Group Admins
Description
Introduction
Postgraduate students have current knowledge of the student landscape and requirements of students at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels. Coming from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds they can influence the design and development of learning materials in positive ways and bring a range of benefits both expected and unexpected. This session discusses students as influencers.
Abstract
The benefits that students get from placements are well documented (Hall, 2016) and the advantages of using students as mentors and teachers to other students is also widely recognised (Gow and Barr, 2017) but what benefits can placement students bring to a service department within their own institution that creates online learning for their peer group?
In this session I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of recruiting postgraduate students to assist with the creation and development of online learning solutions and online materials for other postgraduate students. I will also talk briefly about the postgraduate placements programme that we use at this institution.
Participants joining this session will gain an understanding of the way that postgraduate students have been used in this department and the advantages that we have seen both in terms of the technical work that they have completed and their valuable experience and insights.
Postgraduate placement students are recruited by the department under a postgraduate placements scheme. Most placements are for 100 hours spread over 10 weeks. The students are paid £10 per hour and go through a recruitment process.
References
Hall, S (2016) Assessing the value of authentic learning: An integrated study of the impact of an undergraduate research placement (‘sandwich’) year on students’ academic performance, employability skill set and career aspirations [online] Available at: https://repository.cardiffmet.ac.uk/handle/10369/8298 [Accessed 27 Mar. 2017].
Gow, A and Barr, M (2017) Sometimes Students Make the Best Teachers: Developing and Enhancing Graduate Skills. [online] Available at: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/137038/7/137038.pdf [Accessed 27 Mar. 2017].
