Dear Annie



I have no issues with people monitoring and recording their work flow and using it to plan service delivery. I do have issues, as Sandra does, with people who have never and will never actually do the work deciding to allocate a fairly arbitrary time within which it will be completed. Rebecca



Sent from my iPad



On 9 May 2013, at 15:41, "Annie Britton" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:



Hello Rebecca

I ask all students who attend a booked appointment to complete a form listing course, year etc. the topics discussed, their age, gender, ethnicity and additional comments. However, I only ask them to do this at their initial appointment each year, repeats do not get picked up again. Drop-ins I only count numbers and gender, group sessions are estimated when they get above about 20 ( I do some with 200 + students!)

I work alone (i.e. not part of a team) in a Faculty and input information into my own databases.

It can be time consuming but I have useful data going back some time that enables me to look at trends and adapt accordingly, e.g. small changes to see representative numbers from different groups, e.g. PT/FT, UG/PG, male/female, BME/not BME etc.

Happy to discuss if you want to know more... and yes it is time consuming but it enables me to deliver a better service which can save time in the future, e.g. peak query points on specific areas can see workshop delivery on a topic rather than lots of one-to-one appointments

Annie



Annie Britton

Skills Development Co-ordinator: BLISS - Business and Law Information and Skills

Hugh Aston 0.73



De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH

T: +44 (0)116 250 6107

E: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

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Please remember that I do NOT work on Fridays



From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rebecca O'Rourke

Sent: 09 May 2013 11:07

To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Subject: Re: These may seem like silly questions, but ...



Workload models are the new alchemy of the 21st Century. All calculations are nominal (in my experience calculated at anything from a half to a quarter of the actual time they take) except the final calculation – which always shows that the worker ‘owes’ hours to the institution.  Rebecca



From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sandra Sinfield

Sent: 09 May 2013 11:03

To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Subject: Re: These may seem like silly questions, but ...



Given that in some institutions, a one-hour student session is only counted as half an hour on an academic's AWAM (Academic work allocation model) - which is bizarre enough in and of itself!!! How can the additional work of recording and even analysing these data be justified - until that time is acknowledged for the tutor?

Best,

Sandra

On 2 May 2013 11:27, Kim Shahabudin <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

Hi Debbie,



Like Courtney, we use an Access database to record our one-to-one, phone and email appointments (anything that needs a 30 minute booked slot) which we complete ourselves asap after the appoi. We also record (sometimes estimated) numbers for workshop and embedded teaching on a table, and drop-in and phone queries in a log book at the front desk. All of this gets collated annually in a report that gets circulated fairly widely in the teaching and learning communities at the University.



We've just recognised that we're getting increasing numbers of quick email queries and queries via our Twitter account, which we haven't been logging, so are currently considering the best way to record these.



Our bookings are on Outlook using Public Folders so that we can all book students into each other's calendars. We have considered using youcanbook.me<http://youcanbook.me> for students to self-book but were not sure how it would deal with the very small minority that like to book a couple of appointments each week!



Hope that's helpful.



Kim



________________________________

Dr Kim Shahabudin, FHEA, Study Adviser, Study Advice & Maths Support

1st floor The Library, Whiteknights, University of Reading, RG6 6AE

• 0118 378 4645 • www.reading.ac.uk/studyadvice<http://www.reading.ac.uk/studyadvice> twitter: @unirdg_study

Please note that I now work part-time and am not usually on campus on Mondays and Tuesdays

________________________________

From: learning development in higher education network [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] on behalf of Courtney Hopf [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>]

Sent: 02 May 2013 10:46

To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Subject: Re: These may seem like silly questions, but ...

Hi All,



My team has had to develop some pretty intensive data recording systems over the last few years, both because of huge, rapid growth in demand, but also because we’ve had to prove to management the necessity of hiring more staff.  We now have an Access database that  records a large amount of information, but we are far from perfecting our systems.  Ideally we’d like to do card swiping – and would love to hear from those who use it – but budget code freezes are preventing that sort of thing at the moment.



We offer drop-ins, appointments, centralised workshops, special events, and workshops/lectures in the academic schools.  For all but the last on this list we record each individual student who attends, including student number, gender, status (home/int’l, full time/part time), whether they speak English as a first language, level, and academic school.  For in-school workshops we record details about the workshop and just the total number of students in attendance.



We initially take this data by having students fill out a record form, which is then input manually into our database by our team and our administrator.  This meant, though, that we had a backlog of paper to be entered until about halfway through term 2.  Once a student record is entered, though, any further visits they make are quick to put in.  Also on the plus side, we now have an excellent database that shows us unique student visits, plus total visits, and it allows us to pull out reports on virtually anything you could ask for (our quantitative analysis/SPSS adviser is a legend and set the whole thing up).



Finally, for our writing and learning appointments, we recently started using LibCal, by Springshare.  Our Library uses LibAnswers, another product of theirs, and we’ve found them to be a great and responsive company.  LibCal is fab, and we’ve set it up so that students put in all the information above at the point of booking.  This eliminates a lot of paper usage, and saves a lot of time.  For next year, we’re working on how we can set up LibCal so that we can export all the data into an Excel file and pop it straight into our database.



Sorry for the novel, but as you may have guessed I’m quite fascinated by this kind of thing.  Happy to answer any questions if anyone wants to get in touch directly.



Best wishes,

Courtney



Dr. Courtney Hopf

Acting Academic Skills Manager

ASK Academic Skills<http://www.brunel.ac.uk/services/library/ask>

The Library

Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH

01895 266106





From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of De, Debbie

Sent: 02 May 2013 10:18

To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Subject: These may seem like silly questions, but ...



Good morning all,



Feeling inspired/confident in view of the recent prompt for discussion, the team at Aston have a few questions about monitoring the number of students who visit Learning Development Centres (or equivalents) in your institution(s):





i)                    How do you monitor the number of students who visit your centres? (for example, do any of you use a form of card swiping system?)



ii)                   What are the pros and cons of the systems which you do use?



iii)                 Do you record the number of students who use the various services which you offer?   For example, we have a maths drop in centre and wonder what the most efficient (and least intrusive) way of capturing data on students and their needs is.



iv)                 Many of you will also offer workshops, room bookings and one-one appointments and we are keen to learn about the practical day to day booking systems which you use and similar to the above, whether or not these systems help you capture data.



Any advice, musings and experiences would be welcome.



Thank you in advance,



Debbie De



Learning Advisor

Learning Development Centre

Aston University

Birmingham

B4 7ET







--

Sandra Sinfield

University Teaching Fellow

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