2. Going for Gold
• Background
• Aims
• Method
• Results
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
• The Future ... George V pillar box painted gold to celebrate Jessica
Ennis's gold in the heptathlon at the London Olympics
2012, Sheffield. Shimmer collection, Sheffield Hallam
University.
3. Background
• Reading Lists Online (RLOs) at Sheffield
Hallam since 2013
• Reading lists required for each module
• 20-25% of Faculty staff not engaging
• Requirement to obtain evidence of student
needs and awareness of reading lists
4. Going for Gold: Aims
• Improve student experience by
providing evidence that well
structured and accessible online
reading lists increases usage.
5. Preliminary research
• Best practice guidelines
• Reading list of month information
on the TALIS website
• Usage statistics of Sheffield
Hallam RLOs
6. Evidence: feedback from RLO
Survey December 2017
• Completed by
1207 students
– ACES - 293
– D&S - 275
– HWB - 406
– SBS - 283
7. When you use your RLO, what do
you find most useful?
• Added notes from the lecturer e.g.
'Chapter 4 provides a good introduction
to academic writing'
• Items are marked essential, background
or optional
• Lists in sections - e.g. topics, weeks,
lectures
• Mixed resources e.g. as well as books
there are video clips, journal articles,
websites
• Shorter lists - no more than 30 items
Ranking 1-4
1. Not helpful, 2. Quite helpful,
3. Helpful and 4. Very helpful.
8. 1. Not all students are aware of RLO
19% (229 students of the 1207
surveyed) did not have RLOs
or were not aware of them.
Infographic for this??
+ the student quotes
'On two modules I don't have
one'
'Not all modules have them or
use the RLO'
Recommendation 1:
Improve awareness of RLO
with new starters
o Include exercise in all library
induction workshops where
students locate the RLO for their
first module
o Module leader for first/early
module taken by incoming
students introduces students to
RLO
9. 2. Students find good list structure and
annotation helpful
Recommendation 2:
Increase annotation
and revise structure
of lists to make
them easier to use
for students.
10. 3. Students want lists earlier
INFOGRAPHIC HERE for the 3 points below
• 70% of students said they got their
reading lists in plenty of time.
• 22% said they would have preferred it
sooner and 6% didn't mind when they got
the list.
• 2% of students told us they didn't receive
their lists on time.
Recommendation 3: Ensure
timeliness of introducing the RLO
prior to the start of a module.
RLO best practice guidelines say:
"ensure reading lists are ready 8
weeks in advance of a module
starting to allow the Library to obtain
alternative formats where necessary
for students with specific accessibility
or educational requirements."
11. 4. Students want more online resources on their
RLOs to make it easier to get hold of resources
• INFOGRAPHIC HERE for the 4 points
below? e.g. speech bubbles?
• 'I prefer more items that are available
online'
• 'The online reading lists are really useful
but sometimes the books I’d like to read
aren’t available online'
• 'Some books are listed that there are
only a few copies of and no electronic
copy but it's only a big deal when it's a
core book'.
• 'There are some books that cannot be
accessed via the library gateway. I work
from home a lot so it would be useful to
have all key texts downloadable from the
gateway.'
Recommendation 4:
Increase online items on
lists, especially core texts.
Increase academic staff
awareness of digitisation
options.
12. Reading Lists / self-discovery
• Reading List - provided by your module leaders
and available in your Blackboard module
(usually in 'Support Resources')
• Self-discovery reading - enhance your
knowledge by self discovering information.
Search on the Library Gateway
15. Going for Gold: Method
Four Faculty-based pilot projects
• Level 6 Business students (SBS)
• Level 4 Sport students (HWB)
• Blackboard Digital Teacher certificate -
Distance Learners (D&S)
• Computer student with learning contract
(ACES)
16. Level 6 Business students
• Reading list for 'Academic and Professional Excellence' module
18/19: comparison of usage statistics
• In 2017/18 the list consisted of 4 items. The list was viewed 55
times and only 2 items were looked at in any depth
• In 2018/19 the list consisted of 31 items. The list was viewed
144 times and 77 items were looked at in depth
• The most viewed item in 2018/19 was the journal article marked
as essential reading
17. Level 4 Sport students
• Reading list for 'Developing Professional Skills for
Physical Activity, Sport and Health' module 18/19:
comparison of usage statistics
• In 2017/18 the list consisted of 19 items. The list was
viewed 26 times and only 4 of the items were looked at
in any depth. Once on each occasion
• In 2018/19 the list consisted of 49 items. The list was
viewed 180 times and the items were looked at 150
times in total
20. Blackboard Digital Teacher
certificate - DL students
• PG Cert Professional Practice in
Digital Teaching and Learning
• New Libguide which complements
the reading list
23. Computing student with learning
contract
Learning points:
• Do differently - session in conjunction with
disabled student support
• Could show students the RLOs and ask how
accessible they are
• Query whether Google forms are the best
medium for students with VI - look at
research
24. Conclusions
• Reading lists of high quality appreciated by
students
• Reading lists containing examples of good
practice more likely to be used
• Not always used to their full potential e.g. not
considered as dynamic
• Has to be the academics who engage
students with reading lists
25. Recommendations for Faculties
Ian Hudson, Beyond Obstacles Lies Our
Future, degree show work Sheffield. Shimmer
collection, Sheffield Hallam University.
• Improve awareness of RLO with new starters
• Review then promote Hallam RLO best practice guidelines
to ensure that reading lists demonstrate best practice
• Ensure timeliness of introducing the RLO prior to the start
of a module
• Increase number of online resources, especially core texts
26. The Future ...
• Liaise with Disabled Student Support Team to get
feedback from students with a learning contract
• Automatically embed
• RLOs into Blackboard
• modules
• Link to RLOs on opening
• page
Astronaut in outer space. Freepik.
Looked at Talis reading lists recreated by other Universities to learn from good practice (effective reading) from other universities - i.e. the Universities of Reading, Warwick and King's College London
Looked at digitisation statistics to see which faculty engages most with this service and see how the reading lists with digitised readings attached are laid out.
The majority of the RLOs with the most digitised readings have the importance set and/or are grouped into sections, with some annotations. The one RLO which is not structured like this is very short!
Looked at the usage statistics of SHU RLO and see if there is a correlation already between usage and list design
SBS: Finance, accounting, economics, international business, business management, human resource management and organisational behaviour, strategic management, food, tourism and hospitality, languages and business, marketing, events management, banking
HWB: Allied Health Professions, biosciences and chemistry, nursing and midwifery, sport and physical activity, social work and social care, youth work
ACES (now Faculty of Science, Technology and Arts - STA): art, design, communications, media arts, journalism, cultural management, computing, mathematics, aeronautical, electrical, materials and mechanical engineering
D&S (now Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities - SSH): architecture, built environment, criminology and community justice, education, English, environment, film, theatre and performance, forensics, geography, history, law, planning, regeneration and housing, psychology, sociology and politics, teacher education
Examples of RLOs for students from each of the University’s four Faculties were chosen. Different areas of research were selected and students with various needs and circumstances were targeted
Reading list for Developing Professional Skills for Physical Activity 18/19: comparison of usage statistics between this year and last.
In 2017/18 the list consisted of 19 items. The list was viewed 26 times and only 4 of the items were looked at in any depth. Once on each occasion.
In 2018/19 the list consisted of 49 items. The list was viewed 180 times and the items were looked at 150 times in total.
Not all the items were looked at. The items towards the end of the list were looked at least and most of these were web pages.
The following 3 resources were looked at most 1) Skills for Success – personal development and employability : S. Cottrell 2015 – 19 views 2) A handbook of reflective and experimental learning theory and practice :J. Moon 2004 – 17 views 3) Reducing health inequality resources : web resource. 11 views
I had hoped all these three might have been annotated, to indicate that annotation generally increased usage, but this is a much bigger sum that could perhaps be looked at another time.
Survey launched in December had a very limited response, (4) but all the respondents liking the structure and annotation of the list.
Dashboard usage figures for Sport: 'Developing Professional Skills for Physical Activity, Sport and Health' module 2017/18 compared with 2018/19
PG Cert Professional Practice in Digital Teaching and Learning (Task 5b)
Updated 18.2.19
Initial meeting was held with course leader, and Head of Learning & Teaching. This is a new postgraduate certificate which Sheffield Hallam is running in conjunction with Blackboard, and delivered as a distance learning course through Blackboard to students around the world.
Four modules in total. Currently have developed the reading list for the first module, working in conjunction with the Course Leader.
https://shu.rl.talis.com/lists/A38C7339-23B3-8309-E0CD-CBFE4842B780.html The reading list adheres to the following principles to make it suitable for learners at a distance.
All content is available online / digitised format accessible away from SHU home campus
Due to the different starting points for learning for learners in different countries, basic material is signposted and annotations provided to ensure a scaffolded approach to learning.
Different formats of material are used to help meet different learning styles of learners.
Materials are included to provide support for the formative research activity, and scaffolding for the summative task creating an electronic interactive academic poster. Links across to a new libguide which complements the reading list are provided https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/c.php?g=663376&p=4694660 (Note the materials provided in the libguide will also be used for off campus SCIIT students).
The plan is to review usage of the items on the reading list and libguide and feedback to the course leader. There has been a delay on this project due to the course starting later than expected so at present there is no feedback available on use of the materials.
Computing student with learning contract
The computing student is going through a Fitness to Study, so Mechanical Engineering students and academics are now being approached.
Mech Eng student happy to contribute feedback on reading lists- what is the best way of doing this? Usability observation? Survey?
17th July 2018
Student to fill in the existing reading list survey, with additional questions to take into account the accessibility side of using a reading list.
Use survey response to add to the Best Practice guidelines.
Information to be shared with the Faculties afterwards.
18th July - follow up meeting
Questions used in the previous RLO survey replicated exactly in the survey going out to the visually impaired student. To change any of the questions might be leading and it would be interesting to see if their answers differ at all from previous respondents. Should we actually send the RLO survey out to all the students who we currently contact through the Accessible Formats service so as to get a wider opinion (rather than just the ACES angle)?
Learning points
Do differently - slot with student disabled support - could show students the RLOs and ask how accessible they are
And - are google forms (the way the survey was sent out) is the best medium for students with visual disabilities - look for any research done on surveying students with visual disabilities - possibly using word document or email