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Online Higher Education Preparation (HEP) programme evaluation

Thursday 23 October 2008Comment on this article Permlink

Online Higher Education Preparation (HEP) programme evaluation

Responses were received from 6 of the 53 participants, i.e. 11% of the mature and non-traditional students who participated in the online Higher Education Preparation (HEP) programme presented by the e-Transition project team of Brunel during the week commencing 15th September 2008.

The evaluation survey was completed online.

The structure of the programme was as follows:

Monday, 15th September
Campus tour, Getting the most out of life at Brunel

Tuesday, 16th September
Note making strategies, Presentations, Numeracy for all, Fundamentals of academic writing

Wednesday, 17th September
Basic algebra, Getting to grips with an essay, Statistics, Coping with academic reading, u-Link / PowerPoint

Thursday, 18th September
Using maths (practical applications), Critical thinking

Friday, 19th September
Student feedback on this programme

The ‘most liked’ topic during the programme was the ‘Note making strategies’ session conducted on the Tuesday.

The other two popular sessions were ‘Fundamentals of academic writing’ and ‘Getting to grips with an essay’.

Wednesday was the most active day on the programme.

Some respondents provided additional comments about their choice/s of topics.

They found the topics as ‘helpful, interesting and useful’, that the topics enabled them to ‘refresh basic knowledge from school’, provided them with ‘useful information and hints on how to improve their reading, writing and analytical skills’.

One student in particular felt that the programme provided them with a head start to improve their core skills and that it also helped them to prepare for their courses.

Another student found the session about u-Link (Brunel’s virtual learning environment) as very useful and that although the person was ‘still getting to grips with using the computer for anything other than checking e-mails’, the person found ‘the Brunel support system very efficient’.

None of the topics could be regarded as ‘least liked’. The comments were as follows:

‘No comment, because I like all topics.’

‘I don’t feel very confident with presentations, so I didn’t enjoy doing it; but realise it was a very useful thing to have been involved with.’

‘I’ve never liked maths, but it was still useful.’

The topic was ‘badly organised, poor teaching, I did not learn anything.’

The students were then asked to express their views on the entire programme. Responses received were encouraging: 67% of the respondents felt that the overall programme was ‘Very good’ whilst the rest of the 33% rated the programme as ‘Excellent’.

Finally, the students were requested to provide any additional comments on the programme:

‘I’m glad I went on the programme. I would have been really nervous in fresher’s week; but because I was already used to the surroundings, it made it much easier. Also I’m glad to know that there is a lot of support here if I need extra help with study skills.’

“Despite I couldn’t cope in some areas of this programme, I appreciate to everyone who established it; it is quite useful and interesting. Thank you to the teamwork at u-Link.’

‘It was good to have a chance to look around the system at an early stage.’

On a less positive note, one student felt that a ‘better description of each session would have been helpful in assessing if that particular session was worthwhile; busy lives, work, child, etc.’

In conclusion, the results from this evaluation may be regarded as positive indeed.

The fact that 67% of the respondents rated this programme as ‘Very good’ and that the majority felt that participating in the programme gave them a sound start to their higher education experience, is encouraging.

It was also noted that although one student provided less positive feedback about the topics in general, the student has also rated the programme as ‘Very good’.

This evaluation serves to highlight the diverse nature of the student population who participated in this programme; and therefore differences in age, background and needs.

The findings will help the project team members to design and structure future programmes to accommodate such diverse student needs.

The next available programme on u-Link for the e-Transition participants, will be the ‘GetProgressive’ e-portfolio programme.

The launch dates of the programme are scheduled for 23rd and 24th October 2008.

Posted by Phil Alberts, Head of e-Learning at Brunel University

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