Progress on Using Student Ambassadors to Broaden Maths Support Services

John Little

supported by the MSOR Network and sigmahttp://studentmathssupport.wordpress.com/

overview

definition of role

aspects of recruitment

planned & actual activities

outcomes to date

recommendations

definition of role

“ambassador” = a diplomat sent on a mission to a foreign country?

definition of role

to promote services at library sites

to gather student proposals for newresources and workshops

to evaluate existing and proposed tutor developed resources

to make own resource proposals

definition of role

to be ambassadors for target groups

to help broaden services for target groupse.g. distance learners

to work as partners in service development

redefinition of role

anticipated direct student engagementat library sites did not materialise

changed emphasis towards development of ambassadors’ own ideas and evaluation of tutor resources

in future a mix of the two

aspects of recruitment

initial aim was to recruit one ambassador for each of eight Schools that make use of maths/stats/numeracy support

recruiting seven meant this really was a recruitment process and not a selection process

probably better to have fewer ambassadors and more selection

aspects of recruitment

probably better to have fewer ambassadors and more selection:

• to ensure commitment to tasks• to maximise ambassador availability• to make management and communication easier• UG 1 or 2 possibly more flexible than PG• consider recruiting FT UG for the summer for non face to face activities

aspects of recruitment

meet the ambassadors:

each contracted for 35 hours at £7/hourplus shared access to two moodle materials developers

AmbassadorFaculty School COURSE Stage MSOR FacultyMSOR SchoolLex Ryder HSC AppSS SOCIAL WORK (PMSFTSSSW)5 AppSS & NursingTolu Boladuro DT COMP COMPUTING: INFORMATION ENGINEERING (PMSFTCMIE)5 CompAgata Zaremba ABS COMM INTERNATIONAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT (PMSFTBSIM)5 ABSEMMANUEL OLORUNFEMI DT ENG OIL AND GAS ENGINEERING (PMSFTMEOG)5 Eng & Scott SutherlandKOKOUVI ADODO DT PALS PHARMACY (UMPFTPHPH)1 PALs & Nursing??ANA YORDANOVA ABS COMM COMMUNICATION WITH PUBLIC RELATIONS (UBAFTIMCP)3 ABSABIOLA AKANNI ABS DoM PURCHASING AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (PMSFTBSPS)5 ABS, Comp, PALs, Scott Suth, Health SciERNEST BOAKYE-YIADOM ABS DoAF OIL AND GAS ACCOUNTING (PMSFTBSOA)5 ABS & EngDANIEL BASSEY ABS DoM PURCHASING AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (PMSFTBSPS)5 ABS

planned & actual activities(in addition to role definition)

• contacting Student Union reps to promote role => positive engagement via phonecall/e-mail

• contacting class reps as a source of resource proposals => very little response

• development of management reports for year on year comparisons as update of less efficient predecessor process

planned & actual activities(in addition to role definition)

• four ambassadors attended one of our two departmental annual planning days and so are directly feeding into our annual plan

-mainly in a recommendation on how to improve our communication with students

planned & actual activities

the main departure from what wasplanned was creation of mini projects:

• blog maintenance => not much engagement• moodle viewing figures follow up => eventually passed to moodle developer• evaluation of third party resources => aiming to match to resource proposals • an internal policy review => awaiting report from ambassador

planned & actual activities

the main departure from what wasplanned was creation of mini projects:

• a review of what other HEIs do => awaiting report from ambasaador• creation of a communications strategy => awaiting final proposal from ambassador• comparison of different moodle content styles => three detailed responses from ambassadors

outcomes to date

ambassador blogged feedback on / evaluation of up to 22 proposed resources

ambassador creation of five new potentially usable resources

ambassador feedback on / evaluation of up to 6 generic YouTube clips=> probable re-recording of audio

outcomes to date

ambassador distillation of resource feedback / evaluation =>

• slides for Articulate conversion too bland• positive about links to video, quizzes and third party resources

outcomes to date

broadening of service?

capacity to share data quickly

recruitment of one or two maths/stats/numeracy ambassadors confirmed as partof departmental annual plan

outcomes to date

broadening of service?

we have gained more insight into “hard to reach” faculty through having Business School ambassadors

outcomes to date

capacity to share data quickly

we can now not only produce automatic year on year comparisons; we can alsocategorise our data according to target groups and share with management

outcomes to date

recruitment of one or two maths/stats/numeracy ambassadors confirmed as partof departmental annual plan

=> organisational learning

indirect outcomes to date

• filming of five students’ service feedback(including some from one ambassador)

-partially arose from discussion at meeting with MSOR mentor

• realisation that thesis acknowledgementhelps promote stats support

recommendations

• beware that you will get a mix of levels of commitment and productivity

• wordpress blog works quite well as a means of collating and sharing project information

recommendations

• try to get a mix of UG and PG students

• a maximum of 4 ambassadors to 1 staff

• consider FT UG summer ambassadors

summary

definition of role

aspects of recruitment

planned & actual activities

outcomes to date

recommendations

bibliography

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SWAIN, H., 2012. Should students be given the power to decide how universities are run? [online] Guardian.  Available from:http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/11/universities-giving-students-more-power[Accessed 14 June 2012]