Spring Newsletter 2012: 'Listening to What You Say'
Some the things we are doing this year in response
to student feedback:
- Offering sessions outside modules on Wednesday evenings that
look at a range of generic issues such as studying at post-graduate
level, advanced writing skills, and doing dissertations. This
spring we are hoping to offer sessions related to collecting data
through interviews or questionnaires, and thinking about a
PhD.
- Offering new modules that are more closely related to staff
research interests. In this term's offering, Ann Christie delivers
Ordinary Theology, a fast-growing discipline that looks at the
beliefs and theological understanding of 'people in the
pews'.
- Improving access to materials through Moodle. Changing to a new
Virtual Learning Environment has been a challenge to staff and
students, but we are all learning how to use is environment more
effectively to offer on-line resources, keep in touch, and submit
assignments.
- We are reviewing the general progress of students through the
programme, from first module to final dissertation. We want to know
if, on average, marks improve, stay the same of decline as students
move through their taught modules and onto a dissertation. This
will help us to offer more focussed help where it is needed.