Let Them Plagiarise: Developing academic writing in a safe environment

This paper considers part of a first year module which has a focus on referencing and plagiarism. In designing the approach to plagiarism education a consideration of learning theories, particularly learning styles and social constructivism, helped in reaching the conclusion that some students may need to experience plagiarism in order to appreciate what it constitutes. As a result, students write an early formative essay on which they receive feedback, mainly but not exclusively, on referencing and plagiarism. As part of this process students learn about why we should not plagiarise and while discussing feedback are encouraged to explain their own understanding of plagiarism. A focus on academic writing is maintained for four weeks until a second formative assignment is completed. The approach has been well received by the students, many of whom indicated that they did not share the institution’s understanding of plagiarism prior to entering university

Student oral presentations: developing the skills and reducing the apprehension

For many students it is important that they develop good oral presentation skills since the ability to demonstrate oral communication competence is highly valued in many professions while there has also been a rise in the use of oral presentations in university classrooms. Despite this, there is doubt cast over whether it is possible to support the development of the required skills and address the fear that many students experience regarding oral presentations as part of the same intervention. Furthermore, despite being a widely researched topic, there is much in the area of communication apprehension that remains unclear. In order to determine suitable interventions, research is required to identify pedagogy that might successfully help apprehensive presenters develop their skills and confidence. This paper reports on an intervention which seeks to help students develop oral presentation skills and at the same time help apprehensive presenters reduce their fear of delivering oral presentations. The intervention, which takes place with foundation level undergraduate Accounting students, is underpinned by problem-based learning and contributing student pedagogy and focuses on the development of self-efficacy which has been identified to be a key area for the reduction of oral communication apprehension in public speaking contexts. The paper will introduce the concept of communication apprehension in oral presentations and discuss causes and possible interventions. It details the progress that has been made in the study which uses qualitative data in the form of research conversations and student reflections. Such an approach is taken in order to gain insights into the “lived experiences” of students, which has been absent in much of the previous research conducted in the area

Graduate Employability in the Curriculum: Student 'expectations v outcomes'. Is it a bridge too far? - a real conundrum!

A presentation given at the invitation of the University of Greenwich. The presentation considers the way in which employability has been embedded into the curriculum of the undergraduate Accountancy and Finance course at the University of Huddersfield. It specifically considers the work carried out in the first year module, 'Accountants in Organisations

Employability – A Question of Responsibility

Concerns have long been raised about the inadequacies demonstrated by graduates when they are placed into the working environment (e.g. American Accounting Association 1986) and the difficulties that universities face in equipping graduates for professional practice (CPA Australia, 2002). A much greater focus is now being placed on the topic of employability and the significance Higher Education plays in readiness of graduate’s for the workplace (Surridge, 2008). After due consideration of these issues, a 1st year Business School module has embedded both academic and vocational skills into a programme of personal and professional development. Using a series of employability competences (Kubler and Forbes, 2006) students undertake a series of projects and e-based activities either individually or in groups. These learning and teaching experiences use formative and summative assessments (or an iterative combination of both), to engage the students in activities that persuade and / or allow them to consider, evaluate and monitor their development as they attempt to become reflective practitioners. Based on the evidence gained the module leader and academic development tutor are both encouraged by the numbers of students who have recognised the progress they have made in developing their own employability competences. The presentation will report on the following areas: - 1. Examples of the types of exercises included in the module content, 2. Students’ engagement with the module content, 3. Consideration of examples of their reflections, attitudes and development throughout the module journey and 4. Reviewing the preliminary results of where the students feel the responsibility for employability should be positioned during their journey from education to the graduate career they aspire to

Writing support for overseas students: quick fix or responsive solution?

The number of overseas finalists in both the School of Computing & Engineering and the Business School of Huddersfield University has increased markedly in recent years particularly from Europe and the new accession states of the EU. While the level of functional English of these students is acceptable, the academic traditions to which many are accustomed is not adequate preparation for studying in English, given that they are expected to complete a substantive final year dissertation. A programme of writing skills support has been developed which helps the students adapt quickly to the demands of study. Support began four years ago with a pilot course and has now developed into a term-long series of workshops with the additional option of further one-to-one tutorial support. Student time on the final year is at a premium and the main challenge is to provide useful learning opportunities in a limited timescale while encouraging attendance. An important principle informing pedagogy is that students learn what is purposeful in terms of the desired outcomes applicable to their degree courses. Quantitative research undertaken on levels of student attendance and achievement indicates that this approach has had a positive impact on student performance in the final year

CreaTable Content and Tangible Interaction in Aphasia

Multimedia digital content (combining pictures, text and music) is ubiquitous. The process of creating such content using existing tools typically requires complex, language-laden interactions which pose a challenge for users with aphasia (a language impairment following brain injury). Tangible interactions offer a potential means to address this challenge, however, there has been little work exploring their potential for this purpose. In this paper, we present CreaTable – a platform that enables us to explore tangible interaction as a means of supporting digital content creation for people with aphasia. We report details of the co-design of CreaTable and findings from a digital creativity workshop. Workshop findings indicated that CreaTable enabled people with aphasia to create something they would not otherwise have been able to. We report how users’ aphasia profiles affected their experience, describe tensions in collaborative content creation and provide insight into more accessible content creation using tangibles

Luddin type anthraquinone glycosides from Putoria calabrica

Two new lucidin type anthraquinone glycosides, putorinoside A (1) and putorinoside B (2) were isolated from Putoria calabrica, in addition to two known anthraquinone glycosides, lucidin 3-O-β-glucopyranoside (3) and lucidin 3-O-primeveroside (4). Based on spectroscopic data, putorinosides A and B were identified as 2-hydroxymethyl-1-methoxy-3,5,6-trihydroxyanthraquinone 3-O-β-glucopyranoside and 2-hydroxymethyl-1-methoxy-3,6-dihydroxyanthraquinone 3-O-β-glucopyranoside, respectively