Course Representative Training & Support
Welcome and introduction u Tess Corkish, PARSA Advocacy and Engagement Officer u PARSA & ANUSA Representatives
What are we doing here? 1. Defining the role and your responsibilities 2. Capturing the student voice and providing feedback 3. How to deal with issues that out of your power or role description 4. Supports to help you succeed
Introduce yourself Why did you choose to become a course representative? u What program are you studying? Year? u Why are you doing this program? u What do you like most about it? u What would you like to change about it? u
Why are Course Representatives important? u You are the experts!
Purpose of a Course Representative To improve the student learning experience in u partnership with the institution by helping create solutions to problems. To represent fellow students’ views and opinions on u all matters relating to learning and teaching. To provide both positive and negative feedback to u staff in a constructive manner and to share ideas. To act as a communication channel between staff u and students.
Responsibilities of a Course Representative Introduce yourself to your fellow students u Gather student opinion u Provide feedback to staff and students u Present student views at meetings u Attend meetings u Help to develop solutions to issues u
What are you expected to help with? Academic Issues Non-Academic Issues Course workload Housing P O Access to resources Finding work P O Lecture quality Money P O Tutorial/Workshop/Lab Visas P O relevance Parking O Timelines of assessments P Fees O Assessment feedback P Discrimination O Health O
Key skills of an effective representative Approachable u Supportive u Strong communicator u Organised u Proactive u
Capturing the student voice As a Course Representative you might be the first person that students raise their academic feedback, issues or concerns with. It is then your responsibility to take the appropriate actions: 1. Listen carefully to the student’s feedback 2. Collate the student feedback and work out whether it’s an experience common with other students 3. Decide whether the concern is worth pursuing 4. Take the feedback to the relevant staff member(s) 5. Decide whether the feedback is resolved or whether you need to take it further 6. Close the feedback loop
What does evidence look like? It doesn’t need to be incredibly formal u It can be simple u Examples of evidence u u “X many students told me that they have a problem with this” u “I ran a survey and x many students told me that they were struggling with this” u “I had a conversation with a group of students and they told me that they would like if this changes” u “X policy at the ANU says that this should be happening”
ANU Policies Lecture recordings u Course outline u Course workload u Appeals Panel & Academic Appeals u And many more! u
Communication methods Lecture Shout Outs Course Facebook group Wattle Forum Student poll Conduct a survey Piazza Class Forum Group email Notice board space Social Media
What tools are you going to use? Are you going to talk to your lecturer about doing a u lecture shout out? Are you going to set up a Gmail account? u Are you going to put together a Google form? u Are you going to set up a Facebook group? u Are your details on the Wattle page yet? u
Providing effective feedback to staff Accurate - be specific, and provide evidence for what you are saying. Balanced – Present negative and positive feedback Constructive – Be solution focused. Depersonalised – Make it about the course, not the person. Feedback should be: widely expressed, deeply felt and achievable.
How to succeed in meetings without really trying Be on time u Take notes u Make sure you’ve sought out as much feedback as u possible Make sure to contribute u Ask questions if you don’t understand anything u Support any course representatives in the meeting u Follow through on any agreed actions u Close the feedback loop u
Closing the feedback loop Students will only give feedback if they feel it’s going u to be worth their time If students don’t know where their feedback is going, u they won’t feel like it’s worthwhile Make sure everyone knows what’s going on u
What does this look like in practice? You’re browsing Facebook and you see a thread of comments about POLS3021, a course that you’re a representative for. It is a group of students talking about how the tutor hasn’t given the essay marks back, even though the exam is coming up quickly. What do you do?
Going higher on academic issues Sometimes passing feedback on through the regular channels won’t necessarily solve the problems, so you’ll need some extra help to take things higher ANUSA College Representatives: sa.<yourcollege>@anu.edu.au Vice President: sa.vicepres@anu.edu.au Student Assistance Team: sa.assistance@anu.edu.au PARSA College Representatives: parsa.<yourcollege>@anu.edu.au Education Officer: parsa.education@anu.edu.au Student Assistance Team: parsa.assistance@anu.edu.au
Non-academic issues As a course representative, students might see you as an authority on all things ANU and Canberra Course representatives are not expected to deal with non-academic issues like: Students’ personal issues (welfare, health, housing, u employment) Disputes between individual students and staff u Financial or funding queries u Individual complaints, appeals or discipline matters u If students are bringing these issues to you, you can refer them onto the correct services
Referring students A student comes to you and tells you that they have a problem where the classes are too late at night. It turns out that they are just concerned about getting home because they live in Tuggeranong and they are relying on public transport to get around. What do you do?
Support Services Academic support v Academic Skills & Learning Centre academicskills@anu.edu.au v ANU Library (look @ website for branch contacts) v Health and wellbeing v ANU Counselling counselling.centre@anu.edu.au 6125 2442 v ANU Health health.reception@anu.edu.au 6125 3598 v ANU Psych Clinic psychology.clinic@anu.edu.au 6125 8498 v Financial help v ANUSA Student Assistance sa.assistance@anu.edu.au 6125 2444 v PARSA Student Assistance parsa.assistance@anu.edu.au 6125 4187 v Accommodation v ANUSA Student Assistance sa.assistance@anu.edu.au 6125 2444 v PARSA Student Assistance parsa.assistance@anu.edu.au 6125 4187 v Accommodation Services uni.accom@anu.edu.au 6125 1100 v Legal support v ANUSA & PARSA Legal service sa.legal@anu.edu.au & sa.lawyer@anu.edu.au 6125 2444 v
Why are we teaching you this? You do not need to go out and solve all the non- u academic problems that other students are having We just want you to know that there are people at the u university who can help
The source of (almost) all knowledge Course representative handbook u u Covers most of the content in this presentation u Has all the different contacts u Can be found on the ANUSA website If you feel that there’s anything missing or you’d like u something else in there, please let us know!
Getting in touch with ANUSA or PARSA Contact Details ANUSA & PARSA OFFICES Melville Hall, Building 12, ANU, Acton 2601 ACT Open 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday - Friday ANUSA Phone: (02) 6125 2444 PARSA Phone: (02) 6125 4187 ANUSA Email: sa.admin@anu.edu.au PARSA Email: parsa@anu.edu.au
What are your next steps? What are you going to do to be the best course u representative you can be?
Thank you!
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