Academic Course Rep Handbook 2013 by UCASU

Academic Guide to Course Reps

Funded by the Student Engagement Project Group

Hello! Over the past year the Students’ Union and QAE have been working together through the Student Engagement Project Group to develop a more robust Course Representative system.

03 Introduction 04

What do Course Reps do? Benefits of having Course Reps

How the system works

Recruitment and elections

Training and workshops

Running a Course Board

School Boards Closing the feedback loop

Help and resources for you

What if...?

Course level feedback mechanisms

Space for notes

KEY DATES

We have changed the election process to become more localised to your course, we will be piloting a new training programme and introducing more formal recognition of course rep roles. On top of this we look forward to celebrating staff success and thanking you for your help! We have reproduced this academic guide to align with these new developments and hope you find it a useful tool with helpful tips and guidance on how to utilise your course reps effectively. We believe that the course rep system is an opportunity for the University and Students’ Union to truly work in partnership to improve the student voice at UCA. Throughout the year we will be asking for your input about how to further develop the system in both a formal and informal capacity, but please do not hesitate to get in contact if you have any queries or concerns. Thank you for taking the time to read this guide and I look forward to working with you!

Catherine Boyd

Student Engagement Coordinator Email: cboyd.su@ucreative.ac.uk Direct: 01372 202 203 Skype: ucasu_catherine

UNDERGRADUATE Recruitment and Election: Monday 16 – Friday 27 September Induction Training: Monday 7 - Friday 18 October Workshop #1: W/C 2 December Workshop #2: W/C 3 February Re-elections: 31 March – 11 April

FURTHER EDUCATION Recruitment and Election: Monday 28 October – Friday 8 November Induction Training: W/C 11 November Workshop #2: W/C 3 February

WHAT DO COURSE REPS DO? Responsibilities: • Represent the collective view of all students on the course • Attend Course Board with the course leader • Publicise themselves and the role to students so they know who to turn to • Build their skills by attending training and workshops • Proactively gather feedback from students on your course and identify possible solutions to bring to Course Board • Feedback any outcomes from Course Board back to students • Point students with individual issues to the right place for help

HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS This flowchart has been designed to map out how the course rep system works. The main focus is the Course Board, which is a key platform for the student voice to be heard on your course.

WHAT THEY ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR: Course reps can often get involved with activities beyond their role, which they are not trained to deal with. It is important to clearly define what a course rep should and shouldn’t be doing to ensure all parties utilise the system effectively. They should not deal with: • INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PERFORMANCE – Including both informing students of their results and dealing with student grievances with/regarding marks. • ALLEGATIONS OF BULLYING AND HARASSMENT – This should always be dealt with by the course leader and the counselling service. • FORMAL COMPLAINTS – Any formal complaints made by an individual student should be directed towards QAE and the Students’ Union. • THE ACTIONS AND BEHAVIOUR OF THEIR FELLOW STUDENTS – Course reps do not control fellow student’s actions, nor should they be used as a tool to enforce punishment on their cohorts. Their role is limited to academic and quality feedback mechanisms only.

BENEFITS OF HAVING COURSE REPS • • • • • • • •

A way to find out what your students think about your course. Helps improve satisfaction results, such as NSS and ISS. Chance to consult with students in depth. Opportunities to work with students to resolve issues you are having. Encourage students to take ownership of their learning environment. Key to your Annual Academic Monitoring report. A chance to discover the positive aspects of your course that should be maintained and developed. A way to help you communicate changes and improvements to your students.

There will be course rep presence on School Board that will be coordinated by the Student Engagement Coordinator, Catherine Boyd.

RECRUITMENT & ELECTIONS UNDERGRATUATE: MONDAY 16 – FRIDAY 27 SEPTEMBER FURTHER EDUCATION: MONDAY 28 OCTOBER – FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER This year elections will not be held through an online system but in class. Depending on the size of your class you may wish to do this by a simple of show of hands or a more formal approach. This is the basic structure we advise: 1) Introduction In class present the course rep system to your students and encourage them to run. There are plenty of reasons to be a course rep. These include: • Add a wide variety of new skills to your portfolio. • Work towards recognition from the University. • Opportunities for paid work within the University • Access to a full skills based training programme • A wide variety of online resources to use • Meet new people and make friends • Be the change that improves student experience for all • Develop stronger professional relationships with staff and academics Furthermore, the Students’ Union has created a promotional video for you to play in class, available at: uca.su/crvid

WHY SHOULD COURSE REPS BE ELECTED RATHER THAN CHOSEN? • • •

Ensures the course rep position is viewed as credible. Students are more likely to engage with the system and bring legitimate problems to their course reps. Provides a platform to advertise the role, purpose and position of course reps to their cohort.

Support from the Students’ Union The Student Engagement Coordinator, Catherine Boyd, will contact any course without any registered course reps to offer support in delivering the course rep system. A Campus Officer can come into class, give a quick presentation about the course rep system and support the delivery of the elections. If this is an option you would like to use please do not hesitate to contact Catherine Boyd. Re-elections This year we will be running re-elections to allow students to run for 2nd and 3rd year course rep positions commencing 2014/15. This allows us to train them earlier in the academic year so you can start using them sooner whilst taking pressure off you in September to hold elections for all years. The process of re- electing course reps for 2014/15 will be the same, just a different time of year. Further guidance will be circulated closer to the time.

The Students’ Union will also be running a large promotion of the course rep system to outline the roles and rewards of being a course rep. 2) Nominations Ask for volunteers to run for course representative positions. This need not be more than a simple hand raising activity. Once you have these you can move onto the voting. 3) Voting We advise asking each nominee to give a short 30 second talk about why they think they would be a good course rep. This allows students to really think about how they are voting. Students can vote by a show of hands or secret ballot. This is done by asking students to write their two course rep choices on their voting slip (a template of the voting slip is available from the SU at uca.su/crvoteslip ). 4) Results Once you have the vote result it is important to announce it in class and forward the names, emails, home addresses and phone numbers of your course reps to the Student Engagement Coordinator, Catherine Boyd. Alternatively, course reps can register their details and training choices online at uca.su/crtraining .

RE-ELECTIONS: 31 MARCH – 11 APRIL

IMPORTANT: It is vital course reps from your course are registered with the Students’ Union so they receive training, rewards and recognition of their role. This can be done in two ways; 1) Forward your newly elected course reps details (name, email, home address and phone number) to the Student Engagement Coordinator, Catherine Boyd at cboyd.su@ucreative.ac.uk 2) Course reps can register their details and training choices at uca.su/crtraining .

TRAINING & WORKSHOPS The Students’ Union will be providing a full skills based training programme for all elected course reps. This will include:

RUNNING A COURSE BOARD The majority of course reps role will be representing student view on boards. The main board they will go to will be Course Board.

Induction training: Divided into ‘introductory’ for new course reps and ‘refresher’ for returning reps • Course reps will be introduced to the updated system and their role • Effective representation and problem solving • The University structures

UG: MONDAY 7 - FRIDAY 18 OCTOBER FE: W/C 11 NOVEMBER

PLEASE NOTE: FE course reps will only be able to attend Workshop #2. This is due to their later induction training and the HE focused content of Workshop #1. Workshop #1: Gathering information from students and providing evidence - Communication skills - Collecting variety of evidence - Presentation skills

UG ONLY: W/C 2 DECEMBER Workshop #2: Negotiating and dealing with conflict effectively - Dealing with conflict - Assertiveness - Negotiating skills

UG: WORKSHOP #2: W/C 3 FEBRUARY FE: WORKSHOP #2: W/C 3 FEBRUARY Online training session: Meeting skills.

COURSE BOARD TIPS • • • •

Send reminder emails before meetings to improve attendance Encourage course reps to chair meetings and decide items to discuss. This will empower them to become more proactive. Discuss NSS results for your course to keep the meeting focused. Invite the SU to facilitate a meeting, you will have a neutral party to help with any disagreements.

THREE POSITIVES, THREE NEGATIVES We are encouraging course reps to bring three positives and three negatives about the course to the Course Board. This encourages more focused, balanced and constructive feedback in addition to meeting the requirements of part seven (the bit about course reps) of the Annual Academic Monitoring report.

SCHOOL BOARDS

HELP AND RESOURCES FOR YOU

There should be a course rep from each course present on School Boards, which are held once a term. This year it will be coordinated by Student Engagement Coordinator, Catherine Boyd, to ensure all courses are fully represented at school level. However, if you think a particular course rep should attend by all means, encourage it!

CLOSING THE FEEDBACK LOOP This is the biggest problem we all face. But there are simple ways to ensure your reps can close the feedback loop. 1) ‘you said… we did…’ This simple format is a favourite across the sector but can often be overcomplicated. ‘You said… we did…’ campaigns need be no longer than a sentence but offer a clear formula of a problem-resolution format to quickly send out a message to students. 2) Feedback flowchart (available at uca.su/svfeedback) Feedback or suggestion received Consideration at Course Board, staff or other committee... Can this be done? Yes

What is changing?

Can a similar alternative be devleoped or implemented?

Feed back to students

Yes What can be done?

No Why?

Students’ Union The SU is here to support the operational side of the course rep system. If you are having problems such as recruiting and electing your course reps, your Course Boards or closing the feedback loop the Students’ Union is here to help. Website – uca.su/coursereps This site contains all the information surrounding the course reps system. There is a section designed for academic and staff who use course reps. This includes resources such as: • Downloadable feedback flowcharts • ‘You said… we did…’ posters • Promotional video on why to be a course rep • Case studies and examples • General dates and useful contacts Feedback events throughout April 2014 This is an opportunity for staff who use course reps to have input on the system. This will be through surveys, focus group and open surgeries. Topics you may wish to raise are: • Gaps in course rep training/knowledge • Resources you need • Operational difficulties you have had • Training you may wish to receive • Suggestions for future years This feedback from you is never limited to April alone and you are always welcome to contact the SU or Catherine Boyd about problems or ideas you have had. Student Experience Conference – Date TBC This is held once a year and is an opportunity for academics, support staff and students to meet and discuss topical UCA issues. A great chance to develop strong partnership with students, create joint resolutions to issues affecting your students and will hopefully provide you with topics to discuss at your Course Boards.

This quick task can provide course reps with an understanding of the process and journey their feedback has undertaken. It is also a way to meet compromise when issues can’t necessarily be resolved quickly or easily.

3) Provide channels of communication for your course reps Email, myUCA, blogs, course websites, Facebook pages, twitter accounts, lecture shout outs, poster/noticeboard space. The list can go on!

WHAT IF…? …I CAN’T GET ANY STUDENTS INTERESTED IN RUNNING FOR COURSE REP POSITIONS? You can: Advertise the many reasons to run for course rep positions (see section recruitment and election) . It may help to talk about why course reps are important for you as it shows your intentions to take them seriously. We can: provide a promotional video made from real course rep experiences about the role for you to show your students uca.su/beacourserep . If all else fails, the Campus Officer can come into class and assist your elections. Contact the Student Engagement Coordinator, Catherine Boyd, to organise this.

…REPS CONTINUOUSLY BRING ISSUES THAT DO NOT REPRESENT THE COLLECTIVE VIEW OF STUDENTS ON THE COURSE BUT THEIR OWN PERSONAL OPINION? You can: Help course reps communicate with, and therefore represent, their peers better by providing them with a wider variety of communication tools such as a myUCA discussion page, course blog announcements and time to talk to students at the end of lectures. We can: Provide course reps with workshop opportunities focused on collecting evidence and effective representation. …THE COURSE REPS DO NOT FEEDBACK THE OUTCOMES OF COURSE BOARDS TO THE REST OF THE STUDENTS? You can: Run ‘you said… we did…’ campaigns to structure complicated responses to feedback in a simplistic manner. We can: Provide you with feedback flowcharts to help you map out the journey of feedback to course reps so they understand where their issue has gone. …A COURSE REP GETS INVOLVED IN ISSUES THAT ARE WAY BEYOND THEIR ROLE, I.E. BULLYING INCIDENTS OR INDIVIDUAL STUDENT PERFORMANCE? You can: Ensure you only use your course reps for course feedback and the learner voice as it will help provide clarity of their role. We can: Attend your next Course Board to act as neutral parties who reiterate the boundaries of the role and provide further training if necessary. Please contact Catherine Boyd if you think this would be beneficial.

…COURSE REPS DON’T ATTEND THE COURSE BOARDS I ORGANISE? You can: Publicise meetings in advance and send out reminder emails two days before each meeting. Some students may feel disengaged with the Course Board itself. This can be overcome by encouraging course reps to take ownership of the meeting; let them chair or set the agenda. We can: Provide course reps with additional training about chairing Course Boards. …REPS ARE BRINGING PROBLEMS THAT ARE BEYOND MY CONTROL BUT DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT I CAN’T DO ANYTHING? You can: Take issues that are above or beyond the Course Board to the School Board and invite your course rep along. There is plenty of supporting department representatives there, such as LSS & IT, to respond to these problems directly. We can: Introduce common course level problems and case studies into this year’s induction training to keep course reps focused on achievable goals.

…COURSE REPS DON’T BRING ANY ISSUES TO COURSE BOARDS DESPITE THE FACT I KNOW THAT THERE ARE PROBLEMS? You can: Meet all your course reps in an informal setting outside the Course Board to encourage a more informal relationship. Critiquing a lecturer can be a daunting task. We can: Keep records of any contentious issues you bring to us to ensure course reps can be advised and guided through any feedback they may find difficult to raise.

COURSE LEVEL FEEDBACK MECHANISMS These are the feedback mechanisms recommended by SEPG and implemented by QEC. These are useful to consider when working with your course reps. Annual Academic Monitoring This model outlines the four key areas that can feed into a strong AAM report.

Unit Feedback These forms are great ways to focus your Course Board discussions and will consequently feed into your AAM reports. It is important to close the feedback loop at every level.