1. Skills to succeed?
Academic skills support at
Loughborough University
Stephanie McKeating
Academic Services Manager
2. Outline of the session
How the Library
came to be teaching
academic skills
What we offer
Challenges
Future plans
3. Academic skills and the Library
Historically study skills support offered by Learning &
Teaching Centre
Change of focus to supporting academic staff
Library took on study skills in 2005
Advice sheets
1-hour workshops
Roberts funding for FT academic librarian
Increased generic support
Offered embedded support
Online tutorial development
4. Generic workshops 2005/6 – 2007/8
Originally two separate generic streams
Lunchtime in the Library – traditional information skills
Study Skills – new skills courses (14 in first year)
Initially all sessions 50 mins held over lunchtime
Booking via Careers booking system
Target audience - undergraduates
5. Study skills topics
Time management Revision & exam skills
Reading & note- PDP (introduced in
taking 2007/8)
Oral presentations Working in groups
Essay writing (dropped due to lack of
Report writing demand)
6. Get the Know-How: Skills to succeed
2008/9 - two streams merged and branded as
Get the Know-How: skills to succeed
Complete revision of courses
Names e.g. Oral presentations became Speaking
your mind
Some courses split into two e.g. reading & note-taking
Focus on increasing interactivity
2009/10 & 2010/11 no booking, drop in sessions
7. Get the Know-How 2011/12
Reintroduced booking via VLE (Moodle)
Trialled new times and venues
Nearly 40% courses outside lunchtime period
3 early evening sessions (6 pm)
One third courses outside Library
Offered tailored sessions
e.g. Presentation skills for Science & Engineering
9. Attendance trends
Average attendance risen
2011/12
Problems with “no-shows”
Evening sessions popular
Sessions Attendance Average
2009/10 40 516 12.9
2010/11 44 566 12.86
2011/12 36 549 15.25
10. Departmental skills sessions
Fewer sessions but bigger reach Sessions Attendance
2009/10 16 438
Many embedded in curriculum 2010/11 15 537
Some additional topics 2011/12 20 825
Sessions Sessions Sessions
Topic 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12
Intro to study skills/ learning 6 5 4
Group work 3 4 3
Note-taking 0 0 1
PDP 1 0 1
Poster design 1 1 2
Presentation skills 0 2 3
Reading 0 0 1
Revision & exam skills 1 0 0
Time management 2 1 2
Writing skills 3 4 6
Total 17 17 23
11. Skills resources
Web pages
Topics
Advice sheets
Planning sheets
VLE
Get the Know-How
module
Online tutorials
12. Advice sheets
Written by other services
New titles
Available in print and
as PDFs
Considering adding
additional citation
styles
13.
14. Planning sheets
To support time management sessions
Generic planners
Daily
Weekly
Task sheets
Tailored
Module
Semester
15. Online tutorials
InfoTrail &
StudyTrail
Available on VLE
Merged and
redeveloped as
Academic Practice
Ten units on
academic skills
16. Skills support issues
Up-skilling the
teachers
Proliferation of skills
support providers
Lack of student
awareness
Academic buy-in
17. Up-skilling the teachers
Academic Librarians no previous
experience of teaching study skills
Lack of confidence
No suitable external courses
Strategies:
Observation and team teaching
“Teaching a topic from scratch” session
HEA pathway
Group brainstorming course content
18. 10. Support, and recognition, should be
available for those who provide support to
students
“There are many people who provide support to
students, from central student services, academics
and library staff to students themselves Institutions
should give these people time and resources to
develop their skills as a mentor, and should give
them the space to discuss the challenges they
face….”
NUS Charter on Academic Support (Jan 2012)
http://tinyurl.com/7gmkmzb
19. Collaboration
Skills Forum
Student Hub
Employability Award
Workshop attendance
Academic Practice tutorial
English Language Support Service
Courses on coherent writing, grammar & punctuation
20. Lack of student awareness
Not aware of the generic
workshops
Confusion about the difference
between Get the Know-How
and Academic Practice modules
on VLE
Don’t perceive skills support as
something they need
Difficulty in branding study skills
21. Academic buy-in
Perceptions
Students already have academic skills
Library not seen as the natural providers of academic
skills support
No time in existing module programmes for
embedding academic skills sessions
Strategies
“Transferable skills in the curriculum” course
Liaison and marketing
22. Future plans
Review of relationship between workshop VLE
presence, online tutorial and web pages
Additional generic workshop on systematic
review
Review of workshop programme based on
feedback
Marketing
Information Science students’ presentations
What’s in a name?
23. Survey feedback
Survey of students who
booked on workshops
150 responses - 70% had
attended
43% preferred early evening
“really helpful, you would pay a fortune for
them if they were not run through the
university”
Delivered by ALs3 x 2 hour sessions on Wed afternoon trialled 2007/8 with mixed success
Fewer repeats of some topics based on last year’s attendance stats e.g. RefWorks
Converting Get-the-Know-How module to flex pages possible merger with Academic Practice
Survey of students who had booked on workshops this year – whether they booked on not150 responses – 70% who had been Positive feedback on courses atended85% happy with venueAsked what time they would prefer to attend courses43% Early evening Mon – Fri, 32% Wed afternoons 25% Lunchtimes Mon – FriComment“really helpful, you would pay a fortune for them fi they were not run through the university”