Job Title: Electronic notetaker (education)
Job Description
1. Produce live and / or summary notes depending on the requirements of the student, emailing a tidied up version of the notes on the same day as the class.
2. Take notes in a wide range of situations including classes, workshops, lectures, work placements, residentials and field trips.
3. Link laptops and other electronic devices confidently to allow the student to choose where to sit in the learning context.
4. Give written explanations / definitions, if required and when it doesn’t interfere with notetaking, so deaf students can extend their background subject and general knowledge.
5. Explain idiomatic language if the student requires this.
6. Assist students and staff in how to work effectively with an electronic note-taker.
7. Provide live text to screen in public situations, according to student requirements.
8. Provide transcripts and / or subtitles for videos by arrangement with Student services, liaising with the student and course tutor.
9. Support the teaching and Student Services staff to minimise barriers to learning for deaf students.
10. Provide informal deaf awareness for teaching staff as needed, provided it does not interfere with notetaking.
11. Develop and maintain robust cross- college links to facilitate information flow about the needs and progress of deaf learners, working particularly closely with the tutor for deaf students / Student Services.
12. Maintain accurate records of provision of learner support using college IT systems.
13. Have knowledge of the broad curriculum using texts, internet sources and teachers’ specialist knowledge so that you understand the subjects you are notetaking about to above the level of the students.
14. Prepare for assignments by pre-reading, including accessing the virtual learning environment by arrangement with Student Services.
15. Develop and maintain effective working relationships with students, staff, parents and internal / external stakeholders.
16. Support deaf students as they prepare for meetings, e.g. annual reviews, work placement interviews, to promote self-advocacy skills.
17. Meet agreed targets and goals, and evaluate your own performance with others to ensure a high quality of notetaking is provided.
18. Continue to develop your own professional development using advice from relevant organisations, e.g. adept, Association of Notetaker Professionals.
19. Any other duties as agreed with the College.
Person Specification
Experience / · Experience of electronic notetaking for deaf stduents
· Working with students and staff in educational contexts.
· Working with d/Deaf people or organisations.
· Understanding of the barriers d/Deaf people face especially in educational settings.
· Understanding of how teenagers and adults learn. / · Experience of notetaking in educational contexts.
· Experience of providing informal deaf awareness training
· Experience with linking hardware and file management
· Understanding of different ways deaf people learn using English and BSL.
Education and Qualifications / · Electronic notetaking skills of at least 60 words per minute & 90% accuracy.
· SQA ENT notetaking qualification or equivalent (e.g. CACDP level 2/ level 3 modules; Signature L304 /T302/P301; OCN; LOCN)
· Higher English C or above or skills test equivalent / · BSL Level 2 (Signature / SQA / IBSL)
· Range of Highers or an Access to HE qualification
· Degree
Skills and Aptitudes / · Being focused on and responsive to learners’ needs
· Understanding deaf students’ rights to a high quality service.
· Confidence in using Microsoft packages and notetaking programs.
· Strong communication skills (spoken and written) and ability to listen accurately in noisy surroundings.
· Good interpersonal skills
· Understanding and respecting confidentiality
· Being a good team member
· Being able to prioritise workload and work to deadlines.
· Having a flexible approach to work
· Commitment to the college vision
· Understanding of the Equality Act (2010) and other policy / legal guidance
· Have a strong interest in education and in the broad curriculum offered by the college. / · Ability to evaluate how effective your practice is, using feedback from students and colleagues.
· Ability to adapt level of English in notes depending on the student’s requirements.
· Understand the social and emotional barriers which deaf learners often face in mainstream educational settings.
Guidance for employers
Providing good quality notetaking support for deaf is a serious undertaking for a college or university. This guide from adept Scotland explains some of the issues before, during and after recruitment of electronic notetakers.
Deciding on the job description
We hope that this sample job description and person specification will be useful for colleges. We have provided it in Word because you will want to adapt it to the style of your own institution. We do not recommend you reduce the level of notetaking qualification required in the person specification. However, because there are not many qualified notetakers in Scotland at present, you may want to recruit a pool of part time staff and train them to become qualified. If so, include a skills test for accuracy and speed in the interview procedure.
You may want to contact the following organisations to discuss rates of pay, training and conditions of service:
Association of Notetaking Professionals
http://www.anpnotetakers.co.uk
Adept –UK http://adeptuk.co.uk
Association of deaf education professionals and trainees
Adept Scotland committee
Locating an interview panel
Consider some the following people as possible members of the panel because they will be able to ask questions about ethical issues and professional notetaking:
· Student services advisor in your college
· A d/Deaf consumer who has used notetakers regularly
· Teacher of deaf children from the local authority school service (contact Scottish Sensory Centre)
· adept Scotland committee member (Contact adept Scotland)
Advertising the position
Deaf Jobs UK is a useful free internet job advertisement mailing list. You must not include attachments. For further details see:
http://www.alisonbryan.com/dukj/
You can also advertise jobs via SCOD: Scottish Council on Deafness
http://www.scod.org.uk/contact-us/
Skills tests at interview
Some applicants may not have Higher English. Skills tests are available online which can provide rough equivalence, for example this literacy test used by the English government for entrants to teacher training:
http://www.education.gov.uk/sta/professional/b00211208/literacy/practice-literacy
There are several sample assessments on this site.
Skills tests for word processing speed and accuracy are available from the SSC, as they are similar to entry tests for the SQA course: http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/aboutSSC/staff.html
On-going staff development
The candidate will need a clear training pathway through to qualified notetaker status. This means the College needs to be clear about the recommended progression pathway.
For a successful candidate with Higher English this would be:
SQA Electronic Notetaking – course at Scottish Sensory Centre
http://www.ssc.education.ed.ac.uk/home.html
Signature unit such as T303 in modifying written texts is useful
http://www.signature.org.uk/communication-support
British Sign Language Skills at any level is useful:
Signature: http://www.signature.org.uk/british-sign-language
Institute of BSL: http://www.ibsl.org.uk
SQA: http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/65528.html
Supervision of electronic notetakers
You will be able to buy external supervision for notetakers by contacting agencies such as the Association of Notetaking Professionals. This can be very helpful in Colleges where there is only one ENT. It will allow independent oversight about the quality of the service and allow managers to deal with issues before they become problems. It will be important to establish how issues are to be reported back to Student Services.
Retention
One issue for colleges will be retaining highly qualified staff. Most employers deal with this by offering a range of benefits. This will be important because when electronic notetakers are fully qualified they may be offered better contracts at agencies or they may decide to go freelance. This means they may be lost to the education sector.
Keeping in touch with the Sector
It would be useful for the new College Electronic Notetaker to join adept Scotland, as well as the tutor for deaf students / Student Services officer. This will keep everyone up to date with developments in the sector.
Revised 16.2.15
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