Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 3rd November 2021

In attendance: Neil Heatley Head of Student Services, Sophie Mills Student Support Officer, Adam Kirylczuk Computing Support Officer, Iain Murray MSc Programme Director (AI), Alex Burford Learning Technologist, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1
No Reps in attendance

UG2
Some students have still not received their contracts and are working and haven’t been paid since September, the School is aware of the situation and this is a University wide issue since moving to the new system of the People and the Money, there has been several teething issues which is causing a delay, they are working to try and resolve the issue as fast as possible.

The students are feeling the pressure of having lots of coursework and small assessments and weekly quizzes, extensions can be requested but as extensions are 7 days long, the smaller assessments release their solutions 4 or 5 days after the deadline and an extension would be pointless. Neil suggested to bring this up at the end of Semester Staff Student Liaison Meeting where the students can explain to the lecturers, and maybe have this looked at 2021/22.

It was asked why the mailing lists are moderated, the reason is to protect people from receiving unwanted emails, the ITO do the moderation for this, and approve what they think it relevant, there has been a delay in moderating some emails recently due to the ITO being short staffed, if students feel that there is something urgent that they are waiting to be approved Neil suggested sending the ITO a message ito@inf.ed.ac.uk and let them know you are waiting for an email to be approved so they can check it.

INF2-IADS and INF2-CS is reported to be very well ran with great support.

UG3
There are lots of issues with the IDB course the Rep will follow this up in an email to Neil.

PI the students are showing concern regarding the essay that they have to do and it is reviewed by a Peer, they are concerned about the quality of the feedback they may receive.

IVR there are concerns that the students projects are public on Github and could be accused of Academic Misconduct. *Action Neil to talk to the lecturer*

https://web.inf.ed.ac.uk/infweb/admin/policies/academic-misconduct

Maths – Fundamentals of Operational Research is reported to be a very good course, very active, active on Piazza and good course material.

UG4
It was reported that the Wi-Fi in student accommodation is poor, it keeps dropping out and even if you are on the wired connection it is the same, it is causing issues with students trying to complete their work, and when they report it, they don’t receive a reply. Neil suggested to raise this as a complaint and that way they are obliged to reply, or send it to Neil and he can follow it up.

FV CW2 is due on Monday 8th November part of the coursework requires Theron solving if the students are using the DICE machines, they have to install it themselves, is it possible for this to be installed on the DICE machines.

There was issues with the time programming task, and it was asked if this was checked by the Course Organiser before it was released? the students had to ask the CO if it was correct, as they had to reduce inputs due to time constraints.
*Action Neil to talk to the lecturer*

MSc
EXC CW1 on the day of the deadline there was an on-line live lecture and some students were concerned that they didn’t have enough programming background to do CW1. There is no labs or tutorials for this course and the students feel they would be beneficial or some practical experience.

Is there funding available for students who would like to attend conferences etc.? Yes the link is below:

https://restricted.web.inf.ed.ac.uk/infweb/student-services/ito/students/funding-opportunities/school-travel-fund

It was asked for the list of the mailing lists, VPN is required off Campus:

https://computing.help.inf.ed.ac.uk/openvpn

https://lists.inf.ed.ac.uk/local/all-lists.html

Design Informatics students were asking if there was somewhere at the weekend they could use to collaborate?
*Action Neil to talk to Maria Wolters*

CG the course is 100% coursework there will be 3 coursework submissions, one associated with each part of the course, and all three will be marked. The final mark will be composed of the mark from coursework 1, plus the higher of coursework 2 or coursework 3. CW2 was not covered in the lectures and the students are finding the course very difficult.

General
Neil is still trying to find a location which is big enough for the Rep Meetings to be held in person, he is hoping to have something in place within the next 2 weeks, and get the timetable arranged for the Rep meetings to be held in person from the start of Semester 2.

AT is reported to be cold, Neil is aware that Level 9 is cold and this issue has been taken to Estates, could he get more information on the specific locations in AT that are reported to be cold? Neil is aware that the windows have to be kept open for ventilation purposes due to COVID and the heating may be on, it could be as the windows have to be open, this could be the reason.

It was asked if an email could be sent out explaining the reasoning of limited study space access and why isn’t it not 24/7. Neil explained that due to COVID the hours were decreased and it will stay that way until further notice, he also explained that study space timings could be reduced even further due to people not following the rules i.e. not wearing face masks when they are supposed to and not leaving the building when it is closing. It was reported to Neil by Security that some students were on Level 9 after closing time and were not wearing face masks, access to level 9 is authorised once you have signed an agreement to follow the rules, and these are not being done. AT is not staffed after hours and it is the students responsibility to leave the building when it closes.

https://web.inf.ed.ac.uk/infweb/student-services/ito/students/informatics-buildings/study-spaces-for-students/study-spaces-faqs

Neil also mentioned that the QR codes that are set up on each desks are not being used as they should be.

AT will close for the 2 week period over Christmas and New Year from 5pm Thursday 23rd December and reopen at 9am on Wednesday 5th January.

The hot water tank on Level 6 and Level 9 are not working, this has been reported to Estates.

It was asked about a microwave and the answer is no, due to issues like cleaning, setting of the fire alarm out of hours and health and safety.

Bjoern will be hosting a talk tomorrow Thursday 4th November – Managing Workload and Assessment as an Informatics Student

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/managing-workload-and-assessment-as-an-informatics-student-tickets-203033066367

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 28th October 2021

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Lisa Branney Student Support Officer, Adam Kirylczuk Computing Support Officer, Iain Murray MSc Programme Director (AI), Kendal Reid ITO

UG1
No Reps in attendance

UG2
DMP the students feel there is too much reading involved with the course, the lecture notes are missing content and the online videos are missing material, they also feel that the course is more like a 40 credit course, rather than a 20 credit course. Bjoern has raised this with the lecturer but hasn’t been able to talk with them *Action Bjoern to talk to the lecturer*

FDS it is reported that the course material is disorganised, there are too many methods that the students feel that is irrelevant and they feel they would benefit from more content and would like essential reading chapters to be made available. Bjoern suggested the students should take this to the course organiser or ask on Piazza for a more curative reading list that is relevant to the course material.
There is a reading list available here:
https://eu01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/leganto/readinglist/lists/31911539550002466?institute=44UOE_INST&auth=SAML

INF2C-CS the students would like more hands on teaching when it comes to MIPS and C Programming, there is currently 3 labs for MIPS but the students feel that this is not enough to enable them to work well on the coursework. The course is really well taught and lecturer has very good engagement.

INF2-IADS is well taught and well organised, the students particularly like John Longley’s piano playing in the lectures.

Overall there are a lot of deadlines coming up over the next week and it can be overwhelming.

UG3
IVR it is reported that students are finding the lab sessions hard to follow there is no fluency and structure and the tutorials are not connecting with the coursework. *Action Bjoern to talk to the lecturer*

PI some students are struggling with the essay writing part of the course, Bjoern explained that they are aware that some Informatics students may struggle with this, but learning how to write an essay is a very good skill to have and to have the peer feedback is very beneficial to students as it allows students to read other students work and be able to give good feedback or criticize if required.

UG4/5
The students have been talking to Neil Heatley Head of Student Services about the limited access to AT, they would like it be set back to 24 hours.

CAR the coursework is required to hook your laptop up to a monitor In AT level 3, but due to the limited access it is proving difficult for students who have limited resources at home. The coursework involves hardware which means you have to set up a board and connect it to a monitor to run or use a cable at home.
*Action Bjoern to talk to the lecturer*

MLP there was various mistakes in the coursework specification and this wasn’t fixed until after the students had started the coursework causing a lot of frustration.

TTDS some of the international students are finding the Q and A sessions and the lectures hard to follow due to the lecturer talking to fast, would it be possible to have the pre-recorded lectures subtitled? MLPR uses subtitles.

MLPR when it comes to the 4pm – 5pm tutorials the tutor is running over the time slot therefore making the students late if they have a class from 5pm – 6pm. Iain asked the Reps to let him know who the tutor is?

If a students is looking for a PhD referral with no help from their PT, they can contact the Year Organiser.

MSc
MLP the Reps feel that running a quiz at the start of the course to assess what level the students are at to enable the coursework to be framed around the student various levels. The Pre-requisites states it is recommended that students have taken a previous course in Machine Learning or a course with a significant machine learning content.

It was asked about the mailing lists, and why they are moderated, these are moderated by the ITO, this is to stop Spam.

There is a WhatsApp Chat link that the MSc Reps have and it may be useful for the UG4/5 Reps to join.

NAT students have missed tutorials with the moving of the location due to ventilation, and not being advised of the new location, one room where a tutorial was held it was like a waiting area and the students were trying to balance their laptops on their knees and the couldn’t see the whiteboard for the reflection from the windows. Is it possible to have at least one on-line tutorial?
*Action Bjoern to talk to the lecturer*

General
The students feel that there is too many emails regarding Teaching Support and can this be looked at, Bjoern commented that at the moment, a lot of people are still being appointed and until they all are and are in a specific mailing list then unfortunately the emails go to everyone.

Bjoern mentioned the School is looking for interest in a new course – Advanced Networked Systems and asked the Reps if they could answer a short survey to see what the interest would be.

https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=sAafLmkWiUWHiRCgaTTcYXg13vTsCRBHtXfTSPLIWyVUREFGWFBWWVU4MUQzM1E3U1JLODRTMDJUSC4u

Staff Student Rep Meeting – 31/02/2021

Present: Neil Heatley (Head of Student Services), Björn Franke (Director of Teaching), Lisa Branney (SST), Laura Ambrose (ITO).

UG1
The INF1B CW2 feedback was better than the CW1 feedback; it was more detailed.
Feedback for INF1B CW2 was very delayed. The students were meant to have the feedback in time for their tutorials on Friday to discuss with their tutors and the group, but not all the coursework had been marked properly. This meant that people did not get feedback in the tutorial group, so tutorials felt pointless for half the students. The rest of the students got their marks on Sunday after the tutorial. There were the further complications: some coursework had been overlooked and not marked at all. The rep reporting these issues received their CW2 mark yesterday evening (Tuesday 30/03/21). Furthermore, as there is already a topic planned for the coming tutorial, the students who received marks late will not have the opportunity to discuss these marks in their tutorial groups.
It was suggested that INF1B have tutors being the ones to also mark their students’ work. This is because some tutors do not have insight into the marking process and therefore don’t understand why a certain mark has been given. If the tutors marked the work then it would give a more meaningful interaction with tutors as they would have more in-depth knowledge of marking and could help more.
InfConnect semester 2 topics were better than semester 1. Semester 2 was more useful and provided more interaction, but in general Fiona done an amazing job with InfConnect and reps are pleased to hear it will continue for the incoming cohort.

UG2
Reps commented on the news that the university is considering keeping the SeatED app for exam season so people can make sure they have space in the library. It was asked whether students could we have something similar in Appleton tower so people can book and know they have space there too. Neil commented that we already have a service that shows machine availability but wouldn’t give you a specific desk. Neil further commented that we could look into providing a booking service but that it would not be monitored by the ITO so would need to be self-managed by the cohort.
There was also a discussing regarding the fact that other schools have begun preparation for next year and have had focus groups with students. It was asked whether Informatics students will be involved in similar conversations. Neil commented that they were hesitant to ask people to commit time when we ourselves are unsure what we can do or what is manageable at this stage.
The rep commented that they wanted to see a conversation with students to see if the schools’ priorities are in line with the students’ priorities. Björn commented that some of these things are down to the Scottish Government and the University, rather than the School of Informatics. Things are given to us then we implement it, and it is therefore pointless to discuss some things, like one metre or two metre distancing, as we do not decide.

UG3
SDP is very stressful and is the main focus of comments received by reps.
Positive comments have been made about Computer Security coursework; it was fun to work on.

UG4
The DME Class Test had a 44% average grade; there is much concern over the low average. Students thought test was dissimilar to other years and didn’t cover main teaching points. They also suggest that 44% doesn’t fit the CMS. Björn asked if class had feedback from test from the Cos, but the rep did not know.
Students in general have been saying the year has been very difficult due to lack of tutorials and lack of contact.

MSc
Reps asked for an update on IRR non anonymous marking – is the marking anonymous or not? Björn commented that IRR was not designed to be anonymous; this is because tutors would recognise students’ topics from tutorial discussion. The anonymous marking was therefore a miscommunication. The rep commented that tutorials not mandatory so tutors/markers wouldn’t know some students’ topics so it would be anonymous for those students. Moreover, since they were told it was anonymous it should have been. Björn commented that students should have not been told it was anonymous because it was not designed to be.

Other:
There is no meeting next week due to Easter Holiday. Weekly meetings will continue after this but as this is the last week of teaching, this is the last official meeting and meetings going forward are expected to be smaller.

Present: Neil Heatley (Head of Student Services), Sophie Mills (Student Support Officer), Laura Ambrose (ITO), Alex Burford (Learning Technologist), Lisa Branney (Student Support Officer).

UG1:

• INF1B CW3 has now been released, but, due to the delay, the submission date is now in the Easter holidays. In future, students want to know the dates in advance for coursework release and due dates and for these dates to be fixed.  
• INF1B Labs and Tutorials can be intimidating during partner work if your partner is more advanced that you. Some students want to be placed with a partner that is at a similar skill level as themselves. This was addressed by Fiona as the beginning of the semester, but students now are feeling concerned about the difference in skill level.
• The exam timetable was discussed – some students believe time differences are not adequately accommodated. 
• There has been positive feedback about Fiona McNeill. Students say that she listens to the students and cares about their mental health. 
• InfPals had an amazing session on interview prep that many found extremely helpful.
• Calculus lectures are not interactive enough and are not constant or cohesive in style. Students want more cohesion. 
• Students are happy the INF1B CW1 was regraded and want the same relaxing of boundaries for CW2 and CW3.

UG2:

• Students are pleased that Mary Cryan reached out to students that were not engaging and offered help and suggestions to these students.

UG3:

• No comments.

UG4: 

• Students are displeased with the email that went out mistakenly recently and want to ensure that it will not happen again. Reps were pleased to hear that the student whose information was involved was spoken to privately by staff after the incident. 

MSc:

• Following up on the email incident, anonymous marking was discussed. Neil commented that this instance was being looked into by Björn.
• This semester is going more smoothly than the previous semester. 
• The IPP deadline being pushed back was received very positively. 
• Appleton Tower access was discussed – Neil commented that they are awaiting further updates from the Scottish government. 

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 17th March 2021

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Neil Heatley Head of Student Services, Sophie Mills Student Support Officer, Karen Davidson Student Support Officer, Gordon Reid Computing Support Officer, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

INF1B CW 3 has not yet been released and it is worth 40% of part of the course, it should have been released a week ago and the deadline is at the end of the semester, the lecturer has contacted the students and a 2 week blanket extension has been given which is appreciated.  The coursework is expected to be released today.

CW1 the feedback was very vague and general but some students got more feedback than other due to their tutors also being markers.  Bjoern explained that that this can be the case and some tutors and markers are volunteering PhD students, this can be taken to the lecturer to raise awareness for next year.

INF1-OP it was asked if sample solutions could be given as some students are beginners and are unsure how to approach the coursework or could they be discussed in tutorials, as the students feel that they are not learning much apart from their own work.

*Action Bjoern/Neil to talk to the lecturer*

INF1-CG there are 2 coursework’s both worth 50% each the last coursework was released this week but there is only one lab to support this, the first coursework had 3 or 4 labs, although they are not hugely attended, more would be good.  Bjoern asked the Reps to ask the year group, if more labs were made available would they attend?

UG2

INF2-SEPP CW2 feedback was returned and similar to CW1 the feedback was very vague and confusing and the students don’t know where they are going wrong.  The feedback for CW2 was 4 days late and CW3 was 2 days late in being released, although an extension has been given for this.

You can receive feedback in the labs which is useful whilst talking to the demonstrators, the students also feel that the coursework is overlapping one another, although they do feel that the lectures are good for testing your knowledge.

INF2-IADS the students are really enjoying the course and the enthusiasm of the lecturers.

INF2D the lectures are very good.

UG3

CS is very interesting but there was a delay in the coursework being released an no announcement was made and some lectures are not being uploaded until the day after.

COMN moves really quickly, not giving enough time to work on other things.

OS coursework there is not enough lecturer interaction, and especially with the memory management coursework, although the Piazza page is helpful and active.

Honours Project the students only have eleven days to go over all the projects, could this be extended by a week?  The School of Physics don’t release their project selection until August, and some students feel they pick an Informatics one in March, like Maths and then they could potentially see another project they would like to do.  Could it be made clear how many projects a student can select, although 5 is generally the option.

*Action Neil and Bjoern*

SDP some students have complained that they find it difficult to work on different systems.

UG4

ST is very good and is helpful to learn material.

ADBS could the coursework and lectures be released earlier?

NLU lab sessions could the coursework be covered at the moment instead of being based on the exam?

MSc

No issues to report.

Student Staff Rep Meeting – 10/03/2021

Present: Bjoern Franke (Director of Teaching), Neil Heatley (Head of Student Services), Sophie Mills (Student Support Officer), Laura Ambrose (ITO), Alex Burford (Learning Technologist), Karen Davidson (Student Support Officer). 

MSc:

• IRR marks are still not available to the whole class and everyone receives marks at different times. Bjoern has emailed the CO about this and has received the following feedback from Stuart: IRR marks which have been released are unmoderated (and subject to change). All the marks should be out by tomorrow.
• IPP CW1 marks are also inconsistent – some students received marks yesterday, some students still have no marks. 
• IPP has also had issues with supervisors being unfamiliar with the process. Bjoern has emailed the COs to send out a clarification email to supervisors. Bjoern has also suggested that “any students who can’t make contact with their supervisor, or where supervisors’ advice is contrary to what’s been said in the course, to get in touch with the course organisers, i.e., Stuart and Aurora! Two emails have been sent out to staff, and it appears not everyone has read the emails.” 
• There have been issues with the delays in Student Counselling. A student reported having registered in the 2^nd week of January and being given a 7 week wait. After 7 weeks, the student received no update and had to reach out to the Counselling team themselves and was given a further wait time. The student does not feel supported. Neil asked whether the student had had their screening appointment, but the rep was unable to confirm, and Neil asked whether the student would contact him privately to discuss. Sophie, from the SST, also provided some links for The Listening Service (a support service from the Chaplaincy) and self-help tools. The reps commented that some of the recommended self-help applications come with a cost and asked whether this was something the university could help pay for. Neil will look into this. 

UG4:

• ADBS coursework is so vague with zero preparation or support (e.g., labs or exercises).
• ADBS quiz component is artificially capped at 75/100 meaning it is not even theoretically possible to achieve full marks from coursework component.
• One Rep commented that: “I’m extremely tired of having 0 contact hours this semester. None of my courses provides any live lectures or live tutorials. Only recordings from last year. This semester has been extremely de-motivating.”
• COMN has a lot of content to cover for the quizzes. They also haven’t released CW1 marks yet.
• Ajitha (software engineering) has improved her pacing and is good at explaining.
• ST is really great, useful lectures and tutorials. Replies to Piazza are fast.

UG3:

• Generally positive comments about courses – further detail and information to be provided next week from InfPals data. 

UG2:

• Students are struggling with the coursework/course load. Extensions are not helping much as there is still too much work. Students report falling behind with lectures and tutorials. 
• The students are happy that the UG2 exams are spread out on the timetable. 
• Students are not aware of how Special Circumstances work and would like some more explanation in simpler terms. Sophie commented that the SST were thinking about providing a session on Special Circumstances and the new system. The Reps agreed this would be useful. 
• Online year abroad possibilities were also discussed – students were advised to speak to Hiroshi Shimodaira who is the Coordinator of Internships & Exchanges for the school. 

UG1:

• There is an issue with INF1B – CW1 marks have still not been returned to students. CW2 has now been completed without any feedback from CW1. CW1 is two weeks late and the CO has shared with the class that she is having trouble with P-Mark which is the cause of the delay. The Reps suggested a review of the P-Mark software as marks have been postponed twice. Students are due to begin work on CW3, the last piece of CW, without any feedback from CW1 or CW2. 
• Alex Burford commented that she was not aware of the issue with P-Mark and that the delay in marks was also caused by the 200+ extensions that were granted. Alex will reach out to Fiona regarding P-Mark. 
• Resources for societies were also discussed – there was interested in gather.town. Gather.town is free for up to 25 persons at one time but comes with a fee for larger capacities. Using gather.town for smaller societies was suggested and Neil commented that he was happy to look into it and consider investing. 

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 3^rd March 2021

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Neil Heatley Head of Student Services, Sophie Mills Student Support Officer, Lisa Branney Student Support Officer, Carol Dow Computing Support Officer, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

It was asked if the information on applying for extensions and special circumstances could be made optional to not allow the students PT to see the information.  Neil explained that there is a lot going on in the back ground re the launch of the new system, and things are being looked into.

INF1-CG some tutors are taking too long to reply, Bjoern explained that allowing up to 24 hours to respond is reasonable, unless there is a deadline approaching, then they should reply sooner.

Quizzes for INF1B and Proofs and Problem Solving are over worded and the students are having to ask the Course Organiser for help.

UG2

There are lots of deadlines coming up and the students are finding it difficult to keep up!  Bjoern explained if the students are feeling overwhelmed then to make the use of the extensions, but to do it wisely so it doesn’t cause students to feel more overwhelmed by pushing their deadlines further back.  Students can also contact the Student Support Team inf-sst@inf.ed.ac.uk, the criteria for apply for extensions and special circumstances can be found here:

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

INF2-IADS the students are enjoying the course.

INF2-FDS the students are enjoying the project they have been tasked with and they feel it is a nice ending to the course.  There was not enough feedback given from the last coursework there was lot of time spent on it, the lecturer has sent out an email to the class and will follow it up with another one about trying to set up a class meeting.

INF2-SEPP the self-assessment task, although they have to look back on what they have done so far, the students are not seeing why this is useful!

 INF2D the students would like more labs on Haskell, currently there is only one a week, the coursework is Haskell based and some students haven’t done this since Semester one in 1^st year.

*Action Neil to talk to the lecturer*

UG3

No Reps were in attendance.

UG4/5

TTDS it is reported that there is no contact hours, and no support beyond Piazza.

COMN  there is 6 by-weekly exercises and coursework due, coursework 2 is taking a long time and there is a lot of contact hours and could the course be made more condensed and concise.  Neil suggested to bring this to the Staff Student Liaison Meeting.

 ST the lectures are running over time and the examples are too long.

It was reported that some tutors don’t use the camera function and don’t explain why and some lecturers do not pay any attention to the raised hands function.

CiC the lecturer is very good.

CCN both lecturers are very good the course is very interesting and enjoyable.

NLU the ethics lectures are very good.

ST the lecturer is very helpful and good.

THF the pre-recorded lectures and live lectures are good, also the given a choice of lecture topics to watch is also good.

Neil mentioned that if anyone thinks someone is doing an exceptional job then to put their name forward in the EUSA Teaching Awards.

PDIoT is a Semester 1 course with a deadline in Semester 2, Bjoern explained that sometimes this can happen to relieve pressure of deadlines and exams before the Christmas break.

 MSc

AGTA the students felt the feedback was vague and the coursework was challenging for a 10 credit course.

IRR the coursework was due back to the students on the 5^th January, and then it was moved to the 12^th and some students received their marks, then it was moved again to the 26^th and again some students got marks back and some didn’t and some students who had extensions also got their marks back before the others.

*Action Neil to talk to the lecturer*

How long should a Dissertation Supervisor to respond?  Bjoern says this could take up to a week but anything longer than that then the students should let Bjoern and Neil know.  Neil will send out a reminder email to the Supervisors to respond to their students.

*Action Neil*

A student reported that they had applied for an extension but hadn’t completed the form properly, so it wasn’t granted, could an email be sent out after completion to say ESC have received it?

General

 Is there any way to find out if Academics are looking for help in research over the Summer?  Currently there is no central resources and most academics hire PhD and MSc students.

The Induction Team are not allowing current students to join the Facebook Groups, Neil explained that this is an Admissions thing, although we have our own groups to talk to our students they would like to be able to talk to students that are starting this year.  The applicant deadline is the 31^st March and offers will go out in April.

Informatics branded merchandise should be available soon the web page is being put together by the Finance Team, once it is live Neil will send out an email, but any orders will be for collection in either Appleton Tower or the Informatics Forum, there will be not posting made available.  Neil suggested maybe waiting until the new term, where hopefully most students will be back on Campus.

Neil is looking into arranging a networking event within the School.

*Action Neil*

Weekly on a Thursday Bjoern and the Head of School Jane Hillston will be holding a open office hour at 5pm which students are invited to attend, this will be to discuss any issues directly with the Head of School who is also a Deputy Vice Principal in the University.

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 24th February 2020

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Neil Heatley Head of Student Services, Alex Burford Learning Technologist, Sophie Mills Student Support Officer, Karen Davidson Student Support Officer, Jennifer Oxley Computing Support Officer, Jade Gilhooly Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Kendal Reid ITO

Update from last week, Neil requested a lab session for IoTSSC was given and it did.

Neil has requested to Maths that more Stack book are required in Calculus.

UG1

The students are happy and the course material is released early which is good.  Communication is also very good and there is lots of help in the labs, tutorials, Piazza and the Q&A sessions.  It was reported that one student felt that their tutor was not engaging, Neil said that if there are any issues the students can let him know.  They do feel that the course content has reduced since Semester one, and the assignment was quite difficult.  Perdita’s lecture videos are very good.

UG2

INF2-FDS the students have received their coursework marks back but there is some unhappiness with the grading.  The students are feeling that they are on course of receiving a good grade and then they can make one error which drops their grades down.  There are different components that are worth different percentages, which could be the problem.  The CO is aware of the student’s concerns.  The lectures are off good quality, good notes and good content.

INF2-SEPP the coursework has been returned and the students feel the feedback given was very vague and confusing.  The lab session that was held was found to be very useful.  The lecturer is found to be very good at responding to Piazza and email, but they feel that there is too many emails being sent out.  The coursework is to wordy and could it be written in a more easier way?

*Action Neil to talk to the lecturer*

INF2-IADS there is inconsistency of when the lectures are released i.e. the students got an email to say the lecture notes would be released this morning, followed up by another email saying it would now be tonight.

*Action Neil to talk to the lecturer*

Would it be possible to advertise the link to the Blog more, it was suggested by the UG1 Rep that what they do is they send out an email to their year group and add the minutes of the Blog into the email, so the students can see what is discussed in the email.

The coursework load is still an issue they students have one deadline a week for the next 6 weeks and the students feel that they are constantly working to deadlines and not being able to digest what they are learning and things are taking 2 or 3 times longer than they should.  Bjoern explained that if the students are struggling to make the use of Special Circumstances and Extensions process.

UG3

No issues to report.

UG4/5

No issues to report.

 MSc

IoTSSC the lab session was held and it was appreciated by the students and the feedback was good from those who attended, although it was very close to the coursework deadline.

General

On a Thursday starting from tomorrow Thursday 25^th February Bjoern and the Head of School Jane Hillston will be holding a open office hour at 5pm which students are invited to attend, this will be to discuss any issues directly with the Head of School who is also a Deputy Vice Principal in the University, and they will talk about things like their careers and how they got to where they are today and any other general stuff the students would like to ask.

Graduation Neil has invited the students to put forward any ideas that they may have now that the in-person Graduations are cancelled for this year, what would the students suggest they could do instead?

The new Extensions web site has been launched and under the new system PT’s can now access the students information as before they couldn’t, and Neil wasn’t sure of the students knew about this?  There is also no option to opt out of the PT’s to see the information.  If any students are concerned about their information being made available to let the Student Support Officer’s know.  The email sent out by the ESC team was not made clear.  One student reported that he had completed the ESC form and he felt it was good, although when an application is submitted there is no notification that it has been received or completed, you have to log back in and see what the outcome was.  Sophie explained that if you start to make an application it only stays open for 2 weeks and then it automatically have to start again.

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 17th February 2020

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Neil Heatley Head of Student Services, Alex Burford Learning Technologist, Sophie Mills Student Support Officer, Mitchell Hunter Computing Support Officer, Jade Gilhooly Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Kendal Reid ITO

UG1

INF1-CG the students feel the quantity of the course material is too much, could the reading be more condensed to relevant pages and chapters, not the entire book!

INF1B the students feel the coursework is taking much longer to complete, it states that the coursework shouldn’t take any longer than 10 hours but some students are finding they are spending a lot longer to complete it and some areas of the assignment is new and they don’t have previous knowledge from the past few weeks.  Coursework one was marked although it was only for feedback purposes.

Not to mix two new concepts together in the first assignment. For many students who are new to Java, understanding how to complete the assignment using a software design pattern ( MVC ) they have no experience with can be twice as challenging.

In former years, assignment 1 used to be optional, another suggestion was to still keep it as optional (doesn’t count towards the final grade) but provide feedback for the ones who submit it so that everyone is up to speed with the course expectations, this may be particularly useful for beginners.

Could the tutorials be cut to just one hour, they find the hour and half in the tutorials are not productive.

The Piazza posts are being answered but are mainly student endorsed answers and not from an official source, could more questions be answered?

In general the course is running at a good pace, the slides and example slides and the text book is good for learning.

The email from the UG1 Rep Yuto to the class on Monday made everyone smile.

The Proofs and Problem Solving course is not following the University 7 day extension policy, could this be raised?

*Action Neil*

Engineering Design course is reported to be disorganised and any discussions are not replied to.

Calculus and Applications is well organised but the students would like to see more Stack books.

UG2

No issues to report this week.

UG3

No issues to report this week

CS the coursework was released early which was appreciated by the students.

UG4/5

Exam scripts the students have been told that the exam scripts do not contain feedback only a mark, a breakdown of the marks can be viewed.  Bjoern explained that even if an exam script was written like previous years they still would not contain feedback, the only thing that can be addressed is it the student feels a question has not been marked, the exam is the final assessment at the end of each course.

NLU is to work in a team and sometimes this doesn’t work, maybe for next year it could be helpful if this could be done individually and be supported on a non-DICE machine.

ML is great for learning but they felt the grading was harsh.

NAT the grades received were lower than expected.

MLP could project timelines be announced by the tutors, and could they be informed of what is expected weekly?

ADS there has been no tutorials lately.

THF is really well taught, could it be more catered around visualisations next year?  Neil suggested to bring this up at the next UG4 SSLC Meeting at the end of Semester 2.

Some students have reported to have a cluster of deadlines, the School does try and avoid this but sometimes it can’t be helped.

Positive:

IMC course material is excellent.

ST lectures and tutorials are going great.

MLP tutors are really helpful.

NLU ethics lectures are very interesting and it is a fun class.

BDL course is good and the marks and feedback are returned in advance.

COMN 100% coursework is good and is released early.

PA gave good marks and feedback and was returned earlier than expected for a 5 page essay.

MSc

The Project selection was to be announced on Monday, Bjoern explained that there are in the final stages of checking and an email will go out to the Supervisors very soon.

IVC the feedback was due last Friday, and announced it would be one week later, would this be an estimation date?  Bjoern explained that sometimes dates can be altered due to the size of the class and the number of markers.

IRR some students have received their feedback and some haven’t, this can be common if there are various markers.

General

There will be a launch of the new Extensions and Special Circumstances system on Tuesday 23^rd February, the School hasn’t seen this yet until it goes live but it could prove to have some challenges.

Staff Student Rep Meeting – Wednesday 10th February 2020

In attendance: Bjoern Franke Director of Teaching, Lisa Branney Student Support Officer, Jade Gilhooly Deputy Teaching Organisation Manager, Kendal Reid ITO

Bjoern reminded the Reps to volunteer if possible for Teaching Hour tomorrow held by Judy Robertson, Thursday 11^th February at 11am.

UG1

The Reps circulated a weekly survey and there was very few responses which we can take as everyone’s is happy and busy.

INF1B the survey task was delayed in being released from the Monday to the Thursday but Fiona the lecturer had already informed the class of this.

UG2

There was very few responses to this week’s survey that was circulated.

INF2-IADS they feel the coursework is a lot of work for something that is only worth 10%.

*Action Bjoern to talk to the lectures*

INF2-FDS the students would like more content on Data Science, Bjoern suggested to look at the course descriptor to see what is covered and the Learn pages for the course overview, if there is a mismatch then they can contact the Course Organiser.

http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/20-21/dpt/cxinfr08030.htm

It was asked how students could go about extending their knowledge on learning more on research?  Bjoern explained that there are more research opportunities between 3^rd and 4^th year and over the summer, which is paid and the studenst should look for any research opportunities that maybe advertised in courses or in emails.

UG3

At the start of the semester some course were not available for 4^th year, this year due to the pandemic some courses were removed, next year the School will be running more courses, although the School prefers to have two or more lectures on each course to provide cover incase of any circumstances that may arise, and the School is planning on running more course on Machine Learning.

The DRPS page will go live on the 22^nd April.

UG4/5

No Reps were in attendance.

MSc

Projects

http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/diss/

Is it normal for a PhD student to assist in the Project Supervisor and Bjoern explained that it is, although if a student is only having contact with a PhD who is assisting and not the Supervisor then to let him know, as this shouldn’t happen.

*Action Bjoern*

It is reported that some supervisors are taking their time to reply to emails, Bjoern also explained that some project supervisors that have popular projects can become overloaded with emails, if there is no response to inform Bjoern.  Some supervisors hold a meeting that invites everyone to attend and ask questions, some students find this useful.

General

Extensions:

https://www.ed.ac.uk/students/welcome-back/continuing-your-studies/exams-and-assessment

We have removed barriers from students accessing extra time to complete coursework assessments.

• Students can apply for a 7-day extension to a deadline for coursework, which will be approved automatically (i.e. they do not need to demonstrate a valid reason);
• Where an extension of less than 7 days is normally the maximum permitted, this will be approved automatically; some assessments (e.g. for weekly assessments) do not allow extensions;
• Where students require an extension of longer than 7 days, they can apply through the Special Circumstances process;
• Some Schools have already amended deadlines for coursework or dissertations, or offered blanket extensions to all students; we have encouraged all Schools to consider where they may be able to do this, while also ensuring students receive timely feedback on assessment.

Graduations:

https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-administration/graduations/2021-ceremonies

It was asked if students could get exam feedback and it was explained that there is no feedback on the exam papers, it is just marks, the exam diet is to mark the end of the study and although feedback is given in the courses throughout the year this does not happen with exams, as the students should by the end show that they have learned the relevant course and the final is the exam.