students access in Moodle. require extra work and resources obtain confirmation of access. Amount of Information/information at specific points Too much information at an early point – students don’t tend to go back to handbook but would rather ask staff. Would like to ‘drip-feed’ important information to students at appropriate times (i.e. IMCs, plagiarism) but resource intensive. Dissemination of information at certain points of the year would not be possible (resource intensive). Handbook should be given out in its entirely at induction. Helpful to remind students at certain points (i.e. IMCs), but would be useful to link back to the Handbook if doing so. Would be useful to know what Student Union/Registry are telling students at what point so not to duplicate information. Handbook should be a signposting document (with links to other documents/information), rather than provide duplicate information. (example - Lisa Isted’s PGR handbook) Look/feel of Handbook Could use ‘SU First Year Guide and Notebook’ some of the information in handbook – including glossy inserts Common sections are a bit boring and don’t flow (in of their order). Need to use clear student friendly language. Students need to be engaged and need to know why they are reading it. Need to find out what students want from a handbook Need to understand how students access information. Current language is not student friendly or clear. Common sections are patronising. Terminology used is not student friendly Documentation associated with Handbook (i.e. NFA:AR) need to be accessible and understandable to students and staff. Need to understand how students access information (do they prefer online or hardcopy). Terminology is appropriate for the information being communicated (needs to be relatively formal). Possible ensure consistency and be a little more student friendly – use ‘you’ rather than ‘the student’. Information missing/ from Handbook Local contacts and local support roles (i.e. for MScs) Aims and Objectives from Programme Specification into Handbook
Inclusion of Reading Lists Would prefer not to commit reading list to handbook but liked the idea of signposting from handbook to Moodle No, students should go to unit outlines for this information as can go out of date quickly. Students could be signposted from handbook though. No, reading lists are often developed at a late stage and therefore go out of date as soon as published No, but possibly signpost to Moodle pages No, but possibly signpost to other resources Inclusion of Supervision arrangements for PG students Arrangements are not necessarily fixed before the students arrive and can then change once they are here. Would not want to commit that info to Handbook. Instead – make reference to QA7 Possibly include reference and signpost to further information Yes, refer to role of supervisor Inclusion of Student Exchanges/Study abroad info Possibly signpost to QA44 but not too much information, as this is given out at a later stage of the programme. Yes, signpost to other information already available Already include information about study abroad Alternative formats Give out student handbook on a memory stick Circulation of common sections Need to get information earlier - LPO students in September Departmental information The Faculty needs to review the information being provided by the departments and ensure guidance for staff about what and what not to include. Guidance needs to be provided to departments on what to include in the programme specific information in handbooks – to ensure consistency
Distance Learning There is too much information in the handbook for distance learning students Other information In its current format, the Handbook a lot of staff resource and time to prepare. Suggestion for a central repository for the handbooks University needs to have a content management system in order for definitive documents can be held centrally (which helps version control) Producing Handbooks is extremely resource intensive. Do we need to include ‘useless’ information – i.e. about where pigeon holes are?? Useful to have a PGR handbook template as well – discuss with Lisa Isted Should it be a formal requirement in QA44 that departments should follow templates? PROGRAMME SPECIFICATION Inclusion of common sections in main template attached to QA4 Yes, and make staff aware when changes have been made to the common sections Yes, this would be useful Yes, this would be useful Yes, this would be useful. Separate Programme Description from Programme Specification Yes, to aid Directors of Studies No, better kept as one document No, Programme Description is useful but should be kept attached the Programme Specification. No, should be kept as one document. Staff need to be aware not to include PD info in the middle of the PS. Programme Specification as a Marketing tool Programme Specification needs to be made more interesting. Appropriate for committee work but not for marketing tool for prospective students or a Programme Specifications should not be marketing tools. Possibly useful to have Programme Spec for Committee and a separate The programme Specification is useful for committee purposes and reasonable if required to be produce by QAA. However would Not marketing tool (similar to unit descriptions). the programme specification be written for committee with marketing to Not marketing tool.
reference document for current students. Possibly a different document for these latter two stakeholders? document for Prospective and current students like for it to be more programme centric. (Confirmed that it is definitely a formal requirement of QAA and sections are prescriptive). prospective and current students in mind (i.e. push table on front page to end of document with marketing blurb upfront)? However, difficult to get DoS to write this. Any other suggestions? Programmes should supply unit outlines in one document to show students what the programme might look like (with a caveat to say that this may change) Programme Specification template (and the majority of templates across the Code of Practice) are designed and badly formatted, making the time spent filling them in frustrating (i.e. Annual Quality report, QA4 form 1 etc). The University should have a content management system for this type of information. Do we need to have a student support section? QAA says ‘normally’. What do peers do? Cardiff- Yes, Exeter – Yes, Bristol - No The University needs to have a content management system. Version control is an issue. HSS tend to deal with Prog and Prog Descriptions separately but put them in one document for publishing on the web. The programme description should ideally be linked to unit catalogue as this is the most up-to-date information Could LTEO provide sessions for administrators around Easter on the potential changes to QA44, Handbooks and Programme Specs? Programme Specifications are not useful documents