Part Time Student Support

Callum Bradbury

 

Project Idea

Part Time Student Support online – This project idea will help to provide insight upon what support is actually needed for part time students who are working full time and studying part time; once the support is identified it can be nurtured through the digital online presence of blackboard and become more tailored to the students needs.

The further improvement of blackboard for part time students will also provide an outlet to share business and employer contacts and opportunities to help network and improve their current working relations.

This project will firstly be implemented within the business school and then potentially be implanted within other departments and schools of the University.

Aims

• To research into essential support resources and needs of current part time students that can be accessed online.
• To provide a forum outlet through blackboard for part time students to engage and share employer contacts to create relationships and partnerships.
• To ensure part time students support and awareness of available opportunities are communicated efficiently.

Outcomes

 Part time students are more equipped with the support that is needed.

• Employers can become more connected with the university and other businesses that work with the university.
• To provide suggestions and improvements for blackboard from a part time perspective.

Which service and department will it benefit?

 The project will firstly be implemented throughout the business school and the part time business students. However once the project has been carried it could be transferable to other departments that provide part time courses. 

Who will it benefit?

 The project will benefit the current and future part time students of Staffordshire University. It will also benefit the lectures as it will give them more of an understanding of the needs of part time students and therefore there interaction and delivery of modules can become more tailored and targeted if they had part time groups to teach. This project will finally benefit the businesses that allow their employers to undertake part time courses, as it will put them in contact with other businesses of which relationships and partnerships can flourish through the facilitator of the university.

 

Final Product (with screen shots)

Below is a screen shot of the first page that the ‘PT Networking Forum’ takes you to, providing an introduction to the purpose of the forum and how you create your own thread will an easy to follow template. The students then click on the PT Networking Forum link and create their own thread post following the template.

 

The below screen shot shows how the students thread posts are presented on the forum link, the individual thread posts are clearly presented and easily showcases all the students individual names, how many posts and when they were published.

The screen shot below shows what the students thread post looks like once it is published. Clearly showing their name, employer, job title and professional interests. The ‘reply’ button then allows students to interact with that individual via the thread post. The students will also receive an email notification if anyone replies to their thread post so they can view it and respond.

 

Evaluation of Product

When creating the blackboard part time networking forum I had meetings with Jaswinder Sahota at Staffordshire University in the Information Technology department, from which we discussed what will be the best way technologically of creating this outlet for the students. The options for the outlet was a blog outlet or a forum outlet. The blog outlet would allow students to create static blog posts but they would not be able to interact, whereas the forum and idea of each student creating a ‘thread’ it would allow them to contact and communicate with each other easily.

Another factor that we had to consider was that you can create this forum either by module or course. Therefore if the networking forum was created for the module group it would only be accessible by those students who are studying that module. For the purpose of this project and the time constrictions that have been set I have used this module option for my part time level 6 Business Management group as a pilot study to see how the forum works and the practicalities of it.

Furthermore after meetings and discussions the forums could be created for part time courses instead of being created just for modules. Therefore all students of all levels studying that topic would have access to the forum which would be great. The course/award leader would be the contact who would have the authority to create the forum, whereas if you were to create the forum under a module section on blackboard the module leader will have the access rights to create that.

How can it be improved?

The PT Networking Forum could be improved by making it accessible to course awards, so all students studying that course irrespective of what year you are L4, 5, 6 or above. Therefore all of those students would have access to the forum to network on a professional basis.

Furthermore once students start their new module or course they should be informed about the forum right at the beginning so they know how to access it and use it to their benefit. They should be allowed a few minutes in their introductory module session to try and create a thread post if they want to be part of the network, with the lecturer showing them briefly how to get set up.

Furthermore lecturers should also be able to access the forum and be aware of it and what it can showcase, as they can gain a deeper understanding about what their students professional interests are and job roles as they could use examples in lecture which they would be able to relate too. Also some students may work for a certain employer or be in a certain job role which they could professionally interact with; for example if a student worked in a school and their professional interests were Higher Education, the lecturer may find that student to be useful as a professional contact for them in relation to collaborative work or someone who they would like to network with as they have similar professional interests in education.