UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
SCHOOL OF HEALTH & HUMAN SCIENCES
BSc PHYSIOTHERAPY (PRE-REGISTRATION)
BSc OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
JOINT STUDENT STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE MEETING
25th October 2016
MINUTES
1. In attendance
Barry Pryer (BP) – BSc Physiotherapy Programme Lead (Chair)
Anita Steinberg (AS) – BSc Occupational Therapy Programme Lead
Greg Cadge (GC) – Assistant Librarian
Martyn Ball (MB) - BSc Physiotherapy Student Rep
Dee Garrett-Grimwood (DG) - BSc Occupational Therapy Student Rep
Kathleen Salmon (KS) - BSc Occupational Therapy Student Rep
Steve Simkins (SS) – BSc Physiotherapy Student Rep
Lisa McKee (LM) – CPD Administrative Assistant (Minutes)
2. Apologies
Louise Andrews – Occupational Therapy Lecturer
Caroline Barratt – Lecturer and Library Liaison
Jackie Clarke - Physiotherapy Lecturer
Mark Francis-Wright – Director of Education
Selena Hammond – Occupational Therapy Lecturer
Victor Utti – Physiotherapy Lecturer
Nikki Williamson - Occupational Therapy Lecturer
Latoya Linton - BSc Physiotherapy Student Rep
Meg Brookes-Steele – BSc Occupational Therapy Student Rep
Karen Harkness - BSc Occupational Therapy Student Rep
Julia Finbow - BSc Occupational Therapy Student Rep
BP welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were noted.
Updates from the previous meeting were as follows:
Item 7 – Annual Review of Courses (ARC): Following the previous SSLC meeting, Mark Francis-Wright had been going to check when the ARC would be made available to students. He will be writing a report which gives an overview of undergraduate programmes within SHHS, due to be completed in November 2016. The report will then be made accessible to students.
Item 10 – Health & Safety: Nikki Williamson had checked whether there is a defibrillator on site and had advised that there is one kept at the Security Office in Square 3. The telephone number for the Security Office is ext. 2222 from within the University or 01206 872222 from outside.
3. Library matters
GC updated the SSLC on Library matters.
The ground floor of the Library has been redesigned. Self-service is now available throughout and there is book return self-service on the ground floor, which is available out of hours. This should mean shorter queues and more staff availability.
There is also now unlimited borrowing (up to 50 books per person) and no overdue fines unless an item is recalled. Some concern was expressed by Student Reps that this could lead to excessive borrowing. GC advised that there is a ‘recall’ button on the library web page that borrowers can press to recall book. Students were also advised to let library staff know if they are unable to find a book as the library can order extra hard copies and/or try to obtain electronic copies. There is also a ‘suggest a book’ button or students can let their module lead know if there are specific books they would like the Library to obtain.
There will be a series of forthcoming workshops designed for students and staff to help inform library policy and procedure. The first is on 16th November from 2-5pm and will be on the subject of study space, as the ground floor study space is due to be refurbished. GC stated that feedback from students would be welcome and they could contact him by email () or the Library Advisory Group.
The Student Reps also gave the following feedback:
Generally, feedback about the changes to the Library was very positive. The Library facilities were thought to be very good and the support excellent.
The teaching session on literature searching was useful, but it would have been nice for the students to be able to practise during the session. AS advised that this should be noted for future planning of the module and put in the module evaluations.
4. Chair’s report
Covered in the updates in Item 2.
5. Cohort representatives’ reports
MB reported on behalf of the Physio 2013 cohort:
In the post-module feedback students had asked for more guidance on how they could achieve the next grade on the scale.
SS reported on behalf of the Physio 2016 cohort:
Generally, the feedback on the course was very positive. Students found the tutors very knowledgeable and they also appreciated having visual prompts during the teaching sessions. The small cohort has enabled students to get to know each other well and support each other. However, some had expressed disappointment that, on the day when the Pebble Pad training took place, the session only lasted for a couple of hours; as some had travelled considerable distance to get to the University, they would have liked something else scheduled for the rest of the day.
KS reported on behalf of the OT 2015 cohort:
Regarding HS157, the module on Reflective Practice, some students had felt it would have been better to split the module and do half before their placement and half afterwards, so they could be better prepared for the placement.
There was also some dissatisfaction about the number of half days teaching for this module; some students had asked if they could be combined into full days. There had also been several changes to the lecture rooms and it was felt that it would have been preferable for all the teaching to be done in the same room.
The formative feedback from David D’eath was thought to be very good and constructive.
The online forums were useful. It was helpful to have a written record that everyone could see and review. The Chat Room was a good idea but didn’t work as well as hoped in practice due to technical problems. Some students had asked if it would be possible to put material on Moodle earlier as they were having difficulty accessing it early enough.
One student had found the educator on his/her placement wasn’t always following the guidelines, e.g. on some occasions the educator was not there when the student arrived and didn’t notify the student. Therefore it was felt that having more information before the first placement would be useful, possibly in the form of a video and discussion of expectations.
DG also reported on behalf of the OT 2015 cohort:
Some students were unable to find enough library books on certain topics.
AS and BP referred to GC’s earlier comments about recalling books (see item 3) via the ‘recall’ button and that the library monitors heavy usage and will order more books if necessary.
AS responded to the points raised as follows:
This is the last time that HS157, the module on Reflective Practice, will run in its current form. Next academic year, Reflection will be more embedded throughout the whole of the first year’s teaching, rather than being addressed in one module.
Regarding the half-day teaching for BSc OT, the teaching pattern for each year is as follows:
Second years attend for a half day on Wednesday and a full day on Thursday.
Third years attend all day Tuesday and a half day on Wednesday.
(There is a University Directive stating that, because Wednesday afternoons are reserved for sports events, teaching should not take place on Wednesday afternoons.)
Fourth years attend for full days on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Regarding the changing of the lecture room, SHHS only has one OT lab, and when requests for rooms are made to the Timetabling department, they will simply allocate rooms as they see fit; tutors are not permitted to request specific rooms. Also, the nature of the programme means that HHS teaching extends beyond the usual term-time weeks, which affects the availability of rooms.
If an educator is not following the guidelines, students’ first port of call should be their halfway tutor. They could also send an email to the relevant Placement Co-ordinator, Louise Andrews (OT) or Jo Etherton (Physio) or to their personal tutor. It is important that the aforementioned staff and BP and AS are informed, so they can address the issue, which will be dealt with confidentially.
MB asked whether, when organisations agree to become educators, they are given information from the University about what is expected of them.
BP responded that they get a copy of the Placement Handbook which contains this information. AS responded that educators have to attend an educator workshop in which they are made aware of the expectations of the role. She reiterated that, if students felt their expectations were not being met, they should let their tutors know.
AS asked whether the students felt that the Placement Briefing before the first placement was sufficient. KS responded that it didn’t make it clear enough what was going to happen on the placement and that students would benefit from the briefing being delivered at a slower pace and the key issues made more obvious. AS encouraged students to feed back to her, their personal tutor and the Placement Team about which parts of the training were felt to be ineffective or incomplete. There was some discussion about whether making more placement information available online would be helpful so students could be better prepared for the first placement. It was felt that a combination of face-to-face delivery and information on an electronic interface would be useful, with Clinical and Placement Co-ordinators or one or two staff members responsible for each group, and that this would require development and further feedback from students. The idea of a Chat Room was also suggested: AS to propose this to Louise Andrews.
AS reported the following feedback on behalf of the OT 2016 cohort:
The feedback on the Induction was generally good. The information was relevant and delivered at the right pace. However, the session with the MSc students was felt to be somewhat repetitive. AS to look at the timing of the second induction for future cohorts.
Room 5B.111A, where HS140 is taught, is too hot and has no access to water. AS to contact Estates about this issue.
Students appreciated the fact that tutors had tried to make the dry topics more engaging by using interactive teaching methods.
The profession-specific session on 13th October could have been better organised and then all students would have had the opportunity to present.
HS171 – students are enjoying the topic and finding it helpful for understanding OT. However, there may be too much group working which can mean that transfer of knowledge between groups isn’t happening.
Students would have liked to have been given their assignments earlier.
Some had asked if the seating arrangement could be different, e.g. a semi-circle. They would also like more comfortable seats with lumbar support. AS to relay this to Estates.
It was felt that meeting personal tutors in the SHHS reception area wasn’t ideal if discussing confidential issues.
Excellent use of Moodle and I-pads. Overall, they had enjoyed the course so far and found the tutors very good.
AS reported the following feedback on behalf of the OT 2013 cohort:
They wondered whether the teaching staff and department were concerned about reasons why some students on this course were struggling. Is it due to a lack of support? AS responded that it’s not due to a lack of support, but that students who have left the course have done so for academic reasons/individual issues, and emphasised the importance of engaging with their personal student if a student was experiencing difficulties.
Out of five students who had left, the cohort had only been informed about the most recent departure, not previous cases, and this was felt to be insensitive.
AS and BP responded that they have looked at how to support students on intermission, and acknowledged that students leaving the course can have a significant impact, especially in the case of small cohorts. This year we have begun asking departing students what they would like their cohort to be told. Students who intermit and rejoin their cohort are now being given the opportunity to meet their cohort before rejoining and this has been positively received, so this policy will continue and be monitored.
More consideration should be given to timetabling: the placement preparation meeting for the final placement was held at short notice on the day before an assignment was due, which students had previously thought would be a study day. AS to feed back to the Placement Tutors and look at the value of having placement briefings. There was some discussion about whether or not placement briefings were useful: an earlier cohort of Physiotherapy students had expressed the view that they didn’t want briefings or debriefings for placements, but it was also felt that they provide a useful opportunity for everyone to share their experiences.
6. Employability
Both the OT and Physiotherapy BSc cohorts had achieved a 100% employment rate last year.
Information about employability and skills, as well as job adverts, gets put on Moodle.
7. Programme Documentation
ARC: BP explained that the ARC was generated by the Departmental Action Plan, with a view to the following years’ courses. It is informed by SSLCs, end of module evaluations and Programme Committee meetings.
The objectives were:
To further improve engagement in SSLCs through the use of feedback forms.
To review and monitor placement issues within and across programmes, partly through the use of forms and discussion forums, so that programme leads and placement tutors could be informed.
To formulate a strategy for teaching and IT facilities, and the demands placed on them.