How universities can ensure students still have a good experience, despite coronavirus

by Helen Higson, The Conversation:  https://theconversation.com/how-universities-can-ensure-students-still-have-a-good-experience-despite-coronavirus-146790

As UK university students begin an academic year, they are experiencing a totally different way of life. Some have already found themselves in lockdown in their residences and are afraid they will not be getting some of the usual benefits of university education.

Universities have a duty of care for students’ health and well-being, and a responsibility to ensure that the students of 2020/21 experience a high quality, engaging and innovative learning experience.

It is important to universities that they provide excellent student satisfaction, and they are judged on this by students and the government. So far, it looks very possible that students will rate their experience as less satisfying than usual.

As a researcher with extensive experience in policy and practice in higher education, I suggest there are a number of vital ways in which universities can ensure student satisfaction and continued value for money.

New challenges

New students often find their first term disorientating and now there are additional challenges to deal with, such as managing the use of new technologies and attending face-to-face sessions with social distancing in place.

To maintain student satisfaction and manage expectations, universities have to find ways of listening attentively to students. Institutions may have been doing all they can to support students, but it has not always felt like that to students themselves. Universities need to survey student views regularly and make changes based on these views, so that students find universities to be responsive to their needs.

Students will have differing requirements and preferences for their learning experience. fizkes/Shutterstock

Universities must not treat learners as one homogeneous group. There are not going to be “one size fits all” solutions. Some students will be keen for on-campus sessions, and others will only feel comfortable if everything is online.

Universities have to design learning which can be flexed either way, according to student demand, but also as the pandemic restrictions change. This needs to be done with a new speed and agility – something that universities are sometimes not known for.

Keep in touch

Institutions need to communicate to students more than they have ever done before, and via multiple channels. Students say that email is not the best form of communication.

More interactive ways of connecting, such as virtual question-and-answer sessions, individual phone calls replying to specific questions and social media are far more effective. Universities have a responsibility to explain what they are doing from a student’s point of view, and to tailor their responses to different students.

Students may prefer to receive information via social media or messaging.  skyNext/Shutterstock

Finally, universities need to make good use of technology. Paradoxically, a medium which was a response to having to educate at a distance has become the means by which universities can offer a far more individualised, flexible and engaging experience. For example, online learning and communication should allow for new one-to-one conversations on study and progress, informed by data on students’ engagement with their learning.

Invest in staff and students

All this may not be easy for some staff. In the new environment, every teacher needs to be comfortable and creative with the blended technologies they are using. More than this, they need to rethink their approaches to designing, delivering and assessing everything that they taught before, so the 2020/21 curriculum will be fresh, innovative and value for money.

As ever, if you want a high quality product you need to invest, and universities pride themselves on the excellence of their learning experiences. So as well as resourcing extensive extra investment in hardware, software and networking capacity, it is necessary to invest in the training of staff. Staff will need to have the tools to ensure consistency, innovation and excellence of design.

Students also need support in order to take full advantage of the imaginative technological approaches on offer. All this is not cheap, but it is a very positive and necessary investment.

Six months ago the world changed, and with it many accepted approaches to learning and providing a holistic student experience. The relationship universities have with students has to change as a result – more interaction, more innovation and certainly more flexibility for individual learners, learning situations and approaches are all needed.

Introductions and conclusions: How much the same and how different?

by Susan Carter, Doctoral Writing SIG:  https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/2020/09/18/introductions-and-conclusion-how-same-how-different/

Image: University of Melbourne (Youtube)

Introductions and conclusions bookend or mirror each other. But they also differ from each other in significant ways. Doctoral writers need to be aware of the generic expectations of introductions and conclusions.

Recently, I was in a workshop with academic writers revising their introductions and conclusion. We were working on identifying strong rhetorical moves in these two significant sections, talking about what sort of moves, syntax, and word choice equated with persuasive beginnings and endings. The idea was that once we itemised what was strong, we could all improve the style and power of our own drafts.

I was drawing on the advice that I give doctoral thesis writers along the lines of ‘The introduction and conclusion sections of the thesis serve a bookend function and ensure that the reader understands the scope of the thesis and what it contributes. The first and last places are the most important and writers need to consider what they should achieve, what they should signal, and what work they can be made to do.’

Readers expect the covert convention that the introduction will be broad, general and contextual so that fine detail here will seem disjunctive. It is common to note an hourglass shape to the thesis, where a wide scope introductory framework narrows to the specific topic and focus, and then widens again in the conclusion.

I recommend consulting Paltridge and Starfield’s (2007)  ‘typical moves’ that introductions make. These are broadly establishing the context, showing the gap and describing how the research will fill the gap (Paltridge and Starfield 2007 break these sections down further, suggesting that some moves are obligatory. It is well worth reading this book).

Then, the conclusion should leave the reader with a clear sense of what has been achieved: namely, that the aims identified in the introduction have been achieved and that a unique and important contribution to scholarship has been made. A conclusion often recalls specific points to emphasise what has been achieved. Generic conventions for emphasising the value of the original contribution become important to writers: the conclusion is where the examiner leaves the thesis.

In this workshop, though, we noticed the tense of these two sections. I’d never thought about tense before as it relates to introductions and conclusion. I’m pondering on the fact that tense signals the direction of gaze and focus: very simplistically I think of a speaker as looking backwards (with past tense use), sideways (with the present) and ahead (with the future).

Frequently the tense in the introduction was past or present perfect to describe the context, often describing what the problem was that prompted a need for research, and what was already known or tried as a solution. Introductions then shifted to the present tense for what the current project does, how it does it, and in which specific niche. The present tense describes how the gap in knowledge or understanding is filled by this project.

The conclusion may use the present simple tense in stating the original contribution, saying again what the thesis does and what it argues. The conclusion may reiterate how the different parts of the thesis work together in the elaboration of a convincing argument, or how the various elements in the research process have contributed to the achievement of certain results.

Often, though, the conclusion looks to the future as well, projecting how the findings may direct changes in practice, or how they raise further questions that offer promise. Limitations of the project are often framed as possible future research.

For many authors, the conclusion satisfyingly establishes a better understanding of something they are passionate about, as when social scientists show the wastage caused by inequity; scientists, the changes to natural patterns that suggest humans need to change their habits; or educationalists, shortfalls in practice that can be improved.

The idea that came from the recent class is this: The generic conventions of verb tenses in introductions and conclusions comply with the narrative logic that each research project is one part of a bigger, ongoing story. Every research project is based on past understanding. And it is appropriate that in the conclusion, the author looks to the future, and to what will follow.

Perhaps the situation is not so cut and dried as to be about simply about tense, although one writing exercise is to watch for tense in thesis section examples. It is more about gaze-direction, poise and tone. These relate to the social nature of every thesis or journal article, in entering a discussion that other people have already begun.

Do you also workshop how to review introductions and conclusions together as a set? Any other thoughts?

Cited

Paltridge, B. & Starfield, S. (2007). Thesis and dissertation writing in a second language: A handbook for supervisors. London: Routledge.