Course rep wins: lecture capture, study buddies and smaller classes

Wednesday 15-05-2019 - 14:29
Course rep wins article

Your course reps have been doing a brilliant job making sure academic staff are taking your views into account. If you have any issues on your course, remember your course reps are always there to represent you.

So, how have course reps had an impact recently?

Jess Ball  – 3rd Year Theology and Religion
Having been a course rep for two years of my time in Durham, I have been part of many changes. As a student with learning difficulties I made it my mission to bring awareness of other students in our department struggling and made a big push for the recording of lectures. To date, the department is now embracing this new change and is making moves to use Encore more, which I have received great feedback about from students who it has benefited.

Isabella Malvaso  – 2nd Year Arabic MLAC
As course rep for Arabic 2, I created a buddy system between my year and Arabic 1 and 4. Each student had a chance to revise grammatical rules learnt in the previous year and also have the possibility to practice Arabic with students who had just got back from their year abroad. Learning ab initio Arabic is a tough challenge, but I believe this system benefited not only Arabic 2 but also the other years, as it fostered a sense of community and solidarity amongst the students!

James Hua  – 2nd Year Classics and Ancient History
The Greek and Latin Intermediate language classes have always had too many students (around 50!) to learn in a meaningful way. Many feared asking questions would make them look ignorant in front of everyone, while others were too shy to volunteer, slowing down the class. Conversely, teachers couldn’t dedicate the necessary attention to each student, alongside an overstretched workload. Aiming to improve this, I held debates about the problems with my year through Facebook, drop-in sessions, and informal chats. I discussed solutions with lecturers leading those modules, and further researched the University’s guidelines for language teaching, especially time requirements and class size. From this research, my peers’ and my strongest solution lay in involving our dedicated PhD students to help teaching.

Throughout the SSCC meetings last year, I debated this data and followed through by compiling students’ and PhDs’ responses. This year, the motion was approved and the hard work visibly paid off: both students and lecturers report participation is noticeably stronger; PhD students currently shadow classes and their presentations are high-quality, and plans are in place for them to teach next year. Overcoming this long-standing problem, I’m humbled that my collaborative work is directly improving students’ learning!
 

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