Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 20th March 2024

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 20th March 2024

In attendance: Sophie Mills Student Experience Manager, Meredith Corey Learn Technologist, Ray Finlayson Student Adviser, James Garforth UG1 Year Organiser, Steven Tonneau, Adam Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

INF1B coursework 3 Part 1 has been released, this is a formative piece of coursework and the students feel that there is very little instruction, there are lots of tasks and no space for creativity.  There is no explanation on how the programme will work or how to use the libraries, it is poorly designed and they have 10 days to submit and a lot of students don’t understand the functionality of code.  Due to Piazza being quiet strict on asking questions, the student would like a better communication channel.

 UG2

INF2D coursework feedback is very vague.

INF2-SEPP the students are working on class diagrams and it is lot of guess work with method names and how they are related.

The students are very busy with lots of upcoming deadlines.

 UG3

No Reps in attendance.

UG4

AGTA tutorials are very helpful.

CT coursework 3 is due the day after the Honours Project deadline.  Adam explained that the Course Organiser had been in touch with himself asking if the deadline can be moved, as the course is 100% coursework then the Course Organiser can do this as long as they inform the ITO.

COMN there are questions on Piazza about course material and logistics which are not being replied to.

ACP tutorials and lectures have been cancelled or delayed, as the course is dependent on one person the students would like for next term for the course to have more resources.  The tutorials are useful but could be more structured.

 MSc

No Reps in attendance.

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Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 13th March 2024

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 13th March 2024

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Toni Noble Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Meredith Corey Learn Technologist, Sophie Mills Student Experience Manager, Marjorie Brewer Student Adviser, James Garforth  UG1 Year Organiser, Adam Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

INF1B James spoke with the Course Organiser regarding opening the MCQ quiz to the students so they could see where they had went wrong, the Course Organiser said that this was not possible due to the amount of work that went into creating the quiz and it may be used again.  James has asked if the Reps could meet with him to discuss the current UG1 review and will contact the Reps directly.

 UG2

INF2D for coursework 1 the Decision Tree the students have reported that it took a long time to complete, there was lots of notes and drawing.

INF2-IADS there are only past papers available on the Library page for the main diets May 2020 to 2023, the students would like access to more papers and solutions.  Resources are difficult to find.

*Action Bjoern to talk to the Course Organiser*

 The students have 4 up and coming deadlines close together.

 UG3

EIP the coursework has high expectations and it is too much creating a holy graph device, there is no advice on how this will be judged and the lab work is not relevant to the task.

UG4

SENG coursework 2 has been released and it is a replica for coursework 1, the students have to discuss 13 different papers and write 96 words maximum on each paper.

CGR coursework 1 automarker had a bug in it which wasn’t fixed until after the deadline.

NLU coursework 1 has auto tasks that have to be passed, some students raised concerns about questions 3A and 3B on Piazza and there was no response.

MSc

RL there are 21 pages in coursework 1, a lot of the questions are difficult and it is expected to be completed in 20 hours, the basic code is poor and it has lots of bugs, the lecture is more theoretical and doesn’t not cover what the coursework demands.  The introduction to Randomisation was too close to the deadline and the deadline is the 29th March, the students would like a one week extension.  Toni suggested that the Reps take this to the Course Organiser and if they agree to extend the deadline they can then inform the ITO.

 NLU has a deadline close to the RL deadline and a class extension would be good but extending the deadline would affect students working on their Honours Project.

General

There is a talk today at 2pm from UG3 students discussing UG2 course choices for UG3.

If any student would like to discuss course options for years 3 and 4 Sophie suggested they talk to the Year Cohort Leader or Student Adviser.

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Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 6th March 2024

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 6th March 2024

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Toni Noble Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Meredith Corey Learn Technologist, Liam McCabe Student Adviser, James Garforth  UG1 Year Organiser, Adam Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Steve Tonneau UG3 Year Organiser, Kendal Reid ITO

Updates from previous meeting:

ACP Toni will forward an email on to the students from the Director of Teaching commenting on why the course is being taught fully on-line.

INF2-SEPP Toni will forward an email on to the students from the Course Organisers comments about the coursework 1 marks being marked harshly.

INF2-FDS regarding the comments that the marking appeared to be lower than expected, the Course Organiser will reply to the students directly.

SENG the recordings have now been moved from You Tube to Media Hopper.

UG1

INF1B coursework 1 for the MCQ quiz, there was no feedback, the students could see their grades but couldn’t see where they had went wrong, if the quiz was opened then the students can check.  The students were told that there isn’t enough resources to answer all their questions.  Previous lectures are not as useful as they are not specific enough, also the lectures had live coding previously and this week it easier to understand as there is no error in the code and lecturers achieved the same goal as the code was already done. James agreed to raise this with the teaching staff.

Maths lectures are more workshop orientated, main goals and targets throughout the lecture would be helpful.  The School is currently reviewing the UG1 curriculum and that includes the content with Maths, this will hopefully be done for the year 2024/25.

UG2

INF2D the Instructors are not answering questions on Piazza, the students feel that those marking coursework should be the ones answering questions regarding coursework grading and tutors and demonstrators should assist with general course questions.

UG3

CS exam results are hoping to be returned to the ITO by the end of this week.

SDP it was bought up that some students feel that there are having to buy their own materials for their Demos –  although there is a budget in place there can be issues of what is required to what the University has as an approved supplier and delivery times.  Some students have felt that they have had to buy their own material and feel slightly disadvantaged as some students are buying much more advanced equipment and also have things like 3D printers at home along with assisted help.  There is also 5 Demos which is a higher workload than the previous year.

OS coursework 0 was formative and only took 2 hours to complete, but coursework 1 was really confusing and the students did not feel prepared for it.  Questions asked on Piazza were not replied to until 2 days before the deadline, help should have been available earlier than this.

ST the return of the portfolio marks have not been returned and the students would also like to know if they have passed the quizzes.

ILP marks were released at 9pm on Tuesday and the students found they had lost marks for incorrect file names and smaller issues, and the proportion of marks being lost is worrying.  The Course Organiser will talk to the students by the 29th March.  There is also inconsistent marking with the markers, some students are receiving high marks and some a lot lower.

*Action Steve to talk to the Course Organiser*

UG4

Careers Fair held last week was very useful.

SENG feedback on course was generic and vague.

 MSc

No Reps in attendance.

General

The students are getting a lot of daily emails about exam changes, although these are not coming from the School they are from Examinations.

Bjoern asked if the Reps could encourage students to complete the NSS Survey.

 

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Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 28th February 2024

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 28th February 2024

In attendance: Toni Noble Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Meredith Corey Learn Technologist, Sophie Mills Staffing Support Officer, Suzanne Newall Student Adviser, Adam Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Kendal Reid ITO

Updates from previous meeting:

SDP Project Planning any queries should be taken directly to the Teaching Staff of the course.

ACP Toni is waiting for a reply from Bjoern Franke regarding this course being online.

SENG they are looking at moving their recorded lectures from YouTube to Media Hopper.

SEPP the students are still receiving a lot of emails from the Course Organiser.

PDIOT the coursework marks will be back early March.

NLU+ questions on Piazza regarding coursework 1 was slow, it has been explained to the students that this was due to sickness and the Course Organiser has apologised.  The students reported that lectures weren’t covering much of the detail in the compulsory readings and there was concern was that they didn’t know what parts of the readings to focus on. The lecturers agreed to give more detailed guidance on what material from the papers is essential.

AT Bike shed will soon be out of action due to scaffolding being erected around them, students can access the underground bike shed in Bayes, and access can be requested via transport@ed.ac.uk.

UG1

Calculus questions asked on Piazza are not being responded too as quickly as the students would like.

INF1B coursework 2, part 1 Formative feedback has been returned quickly and the students were happy.

INF1A the marks for this course were very high, a lot of people found the material very easy, although it was discussed at the UG1 SSLC In January that they may consider having something more weighted at the end of the course.

UG2

INF2-FDS the marks from the workshop the students thought their marks would be higher but they were lower than expected.

INF2-SEPP there was comment on the available marks for ‘exceptional’ work on coursework 1 through each task and criteria, as well as the 15 marks that could be awarded overall. Toni checked the Learn page and the individual criterion is set up as ‘excellent’, not ‘exceptional’. The ‘exceptional’ points available are not therefore ‘docked’ in each criteria. Looking at results the some students did get ‘excellent’ results as well as being awarded up to 15 points for ‘exceptionality’.

UG3

No Reps in attendance.

UG4

CGR the coursework documentation was confusing, it was poorly written and the lectures are too fast past and hard to follow.

ACP this course held a Q & A session at 5.30 pm which the students wondered if this timing was normal?  There was also a tutorial which finished around 6.30 pm and a lecture at 6 pm, as the course is all on-line there is not a lot of engagement.

 MSc

No Reps in attendance.

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Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 14th February 2024

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 14th February 2024

n attendance: David Sterratt Deputy Director of Teaching, James Garforth UG1 Year Organiser, Adam Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Dimitrios Rakovitis Senior Computing Support Officer, Rory Haddow Senior Computing Support Officer, Stephen McBurney Student Adviser, Meredith Corey Learn Technologist, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

The INF1B course page is disorganised, it is difficult to find information.  Coursework 2 Part 1 is due 15th February and according to the Reps 150 students missed the submission, even though it is formative, if you don’t submit then you *don’t* receive tutor feedback.

There is no guidance on the worksheet and the reading is far too much, the instructions are also very long and have too much explanation and it is also not well guiding by the tutors!  Tutorials are downloaded to zip file pages which as an FAQ which doesn’t help.  There is also talk about exceptional grades but the students feel lost by this!  David has suggested that the Reps take all this to the Course Organiser.  David explained that UG1 is still under review for next year.

UG2

There are less emails from the SEPP Course Organiser this week.

Two tutors one for INF2-IADS and one for INF2D did not turn up last week.  David explained that they should really put a message out to the group, or on Piazza and let the Course Organiser know if they know they are going to be absent from their group and attend another group in their absence for that week.

Applications are out for applying for Internships but it is unclear as to who to ask for a reference, previously it would have been a Personal Tutor who the students got to know personally but now they have been replaced by Student Advisers and the Student Advisers don’t feel qualified to do this!

*Action David and Neil to talk to Sophie*

UG3

No Reps in Attendance.

UG4

ACP tutorials being online and risk of unstable internet connection to online lectures.

*Action David has sent to this on Bjoern Franke*

NLU+ piazza not being routinely monitored.

*Action David has contacted the Course organiser*

MSc

No Reps in attendance.

General

There was a discussion about employing UG students as tutors. Reps felt some were excellent, but others lacked training in how to teach and/or were not expert enough in the subject. The opportunity to get experience as tutors is an attraction for some students.

The reps asked what the criteria are for selecting students as  tutors, and when and where is there training? Currently training for all tutors is online, at the start of Semester 1, though some  courses do extra training. Course organisers are responsible for selecting tutors, and will tend to select students with high grades.

We discussed ways of improving tutor training, for example having in-person training, possibly at the end of Semester 2, to give more training time. However, this would probably require even faster  timelines for employing tutors and demonstrators than we already have, and training would still be needed in Week 0. Another idea was  to embed a short course on How to Learn to Teach, which could be part of the first year curriculum.

Action: Meredith Corey to review the tutor training materials and David Sterratt to escalate the suggestions to the Director of Teaching.

AT Bike Store the locks are broken.

*Action Stephen*

The University System Resource Booker is slow and takes a long time to load.  David explained that there is a new Time Tabling System being developed for next year which will be an improvement.

If a student needs to contact their tutor on a course, they can’t find their names, some courses have the tutors named on the Learn pages and some don’t!

The main doors at the basement entrance sometimes work and sometimes don’t, along with one lift being out of action! The ITO  have asked from an update from Estates.

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Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 7th February 2024

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 7th February 2024

In attendance: Toni Noble Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, James Garforth UG1 Year Organiser, Steven Tonneau UG3 Year Organiser, Adam Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Chris Williams Cohort Lead UG2, Sophie Mills Student Experience Manager, Ray Finlayson Student Adviser, Meredith Corey Learn Technologist, Kendal Reid ITO

Feedback from Last week’s meeting:

COMN will hold Q & A sessions after the lecture on a Thursday.

SENG the course is half way related to Humanities courses, the Course Organiser will explain this to the class.

ACP Toni will forward an email on the class from the Course Organiser.

PDIOT hasn’t received a reply from the Course Organiser yet!

UG1

Nothing to report.

UG2

The students have asked if the SEPP Course Organiser could cut back on the amount of emails being sent out daily especially late evening and early morning messages.

*Action Toni*

UG3

SDP the instructions for the Project Plan are not detailed enough and they are not happy with the marking, they feel they were marked down on something that wasn’t specified.

FNLP lectures are good and detailed feedback.

UG4

COMN there is a lack of responses on Piazza.

USEC the coursework is interesting.

SENG the lecture recordings are on You Tube with multiple adverts, why can’t they be on Media Hopper?  The coursework is not easy to find on Learn, could it be made more easier to access?

MSc

No Reps in attendance.

General

Chris as UG2 Cohort Leader for BSc AI&CS and BSc AI along with Petros Walden for BSc CS will be holding a even on the 13th March about course choices for UG3 an email will be sent out regarding this.  Chris asked if any of the UG3 Reps would like to be involved talking about their course choice experience.  Sophie will also be something similar for UG1 to UG2.

Fiona McNeill will be holding one hour focus groups for each year group in Flexible Learning Week.

Informatics branded hoodies are still in process with Neil Heatley.

Sophie is working with Emily Martin to consolidate information in creating a web page that will hold all the information with any up-coming career events, social and Industry talks about interviews, etc.

There will be emails sent out from Rebecca Clancy Jones regarding Careers events.

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Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 31th January 2024

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 31th January 2024

In attendance:

Toni Noble, ITO Deputy Manager; Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching; Sophie Mills, Student Experience Manager; Meredith Corey Learn Technologist; Dimitrios Rakovitis, Computing Officer; James Garforth UG1 Year Organiser; Steve Tonneau, UG3 Year Organiser; Chloe Downing, Student Adviser, Rose Hynd ITO

 UG1

It was noted that some students found the maths courses easier than others. This was attributed to different schooling systems allowing school students to take higher level classes pre-university. It was responded by Bjoern that they were actively looking at the curriculum for UG1 – some students used to be allowed direct entry to UG2, this resulted in 50% having failed which is why students are not allow direct entry anymore.

UG2

No comments

UG3

No reps

 UG4

ACP – The Reps voiced dissatisfaction due to the fact that the course is taught solely online. Students would like in-person tutorials.

Reps voiced concerns over the structure of content. Students would like to feel more supported through receiving more of a base knowledge of the course, as sometimes they feel like they have missed important basic information that has not been covered. It was also noted that the course specifications are only in bullet points rather than fuller explanations which students feel like they would benefit from. Concerns had been brought to the Reps on uneasiness regarding the auto-grading of the coursework, with students feeling like there is not full enough guidance as what to do to get each point.

Students would like further information regarding graduations. It was advised by Toni and Sophie to contact the graduation team as well as to view the graduation website for more information.

PDIOT the Reps asked when they could expect coursework marks, as they hadn’t been released yet and they were meant to come out in week 8, semester 1.

SENG – the Reps pointed out that the reading for week 1 was an entire book and a couple of chapters from an additional book. Lectures are recordings on YouTube that seem to just refer from a textbook; there is no additional content being added to these lectures.

The quality of lecture recordings are ‘off’; AGTA – slides are fine but the audio/visual is hard to see/understand. Math10093 is the same, if there is information being drawn on the whiteboard, students are unable to see it. FNLP lecture recordings, the audio comes off and on.

FNLP is highly regarded by the students, with Reps noting that lectures and content are very engaging.

There seemed to be some confusion surrounding reading week, in regards to what forms of teaching would take place, i.e., assessment deadlines.

 MSc

No Reps.

General

Toni noted that the email has now been sent to students regarding the availability of lockers from Monday (05/02/24).

Board of Examiners, UG1 and UG2 have now been published. UG3 marks are being released this afternoon (31/01/24). It was asked if UG4 is coming out soon, Toni said it would be around the end of the week as Course Secretary is off ill.

Meredith said that the First Year Review is happening and looked for confirmation from Reps that students will be around in flexible working week.

It was announced that the School Representatives elections are now open.

 

 

 

 

 

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Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 29th November 2023

In attendance: Neil Heatley Head of Professional Services, David Sterratt Deputy Director of Teaching, James Garforth UG1 Year Organiser, Adan Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Emma Corcoran Student Adviser, Meredith Corey Learn Technologist, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

There was an issue with some answers having wrong marks but the issue has now been resolved.

UG2

IADS quiz was released but there was no announcement on Learn.

INF2C-CS coursework is due on Friday 1st December and new test cases were added the students would have preferred these to have been released earlier.

UG3

No Reps in attendance.

UG4

TTDS coursework one was reported to be poorly marked and feedback wasn’t helpful.

MLP feedback was reported to be harshly marked and the coursework was marked down for a test that was not in the specification.  Coursework 2 was extended by one week which was well received.

CG the coursework is fun.

MSc

Nothing to report.

General

David and James are currently looking into creating a new survey and ran past some ideas with the student Reps.

The talk from the Head of School was really good.

Level 9 was reported to be cold.

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Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 22nd November 2023

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 22nd November 2023

In attendance: James Garforth UG1 Year Organiser, Steve Tonneau UG3 Year Organiser, Sophie Mills Student Experience Manager, Ray Finlayson Student Adviser, Meredith Corey Learn Technologist, Adam Kirylczuk Computing Support Officer, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

For INF1A the student’s don’t feel that the some tutors and demonstrators are helpful when they are asking questions in the tutorials and labs.  James explained that in INF1B the tutorials, multiple groups will be in one room with one tutor based at each table and one super tutor that can assist tutors in questions that they are unsure about it.

UG2

FDS answers on Piazza with regards to the coursework questions are misleading.

 UG3

No Reps in attendance.

 UG4

No Reps in attendance.

MSc

ANLP there are not enough lab demonstrators especially in the build up to the lectures.

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Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 15th November 2023

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 15th November 2023

In attendance: Toni Noble ITO Deputy Manager, Marjorie Brewer Student Adviser, Meredith Corey Learn Technologist, Christopher Computing Support Assistant, James Garforth UG1 Course Organiser,  Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

The feedback gathered from the Reps has been sent to the Course Organisers, they would like some acknowledgement that it will be considered.

They also asked if there was some screening process for employing tutors and demonstrators, they feel that when asking for help they don’t seem to understand what the students are asking! INF1 tutors in attendance said that they do get the solutions in advance and are meant to prepare in advance.  James said that there is a review on INF1A going forward.

ILA feedback is coming back late!

UG2

Nothing to report they only have one coursework, one homework and one quiz left to do.

UG3

CS the coursework is difficult but the tutorials are good.

UG4

MLP Issues have been sent directly to the Course Organiser.

HCI the instructions for coursework 3 are missing, and coursework 3 depends on the feedback from coursework 2 which has not been returned!  They also had to do an individual quiz which consisted of 500/600 words and multiple choice questions in one hour!

If students require a reference for MSc and PhD applications with the inclusion of missing marks due to MAB this can be requested through their Cohort Leader.

Students have queries about Graduations which they will talk to Neil directly.

MSc

A request was made for the new design of hoodies to have their Degree titles on them?

*Action Neil*

 

 

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