Patricia Campbell and Jonathan Sly

Context Integrated Foundation Year (in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences) approximately 280 students mixed cultural backgrounds (typically, home 55%, EU 15% and other overseas 35%) very mixed academic backgrounds 2

Foundation Year curriculum 12 units comprising: Maths (up to 6 units) Physics (up to 4 units) Chemistry (up to 3 units) Communication skills (1 unit) Project (1 unit) ICT (1 unit) English (if required, 1 unit) 3

Unit specifications Communication skills Project staffed by University Language Centre semester 1 core skills include: academic writing oral presentation issues in collaborative learning critical analysis staffed by FY and nine Schools across Faculty semester 2 core skills include: report writing oral presentation project planning and management team working 4

Aims to increase and emphasise the relevance of the academic skills learned in the Communication Skills unit by ‘integrating’ it with the Project unit to enhance the student experience through improved feedback, increased staff-student interaction and improved course management (and to maintain this for an increasingly large cohort) 5

Tools overhaul of course units: curriculum and structure (including formation of student work-groups that stay the same through both units) use of on-line, collaborative-working tools: VLE group pages wiki sites journals file exchange video streaming 6

Wikis Potential: students can easily access and contribute to one document different members of staff can access (and comment on) on students’ work, for example for: moderation double marking targeted language support 7

Wikis in practice Communication Skills: students submitted essays in small groups on a wiki page essays were read by students and teachers in the wiki teachers both corrected and gave feedback on the essays

Student reactions Very positive (despite the collapse of the site)! General: work was easy to submit speed of feedback was greatly improved marking and comments were very clear because of the use of a different coloured font work can be revisited; it cannot be ‘lost’.

More detailed reactions students liked the in-text interventions as they could see exactly where they needed to improve (overseas) students read and learned from their tutor’s comments on other students’ work most thought this combined well with face-to-face contact no more squiggles, arrows or illegible writing to be interpreted!

Journals excellent way of managing large numbers of students engaged in Project work good way of encouraging ongoing Project management by the students students need to be given very specific instructions on what to include more motivating for students if marks are given for journal entries

Other facilities VLE group pages provides focus for group activities facilitates setting-up of groups, communications and administration video streaming group settings enable selective release of videos file exchange file sharing/drop-box for students’ collaborative work draft work can be marked or commented on by staff