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Congratulations You are now a Course Rep!

Today’s Training The training will help you understand what a course rep is. The training will help you learn why colleges have course reps. The training will help you understand what a course rep does. The training will help you learn how to be a successful course rep.

Who are sparqs? sparqs works with students. sparqs helps students by training course reps. student partnerships in quality scotland.

Introductions! Introduce yourself by telling the group your name and one fact about you that you think we would find interesting! It can be anything!

What is a course rep? Each course in college should have 1 or 2 students who act as a speaker for that class, they are called course reps. They are called course reps because it is their job to represent their class. Having course reps makes it much easier for the students and the college to talk to each other.

Why do colleges have course reps? Course reps talk to other students to find out what they think about college. Course reps then tell the college what students think. This includes reporting on the good things and the not so good things. Having a clear way to communicate with each other means that the students and the college can work together to make learning better for everyone.

What does a course rep do? Course reps help students think about their course by asking questions about their experience at college. As a course rep you need to know what students think about their course. So as a course rep you need to: Talk to students about your course. Talk to staff about your course. Go to meetings about your course. Talk to other course reps about your course.

How can you be a good course rep? A good course rep is excellent at listening to people. A good course rep is excellent at communicating. A good course rep will ask the students for their opinions on their course. A good course rep will work with the college to make learning better for everyone. A good course rep will talk with students about solutions to problems.

Draw the ideal course rep! Thinking about the last discussions can we draw an ideal course rep? We need to think about all of the skills we will need to be a brilliant course rep, things like: Listening to all students – big ears. Thinking about the issues - light bulb above the head. Being the voice of their class - megaphone/microphone.

Draw the ideal course rep!

What should you talk to your class about? You should talk to your classmates about their course and everything to do with their learning at college. You might need to find out: If they think their course is interesting. They might want to tell you there is something they don’t like. They might want to tell you of something that the students think could be improved

What should you talk to your class about? You can ask about the equipment they use on their course. This can be things like: Are there enough computers? Do the computers work? Do you have the right materials? You can ask about what they are taught and how they learn. You can ask if the course has helped them. You can ask if your class is getting enough help to learn.

What do you like/dislike about your course? Can you each come up with one thing you like about your course and one thing you dislike about it? Think about things like: Your subjects. How you are taught. Do you have enough time to do everything? Do you have all the equipment you need?

How to talk to my class, what do I say? When talking to your class you can ask questions like: ”I like being able to do my work on the computer. Do you like being able to do this? What else do you like about our class?” You could also do this by email or you could have a suggestion box in class.

Telling the college what your class thinks. As a course rep, once you have asked the students about their course you need to tell the college what the students said. How would you do this? 1. You can tell your tutor. 2. You can go to a meeting with other course reps and tutors and talk about it there. 3. You can tell your student president or vice president. It is important to let the students know that you will talk to the college and tell them what the students have said.

Preparing for meetings

What happens in meetings There will be a mixture of students and staff at the meeting and normally everyone will sit round a table. Before you go to the meeting you will receive a copy of something called an agenda, this is just the name for a list of things that will be talked about in the meeting. In the meeting people will be talking about a lot of things. Everyone will get time to talk. Only talk about the things your class has told you about college and their course. Tell the meeting about the good things your class has said as well as any problems

Before a meeting Before the meeting you might want to: Talk to your class to ask if there are any issues to be raised at the meeting. If there is an issue you could do a quick “hands up” of the class – “Do you agree…?” to find out how the whole class feels. Talk to the students’ association. Find out when and where the meeting is and be on time.

During a meeting During the meeting you might want to: Listen to what is being discussed, be polite and friendly. Do not speak about anyone by name, instead say “the student said” or the “the students think” Always talk about “we” rather than “I” when reporting issues, for example an issue where there are not enough computers could be said like this: “The class likes being able to use computers to do our work but sometimes we can’t all get on them.”

After a meeting After the meeting you might want to: Feed back to the class about what was discussed at the meeting. Check the minutes from the meeting to make sure everything is correct. Follow up on any actions or tasks agreed upon at the meeting.

Congratulations you are now a course rep!

Learning outcomes for today Reflecting on today’s training, have you.. Have you learned what a course rep is? Have you learned why colleges have course reps? Have you learned what a course rep does. Have you learned how to be a successful course rep? Does anyone have any questions?

Thank you for attending course rep training Thank you for attending course rep training! Please remember to fill out your evaluation forms! If you require any further information please contact sparqs.