You Said, We Did
How your voice has made a difference
This page provides an opportunity to see the valuable feedback received from students across a wide range of communication channels, and to see what the OU has done in response.
Please note this video is now a couple of years old so some people no longer have the same title. The current Students Association leadership can be seen on their website.
Choose a topic from the drop-down list below to see how students can have an impact on their university experience and be empowered to help shape the University. Next time you are asked to give your opinion, you know that the OU is taking this feedback seriously and will respond.
You said...
Many responses have mentioned a feeling of isolation and a desire for an environment that enables a more active and visible student community to be built within a subject area. In Engineering, such comments have often been made at the same time as praising the residential schools for providing some measure of community.
We did...
In this coming year, we will be launching websites for each subject area that will replace the existing Qualifications Online sites. Extensively designed and tested in conjunction with OU students, we think the new sites will be a great improvement. Together with your StudentHome, the intention is that it will be your preferred portal to your studies. With this site we mean to bring together all the students who are studying for qualifications in similar subject areas, not just on the same module. We will post interesting enrichment experiences for you to keep active and prepare for your next module during any breaks between them. There will be a virtual meeting-place with fellow students, some of whom will already have studied modules you are considering doing next. The site will also contain announcements of upcoming events and meetings that might be of interest to students in that subject area. This is also the place from which you can gain access to the University’s careers service and pastoral help.
Engineering and Innovation
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You said...
Diagnostic quizzes were welcome but it was felt that they should be more prominent. They were particularly valued at the start of study and between levels when prior knowledge from another area was required.
We did...
We have placed all these quizzes in a more prominent place on the new subject site. In addition we will remind students about these resources through news items on the subject site. We are hopeful that there will be an IT solution in place to provide links to these quizzes from Module Chooser.
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You said...
The 'Revise & Refresh' website was a useful resource for students registered to study Essential Mathematics (MST124), and other Modules, but the website needed to be more prominent.
We did...
A Revise and Refresh for MST224 was created in summer 2017, and that will soon be broadened out in order to help students going onto other modules after MST124. There are also plans to develop a Revise and refresh for MST210 / M208 and level 3. All these resources are now hosted on the Mathematics and Statistics subject site and we have been doing much to ensure that it, and the Revise and refresh resources within it, are promoted to students at every appropriate opportunity.
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You said...
Quizzes, video clips and applets (in that order) were welcome and it would be good to have exercise booklets or additional exercises available in more modules than was currently the case.
We did...
We will incorporate such tools and exercise booklets into modules where appropriate as modules are refreshed.
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You said...
With regard to employability, what was of utmost importance was the actual mathematics skills rather than generic study skills. Quite a number of students expressed the opinion that the assessment of employability skills should be optional, but given the compulsory nature of these activities more people were in favour of report-writing and team work over the more generic skills which were assessed at level 1. There was general dislike of the assessment of these skills at level 1, however it was felt that it would be useful to have guidance in how to turn skills, such as analysing problems into notable points for a CV. Optional career advice would be helpful. Modules were successful at linking material to the real world, with M249 being cited as an example.
We did...
We will strengthen the advice and links with the OU Careers and Employability Services and any generic advice on employability skills. The SUCCEED section of the Mathematics and Statistics subject site contains extensive resources relevant to careers and employability. We have reviewed which specific skills are important for each module and amended the module assessment strategies accordingly. This process will continue as modules are refreshed and updated.
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You said...
Face-to-face tutorials were strongly preferred to online (with the request for more face-to-face tutorials at level 3). For face-to-face tutorials it would be useful to have a mixture of longer and shorter tutorials, with online tutorials being recorded. Tutorials with interaction were better than lectures. The value of face-to-face tutorials, particularly at level 3, was also noted in the NSS comments.
We did...
Our aim is to preserve face-to-face tutorial provision and try to provide a mixture of short and longer tutorials as appropriate and each module team reviews the tutorial provision each year. In addition the majority of modules. both undergraduate and postgraduate, have screencasts which supplement the module material and synchronous tutorial provision. The mathematics and statistics AL staff development group organised a series of Adobe Connect training for mathematics and statistics ALs to develop skills in delivering interactive online tutorials through the new software.
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You said...
MU123/intensive start MU123 was praised in terms of the written material, video clips, quizzes and study planner, and tutors and registration staff. Whilst some students felt that MU123 might set students up to fail given the steep learning curve following the completion of this module, this was countered by a number others who had started with MU123 which had been at the right level for them and who were now doing well at level 2. Some students objected to being made to study level 1 modules when they felt they could have started at a higher level and suggested that students should be allowed to study modules at a higher level, or be given a reduced fee for level 1 modules.
We did...
We aim to strengthen advice to students regarding the starting point at level 1, both in terms of starting with MU123 and the intensive start. Currently there is no move to relax the regulation for 120 credits at each level, however the Board of Studies has been given permission to grant exceptional permission for students who are unhappy with the free choice slot and want to count down a level 2 or 3 module.
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You said...
...what a potential new Master of Physics (MPhys) qualification should look like, and how this should be developed from the existing Stage 3 curriculum.
We did...
Your views and suggestions helped guide the discussions within the School of Physical Sciences and influenced the draft plans for an MPhys which will be considered further by the School and the Faculty.
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You said...
Programming skills are important for a physics-flavoured undergraduate degree and should relate to programming in the Space Science and Technology MSc. They should be taught throughout the degree, be project-based and/or embedded in activities in modules, relate to problem-solving and impart transferable skills. The use of programming and computing should be authentic and not included for its own sake.
We did...
We agree that programming skills need to be developed throughout our BSc qualifications. We have already made the first step towards this goal: the new Stage 1 module SM123 “Physics and Space” contains some basic elements of coding in the context of physics examples, using Python as the language of choice. We hope to be able to develop this further at Stages 2 and 3, possibly as part of a project. While it is true that we wish to develop generic coding skills, not the peculiarities of a particular language, one language still has to be chosen, and given its popularity, for now this will be Python. This approach is also consistent with what we heard from employers on the SEPnet (South East Physics Network) employer engagement panel.
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You said...
Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) material and resources of online-only modules such as Questions in science (S111) should be made available from the start of the module.
We did...
The full suite of resources of Questions in science (S111), Physics: from classical to quantum (S217) and Practical science: physics and astronomy (SXPA288) will be made available when their respective VLE sites open.
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