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Restructuring the Computing Foundation Year. Lessons Learned. Plan of Talk. Lessons Learned What we used to do What we wanted to do What we did do/are doing Plans for the Future What still needs to be done Evaluation. The Old First Year. What was wrong with the Old Structure?.
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Restructuring the Computing Foundation Year Lessons Learned
Plan of Talk Lessons Learned • What we used to do • What we wanted to do • What we did do/are doing Plans for the Future • What still needs to be done • Evaluation
What was wrong with the Old Structure? • Disenchantment with performance at the end of the first semester meant higher probability of disengagement in semester two. • Some students did not even attempt to revise seriously for the summer resit opportunity which was their best (and often their only realistic) chance for progression. • Little day-to-day contact between personal tutors and tutees, even though such contact is cited as a positive factor in studies of the first year experience. • Such day-to-day contact very difficult to achieve unless Personal Tutors also teach on the first year programme.
What was wrong with the Old Structure? • Little provision for soft, professional, collaborative or transferable skills such as study skills, group or team working. • 12 week first semester teaching session was far too long for new undergraduates coming from schools with a teaching break at the half-term. • The relentless teaching schedule was considered to be an important factor in early (first semester) student disengagement. • Concentrated semester-long teaching sessions made activities such as diagnostic assessment and remediation difficult to schedule due to time constraints.
An Integrated Curriculum The structure of the new Foundation Year should place strong emphasis on the idea that, as a discipline, Computing is seen as a unified and self-supporting whole. • Introductory teaching should, wherever possible, reflect and convey this notion of integration to the student. • As a consequence, prominence should be placed on the concept of an Integrated Curriculum.
An Integrated Curriculum This integration should manifest itself at structural and pedagogical levels, as well as that of student-support: • Integration of teaching across more fluid thematic boundaries • to highlight fundamental aspects of interconnectivity and interdisciplinarity within areas of the syllabus, • Integrative assessment • Integration of modes of assessment which attempt to balance the types (individual and group) and purposes (e.g. formative and summative) of such activity,
An Integrated Curriculum • Partner Module assessment • Creation of assessment opportunities in which it is possible to carefully combine measurement of achievement of learning outcomes from two partnered modules, • Synoptic assessment • Development of assessment processes that encourage students to combine elements of their learning from different parts of the programme and to show their accumulated knowledge and understanding of a topic or subject area.
An Integrated Curriculum • Integration of Student-Support • Embedding academic and pastoral support for students, especially at-risk students, within mainstream contact time.Personalising the learning experience.
Main Points • Use 30 credit themes which run over two semesters to give greater flexibility to manage a balanced and engaging teaching style which can deal specifically with issues of transition. • Three major themes: • Software Design and Development, • Problem-Solving and Modelling, and • Information Systems. • Use content drawn from the current set of modules but emphasise coherence and connections.
Main Points • Introduce a two-semester 15 credit module which addresses soft-skills, collaborative and group-working, PDP, promotes employability skills and fosters study skills to encourage independent learning. • Use (but monitor!) portfolio-based assessment approach to allow students to build up work over two semesters • Use Social Software – Blogs, Wikis, Virtual Social Spaces – to provide a vehicle for collaboration.
Main Points • Maintain a one-semester 15 credit module which allows some specialisation in the student’s chosen route. • Promote the introduction of joint assessment opportunities between the major themes and the “collaborative working” module. • Build time for remediation into the timetable at the start.
Main Points • Maintain strict attendance monitoring and use participation in formative assessment as a Learning Objective. • Set up a dedicated Foundation Year Teaching Team, composed of enthusiastic and approachable staff with proven teaching ability to oversee the academic delivery. • Use the same staff to provide pastoral, academic and remediation support for students.
Lessons Learned Structural Features that worked well • 30 credit two-semester module seem to give flexibility of delivery • Formative assessment (mainly) in semester 1 • Break up semester 1 with a week for group-work • Use of semester 1 exam period as teaching time, and the post-Easter-break period for final course work
Lessons Learned • Be sensible about what can be achieved in the first year of implementation - It’s not all going to work! • Plan for a spiral development process: • First Year of implementation • Implement the major structural features • Try to get content sorted out • Try to map out an evaluation process • Second Year of implementation • Revise, refine and enhance assessment and feedback procedures • Ensure rigorous evaluation
Lessons Learned • Don’t assume that the process will free up staff time: • We have more contact time with the students now. (This may change next year) • In this first year we probably spent more time on assessment feedback than in the previous years. (This will change next year) • But the time spent is also higher quality • Getting a dedicated FY team is extremely difficult (and probably impossible) but very important.
Lessons Learned What still needs major work? • Linkages between themes • Almost all assessment practices • The PDP/e-portfolio side of the Collaborative and Professional Skills module • Need to scaffold the reflective learning aspects • Structured peer support • Personal tutorial support • Supplemental teaching/remediation • Evaluation
Lessons Learned What do we take forward? Be innovative with assessment: • Make use of formative and summative • peer assessment • self assessment • divergent assessment • Use Group-work • Use Group-work • Use Group-work • Get student participation in module/programme design
Lessons Learned And finally… • Don’t worry (too much) if it doesn’t all go to plan. • If possible, don’t have a major round of staff redundancies at the start of the academic year…
Foundation Year Team • Garry Brindley Foundation Year Coordinator • Nic Capanni Lecturer • Gordon Eccleston Computing for Internet & Multimedia Route Leader • Audrey Fryer Multimedia Development Route Leader • Sue Hodgson Lecturer • Roger McDermott Learning Enhancement Coordinator
The Ideal FY Curriculum • In their 2008 report on Curriculum Design for the First Year, Bovill, Morss and Bulley identified key features of an ideal first year from the perspective of staff and students, as well as those described in previously published literature and case studies.
Ideal Curriculum (Literature) • Orientation of students to increase social and academic engagement, ‘connectedness’ to university, sense of direction and future career (Beder, 1997) • Development of learning skills (Lines, 2005; Harvey et al, 2006) • Student-centred, active learning, through problem-based, project-based and group learning (Beder, 1997; Harvey et al, 2006) • Collaborative learning or learning communities to enhance transferable skills and lend a sense of belonging (Barefoot, 2002; Lines, 2005) • Formative assessment and feedback (Yorke, 2001;Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006) Progressive skills development (Jantzi and Austin, 2002) • Time and structures for reflecting on learning (Jantzi and Austin, 2002)
Ideal Curriculum (Staff) • Co-ordinated programme level approach • Small group work • Problem based learning • Student choice • Early formative feedback • Use most experienced staff to teach first year students • Involving students in curriculum design • Opportunities for students to have personal contact with staff • Clear communication between staff and students about all elements of the curriculum • Enjoyment
Ideal Curriculum (Student) • More attention on assessment and timely feedback • More challenging work • Students being involved in curriculum design in a role that is ‘more than just feedback’ • Student participation in designing timetabling and curriculum structure
How Do You Know What Your Students Think About Their Course?
Use of Social Software Social software – software supporting group interaction • Web 2.0-based software – blogs, wikis, social bookmarking tools, and collaborative authoring environments, • shown to promote initial take-up of reflective activities and their continued use. • Focus on blogs, wikis (and collaborative authoring tools). • Educational potential assessed and compared with more conventional e-learning technologies, • Criteria for success determined by factors such as the enhancement of deep learning, promotion of engagement, transferability of lessons learned.
Use of Social Software Blogs: • Students required to keep a personal blog detailing learning journey throughout the year. • will form part of an e-portfolio of work which will accompany the student throughout their course of study, • will form the basis of further metacognitive activities in later years, • encourages conversational approach to reflection on different types of narrative. • The project will seek to develop framework (e.g. templates) for critical analysis and reflection • Activities also form basis of the School’s PDP strategy, • include activities aimed at enhancing employability.
