Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 5^th April 2023

In attendance: Bjoern Franke, Director of Teaching, Philippa Ward Head of Student Services, Liam McCabe Student Adviser, Dimitrios Rakovitis Senior Computing Support Officer, Toni Noble Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

The Reps had their UG1 Staff Student Liaison meeting today with the Course Organisers from INF1B and INF1-CG, where all UG1 issues were covered.

UG2

Nothing to report, the students had their UG2 Staff Student Liaison meeting on Monday with the Course Organisers for IADS, SEPP and FDS.

UG3

SDP presentation day is today, where the students are displaying their models.

Honours Project it was asked what the causes the slight delay in releasing the project allocations, Bjoern explained that although most projects will be allocated there will be a few students who have not been allocated a project and once they have been then the allocations will be released.

If you are doing a joint Degree for example CS & Maths, can you choose to do your project with Maths?  Bjoern explained that our projects are worth 40 credits but if you chose to do one with Maths it would mean doing two projects equalling 20 credits each but you would need to talk to your PT and then get approval from the Schools Curricular Officer.

CS coursework 3 is very difficult, the students understand the question but they don’t know how to use the tools, there has been no guidance and instructions, there is very little response on Piazza!  They have not received the last coursework marks and the live demonstration did not have enough information!

*Action Bjoern to talk to the Course Organiser*

OS the students feel that this course should have had labs to assist with coursework!  There is a lot of code with is not documented.

UG4

The students were really grateful for their Project deadline extension and thank Bjoern for his email he sent out.

MSc

No Reps in attendance, Bjoern also mentioned that all MSc students are required to be here over the summer.

General

In the new Semester, students will no longer have Personal Tutors – instead, each student will be allocated a Student Adviser. This has implications for the way in which course enrolment will be done. Instead of meeting with their PTs in September to choose courses, continuing students will be asked to fill out course enrolment forms from May onwards. It is important that students complete these forms as early as possible, particularly if they want to enrol on popular courses with quotas.

To help students complete their course enrolment forms, course enrollment guidance meetings for each year group will be taking place in w/b beginning 24 April. More information will be provided about these meetings shortly. In addition, students will receive some written guidance about the process. If students still have questions or concerns about course enrolment, they can contact their current PT or the Student Support Office for help.

There will be an email sent out to students the week of 24^th April explaining the new systems for course enrollments

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 15th March 2023

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Philippa Ward Head of Student Services, Toni Noble Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Dimitrios Rakovitis Senior Computing Support Officer, Marjorie Brewer Student Adviser, Chrissy Harris Student Adviser, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

The students met with the Course Organiser last week to discuss the issues they were having and the Course Organiser brought this up in the lecture.  Assignment 3 Part one is due on Friday 17^th  at 1200 but the students have reported that the instructions for the assignment are not clear and they are feeling very anxious about this, especially for the students who have not done coding or Java before.

*Action: Bjoern to talk to the Course Organiser*

Outcome:  The Course Organiser has agreed to move the deadline to Monday 20^th at 1200 and will be holding an extra help session tomorrow (Friday) at 1715 on Zoom. 

UG2

INF2-IADS coursework 2 was released 2 weeks later than it should have been, resulting in the deadline now clashing with other coursework’s.

INF-FDS the students like the fact that for Final Project Coursework they can either choose to work in teams of 2 or 3 or individually.

INF2-SEPP the coursework advice document was released 3 days before the deadline and the students had to go back into their coursework to make changes!  The Guest lecture was good and they enjoy the group work.  The group work can become unbalanced as groups can be allocated to 4 students and sometimes one group member could go onto interruption and the others have to pick up the slack.

INF2D the coursework is too long and repetitive.

UG

CT the grades have still not been returned but they are kept up to date via Piazza.

*Action Bjoern*

ST the grades have still not been returned and they have received no information about this!

*Action Bjoern*

FNLP, CS and CT the coursework is good.

CS there has to be a level of standardisation with tutors, some tutors just read of the marking scheme and some go that extra mile and have slides and discussions prepared in advance.

Project Endorsements selections have to be done by the 24^th March, it was asked if this deadline could be extended?

*Action Bjoern*

UG4

The students are busy with their Dissertation, they have lot of report writing to do as well which is taking time away from them to work on their Dissertations.

It was asked if the second markers for the Dissertations are random and Bjoern explained that they aren’t, second markers can view a page that is sent out and the markers can select yes, no or maybe for being a second marker, depending on their project interest.  It was also asked if a project can be co-supervised and the answer was yes as long as the students discusses this with their main supervisor.

General

Teaching Committee Meeting on the 26^th April will be discussing how to go forward with 4^th Year Projects with suggestions such as running them for the full year or only doing Project work in Semester 2, possibility of doing them individually or in clusters.  The Reps are invited to attend.

Upcoming strike days are 15^th, 16^th, 17^th, 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd.  Bjoern asked the Reps to inform the ITO int@inf.ed.ac.uk of any teaching activities they have been affected. by.

An email will be sent out soon to all students informing them of the transition of Personal Tutors to Student Advisers, UG1 and MSc already have Student Advisers but at the start of Semester one in September all students will be allocated Student Advisers.

Dimitrios has asked the Reps to pass the information onto their year groups, that the students have to check their University email accounts, they are required to sign in every 6 months, as they expire after 6 months, reminders will go their University emails not their personal accounts.  He also mentioned that Computing Support is looking to employ 2 summer internships and the deadline is this coming Friday.

Some students are having access issues to Appleton Tower after hours.

*Action Pippa to contact Dave Hamilton*

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 1^st Match 2023

In attendance: David Sterratt Deputy Director of Teaching, Philippa Ward Head of Student Services, Toni Noble Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Jennifer Oxley Deputy User Support Manager, Beth Hughes Student Adviser, Kendal Reid ITO

Apologies: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching

UG1

INF1B tutorials have no structure to them, they consist of a worksheet which could be done at home, the students feel that some tutors don’t know the answers to their questions, they would prefer the tutorials to be smaller and the only thing they find helpful is the labs.  The lecturer goes to fast, flipping between 4 screens and they feel the lectures are going over mental health too much!  There are mistakes in the live coding, the reading textbook is outdated and the coursework instructions are too long and some parts are unnecessary.  Brian who assists with the course will be going over beginners coding with the class.  The Reps have sent out a feedback form to the class.

UG2

INF2-FDS the students felt the feedback was slightly harsh, David explained that the markers were consistent with marking and the average was around 60%.

INF2-SEPP coursework one was reported to be tedious, the coursework had to be done in pairs, some students felt that their partners did not make a good enough contribution to warrant the same marks as the ones who did put the effort in!

INF2-IADS coursework release was delayed.

INF2D the students felt the coursework on search tree was too long, it took a long time to complete and not worth the 12 marks, there was lots of questions on the Piazza page!

UG3

CS the coursework good but there are a lot of questions on Piazza which are going unanswered!  There appears to be an inconsistently in the students timetables with tutorials and labs.  The lecturer is over running and the recordings cut off before the end, the lecture recordings are set to start and finish at exact times, so if a lecture over runs this won’t be captured.

ST some concerns were raised about the repositories being used for the Software Testing coursework, the specific concern was that markers were struggling to access the repositories.  David made a suggestion that using Github Classroom might provide a solution in future, this was taken to the lecturer and he agrees with the issues and confirmed that this will not be repeated next year.

SDM the mid-term class test the room was reported to be too small, David explained that the room allocations are made before the classes begin and it could have been due to an increase in students enrolling on the course after the room was timetabled.

UG4

Nothing to report.

Pippa is looking into Forum access for UG4 students to meet with their Project Supervisors, this will include a building induction, a tour and building regulations.  Students can still sign in as normal for meetings via Reception.

MSc

The students were expecting to find out about project allocations on Monday but have not received any information about this to date.  Pippa took this to Course Organiser who responded with that the current situation they ran a provisional MSc allocation and published it to staff, there were aware of some issues, and, as expected was apprised of some issues that necessitated running the allocation again.  Unexpectedly, the DPMT system went into a lockdown mode when allocation results were disclosed to staff, making it impossible to re-run the allocation using the tools provided. This issues has now been resolved as of Friday 3^rd March.

General

Level 9 the button on the exit door is broken, there also appears to be a roof leak and the toilets require cleaning and supplies restocked.

*Action Kendal/Ray*

Level 6 there are lots of sockets broken.  Jennifer asked the Reps if they find faults then to report them, either on the web site or follow the QR Code posters in the Labs.

https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/systems/support/

*Action Jennifer*

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 15th February 2023

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Philippa Ward Head of Student Services, Toni Noble Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Jose Garcia Student Adviser, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

No Reps in attendance

UG2

No Reps in attendance

UG3

CS the DICE issue has been resolved.

SDP the Demo was cancelled today due to strikes, there was no clients able to attend.

ILP the students have now received their grades, and reactions are generally positive. Apparently, some students are still waiting for their feedback, though.

UG4

No Reps in attendance

MSc

International Security (SPS) have no resources available for them to do their assignment, the Course Organiser is on strike and has removed any online materials, there is also no lectures, a request was made for material to be made available, this was rejected!  Bjoern will send out a follow up email to the students to clarify what happens when coursework is missed due to strikes.

*Action Bjoern*

There is high demand for NLP projects. Bjoern explained that projects in each area, including NLP, are limited by supervisor capacity, and that student are not guaranteed a project in a specific area.

The MSC Project selection guide can be found here:

https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/diss/selection.html

General

There will be no meeting next Wednesday 22^nd February due to Flexible Learning Week.

The opening hours to Appleton Tower cannot be extended to later in the evenings, due to Health and Safety and there is no staff around out of hours.

There is 3 days of strike action this week, 21^st, 22^nd and 23rd, 4 days next week 27^th, 28^th, 1^st and 2^nd March, 2 on the 16^th and 17^th and 3 days 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd.  If students are encountering  impact on their teaching activities then to report this to the ITO ito@inf.ed.ac.uk who are collating this information that may have to be considered at the Board of Examiners.

It was reported that some students were feeling harassed when crossing the picket line, which is not acceptable, Bjoern will report this back to the UCU.

*Action Bjoern*

It is no longer possible to order the new Informatics hoodies, the deadline was the 16^th December 2022.

The School does not have a EUSA School Rep, an email was sent to the Reps for anyone wishing to volunteer!

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 8th February 2023

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Philippa Ward Head of Student Services, Toni Noble Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Jose Garcia Student Adviser, Kendal Reid ITO

 UG1

Nothing to report, the INF1B tutorial allocations has now been resolved.

 UG2

SEPP the students are enjoying the coursework.

INF2D is a good course and the text book is very good.

IADS is a good course, there are 5 quizzes altogether but the students feel that there are a lot of questions in each quiz, the students feel that if the amount of questions were fewer then they would have more time to work on problems!

FDS the students find the coursework to be tedious, there is a lot of writing!  The students wondered if it was possible to have a workshop in writing!

Bjoern suggested that the students could use the Institute for Academic Development who run courses on things such as writing.

https://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/postgraduate/doctoral/courses

UG3

CS is very well organised.  The students spoke with the Course Organiser about the coursework only being able to be completed by using the DICE machines in the AT Labs and not remotely as the folder is only accessible on the DICE Machines in AT, Bjoern will talk with Computing Support.

*Action Bjoern*

FNLP is a very good course.

The students are happy about the plans for the Student Experience Project.

The students received an email about the UG4 Project proposals but there was no deadline stated!

UG4

IDB and ML averages are reported to be low, the academic averages have not been published these get done after the Boards of Examiners, so it is unclear where this information has come from!

Bjoern explained that low averages are looked at by the BoE covering borderline cases, classifications boundaries and impact of any courses that appear to be difficult.

There is no project deadline on the Learn pages.  Bjoern also mentioned that Teaching Committee have an agenda to discuss how projects are run in the future.

MSc

The deadline for students submitting their project choices is Friday 10^th at 17:00 hours, and there are concerns about being marked suitable or unsuitable or none of the above.

General

Can students let the ITO ito@inf.ed.ac.uk know what if any of their teaching activities have been affected by the ongoing Strike action so this can be recorded.

Appleton Tower opening times are 08:00 to 20:00

Clocks in lecture theatres 1 and 4 Appleton Tower have been reported.

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 1^st February 2023

In attendance: Bjoern Franke, Director of Teaching, Philippa Ward Head of Student Services, Marjorie Brewer Student Adviser, Carol Dow User Support Manager, Kendal Reid ITO

Pippa introduced herself as Neil Heatley’s replacement whilst Neil is on secondment until September 2023.

UG1

INF1-CG the tutorials are too short the students would like more time to ask questions and discuss the content, they would also like more resources to be made available.

Maths lectures have been cancelled due to Strike Action and there is no material made available online.

INF1B it was reported that there was some confusion with the exercise, the TA explained that he will take this back to the Course Organiser.

UG2

No Reps in attendance.

UG3

SDM Q&A sessions have a clash with the Computer Security lecture, the students have spoken with the SDM Course Organiser and they are open to change.

*Action Bjoern*

CS has 3 cousrework’s but one can only be done on a DICE machine in AT, they cannot use the remote desktop DICE, it is inconvienent for some students to travel to AT.  Bjoern has asked the students to forward him more information.

*Action Bjoern*

UG4

ILP the students are still waiting on their feedback, Bjoern explained that this is the first time this Course Organiser has taught this course and the marking exercise is large, so therefore it is taking longer than anticipated to return.

In general students are finding when feedback is due and it gets pushed back and then back again it is very frustrating!

The Head of School has sent out an email to Teaching Staff asking them to prioritise marking and Project Supervisors meetings on non-Strike days.  Students can contact Student Advisors or their PT if there are any issues with not being able to meet with their Supervisors.  Pippa added that although Special Circumstances do not cover the Strike action, students can still apply for Special Circumstances if they have a personal reasons.

It was reported that some Supervisors are not aware that they have to arrange Project Presentations!

There is concern about the possible marking boycott and how this will affect students Graduating in the Summer, although Bjoern hopes it doesn’t get to that there are ways that if no marks are returned the Board of Examiners can look at the past grades and award a Pass or Fail if a final grade is not available.  Students will be awarded with a Degree but this could also come without a Degree Classification!  Bjoern not sure if you wanted this added in!

MSc

There is a Q & A Project Proposal meeting held at the same time as the Rep meeting, Bjoern will talk to the Course Organiser, we may have to alternate the timings of the Rep meeting.

*Action Bjoern*

ASR has coursework and tutorials that are set to work in pairs and they are not sure what the best way to do this in finding a suitable partner, if you have to do this yourself!  Bjoern explained that INF2-SEPP previously had the same set up and the Course Organiser created the pairs and some students weren’t happy!

General

Bjoern asked the Reps to send any information on teaching activities that have been affected due to the ongoing Strike action to the ITO ito@inf.ed.ac.uk where this information will be collated.

Pippa asked what the students preferred communication was, and it was email, Pippa will form a generic email and send one out once a week possibly on a Friday.

Carol has asked the Reps to remind their colleagues to NOT turn of the machines or unplug them in the labs.  The Labs now have QR posters which can offer help, there is no longer an office in Appleton Tower as they are now based on Level 2, Informatics Fourm and new business cards will be placed in the ITO, Level 6, Appleton Tower.

There is also two Intern posts for the Summer which will be advertised soon.

It was reported that a student felt harassed when entering the building whilst the strike was ongoing, Carol will look into this.

It was reorted that a student who has mental health issues had arranged a meeting with their PT, and the PT did not turn up!  Bjoern advised that the students who  have issues should report to the Student Advisers on Level 6, AT or contact them on inf-sst@inf.ed.ac.uk if they cannot get their PT.

There is lot of spam messages going around, Carol asked if they could be flagged to Computing Support who will forward this on to Information Services.

The clocks are not working in the Appleton Tower Lecture Theatres.

*Action Kendal*

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 25th January 2023

In attendance: Bjoern Franke, Director of Teaching, Suzanne Newall Student Adviser, Kendal Reid ITO

Suzanne introduced herself to the Reps and explained that she is a Student Adviser, and the team act as UG1 Personal Tutors, Bjoern explained that Personal tutors for all years will be phased out in September and they will be replaced by Students Advisers covering all years.

Bjoern reminded the Reps that EUSA sent out an reminder email about becoming a Student Representative in 2023/24 and asked if the Reps could bring this to the attention of their year groups.

UG1

Calculus and Its Applications have quizzes to do on a Thursday in a two hour slot but there is a lecture in this time scale, Bjoern advised talking to the Course Organiser.

UG2

INF2-FDS and INF2-IADS it is reported that there are a lot of errors being made especially in the slides, errors with the lecturers writing on the whiteboards and also a lot of reading.  The students feel that there are basically self-learning on these course.

*Action Bjoern*

UG3

ILP the students have been waiting for their marks but haven’t had any communication.

*Bjoern to talk to the Course Organiser*

MLG is a new course and there is no previous exam papers to view.  The School is aware of this and they are keeping an eye on the results.

SDM the students would like more lectures to be in person and not recordings, they feel like they would like more interaction in the course other than labs and Q&A sessions.  They feel that the lectures have not moved on since the pandemic and sitting on you own watching a lecture on a laptop isn’t the same as being able to attend the lecture with their fellow students and being able to discuss things amongst themselves.

*Action Bjoern to talk to the lecturer*

ST is a semester one course and is worth 10 credits, it is 100% coursework and the final deadline is this upcoming Friday, although the deadline was extended the students feel the deadline should have been set at the end of week one when they is not a lot of coursework’s going on but week two they have work to do.  There is also a concern over a delay in marks being returned due to extensions being granted when the students had 5 months to complete the assessment.

UG4

BDL had 4 coursework’s and 2 were due over the Christmas break, which interfered with their Dissertations, the School is looking into reviewing this.

MSc

No issues to report.

General

There are some concerns over the upcoming strike action as there are 18 days altogether scattered over February and March, there is especially concern with the final year students who will be working on their Dissertation and there are concerns that their Supervisors may not meet with them.  Bjoern explained that anyone striking has no obligation to say if they plan to strike and the School is not at liberty to ask, as strike action is aimed at causing as much disruption as possible.  If a student encounters any issues with not being able to meet with their Supervisor to contact the Student Advisers based on level 6 Appleton Tower.

It was asked if Informatics were able to give level 9 access to Engineering students doing an Informatics Dissertation, Bjoern said that this was not possible as level 9 is an only Informatics students space, it is not possible to give access to other Schools, we are already encountering students from other Schools being let into to level 9, which is not allowed.  There are lots of open areas in the central area other Schools can use.

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 18^th January 2023

In attendance: Bjoern Franke, Director of Teaching, Beth Hughes Student Adviser, Kendal Reid ITO

Bjoern explained to the Reps that Neil Heatley is now on secondment for 9 months in the Wellbeing Centre, Neil will be replaced by Philippa Ward from Academic Services.

Updates: The School is developing an Entrepreneurship and Innovation Project course as an alternative to SDP alongside other entrepreneurship opportunities, e.g. an Entrepreneurial Club.

UG1

Calculus and its Applications have homework to complete by 16:00 but the content of the assignment is covered on that day until 14:00 which only leaves the students a 2 hour window to complete, but in this 2 hour slot the students have others thing to do in that time.  Bjoern suggested the students contact the course organiser.

INF1B there are some scheduling issues, Bjoern explained that the course organiser is running a new type of tutorial allocation and if there are any issues to contact Fiona McNeill.

UG2

No Reps in attendance.

UG3

SDP have to work in groups and some group members are not showing up especially students in the CS and Electronics degree, the Reps don’t know if it is because they don’t have any previous hardware knowledge?

OS introduced tutorials and the students find them relatively easy but they are also helpful on learning C.

UG4

BDL is a 10 credit course with 4 pieces of coursework, one which was set over the Christmas break, they are questioning if this course should be a 20 credit course?

Bjoern explained that there is student feedback regarding the amount of time it says that coursework should take to complete and how long the students actually spent, there could be miscommunications on how long coursework actually takes to complete from a student’s prospective.  It could be possible for the course organiser to say how long they think it should take and get the feedback from the students on how long they spent.

General

If students want to look at previous course recordings they can find this on Media Hopper Replay, but this information is only available for 12 months and then it is deleted.

There are no portable whiteboards on level 3 and 4 AT.

Student Rep Meeting: 9/11/22

Year 1 Reps:

• General feeling of difficulty of courses (particularly logic), students are also then finding the labs unhelpful and the most recent InfPals session didn’t help to alleviate their concerns.

Bjorn F: advised for students to bring this to the attention of the course organiser, although courses are designed to be challenging this will be helpful for them to know, and if they would then like to perhaps give students more of a pre-context of the difficulty of each assignment.

 Year 2 Reps:

• Amount of coursework ongoing at the same time feels overwhelming.

BF: advised that there is an overall project on assessment going on within the School, as in when what type of assessment and when would be most beneficial/effective for students. More discussion between the school and students on where the current stress points are will be helpful, to find a balance between coursework and ‘cramming’ at the end of the semester for exams.

• Clearer exam guidance, i.e. what is allowed to come into the exam hall, as most students haven’t been through this process for a while. Some discussion already on Piazza but an email and LEARN announcement would be beneficial.

BF: to action – speak with course organisers to ensure an email/learn announcement is sent out to cover this soon.

CD: SST are also working on general exam advice sessions for students, non-academic advice sessions on how to prepare and manage returning back to exam hall conditions – more information shortly.

 Year 3 Reps:

• Students feeling stressed at Machine Learning course in particular; the content, lack of past papers and practice, the math content and have already brought this to the CA’s attention
• Coffee available to students in level 6 lab kitchen – would this be possible?

BF: to action – happy to discuss further with CA if they have more sample questions/past papers available.

Year 4 Reps:

• MLP coursework feels very time consuming for 10%

BF – advised that percentage doesn’t always relate to the about of time expected, it is more a balance of academic challenge and time than time precisely. Worth bringing up however as perhaps this could be rephrased, i.e. also part of the assessment project. Also part of wider discussion that achieving 70% is great and when students should stop on a piece of coursework.

• Also with MLP, they have discussed with Neil about when the assessment is released and the deadline on 25^th

BF: to action – to speak with Neil and course organiser further about this.

• Students enjoying bioinformatics and course is very well organised
• Assessments in quiz style is becoming a general concern, i.e. the way questions are marked that you require all selections to be correct for a mark seems quite harsh, as in no reward for some right answers. Students have raised this on Piazza with lecturer but feels further conversation required.

BF – understands this can be frustrating, although lecturer may be trying to prevent students from guessing in multiple choice. Further conversation is in process with Sharon about quizzes generally for following academic years.

BF: to action – will liaise further with course organiser on this.

 Year 5 Rep: not in attendance.