unlikely that a member of our team would be involved at such an early stage, right at the programme creation stage. Once programmes are validated, and are ready to run tends to be when we can intervene & offer support and skills development. To helps create the module aims and content inclusion is very rare.
- As you can see from some of the module content it was crucial that our service was included in the development. We were able to use our expertise to mould the focus, and the skills we have found necessary. Content includes Critical Writing, Finding and Evaluating Information and Advanced Digital Skills. Amongst others. This was a new approach to us. We’ve always offered embedded sessions whereby Liaison librarians work with academics to provide library skills to benefit the module of study, and sometimes these would be series of skills sessions to build on knowledge & provide a package. But we’ve never really offered something so comprehensive & so pivotal to the start of a new programme. We were able to build on our knowledge of a Nursing programme we have been heavily engaged with, and share where we feel there is a skills gap for new students, fight for areas which might get ignored, and take on feedback from academics who have found that there isn’t always a focus on the critical skills necessary to complete a degree. The creation of this module had to ensure that these skills were firmly embedded and arriving at the right time for the students.
- Representatives from each faculty included, along with individuals from other services. Around the table discussing how the module would work, the skills students need, and the outcomes that were desired. The Academic Liaison Manager and a Study Skills Adviser were on the Programme Development Team, this recognized the need for collaboration across the programme, and not just for one stand alone module. This was necessary for us to understand all the modules and how they fit into the overall programme. The Succeeding at University module was never supposed to be a stand alone module, the skills needed and communicated within this module are important across students studies and this module had to fit into the programme seamlessly. Like all skills modules or skills sessions they do not stand alone, to be truly effective they need to be woven into the curriculum. Pathway leaders were involved in this process as they needed to contextualize these study skills within their subject pathway, embedding the skills in a meaningful way for their students. The relationship built with pathways leaders to understand the subject and the other modules on the programme helped weave a thread of study skills throughout the programme. This process was a change for Pathway Leaders too. Some of which were used to running very different existing foundation modules with their own study skills included. Sharing good practice and ideas was important. Showing our expertise in this area & how we could build on previous modules was key to building these new relationships. Frequently Library and Skills support can be viewed as an add on, a supplementary skill which can be included where there is time. In this instance we are moving away from just ‘support’ to full integration. Our outcomes are interlinked. Success for one, is success for everyone. Like many things, there’s nothing like a bit of pressure to make something happen. This programme had a very strict deadline & very high goals. The programme was recruiting for September 2017, so it had to be ready to go. This short space of time and added pressure drives productivity. People had to work together to make sure it happened. This has also forged strong longer lasting relationships, a bit like being in the trenches. There becomes a recognition for the work that each side has to do, and the collaboration needed to meet deadlines and outcomes. One very heavily relied on the other, and a sharing of that pressure created productivity. Like everything there were some challenges, sharing your point of view can be a struggle, advocating for your skills and experiences.
- One highly significant development was that Library staff were for the first time, creating content with the intention that it would be delivered by academic colleagues. This was a sea-change from our traditional model where content is usually developed and delivered by library staff. As a Library and Study Skills team we delivered over 60hours of teaching on this programme. This was a big undertaking for our service. Practically we shared our materials on the VLE and within shared folders so that everyone linked with the programme could see resources and build on them in forthcoming sessions. This worked in most instances, and encouraged transparency … however there were the inevitable few people who were reluctant to share even when explicitly urged to do so. Students get to know ULSS staff – our experience shows that they trust us – positioning the Library as the place to go for answers and support A great chance to see all students on the programme and chat to as many as possible
- As the first year of this new programme draws to a close we are currently working in partnership with academics to review and evaluate the programme ready for the new intake in September 2018. As with all new programmes there have been significant benefits and challenges to this process and there will be continued collaboration with academic partners to develop the module further for September 2018. Feeding back our experience in sessions has been vital to this. The module will be restructured into a new 20 credit module, with the remaining 20credits going back into another subject pathway module that still focusses on skills. This will perhaps be more explicit in linking study skills to their new subject skills. Feedback from the sessions we designed and delivered were that these foundation students found it difficult to link academic skills back to their subjects. The assignments for this module were perhaps a little too abstract for people coming into Higher Education for the first time. The new module will still have our influence, but the dependence on us for delivery may be reduced slightly.