Changing the face of academic skills workshops

The active blending learning (ABL) approach offers flexibility to the way students learn. This approach was adopted within a Learning Development workshop to improve academic skills. Sessions were delivered alongside asynchronous content to scaffold academic skills and feed forward guidance to inform summative assessment preparation. The objective was to assess the effectiveness of the ABL approach in delivering academic skills. A cohort of 50 first year students completed three face to face ABL academic skills sessions together with five asynchronous e-tivities. Each were themed to develop different academic skills using subject specific examples. Attendance data was collected and survey was used to evaluate the asynchronous content and measure the self-perceived academic confidence levels of students. To measure the success of the ABL approach this data was analysed together with the number of attempts at each e-tivity and the formative and summative grades. Results demonstrated those who attended two or more sessions (57.7% +/- 1.43) had a significantly higher summative score (p=0.041) than those who attended 1 or less (51.7% +/- 2.73). The summative grades and the number of attempts at the asynchronous content demonstrated a positive linear relationship for e-tivity 1 to 3. Overall the academic confidence improved in nearly a third of all students for each e-tivity and 17 students (54.8%) stated that they preferred the ABL approach in developing their academic skills. This emphasises that the ABL approach is an effective method to improve summative grades and deliver academic skills

Common Pitfalls in Quantitative Research – A Game of Family fortunes

Common pitfalls in quantitative research were examined with two audiences using a GBL approach to support the engagement and interaction of participants. The researcher asked the UK mathematics and statistic community to determine the game's answers. This approach ignited an enthusiasm to discover the benefits, which was later delivered at the CETL/MSOR annual conference. The paper explores the design and delivery of the Game-based learning (GBL) session and evaluates how this action research can benefit teaching qualitative concepts in the future

Student satisfaction with online academic skills session during the pandemic

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the University of Northampton changed its usual mode of delivery from face-to-face to online. This may have involved less adjustment than in other institutions as, pre-pandemic, the university already made use of active blended learning using its virtual learning environment. To capture the student voice concerning satisfaction with this change of mode, professional service teams surveyed students attending embedded academic skills and information literacy workshops. The number of students completing the survey was 385 and overall, students were satisfied with online learning. Nearly two-thirds of respondents listed specific advantages and challenges of online learning. The most frequently mentioned advantage was convenience: being at home; the greater ease of combining study with work or home life; and reduced traveling saving both time and money. Other advantages were the improved quality and functionality of the online sessions, and positive motivational/affective factors. The most common challenge was issues with technology. Other challenges were negative motivational/affective factors, with students reporting lack of concentration and that the sessions were impersonal. A significant challenge was a perceived lack of communication between both students and lecturers, and students and their peers. Age was found to be a salient factor with students over the age of 30 markedly more positive about online learning than their younger peers. Concerns for practitioners in moving to online learning would be around ensuring students have access to the appropriate technology and finding ways to improve communication online. However, with appropriate planning, future provision may benefit from the advantages that online learning affords

Exploring learning development from the perspectives of black students

There has been little research into student perceptions of learning development tutorials despite learning development having existed in most institutions for over twenty years. Analysis from annual demographic data from tutorial attendance at the University of Northampton shows that over 25% of tutorials are attended by students identifying as Black. More Black women use the LD provision than Black males and even fewer Black males under the age of 20 use the service. This mirrors the findings of Coulson and Loddick (2020) who acknowledged, in research on learning development and student attainment, that students from a Black ethnic background, particularly females, were more likely to attend tutorials. However, there has been little research into the reasons for this.This presentation concluded the findings of an internally funded collaborative project to explore the perceptions of Black students and learning development.Due to the nature of investigating a sensitive topic, it was deemed essential that a project assistant was employed who has lived experience and identifies as Black. The project assistant predominantly conducts the research with Black students and gains their perspectives during focus groups or interviews. The project has been planned to ensure that the project assistant influences the research by offering autonomy to design the project and recruit participants. It is hoped that this project will offer a unique perspective to inform learning development practice and provision. By the time of the conference the project will have finished and we will be able to offer an insight into the findings.<br/

Learning development mentor provision – how it’s going

Continuing from the presentation in 2022 (see Thomas and Mansfield, 2022), the University of Northampton Learning Development Team used this session to share how the second year of their Learning Development Mentor Project has progressed. Our session discussed the impact of utilising student mentors on the provision of our service with the objective of reducing barriers to accessing support. Our nine Learning Development Mentors (LDMs) replicate that of Price et al.’s (2018) Student Learning Assistant Model where we offer support to students from any disciplinary subject via drop-ins, tutorials and other formal events. All LDMs are current second- and third-year students and work four or six hours a week to supplement the LD provision by offering a peer perspective to academic and study skills. Furthermore, they are seeping into spaces unable to be penetrated by Learning Development. The talk evaluated how the role was co-created with the LD Mentors and the benefits and impact it has had on the LD provision. We discussed how the Learning Development tutors, mentors and users of the service differentiate the roles. In addition, the impact of the following projects which the LDMs have been involved with was considered:•University of Northampton Plagiarism Awareness Course (UNPAC). •Social media and marketing outputs. •Pathways project to support students’ understanding of Learning Development and how to access the service.•Other institutional events such as open days, exam ready project and many more. The conference presentation will describe how we have navigated the project and how measuring impact with the project is not always straightforward

Working outside the box: breaking down barriers with a Learning Development Peer Mentor scheme

Peer learning is simply described as students from similar social groupings helping each other to learn (Topping, 2007). A recent document by the European Centre for Supplemental Instruction-Peer Assisted Study Sessions (SI PASS) (2019) highlighted that 32 universities in the UK provide a system of peer support, and these vary both in how they operate and their nomenclature: schemes could be framed as peer assisted learning, peer assisted study sessions or peer mentoring. Our aim was to create a supplementary, peer-led service which provides students with engaging, timely guidance and develops effective learning relationships based on parity and equality (Collier, 2015). We decided to use a similar approach to the Student Learning Assistant model of Price et al. (2019), where the Learning Development (LD) Mentors offer support to students from any disciplinary subject. Eight students were recruited and funded to offer peer support to all students within the institution. All are current second-and third-year students who work four hours per week supplementing the LD provision via a daily drop-in as well as leading ongoing projects and tasks, including resource development and evaluation. A key driver is reaching students who do not currently use the LD provision by developing resources in physical spaces and digital platforms previously unused in our work (e.g.,in student halls and using platforms like Discord and TikTok). We will offer a perspective on the benefits and issues encountered when working with LD mentors, evaluate how the role was co-created with the students and assess the impact it has had on wider student engagement

Student satisfaction with online academic skills sessions during the pandemic

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the University of Northampton changed its usual mode of delivery from face-to-face to online. This may have involved less adjustment than in other institutions as, pre-pandemic, the university already made use of active blended learning using its virtual learning environment. To capture the student voice concerning satisfaction with this change of mode, professional service teams surveyed students attending embedded academic skills and information literacy workshops. The number of students completing the survey was 385 and overall, students were satisfied with online learning. Nearly two-thirds of respondents listed specific advantages and challenges of online learning. The most frequently mentioned advantage was convenience: being at home; the greater ease of combining study with work or home life; and reduced traveling saving both time and money. Other advantages were the improved quality and functionality of the online sessions, and positive motivational/affective factors. The most common challenge was issues with technology. Other challenges were negative motivational/affective factors, with students reporting lack of concentration and that the sessions were impersonal. A significant challenge was a perceived lack of communication between both students and lecturers, and students and their peers. Age was found to be a salient factor with students over the age of 30 markedly more positive about online learning than their younger peers. Concerns for practitioners in moving to online learning would be around ensuring students have access to the appropriate technology and finding ways to improve communication online. However, with appropriate planning, future provision may benefit from the advantages that online learning affords

Genomics:GTL Bioenergy Research Centers White Paper

In his Advanced Energy Initiative announced in January 2006, President George W. Bush committed the nation to new efforts to develop alternative sources of energy to replace imported oil and fossil fuels. Developing cost-effective and energy-efficient methods of producing renewable alternative fuels such as cellulosic ethanol from biomass and solar-derived biofuels will require transformational breakthroughs in science and technology. Incremental improvements in current bioenergy production methods will not suffice. The Genomics:GTL Bioenergy Research Centers will be dedicated to fundamental research on microbe and plant systems with the goal of developing knowledge that will advance biotechnology-based strategies for biofuels production. The aim is to spur substantial progress toward cost-effective production of biologically based renewable energy sources. This document describes the rationale for the establishment of the centers and their objectives in light of the U.S. Department of Energy's mission and goals. Developing energy-efficient and cost-effective methods of producing alternative fuels such as cellulosic ethanol from biomass will require transformational breakthroughs in science and technology. Incremental improvements in current bioenergy-production methods will not suffice. The focus on microbes (for cellular mechanisms) and plants (for source biomass) fundamentally exploits capabilities well known to exist in the microbial world. Thus 'proof of concept' is not required, but considerable basic research into these capabilities remains an urgent priority. Several developments have converged in recent years to suggest that systems biology research into microbes and plants promises solutions that will overcome critical roadblocks on the path to cost-effective, large-scale production of cellulosic ethanol and other renewable energy from biomass. The ability to rapidly sequence the DNA of any organism is a critical part of these new capabilities, but it is only a first step. Other advances include the growing number of high-throughput techniques for protein production and characterization; a range of new instrumentation for observing proteins and other cell constituents; the rapid growth of commercially available reagents for protein production; a new generation of high-intensity light sources that provide precision imaging on the nanoscale and allow observation of molecular interactions in ultrafast time intervals; major advances in computational capability; and the continually increasing numbers of these instruments and technologies within the national laboratory infrastructure, at universities, and in private industry. All these developments expand our ability to elucidate mechanisms present in living cells, but much more remains to be done. The Centers are designed to accomplish GTL program objectives more rapidly, more effectively, and at reduced cost by concentrating appropriate technologies and scientific expertise, from genome sequence to an integrated systems understanding of the pathways and internal structures of microbes and plants most relevant to developing bioenergy compounds. The Centers will seek to understand the principles underlying the structural and functional design of selected microbial, plant, and molecular systems. This will be accomplished by building technological pathways linking the genome-determined components in an organism with bioenergy-relevant cellular systems that can be characterized sufficiently to generate realistic options for biofuel development. In addition, especially in addressing what are believed to be nearer-term approaches to renewable energy (e.g., producing cellulosic ethanol cost-effectively and energy-efficiently), the Center research team must understand in depth the current industrial-level roadblocks and bottlenecks (see section, GTL's Vision for Biological Energy Alternatives, below). For the Centers, and indeed the entire BER effort, to be successful, Center research must be integrated with individual investigator research, and coordination of activities, from DNA sequencing to high-throughput protein development and characterization