O U S A Education

Anger and Angst

2007-02-14T21:38:00.000Z

My sympathy goes out to a group of students today who through no fault of their own have done a significant amount of work for what appears on the surface to be little reward. To cut a long story short, there were problems with one of the Universitys computer systems recently, and a knock on effect of this means that the assignment these students submitted has now been changed from a summative assessment to a formative one. Additionally it seems likely that some of the assessments yet to come will be re-weighted to account for the weighting lost due to the change of status from summative to formative. A fair result for those who couldn’t submit the assignment, less of a happy conclusion for some of those who did manage to get their assignment in.

Some words to these students before I go any further - No matter what the final outcome of this you haven’t lost as much as it seems you might have at the moment. You have studied the material and learned form it, you have the assignment and answers so you can study further if you need to, make use of these as you would have done had the whole thing worked as expected. Regarding the change of weighting for the rest of the assessments – They will spread 5.5% over another 4 assessments. Nothing will change in the questions you will get, nothing will change in the marking criteria, and whatever you would have scored in that assignment at the old weighting is what you will score under the new. You got a good score for this assessment and you aren’t sure you will do as well over the next 4? – Well the truth is you won’t if you let this episode impact on your learning, put your anger and emotion into a complaint to the university and then move on with your studies. You don’t have very good health and you’re concerned that you may not be as well for the next assessments as you were for this one? – letting this matter impact on you won’t help your health, if your health suffers your learning will suffer, put your anger and emotion into a complaint to the university and then move on with your studies, if you feel by the end of the course that your performance has been affected by this then fill in a PT39 and say so. And I can hear you there muttering because you don’t want the calm voice of reason, you want action, apologies, heads to role, your score back, any or all of the aforementioned – yes I know, and I can imagine were I in your situation I would feel the same. We give a lot of ourselves to our studies and for many of us it isn’t just brain power, knowledge and time that goes into any assignment it’s nerves and tension, angst and anxiety – to go through all that and then find you can’t submit, or your submission won’t count towards your final score must be a real blow for some, quite devastating for a few, rage inducing I imagine for others, I should think between you, you cover a vast range of negative emotions. I’m not trying to give you platitudes, or giving you a lecture about how you should get over it, I’m telling you as a fairly experienced student that if you don’t manage this it will spoil the course for you and may even affect it significantly – get all that negativity into a letter of complaint and then go back to your course, let the mechanisms of the university take over to resolve the situation, and just as importantly to prevent it happening again.

Complain

I love this university; I wouldn’t study any other way or with anyone else. I’ve been an O U student on and off since 1991/2 and in all that time they have never once let me down or given me cause for complaint. I’ve met other students who have had problems, but for me any problems have been either of my own making or the ‘life happens’ stuff.

My current position within the Students Association has given me in insight into more of the problems students face than I had before, and it has given me a certain insight into the systems and procedures in place within the University.

I firmly believe that the relevant departments are doing everything they can to provide an equitable solution for the students I’ve talked about in the section above. I don’t doubt that they will look to put systems and procedures in place to prevent such a thing happening again. I’m positive they are sorry this happened.

I’m less sure of a couple of things.

I’m not sure the University always appreciate how many people are upset/annoyed/de-motivated when problems occur. I know that they have figures about numbers on courses, so in the course I was talking about they know how many students were affected - but that doesn’t tell them how those students were affected as individuals. They rarely get to know stuff like that because we don’t tell them - we sound off in our course forums, we have a moan to fellow students at the next tutorial, we might say something to our tutor, some might even come to the Students Association to voice their anger, frustration, concerns – but we don’t often make an official complaint to record our dissatisfaction and advise them of the impact the event has had on us. If we have a valid reason to then we should complain, we should say how we feel, we should make them aware of the full impact the situation as had on us as a student.

I’m not sure the University appreciate the value of its complaints department. An organisation can learn more about itself from its complaints department that it can from any number of customer satisfaction questionnaires. Satisfaction questionnaires and unhappy events rarely coincide, so even if dissatisfaction is recorded on them it is often softened by the distance of time. Complaints generally occur fairly close in time to the event, they record not only the event itself and what the complainant thinks, they often include either a direct explanation of how the event made the complainant feel, or give a sense of that from the tone, language, etc. A sensible organisation not only analyses the hard data of the complaints it takes on board the softer more qualitative data. A clever organisation makes improvements to itself and retains its customers based on data which includes that available from its complaints department. A really smart organisation actively promotes its complaints department and encourages its customers to use it should they feel a need.

Thinking out loud

2007-02-08T20:02:00.000Z

I’ve long been a fan of the Internet and for many years now have used it not only as my primary method of communication but as my preferred medium for study, however over the New Year period my wonderful World Wide Web came crashing down around my ears when I lost my connection for nearly the whole month of January. As it happened I was between courses (though I did have some prep work it would have been useful to have access for) so the impact on my education was not as significant as it could have been, but it did make me stop and think. What if I had been mid course? I mean I’m not talking a couple days or even a couple of weeks without access here, but nearly four whole weeks. What if I had actually been on that web applications course that I’d thought of doing over the winter? Four weeks out of a twelve week course is a long time and the chances of being able to catch up are slim to none, even with a full 60 point course losing a month from it can have serious repercussions. And much as I like to think I’m an individual I appreciate that I am not unique. If I can lose my connection for so long then it can happen to other students too; which poses the question – what happens if a student can’t access their course materials for a significant period?

Can they change presentations? Can they plead special circumstances come exam time? Can they have their money back? The truth is there isn’t a simple answer to any of these questions (well apart from the “can I have my course fees back?”). It depends on the course, the time of year (in the sense of how far through the course you might be) and possibly it depends on which way the wind is blowing at the time – which on reflection is quite worrying. Now I’d like to make it clear here that I don’t have definitive answers to any of my questions because posing hypothetical questions to someone at the other end of the phone when the whole set up is designed to deal with concrete problems and situations is fraught with difficulty, and the while the person I spoke to did their best to try and help, the best they could come up with was that every circumstance would be taken into account should the need arise. Reassuring, but not definitive.

So should I be concerned? The university is making its continued push forward with the Virtual Learning Environment, more and more courses have at least an online element, and while I understand that I make my choice to study online completely voluntarily, the choice to do so or not is becoming more and more difficult for many as our university moves into its e-business/e-learning future. While I understand the arguments put forward about the university having to change and adapt if it is to survive in an increasingly competitive higher education market, I also know that in the virtual world as in the real one – life happens.

Student Senate Reference Group

2006-11-26T21:52:00.000Z

Representation from the regions is an important part of the make up the Open University Students Association (OUSA). Regions are where the students are and it is important that those students are allowed to have their voices heard by the university. One way of ensuring the voice of students from the regions reaches the university by enabling those voices to feed into the governance structure. Senate is the highest tier of the Academic Governance structure and students have six seats on Senate.

In order to ensure that regional voices feed into Senate OUSA negotiated a student body called the Senate Reference Group. This group meets prior to Senate (usually from about 10.30am) to discuss issues, go through the papers, and allows the six students going forward to the actual Senate meeting to take with them opinions and views form a wider student perspective. Following the pre Senate meeting there are usually workshops on issues of current interest to the student body and sometimes presentations by various departments of the university.

Amongst other student representatives on the student Senate Reference Group each region is entitled to send one appointed representative. Applications are now invited from students within the region. All current students are invited to consider applying for the position in their region. As well as attending the Senate Reference Group meetings detailed below, the representatives will also be invited to attend OUSA Regional Forum meetings in their own region. Travel expenses (and where necessary over night accommodation) will be paid for all meetings attended. Senate Reference Group members are expected to feed back to their region on events and outcomes of the day.

Scope of Group: advising student representatives sitting on Senate (the University's academic governance body) on issues involving regulating the University’s programmes of study, admissions, research, teaching and awards as well as monitoring, steering, reviewing and determining academic policy

No. of representatives: one per region

Length of Term: September 2006 to September 2007

No. of meetings: 4 per year (provisionally but may be more)

Timings of meetings: weekdays

Venue of meetings: Milton Keynes

Requirements of OUSA Representatives

Interest in advancing student needs
Ability to summarise important points for reporting back to regional forums
Ability to put across points and deal with questions
Time to spare and flexibility to attend all group meetings
Attendance at 3-4 OUSA Regional Forum meetings (usually weekends held locally within the region) per year
Submission of reports to Regional Forum meetings
Awareness of OUSA policy (desirable)
Experience of committees (desirable)
Experience of dealing with people at all levels (desirable)

To Apply

Please complete and sign the Application Form for Appointment to Regional Committees clearly stating that it is Senate Reference Group that you are interested in. The completed form should then be sent to the OUSA office at PO Box 397, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6BE, to arrive no later than the 1st December 2006.

Appointments will be made by the OUSA Regional Forum and will be based on suitability and experience of applicants for these important positions. Applications from inexperienced representatives and new students are welcome as training will be given.

For further information on this, and other representation opportunities within OUSA, please contact the OUSA office or your local Regional Forum.

Are you an employer?

2006-11-07T00:58:00.000Z

OUSA have been asked to form a small group of student employers to act as an advisory panel to the Work Related and Employer Engagement Group (WREEG). The university has lots of experience and contact with large businesses but its knowledge of the small to medium enterprise (SME) and how to engage with them is limited. At a recent meeting of the group OUSA advised them that they already had a significant number of contacts in the area – amongst the student population. If you are an employer and think you might be interested in joining a group to advise the university then please do get in touch and we’ll have a chat. The group is unlikely to meet face to face (for those of you concerned about the time commitment) it is anticipated at all meetings will take place electronically.

Student Support Review First Report

2006-11-05T04:59:00.000Z

A draft copy of the much heralded Student Support Review First Report landed on my desk last week (and many thanks to Mary Kirby for facilitating that).

Wow what a weighty tome it is! I've just finished working my way through it in preparation for the round of discussions that of course will follow its publication and I'm impressed with how much of what it contains reflects the student viewpoint that I know fed into the review process and informed the team behind it. Not that I ever doubted they were listening to us, but it is good to see the evidence of it.

The report will now do the rounds of Senate and the consultative structure where once again the student voice will be able to feed into it - so I do urge those of you on committees to read the report when you get your papers, discuss it with your local student groups, attend your meetings where it will be discussed, and raise your student voice.

The review team have opened a forum on FirstClass called Student Support Review Evidence - it's purpose is to gather additional evidence and comment on the overviews from the evidence website (that isn't up and running yet but I'll provide a link as soon as it is) they are inviting comments from all interested parties (so that would be us then yes? It's our future support structure and mechanisms they are talking about so we're interested in it aren't we?) - if you have anything to say then go along and say it please.

O U S A will also be hosting it's own forum (which will be opening soon and will be located inside the O U S A Matters forum) - this will be more of a discussion forum so that those who wish can feed back to the team of student reps who attend the Stakeholder Reference Group (which is a part of the Student Support Review team consulting structure) can take a wider student view of the first report back to the next meeting. Please do come along and join in the discussions.

Awards Committee

2006-10-19T22:46:00.000Z

10/10/06 Student Reps - Shirley Corston and Peter G Le Maistre

The committee recommended for approval by the Curriculum,Awards and Validation Committee the following awards.

Postgraduate Certificate in Systems Practice
Postgraduate Diploma in Systems Practice
MSc in Systems Practice
Professional Certificate in Physics
Certificate in Legal Studies
Professional Certificate in Effective Practice (Youth Justice)
Foundation Degree in Youth Justice

A BSc in Computing with Psychological Studies was approved for Chair’s action.

The Committee also approved:

A Graduate entry route to the BA (Hons) in Social Work (Scotland)
Amendment to the credit transfer scheme for the above
Credit transfer arrangements for Master of Business Administration Awards

Science Faculty Committee

2006-10-18T21:55:00.000Z

22/09/06 Student Reps – Shirley Corston and Carey Shaw

More October starts on the way with S205 and S207 moving to autumn starts in 2008.

Waymark Credit - A scheme is under consideration to allow for some recognition to be made available in the future for students on 60 point courses who complete only part of the course, probably initially in respect of first level course.

Re-presentation of courses:

2007: S279 (30 point replacement for S267 and S269 combined).
2008: S104 (to replace S103) – 2 presentations per year

Planned new courses:

TBA S154 – an introduction to S104
2007 S186 Volcanoes Earthquakes Tsunamis (10 points)
TBA S187 Forensic Science (10 points)
2008 SA188 Introduction to Archaeology (10 points)
2008 S189 Weather (10 points)
2007 SK??? Chronic Health Problems i – Cardiovascular conditions (15 points)
2008 SK??? Chronic Health Problems ii - Obesity
2008 S310 Ecosystems (30 points)

New academic certificates are being planned - whether in place of or addition to existing certificates and/or diploma was not clear.

Longevity of recognition of courses towards degree awards. The university notes that in some cases, awards due to be made in 2006 and 2007 may include recognition of courses taken in the early years of the OU – 30 years ago. This aspect is under consideration but there are no proposals for change at present.

Interesting BBC programmes coming up are “Adam’s Cosmos” with Adam Hart Davies and "Climate" with David Attenborough.

A level 2 certificate in Physics is planned.

There is to be internal support (funding to Central Academic Units) for Post graduate research students.

Exam Stress

2006-10-17T20:39:00.000Z

I love our university dearly and am often proud of what they achieve in the way of awards, accreditation by external bodies, and accolades from students. However sometimes, just sometimes I have to hold my head in my hands and give a little cry of despair.

Exam time can be stressful enough for students, but imagine getting to the exam and being told by the invigilators that one of the questions on the paper was no longer available to you as an option to answer and you should strike it through. Worse still, imagine sitting the exam and not being told by the invigilators about the now disallowed question, then getting home relieved that you had survived, only to have a letter drop through your mailbox advising you that one of the questions you had answered had actually been disallowed.

This is what has happened to many students on one science course recently. In fairness they have been told that

"The University has now also put in place mechanisms to ensure an equitable assessment for all students performance in the examination"

But that doesn't alter that fact that a significant number of them were not told about the disallowed question and so answered it.

So far no information is forthcoming from the university about what will be done for these students. I am investigating and will update the blog as soon as I have news

25/10/06
Apologies for the delay folks (my fault not the universitys - they got back to me very quickly but my life got in the way of my updating the blog)
19/10/06
Having heard back from the relevant department of the university (and my thanks for their speedy response), I am satisfied that they are aware of the full situation regarding the above exam, and am confident that when the results are determined they will be done so in a manner that is fair to all students who sat the exam, and that no one will be either advantaged nor disadvantaged.

That’s it folks – fingers crossed that your results are what you wished for yourselves.

Experiments in Inclusivity

2006-10-17T16:52:00.000Z

As an Association we tend to use closed FirstClass conferences to help facilitate the support and training of various reps. There are pluses and minuses to doing this. On the plus, side new reps have a place where they can find their feet, get support, ask questions, discuss issues, and generally not worry about looking daft if they aren't 100% sure exactly what they should be doing. The down side is that people can get missed off the permissions list so don't get added to the conference (and they don't know they should be added so don't know to ask), and the closed aspect (secret some would say) can help to foster an atmosphere of 'them and us', lead to accusations of 'cliquishness', and often doesn't do a great deal to promote a feeling of inclusiveness.

In an effort to promote inclusivity I'm preparing to start an experiment on FirstClass. I've asked for a conference to be created which will be for the use of regional reps to university committees. In it they will be able to discuss issues that come up at their meetings, ask questions about O U S A policy on matters due for discussion at those meetings, and get and give support to one another in the normal manner of support conferences. The difference will be that this conference will not be hidden in any way and all students will be able to read it if they want to.

I'll explain why I've gone for read access as opposed to being totally open (though you are free to disagree with me and put forward your view if you wish - I have been known to be persuaded to change my viewpoint). There are any number of ways for students to put forward their views on things to the Association (I'll leave aside the argument about these could be better publicised and more accessible for now), and there are any number of people students can contact who deliberately put themselves in the way of being a 'public face' and a communications channel within our Association. The people who put themselves forward for the role of a regional reps to O U committees generally fall into one of two groups:

Those who are new to representing student opinion, are just finding their feet, and want to start in a local environment where it is likely they will know others and have an understanding of the issues.
Those who are concerned with local students and local issues, want to 'do their bit' for the student body, but don't want to be a public face.

By giving the whole student body read only access to the conference I'm hoping to do two things:

Increase awareness of what our regional reps do (and maybe encourage participation by doing so)
Protect those reps who don't really want to get involved with debates with the whole student body by ensuring that if someone from outside the group does want to debate certain issues they use the appropriate forum/channel to do so.

I'm not sure I've got this right, it's an experiment to see how it goes, if it works then great, if it doesn't then I'll look at the situation and work out where to go from there. Your views, as always will be appreciated.

I Ask You!

2006-10-17T00:26:00.000Z

Like any large organisation the Open University has a particular fondness for acronyms and abbreviations (in truth so does the Student Association though we are trying to break ourselves of the habit).

Most committee and working group names end up reduced to abbreviations, so Curriculum Awards and Validation Committee becomes CAVC, and CASG is actually the Complaints and Appeals Steering Group.

But WREEG! I ask you! WREEG! I told my boss I needed a day off to attend a WREEG meeting and he laughed! Which is a bit of a shame really when you consider that I work for a training company who do a lot of government funded training, and the meeting he was laughing about was the Work Related and Employer Engagement Group.

But I ask you! WREEG!

Widening Particpation Advisory Group

2006-10-17T00:12:00.000Z

14/09/06 Student Rep - Alex Hamilton

http://www.open.ac.uk/widening-participation/

It has been noticed that quite a lot of students on K100 do not have English as their first language, possibly causing problems for them and tutors marking their assignments. This may have led to drop outs and students misunderstanding what was expected of them. The university is now looking at the necessary requirements to help students whose first language is not English while at the same time retaining the open policy.

A presentation of Region 4 (West Midlands) initiatives in Widening Participation was given. A large number of initiatives have taken place in the Midlands since the AD (Assistant Director) joined in February.

http://www3.open.ac.uk/near-you/west-midlands/p3.asp

Suggestions?

2006-10-16T20:06:00.000Z

I thought it might be useful to have a place where readers could put forward their suggestions for some content.

I know what I had in mind for content when I thought of doing this but it's a communication tool and communication is a two way process - so if there is anything* you think ought to be on here then leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

*When I say anything I really mean education related - please don't ask me questions about the Constitution because you'll make me have a headache if I have to go read that ;-)

Mental Health Working Group

2006-10-15T20:37:00.000Z

04/09/06 Student Rep - Christine Fitze

Making Your Teaching Inclusive
Note: The link is to an O U site that is specifically aimed at staff and professionals - I've included it because it is a useful resource and may help not only increase awareness but also aid in understanding some issues that are beyond personal experience.

Mentoring Scheme – this is a pilot scheme at that allows mentoring support to students with mental health problems. The pilot has run into a hiccup or two because students who have already been granted the Disabled Student Allowance (D S A) didn’t have an element of that award to cover mentoring. The suggestion now is to promote the scheme to students who have not yet applied for D S A.

Prisoners in Secure Units – Currently the university have no way of being able to identify whether or not a student is a prisoner or held in a secure unit (the address isn’t necessarily a good indicator as the student could be a member of staff, or the place could actually be a residential home). It is hoped to have a meeting with the Home Office to find out the position regarding Health and Safety and other issues on how the OU should work with students in Secure Units. General guidelines are being produced. This is an area O U S A has already taken an interest in and Vice President Equal Opportunities has a working group in place looking at the issues and implications.

Central Reps

2006-10-14T18:22:00.000Z

About
Central Representatives are students who sit on Open University committees and groups that meet weekdays on campus in Milton Keynes (they generally meet 3 to 5 times per year, and the year currently runs from September to August). Consideration for appointment as a Central Rep is by application (supported by references). Applications are processed and references followed up and then everything is sent to an Executive Committee (E C) appointments panel who meet once face to face in May or June and online throughout the rest of the year. The appointments panel considers the applications and makes recommendations for appointment. The recommendations then go to the full E C for confirmation of appointment.

Recruitment and Selection
When considering suitability for appointment many factors are considered and the E C appointments panel has a document appropriately called the Principles of Appointment which it uses to help make decisions about suitability or not.

Once appointed a Central Rep will be allocated to a committee/group - usually this is based upon the preferences they express, but this can’t be guaranteed with applications that arrive outside the main appointments period as their preference may have already been allocated to someone else.

Having been given a committee or group the rep will be sent all available info about it including dates of meetings for year, and the Terms of Reference (T o R) for that particular body (the T o R details the scope, remit and usually the membership of that body), they will also often be contacted by the secretary to the committee/group to say welcome.

Training and Support
Reps in place by August are invited to attend the O U S A Central Training event which generally takes place in September. This is a residential weekend where old and new reps will take part in training sessions helping them familiarise themselves with their new roles (and just as importantly begin to build contacts with other reps and so develop their own support network.

Speaking of support networks there are a couple directly available to Central Reps. First of all the role falls under the remit of Vice President Education so all the Central Reps are supported and facilitated by V P Ed and that roles support team at the O U S A office. There is also a FirstClass conference where the reps can meet up, exchange ideas, discuss issues – this is also where the reports from meetings are posted for the attention of V P Ed.

Good To Go
The university committee year starts in September soon after training takes place and that’s when the Central Reps begin to fully perform their roles by attending their meetings, using their student voice to speak up about student related issues raised there, and reporting back to V P Ed about matters of interest coming out of the meetings.

Is It For You?
It all sounds very formal doesn’t it? I suppose to a certain extent it is – Central Reps are one of the main tools we have for making the university aware of our views and it’s important that we have people in those roles who are not only prepared to do the role but are also capable of it. The meetings themselves though generally friendly are disciplined affairs so can be a little intimidating to a lone student in a room full of university staff. The issues discussed can be technical and/or wide ranging – it is important we have the right people in the roles. All that said the roles can also be fun, interesting, equip you with new skills, hone some existing ones, build confidence, empower, help develop negotiating skills, and lots of other things that employers look for in their prospective employees.

More Info?
Interested? Have you got what it takes? Like to develop some worthwhile employability skills? Like to help make a difference – together? Want more information? Vacancies for Central Reps exist throughout the committee year and applications are always welcome – we are particularly always on the lookout for research student applicants who are significantly under represented amongst our pool of reps

Contact

O U S A P O Box 397
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6BE

ousa@student.open.ac.uk

01908 652026

Student Representatives

2006-10-13T19:14:00.000Z

One of the primary functions of the Student Association is to present the student viewpoint to the university. We do this in a variety of ways and at various levels of the university structure. One of the main ways we put forward the student viewpoint is by having Student Representatives attend face to face meetings held by the university.

Student Reps are appointed (or for some committees they are elected) to sit on university committees and groups at both regional and national level. They put forward the student viewpoint by using; personal experience, anecdotal evidence, and by using OUSA policy from the Register of Decisions (the Associations policy document which contains all the policies decided over time by our annual conference).

The various types of Student Representative are:

Central Representatives
Central Disciplinary Committee Representatives
Central Consultative Committee Representatives
Regional Committee Representatives
Regional Consultative Committee Representatives
Regional Representatives to the Senate Reference Group

More about each of these roles in a while.

Welcome

2006-10-12T22:59:00.000Z

Welcome to the blog of the Open University Student Association Vice President Education.

Why a blog? Several reasons really:

First off because I can - I'm reasonably web savvy, fairly articulate, and my style of communication suits the short sharp bursts of blogging.

It seems silly in this day and age (when you have the ability and the will) not to take advantage of all the channels of communication available to us, especially when you want to engage with your members and have them engage with you.

Next it’s fairly spontaneous – as news views and information come to hand they can be posted quickly into a blog, published, and shared with the wider student community.

It’s accessible – in the sense that anyone with an internet connection and a web browser can arrive at the content.

Finally – it allows for the participation of its readers through the comment facility which means that views can be sought, feedback given, interaction can take place.

If as students we are going to continue to influence our university and help shape our own educational establishment, it is important that the Vice President with the education remit has as many avenues as possible available to them to gather and disseminate news, views, and information.