Hi Kevin,

This is interesting to me, because we used to take much more detailed info about the students’ queries, eg. on the student record form we could circle ‘referencing,’ ‘academic writing,’ ‘time management’ and a few other things that I can’t recall.  In the end we found we never really bothered to refer to that data, and now we just have it broken down into the three major categories of support we offer – ‘Writing and Learning,’ ‘Maths and Numeracy,’ and ‘Statistics and SPSS.’  For us the data collection has really been more about the numbers and demographics of the students coming to see us, as we are concerned with making the case for funding from areas like Widening Participation, the Graduate School, and our International student service.  I like how you are using this additional info, though.

Courtney

I have come to the date issue  late in the day and  am guilty of shifting away from how we record data towards the question of what data is useful.

At Chester our record-keeping is currently pretty low-tech. Currently we are going through a process of redesigning our system but it is hoped that in the new system we will be able to quantify not only what students seek advice on and the extent to which the support they receive is useful, but also what they get in addition to that. For example, students often turn up declaring that they have a problem with grammar and academic writing style but when we work with them it emerges that planning is the more significant problem for who can write well without a point? (Please don’t send me a bibliography). By keeping a ‘before’ and ‘after’ record, it is possible to quantify both the extent to which we deliver what students ask for and what we provide in addition to that. Thus we can illustrate the value of our service as a diagnostic tool,  giving students not only what they need and ask for, but what they don’t realise they need but still get.

Whilst much of the discussion today has focused on important issues of the efficiency of record-keeping, I wonder if there are other quirks of data recording out there that are a little out of the ordinary but have really helped to justify the services you offer.

I’ll stop waffling now as this has been a very busy day for this list. Has anyone looked away from a computer long enough to notice that the sun is shining?

Regards,

Kevin Watson.

Dr Kevin Watson

Study Skills Advisor

Student Skills Development (Student Support & Guidance)

University of Chester

Parkgate Rd

Chester CH1 4BJ

Tel 01244 511164