Academic skills support at Loughborough University. Stephanie McKeating, Academic Services Manager.

1. Skills to succeed?
Academic skills support at
Loughborough University
Stephanie McKeating
Academic Services Manager

2. Outline of the session
 How the Library
came to be teaching
academic skills
 What we offer
 Challenges
 Future plans

3. Academic skills and the Library
 Historically study skills support offered by Learning &
Teaching Centre
 Change of focus to supporting academic staff
 Library took on study skills in 2005
 Advice sheets
 1-hour workshops
 Roberts funding for FT academic librarian
 Increased generic support
 Offered embedded support
 Online tutorial development

4. Generic workshops 2005/6 – 2007/8
 Originally two separate generic streams
 Lunchtime in the Library – traditional information skills
 Study Skills – new skills courses (14 in first year)
 Initially all sessions 50 mins held over lunchtime
 Booking via Careers booking system
 Target audience - undergraduates

5. Study skills topics
 Time management  Revision & exam skills
 Reading & note-  PDP (introduced in
taking 2007/8)
 Oral presentations  Working in groups
 Essay writing (dropped due to lack of
 Report writing demand)

6. Get the Know-How: Skills to succeed
 2008/9 - two streams merged and branded as
 Get the Know-How: skills to succeed
 Complete revision of courses
 Names e.g. Oral presentations became Speaking
your mind
 Some courses split into two e.g. reading & note-taking
 Focus on increasing interactivity
 2009/10 & 2010/11 no booking, drop in sessions

7. Get the Know-How 2011/12
 Reintroduced booking via VLE (Moodle)
 Trialled new times and venues
 Nearly 40% courses outside lunchtime period
 3 early evening sessions (6 pm)
 One third courses outside Library
 Offered tailored sessions
 e.g. Presentation skills for Science & Engineering

8. E
E
E
E = Evening session

9. Attendance trends
 Average attendance risen
2011/12
 Problems with “no-shows”
 Evening sessions popular
Sessions Attendance Average
2009/10 40 516 12.9
2010/11 44 566 12.86
2011/12 36 549 15.25

10. Departmental skills sessions
 Fewer sessions but bigger reach Sessions Attendance
2009/10 16 438
 Many embedded in curriculum 2010/11 15 537
 Some additional topics 2011/12 20 825
Sessions Sessions Sessions
Topic 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12
Intro to study skills/ learning 6 5 4
Group work 3 4 3
Note-taking 0 0 1
PDP 1 0 1
Poster design 1 1 2
Presentation skills 0 2 3
Reading 0 0 1
Revision & exam skills 1 0 0
Time management 2 1 2
Writing skills 3 4 6
Total 17 17 23

11. Skills resources
 Web pages
 Topics
 Advice sheets
 Planning sheets
 VLE
 Get the Know-How
module
 Online tutorials

12. Advice sheets
Written by other services
New titles
 Available in print and
as PDFs
 Considering adding
additional citation
styles

14. Planning sheets
 To support time management sessions
 Generic planners
 Daily
 Weekly
 Task sheets
 Tailored
 Module
 Semester

15. Online tutorials
 InfoTrail &
StudyTrail
 Available on VLE
 Merged and
redeveloped as
Academic Practice
 Ten units on
academic skills

16. Skills support issues
 Up-skilling the
teachers
 Proliferation of skills
support providers
 Lack of student
awareness
 Academic buy-in

17. Up-skilling the teachers
 Academic Librarians no previous
experience of teaching study skills
 Lack of confidence
 No suitable external courses
 Strategies:
 Observation and team teaching
 “Teaching a topic from scratch” session
 HEA pathway
 Group brainstorming course content

18. 10. Support, and recognition, should be
available for those who provide support to
students
“There are many people who provide support to
students, from central student services, academics
and library staff to students themselves Institutions
should give these people time and resources to
develop their skills as a mentor, and should give
them the space to discuss the challenges they
face….”
NUS Charter on Academic Support (Jan 2012)
http://tinyurl.com/7gmkmzb

19. Collaboration
 Skills Forum
 Student Hub
 Employability Award
 Workshop attendance
 Academic Practice tutorial
 English Language Support Service
 Courses on coherent writing, grammar & punctuation

20. Lack of student awareness
 Not aware of the generic
workshops
 Confusion about the difference
between Get the Know-How
and Academic Practice modules
on VLE
 Don’t perceive skills support as
something they need
 Difficulty in branding study skills

21. Academic buy-in
 Perceptions
 Students already have academic skills
 Library not seen as the natural providers of academic
skills support
 No time in existing module programmes for
embedding academic skills sessions
 Strategies
 “Transferable skills in the curriculum” course
 Liaison and marketing

22. Future plans
 Review of relationship between workshop VLE
presence, online tutorial and web pages
 Additional generic workshop on systematic
review
 Review of workshop programme based on
feedback
 Marketing
 Information Science students’ presentations
 What’s in a name?

23. Survey feedback
 Survey of students who
booked on workshops
 150 responses - 70% had
attended
 43% preferred early evening
“really helpful, you would pay a fortune for
them if they were not run through the
university”

24. Contact details
 Stephanie McKeating
 Academic Services Manager
 s.f.mckeating@lboro.ac.uk
 01509 222342