AREAS OF ACTIVITY | EVIDENCE | |
A1 | Design and plan learning activities and/or programmes of study | – I have designed personal tutoring service introductory sessions, including engaging activities, which are set according to study level.
– I have designed induction skills week events, including online technology to engage greater groups of students. These will be taught by module leaders and academic teams, with the support of personal tutors. – I have designed a 3 hour training session for academics on how to effectively fulfil the personal tutoring position for postgraduate students. – I have planned, designed the provision of the service per term, allocating staff according to availability and timetables. Details of service provision is clearly communicated in the staff handbook I created, and the student handbook created with my direct team. – I have developed set forms for personal tutors to create learning plans for students, which are automatically saved to the data system I created. In addition, after saving the form is emailed to the student. – I have coordinated a team to offer workshops and support sessions to students surrounding pastoral and study skills. |
A2 | Teach and/or support learning | – I have taught 70+ Personal Tutoring sessions from October 2017 – June 2018, split across:
o Service introduction sessions with embedded skills development o Catch-up sessions with embedded skills development o Induction sessions – I have organised and led on individual meetings, which are used to create and track individual learning plans. – I have taught sessions to train new staff on personal tutoring, as well as academics fulfilling the role for postgraduates. |
A3 | Assess and give feedback to learners | As the personal tutoring service is non-credit bearing, all assessment is formative, synoptic or dynamic. This takes place in all sessions, using activities and online technology.
Furthermore, as an active personal tutor, it is part of my role to breakdown feedback given for students from summative assessments of modules in order to inform methods to progress. |
A4 | Develop effective learning environments and approaches to student support and guidance | When developing a programme for the personal tutoring service, with the aim of building a rapport to improve access rates, developing a safe and effective learning environment is extremely important. As the start of each session, aims and expectations are provided. Before an individual support meeting, expectations and support options are discussed.
Furthermore, I have led on the creation of a student handbook to detail support and guidance available, trained personal tutors on referral processes for further support service and managed the provision of support and guidance documents. |
A5 | Engage in continuing professional development in subjects/disciplines and their pedagogy, incorporating research, scholarship and the evaluation of professional practices | – I completed my MA Sociology of Education in October 2017. The course allowed me to continue my love for learning in Sociology, but also improve my understanding of, and practice in, educational institutions.
– Active involvement in FutureLearn Online – Active involvement in further readings and blogging my learning experience. – I have led and analysed regular service surveys to feed into the reflection and evaluation of the service and taught sessions. – I regularly engage in independent and group reflections to improve services and taught sessions. |