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

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 tutorial groups are larger 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.

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*

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 8th November 2023

In attendance: Neil Heatley Head of Professional Services, Toni Noble ITO Deputy Manager, Sophie Mills Student Experience Manager, Meredith Corey Learn Technologist, Mohammed Javaid Computing Support Officer, James Garforth UG1 Year Organiser, Steve Tonneau UG3 Year Organiser, Adam Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

INF1A the deadline on a Saturday will be taken to Teaching Committee to discuss.

No other issues.

UG2

INF2-IADS the issue with the coursework disappearing last week for 24 hours, Neil talked to the Course Organisers this was due to a technical challenge being updated, there was no changes to the original coursework online.

INF2C-CS the students would like access to past papers as they are not available on the Past Papers Library page, the Course Organiser has agreed not to allow them to be published, sometimes papers and solutions can be edited and reused.

There are no solutions to the the lab work.

UG3

MOB some students are finding it difficult to hear the lecturer and covers complex topics too quickly, the students would prefer it to be at a more slower pace!

ADS questions on Piazza are going unanswered and there was no tutorials for the first few weeks.

CS Piazza page is not frequently monitored, Neil said he would expect replies to be within 3 days but the students should ask the Course Organiser as what the students should expect the time frame should be for replies.

 UG4

MLP the request for extension for CW2 is suggested to take this to the Course Organiser, the students feel that coursework one was difficult and worth 10% and they are concerned that for coursework 2 they have 10 days to complete it and it is worth 40%, they would prefer it if the coursework was released a bit earlier.  Sophie explained that if the students want to ask for their own extensions through ESC they would need to have a valid excuse which can be viewed here:

https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-administration/extensions-special-circumstances/extensions

HCI the Q&A session about formative coursework was good.

CNS has a deadline on the 24^th and the students would like this to be moved to the 27^th, the students also have BIO1 and IAML in the same week, it was explained to the students that all the deadlines are set out at the start in their coursework planner and it is all about managing their time around these deadlines.

MSc

A design for new merchandise has been created, this will be sent to Neil.

 General

The exam timetable was released as scheduled.  Meredith explained that once all exams papers are complete the rubric will be announced on the Learn pages, so the students know what to expect.

The PhD talk by INFConnect was good and well attended.

Invite the Postgrad Rep to the meeting.

*Action Neil*

If anyone wants to view their exam script, this request can be made to the ITO.

The whiteboards on level 2, are proving difficult to remove previous writing.

If new whiteboard pens are required they can be collected from the ITO on Level 6 AT.

Plug sockets on level 4 are not working.

*Action Kendal*

The School Rep was at the College SSLC Meeting and the topic of AT opening hours is still ongoing.

Access to connecting to virtual DICE can be problematic it was suggested at the start of semester there should be a workshop on this topic!

A open course for remoting working on DICE can be found here:

https://opencourse.inf.ed.ac.uk/DICE-UG/remote-working

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 1^st November 2023

In attendance: Neil Heatley Head of Professional Services, Toni Noble ITO Deputy Manager, Sophie Mills Student Experience Manager, Liam McCabe Student Adviser, Alex Burford Mohammed Javaid Computing Support Officer, Steve Tonneau UG3 Year Organiser, Adam Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Shay Cohen MSc Year Organiser,  Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

The issues of the INF1A deadline being on a Saturday was acknowledged by the Course Organisers an they were sent the feedback collated from the Reps.  This weekend deadline will be taken to Teaching Executive.

*Action Neil*

UG2

INF2C-CS the students would like access to the past papers on the Library web pages, Toni explained that if there is no paper available it means that the Course Organiser has not approved the publication.

INF2-IADS the coursework disappeared from the Learn page for 24 hours, this is due on the 10^th! Neil explained that this could be human error or amendments he will contact the Course Organiser.

*Action Neil*

 UG4

CG workshop was good.

 UG3

No Reps in attendance.

 MSc

The course website for Computer Programming for Speech and Language Processing was found to work on the university VPN but not the Informatics school VPN. The school has indicated that this is because this course by PPLS (a different school, and not by Informatics)

The estimated timeline for dissertation projects is available here: https://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/diss/guide.html#timetable  Please note that this is last year’s website and will be updated.

The School of Informatics is going to launch the school branding clothes for the MSc students of the class of 2024, Neil will talk to the Cohort for suggestions.
*Action Neil*

General

Publication date is 6^th November for MAB, the School is aiming for Friday 3^rd November but not for SDP.

The Exam timetable due to be released on Friday 3^rd November.

Informatics Careers event will extended to Room 6.16, level 6 every Wednesday.  Sophie will put in posters advertising this.

*Action Sophie*

The students have raised concerns about the AT opening times which are every day including weekends 8am – 8pm, they would like this to be extended and although Neil explained that this decision was due to Health and Safety reasons and the students well-being.  The students explained that sometimes it isn’t possible work within the 8am – 8pm times due to other commitments and they often require the use of the DICE machines.  Aurora Chau the School Rep is going to send out a survey to the students and ask for feedback and Neil will look into this again.

*Action Neil*

Mohammed also mentioned that Virtual Dice is available to install on their laptops and you can also log in via RDP service in the Library.  Mohammed also asked the Reps to let student know NOT to unplug the machines from the electric points in the floors and also explained that if someone is logged into a DICE machine and left it then you can log them out by using Control, ALT and Backspace.  Some monitors on level 9 are showing as no signal, it was asked if the students could log these with Computing Support on the Support Form page indicating the name of the machine.

Rooms 5.02 and 5.03 on level 5 have been refurbished and the School are looking at maybe turning them into a quiet lab and a group lab, Neil has asked the students to have a look and them him know their thoughts.

Lights in Room 2.12 AT are not working.

*Action Kendal*

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 25^th October 2023

In attendance: Toni Noble ITO Deputy Manager, Sophie Mills Student Experience Manager, Ray Finlayson Student Adviser, Adam Kirylczuk Computing Support Officer, Steve Tonneau UG3 Year Organiser, Adam Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

The Reps sent out a feedback survey to the class consisting on 5 questions asking about clarity of tutorials, quality of tutorial explanations, interaction and engagement.  Some students feel some tutors are approachable and cooperative but they wondered why should they attend tutorials if they receive a high score, they don’t see the point and there is lack of discussion.  They also feel that language barriers can be quite problematic.  The Drop in labs they would like more guide on how to answers questions rather than the answer being displayed on the board

The INF1A deadline being at 12 noon on a Saturday will stand , the quiz opens at 3pm straight after the lecture on a Friday and the students have 30 minutes to complete it.

UG2

A survey was sent out to the students from the Reps regarding the coursework  and within under 12 hours there was about 100 replies.  Task 3 is proving to be too difficult, and the this task is part of 6 and the students are really worried they are not going to bale able to complete it.  The labs and lectures have not prepared them for this and there is not enough lab demonstrators to assist.  The students were asking of the deadline which is Friday 27^th October could be extended?  They have lots of deadlines due for all other courses and this is causing them to feel anxious.

*Action Sophie*

UG3

PI the students are enjoying working in groups and the tutorials are engaging.

MSC the topics are good.

ILP lectures are not helpful they only cover some concepts, the students would like some new material to be covered and the coursework 1 instructions are confusing and have no clarity.

CSEC the live lectures are insightful and there are to many new concepts and it is quickly paced making it difficult to catch up, the tutorials have good discussions.  Coursework 1 was difficult to set up  and coursework 2 is better.

UG4

MLP is only giving 10 days to complete coursework 2, despite it being 40% of the grade, it was also raised the issue of unhelpful Piazza responses in relation to the MLP coursework clarification questions.

CGR is a very good and interesting course.

CAR the coursework is good.

DBS is enjoyable.

ITCS the lectures are well structured.

MSc

Sophie mentioned that there will be a PhD drop in session on life as a PhD coming soon and an email will be sent out.

*Action Sophie*

 The students would like more regular meetings with their PT’s, Sophie explained that Personal Tutors do not exist anymore they have Student Advisers, their names are on their EUCLID records and can be contacted any time, and they are based on Level 6 of AT.

General

Informatics Careers event held by Rebecca in Appleton Tower on level 3 will extended to level 6.

It is likely that the SDP marks will be returned in January due to lack of markers and taken to the January Boards.

Suggestion was raised that School could include calendar invites for Inf Connect events to boost attendance.

AT opening times are every day including weekends 8am – 8pm, also you will need to use your PIN out of hours for access, apparently Security has told the students the building in not open at the weekend.

*Action Neil*

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 18^th October 2023

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Neil Heatley Head of Informatics Services, Toni Noble ITO Deputy Manager, Sophie Mills Student Experience Manager, Marjorie Brewer Student Adviser, Meredith Corey Learning Technologist, James Garforth UG1 Year Organiser, Steve Tonneau UG3 Year Organiser, Adam Lopez UG4 Year Organiser, Shay Cohen MSc Year Organiser, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

There is deadlines for INF1A-CL Quizzes at 12 noon on a Saturday, the quizzes are released on a Friday for the deadline due the next day.  It was asked if this could be moved?

*Action Toni*

The students feel that there are inconsistencies in the INF1A tutorials, some tutors are very engaging and some aren’t.  The tutorials have compulsory and optional questions some being difficult and some being easy but the students feel the easier questions seem to be the ones the tutors favour.  In the Maths tutorials they have different exercises to do each week and the tutorials are very much student led with group discussions which the students like.

UG2

INF2C-CS coursework one was released late on Friday/Saturday and as it is based on C they feel it would have better to have been released on the Monday or mid-week!  There appears to be lecture recordings missing, which could be due to a recording failure or changes in room locations!  Previous recordings on C would be useful for the students to access.

Students are struggling to understand Assembly and feel they are trying to learn this on their own and would like more resources!

They also feel that at the start of the year set up guides should be made available of teaching students how to install programmes on their laptops, even if it was one session solely focussed on this.  Bjoern explained that there is links in the Computing Support pages explaining how to do this.

UG3

ADS has no tutorials, workshops or access to practical material.

MOB the quiz material appears to have a bug.

CARD has a deadline is approaching soon the room used for the demonstrations is too small, there isn’t any space for anyone to show their demo’s, it is held one a week on a Tuesday for 2 hours, could this maybe be split into two rooms?

UG4

MLP coursework one was released 2 days late and now has a 10 day deadline, could this deadline be extended?

*Action Neil*

HCI lacks any content and no labs, there is also nothing in place to help them prepare for the class test.  Bjoern explained that the Course Organiser is going to talk to the students directly.

CGR have tutorials which are all on a Monday at 10am, 11am, 12 noon in the Central Area, some students can’t attend as their timetables on a Monday are set at KB.

MSc

The students asked if there was some kind of study space available for them to interact with the rest of their year group.  Neil said as the cohort is so big this may not be possible but he will look into this.

*Action Neil*

General

Informatics Careers event held by Rebecca in Appleton Tower was well received and they hope this could become a regular thing.

There is no update on the marks being returned for the MAB courses, the Boards of Examiners are going ahead next week, but it isn’t hopefully that the SDP marks will be returned, and if they are returned after the Boards then they will go to the January Boards.

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 4^th October 2023

In attendance: Neil Heatley Head of Informatics Services, Sophie Mills Student Experience Manager, Chrissy Student Adviser, Meredith Corey Learning Technologist, James Garforth UG1 Year Organiser, Luo Mai UG2 Year Organiser, Steve Tonneau UG3 Year Organiser, Shay Cohen MSc Year Organiser

UG1

There deadline for INF1A-CL Quizzes are set at 12 noon on a Saturday, the quizzes are released on a Friday for the deadline due the next day.

*Action Neil*

ILA quizzes are released on a Monday and are due the next again day on the Tuesday.

UG2

DMP lectures are held in George Square and then at least 300 students have 10 minutes to get to EICC for their next class.  Neil explained that the upheaval of having to adjust timetables due to the flat roof issues in lectures theatres 4 and 5 resulting in them becoming out of action will hopefully be resolved soon.

ILA and Calculus courses the students are finding these to be difficult.  They feel the switch between what is taught in first year and second year would possibly be best to switch what is taught from one year group to another.  James explained that there are discussions regarding a UG1 review.

UG3

Can CS have live lectures?  The lectures are recorded but it would be good to have them live, Meredith explained this could be that the room doesn’t have the capability to give live lectures or it could also be the choice of the course organiser.

UG4

MOSS course is reported to be very good.

General

The students were enquiring about the new extension rules being brought it and Neil explained that the University felt it was better to standardise it, and hopefully resulting in better planning when it comes to returning marks.  The School Rep Aurora Chua said they are talks with the Student Council and the Reps could bring any concerns to her and she will pass them  on.

The students would like more communication about MAB course from the School.

*Action Neil*

Learn apparently keep crashing especially at night, Meredith asked the students to send her more information and she can look into this.  Meredith also asked the Reps if someone could volunteer to attend a learning design workshop on the 30^th October at the new course stating in January 2024 for Computer Graphics – Rendering.

The round small round table on level 9, was unstable this has now been fixed.

The screw from the door in Room 7.03 AT has come loose, this has now been looked at.

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*