January 2012 Issue

1

CONTENTS

Introduction to ‘Engage!’Key Contacts

BG Global: IndiaStudent Recruitment and

Admissions NewsLibrary and Student Support

Update‘How Was It For You Online?’

Spotlight on...Dates for Diaries

The Newsletter of the Academic Engagement Hub

at BG

Welcome to the First Issue of‘Engage!’

Key ContactsClaire TaylorDean of Students and Academic Engagementclaire.taylor@bishopg.ac.uk - 01522 583778

John SharpHead of Research and Doctoral Studiesjohn.sharp@bishopg.ac.uk - 01522 583771

Phil DavisHead of Student Support phil.davis@bishopg.ac.uk - 01522 583602

Claudia CapancioniInternational Managerclaudia.capancioni@bishopg.ac.uk - 01522 583740

Emma SansbyHead of Library Servicesemma.sansby@bishopg.ac.uk - 01522 583793

Karen RichardsonHead of Student Recruitment and Admissions karen.richardson@bishopg.ac.uk - 01522 583712

Lorraine RussellHead of Quality Assurance and Student Data lorraine.russell@bishopg.ac.uk - 01522 583904

David BarberHead of e-Learning david.barber@bishopg.ac.uk - 01522 583791

Rachael BurnettPA to the Dean of Students and Academic Engagementrachael.burnett@bishopg.ac.uk - 01522 583921

I hope that you will enjoy reading issue 1 of Engage! - the newsletter of the Academic Engagement Hub at BG, which we hope to publish two or three times a year. Inside you willfind information and articles relating to a wide range of Hub activity: international work,

student recruitment and admissions, library services, student support and learning advice,and e-learning. Turn to the back page for ‘Spotlight on…’ which we hope will become aregular feature. Engage! is designed to raise theprofile of the Academic Engagement Hub acrossBG by showcasing some of the activities we areresponsible for and get involved in. If there isanything here that you would like to find outmore about, please get in touch with me or withany of the key contacts listed below.With best wishes, Claire Taylor

International

BG Global: IndiaClaudia Capancioni

In December 2011 the Hub launched BG Global: India with a seriesof brief presentations delivered by Claire Taylor and Claudia Capancioni. After the unanimous approval of SLT we are ready tobegin our international exchange programme that will touch thelives of staff and students here at BG and in Tirunelveli, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Claire and Claudia visited institutions andschools last October (17-20 October 2011) whenthey went to the diocese of Tirunelveli, SouthernIndia, for the first time. BG Global: India is builton the links between Bishop Grosseteste University College and Higher Education Institutions and Schools within the Diocese ofTirunelveli, Southern India. It develops the experience provided by a project initiated by BGgovernor Mike Jacob at Lincoln Minster School,called ‘Project India’. BG Global: India aims togrow mutually beneficial and sustainable linksbetween us and St John’s College in Palayamkottai, and HE institutions located in the

For more information about BG Global: India (and other International projects) please contact Claudia Capancioni (claudia.capancioni@bishopg.ac.uk)

same diocese, such as St John’s College of Education, Sarah Tucker College, Sarah Tucker TeacherTraining Institute, and schools: CSI Matriculation School, Bishop Sargent School for the Mentally Retarded, Askwith School for the Visually Handicapped and Florence Swainson School for the Deaf.Initially the project will promote short visits to Tirunelveli (around 2 weeks) by BG staff and undergraduate students and reciprocal visits to BG. We hope the first BG students’ visit will happen in September 2012 and in the longer term, we aim to fulfil the potential for many more.

Student Recruitmentand Admissions

Student RecruitmentKaren Richardson

Sky’s the limit for Pilot Scheme

We have learnt from Aimhigher that an early intervention gives a good grounding for aspiration raisingactivities and is valued by schools. To ensure we don’t miss out now Aimhigher is no more, our First Steps2 Study programme (Y9 –Y11) has received an overwhelming response, with 12 schools signed up (ouroriginal pilot target was 5). This complements our already successful Next Steps for Study (NS4S) programme which has been running since 2007 and is designed for Y12 - Y13, the figures for this speakfor themselves:

38% of students felt that NS4S had an impact on them progressing to HE and 61% feel NS4S helped prepare them for what to expect at university

Debate Session (at Step 2) 91% found this session useful (with 37% of those identifying it as very useful)

Time management (at Step 2) 93% found the session useful (with 55% of those identifying it as very useful)

Critical thinking (at Step 2) 92% found the session useful (with 42% of those identifying it as very useful)

Student finance (at Step 4) 80% found the session useful (with 51% of those identifying it as very useful)

Presentation skills (at Step 4) 90% found this session useful (with 39% of those identifying it as very useful)

Admissions

More hit than ‘miss’ in Admissions

Over the past 6 months, Admissions has developed and streamlined its activities with technology at theforefront, from CRB processing to the new admissions webpages and facebook pages to name but a few.We are customer focussed, both internally and externally and are embracing technologies to provide thebest service to all stakeholders.

www.bishopg.ac.uk/admissions

To assist applicants so everything is at their finger tips, these pages hold everything an applicant needs toknow. The beauty of this is that it can be adapted and rolled out so Academic Co-ordinators can use this instead of a mailing during the course of the academic year. If you are interested in adapting this for yourpurpose, please let Karen Richardson know on x3712.

BGAdmissions Facebook page

We have implemented this facebook page so we can informally use this site as a marketing tool. We anticipate putting good luck wishes on there for up and coming interview days, announcements for keydates on UCAS and GTTR and anything else that crops up. Please ‘like’ us if you get the opportunity andmake a comment or use it as a tool of communication.

Thank you!

New Department, new approach……. Looking back over the last 6 months, success has been strongly onthe agenda with clearing and enrolment being at the forefront! Like Graduation this is a good examplewhere, cross-hubs, staff have pulled out all the stops to make clearing and enrolment a success – thank you!

Library and Student Support

Library Extension Update!Emma Sansby

In the library we’ve been surprised how fast the new Library and Student Support (and now LearningAdvice!) building is taking shape. First there were the big steel columns and beams that provided thebuilding with its skeleton, then there was the pouring of the concrete floor slab, then the ‘SFS’ metalframe which gave the structure its shape, then the layer of orange and silver insulation (which feelsjust like oasis – the green stuff used in flower arranging!) which hopefully will keep us toasty thistime next year, and then finally the outer layer of brickwork, which, at the time of writing in

November 2011, is nearly complete.All documented on an (almost)weekly basis on our Facebook pageat: http://www.facebook.com/bish-opglibrary . Work will of coursecontinue throughout the wintermonths, and we hope to move intothe new part of the building justafter Easter 2012. During the 2012summer term the contractors willbe knocking the existing libraryaround a bit, and finally they’ll usethe 2012 summer vacation to installnew carpets, new lighting, and giving everywhere a fresh coat ofpaint, ready to have both the oldand new parts of the building openfor the start of September 2012.

Throughout the project, monthlysite meetings are taking placebetween the architect, the contractors, and BG staff, and lotsand lots of preparation work isgoing on in the library (planningnew rooms layouts, starting on andplanning for stock moves, clearingout cupboards to make sure we onlyhave to move what we actuallyneed, having minor panic attacksabout the task ahead, and so on).

During a site visit by the library teamat the beginning of Novembereveryone commented how muchbigger the building looked from theinside and I think we all got evenmore excited (we were alreadypretty excited!) about the benefits itwill bring. Students have also saidhow much they are looking forwardto using the new building, which isgreat to hear.

Student SupportPhil Davis

The last month has seen some excitingdevelopments within the new build fromthe point of view of Student Supportand Learning Advice. Student Supportwill occupy the ground floor of thebuilding with a suite of office space andinterview rooms affording a much higherdegree of confidentiality and security.The reception area will provide a gateway not only to Student Support’sservices, but those throughout the building, and it is envisaged the area willbecome an important signposting pointfor the campus as a whole.

You will already be aware that StudentSupport and Learning Advice have beenaligned as a ‘department’ under thesame line management structure. This isnow reflected in the new build with thecreation of a first floor study suite whichwill provide appropriate office space forLearning Advice (and Dyslexia Support)with a flexible study area which studentscan use, and which will also be used todeliver group sessions.

The creation of the new offices forStudent Support and Learning Advicealso presents an ideal opportunity toconsider re-branding these services as we

take them forward with bespoke facilities which will enhance service provision. Something elseto consider alongside the array of furnishings and fittings! We are all very excited at the prospectof moving into a brand new central location – and ready for the challenges as well: feedbackfrom other HEIs which have upgraded their facilities indicates demand for our services will increase as a result.

‘How Was It For You Online?’David Barber

vToday is the 30th November. The Today Programme has inspected the liver of the body politic anddeclared the future officially rotten. Across the nation people have awoken to find themselves in astate of industrial-action induced crisis while in Lincolnshire we struggle heroically to notice the difference. Undaunted, we in BG took our first steps into the world of online module evaluation. Ican almost hear you splutter in surprise. I imagine the common room awash with spurts of coughedup coffee. Please evacuate the building safely as you make for the hills.

They sat there slightly agitated, a class of nearly fifty Early Childhood Studies students; some of themclutching smart-phones and laptops, others looking slightly sheepish having omitted to read or recallthe e-mail requesting them to do so. I entered like Father Christmas on a sick day, boxes under myarm, a distinct lack of elves and an aura of forced optimism. Ben and I had spent the last two daysfiddling with mobile devices, he editing the root directory of the Archos devices to allow a common,easy to use setup to be applied, I creating desktop shortcuts to support an easy to follow workflowthat was designed to circumvent the most predictable technical issues.

Paramount among our concerns was getting the devices to connect to the wireless network’s authentication page, which is not as easy as one would think. The failsafe routine for the i-pod goeslike this: turn it on, open the browser, close any open windows, close the browser, open the browseragain, open a new window, try any search in the Google toolbar and ... hey presto, you are up andrunning in only 7 simple steps. Stimulating and improving as this process was, we felt it sufferedfrom being completely ridiculous so shortcuts were added to the home-screen that shortened theprocess to: tap the wi-fi shortcut and if it does not work close the browser and try again.

Armed with a Powerpoint slide, a sense of righteous authority and the aforementioned spirit of blindoptimism, I distributed the devices to those who needed them, approximately half the devices that Ihad brought and perhaps 40% of the class. We did discover that Blackberries cannot connect toBlackboard, so a useful lesson was learned there. What is more, the assumption that people wouldprefer to use their own technology was proven right. However, although more than half of thegroup had a smart-phone, only a small proportion of them had configured their equipment to workwith our wireless network, so we were required to spend some time entering the wireless networkkey.

Students had started to arrive from about twenty minutes before the session, so we were able to usethis time to ‘get connected’, but, the initial distribution and set up of the devices occupied us for thefirst ten minutes of the timetabled time. Once connected, the Powerpoint slide guided the studentsto access Blackboard, navigate to the surveys site and initiate the Early Childhood Studies survey.About two thirds of the group were then able to proceed without further assistance, but a numberneeded help at this stage as the Bristol Online Survey page caused some devices to stall. Having over-come this issue, everything went smoothly, but overall it took the best part of an hour to complete.

Dear reader, I picture you with a tear in your eye, moved by the selfless effort involved in this endeavour. In addition to my efforts, credit must be given to Angela, who had addressed the class onthe importance of these surveys and on the solemn responsibility that it conferred upon them. Alisonhad also stood firm, a figure of authority, the steady rock amid the crashing waves of puzzlement and

However, what did the students think:

16. Which of the following statements is closest to your opinion?

I enjoyed the online questionnaire and would

prefer it to a paper survey:

68.8% 22

It was harder than a paper survey, but worth

doing if it makes theresults easier to use:

21.9% 7

I would prefer a paper survey and think that

the problems of working online outweigh the

benefits:

9.4% 3

17. really really really the last question.

17a. Doing the survey online encouraged me to think about my responses and to provide written answers.

Strongly agree:11.4% 4

Agree:65.7% 23

Disagree:17.1% 6

Strongly disagree:5.7% 2

confusion. Let us not forget the students themselves who, after looking at the devices I gave them asthough I had handed over a pound of raw bacon, had also applied themselves to the exercise withgusto. Was it worth it you ask? Well let us assess the outcome. First of all, it must be said that the results can be processed and published with an absolute minimum of administration. The system willproduce the data instantly, in almost exactly the same format that we currently present it after an arduous process of sorting, recording and manual consolidation. In addition to this the data can bevery easily stored and can be combined with or compared to the results of other surveys with a similarly minimum level of effort and administration. The survey also remains available to any absentstudents for another 30 days and we will now explore a number of ways of incentivising them to engage.

The online approach does appear to have had the result of increasing the number of students whoprovide written responses when asked to do so. It may turn out that those students who were accustomed to write at some length are discouraged from being quite so forthcoming. Typing isslower going after all. If this does turn out to be the case we will need to decide whether we value amore balanced set of short responses above the more detailed opinions of a smaller group of students. Looking forward, all level 4 SCEI modules will be evaluated in this way this year.

Spotlight on...Dr Claire TaylorDean of Students and

Academic Engagement,Hub Lead

I’m married to Adam and have two fantastic daughters – Rachel (18), studying Geography and International development at Sussex University and Alice (15), at Lincoln Minster School studying forGCSEs. I live in Lincoln, play violin with local chamber orchestra Pro Musica and am an active memberof Lincoln Baptist Church. I’ve been at BG for 10 years and started off as a tutor working with teachertraining students. Since then I’ve held a variety of roles including Programme Leader and Head ofLearning and Teaching. Before joining BG I was a local primary school headteacher.

Favourite book: It used to be Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, but I recently read An Equal Music byVikram Seth which I thought was fab. A great book for musicians.

Favourite food: chicken pasta with lots of black pepper, pesto and olives, and a big green salad. Accompanied by red wine of course.

ipod playlist: eclectic – I’m just as likely to be listening to a Beethoven piano concerto as to the Chemical Brothers, Fleet Foxes, Kasabian, or Christian musicians such as Matt Redman.

Favourite place: The Lake District – Adam and I try and escape up there a few times a year. Yes, weare serious fell walkers and we can use a map and compass (well…Adam can)!

Recent discovery: Twitter…I think I am hooked! Check out @DrClaireTaylor.

Dates for Your Diary

CEDaR Conferences 2012:

Spring - 29th March

Summer - 10th July

Autumn - (unconfirmed)*

Open Days 2012:

Sunday - 11th March

Sunday - 10th June

Sunday 7th October

* Please check the Bulletin regularly for updates on dates and times for Open Days and Conferences.