Current Projects - 2012/13
The SALTs are busy working on their projects and full information including outputs will appear soon. As a taster of what's to come, these are the themes that each team are addressing:
Arts & Humanities: Developing a pan-Faculty interdisciplinary module which has been approved by the Faculty.
Engineering: Engineering Central website has now been completed, and the team are working on an end-of-year Interdisciplinary Quiz.
Medicine, Dentistry & Health: After organising another successful Joint Operation event in December, the team are currently devising a language booklet with key phrases to be used in clinic.
Science: Academic Induction video guide about 'What I wish I'd known' for incoming students.
Social Sciences: What is a Social Sciences Graduate? Exploring the qualities, skills and attributes of a Social Sciences student.
Institutional: Research project on Home and International Student Integration in the Learning & Teaching Environment.
Past Projects - 2011/2012
The SALTs worked on a variety of projects in the past academic year.
Arts & Humanities - Academic Mentoring for Dual Honours Students
We designed an academic peer mentoring scheme specifically tailored for first year dual honours students.
The scheme provided an opportunity for students to:
• voice their academic concerns
• reinforce their sense of community within both departments
• develop a set of skills applicable to both their subjects
In addition, the mentors themselves gained new skills, friends and valuable experiences to help them in the future.
As part of the project we also created a 'resource bank' for dual-honours related academic skills which will not only help the mentors address their mentees' needs but will also be made more widely available for other students. We hope these combined initiatives will help dual honours students in our faculty and, we hope the Faculty will continue and expand the scheme in the years to come.
You can read the whole SALT Arts & Humanities 2011/12 Project FReport by clicking on the right hand link.
Engineering - An Academic Skills and Transitions Website for Engineering students
We have created a webspace called 'Engineering Central' which is a site designed specifically to help Engineering students before, during and after they study at the University of Sheffield.
Last year, we concentrated on the 'Before' transition - so focussing on students who have decided to come and study Engineering in Sheffield, and giving them helpful information. For example, defining what Engineering is, explaining each of the different types of Engineering, what to expect when you get here from contact hours to lab work, practical top tips and we're even creating an interactive Engineer's Map to help people get around.
This year, with a new team, we will be looking at the 'During' transition - what information do students need to know while they're here, and how to manage the expectations from one year to the next. We are going to create a host of study skills and resources tackling referencing, group work, presentation skills and more.
The final stage is preparing for 'After' and helping students to think about career choices, information about chartered status, placements and so on.
We hope that Engineering Central will help guide students through University, providing useful and relevant information relating to their course created by students for students.
Here is a mock up of the homepage:
You can read the full Engineering 2011/12 Report by downloading it from the right-hand link.
Medicine, Dentistry & Health - Interprofessional Interaction
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On 1st December 2011, we organised and hosted the first 'Joint Operation' event. This was a multi-disciplinary event which saw teams made up of student Medics, Nurses, Dentists, Speech Therapists, Orthoptists, Social Workers, and Occupational Therapists joined together in one room to discuss hypothetical medical scenarios. Each team moved through a series of 'work stations' which were staffed by a member of an MDH department.
This event aimed to:
- increase awareness of inter-professional working and to encourage inter-faculty relationships.
- enable students to discover to what extent and in what context their profession would come into contact with other professions in the workplace, and how this would shape their role in a clinical setting, with the use of hypothetical cases.
The event was a real success, receiving positive feedback from all who attended. See the videos below to see Joint Operation in action!
After the success of Joint Operation, we decided to use the rest of the academic year to make a video about the ‘job bit’ that comes after the ‘degree bit’ we’re all currently doing! We wanted to leave something tangible and permanent behind, and also make use of the video footage from Joint Operation.
We chose to make a film about MDH employment as the poor economy has affected our jobs market as well and we felt that many of those at the beginning of their degree were unaware of these difficulties and were therefore not putting in the necessary preparation from the beginning.
You can read more about this in the full MDH Project 2011/12 Report which is downloadable on the right.
Science - Module Advice Sessions & Science-Specific Skills Resources
We held "Module Advice Sessions" at the start of semester 2 where older students gave students from lower years help and advice on picking modules and making career decisions. The events were a great success with good turnout from both 1st years wanted to get advice, and 2nd and 3rd years wanting to give it. Everyone had really positive feedback from the events they held, so we are putting together a ‘pack’ so that this could be carried on next year.
We also researched some online resources to help Science students with basic skills like lab report writing, referencing and using statistical analysis software. We have collected feedback on which topics people feel they most need help with, and will be using a mixture of multimedia and written instructions.
You can read about this project in more detail in the Science SALT 2011/12 Report on the right.
Social Sciences - Departmental Academic Support & Staff-Student Symposium
We are the biggest team (13 in total!) and decided to focus on academic mentoring and support in our specific departments. Projects included student-led Maths revision in Economics, peer-assisted learning in Information studies, Year Abroad support event in the School of East Asian Studies, and dissertation workshops in Geography.
Half of our team are also organised a Faculty Staff-Student Symposium which showcased departmental Learning & Teaching projects and the use of Learning Technologies, sparked discussions on Faculty matters, and provided an arena for debate and conversation on topics such as Employability, and the identity of Social Sciences graduates.
You can read more about the various achievements in the Social Sciences 2011/12 Report on the right.