Undergraduate Study Guide

Although it would be ideal if we had just one technology platform to use, there is a need for staff and students to work with different online systems to support learning and teaching. To help you to find your way around different systems we provide a student area on the University website which has all the links you will need to reach the different platforms. You can find this at any time by going to the University website and clicking on the ‘person’ icon.

Individual courses may also use specialist software packages, but this list will give you an introduction to the main technologies that you will encounter daily in your studies. 

As you progress through your studies, we hope that you will get to know the staff who teach and support you. Knowing where to find the right support is important, so please do take a moment to look through this list of the different people and teams that can support you. As a university student it is important that you seek out support when you need it. Please do ask if you are unsure.

How do I communicate with staff at the University?

You can contact staff at the university by email. We have a commitment to reply within 48 hours (Monday to Friday). Some staff may let you know that it is fine to send a Microsoft Teams message as an alternative to an email – but email is the default way of communicating.

• When addressing tutors – it is fine to use first names – so for example … ‘Dear Sarah’ is OK – there is no need to write ‘Dear Professor Thomas’.
• Try to be clear in your message so that staff know how to help and can reply without the need for clarification. Keep your messages concise.
• You are welcome to contact staff as needed although we would encourage you to check for answers on module pages, on the Key Information pages beforehand.
• Staff email addresses can be found relevant module pages. Staff email addresses follow the format initial + surname @ harper-adams.ac.uk, but you should always check that the photograph of the email is the person that you intend to contact, particularly if your message is sensitive.

Seeing staff for a discussion – appointments and office hours

You can make an appointment with staff by emailing them or by using a link provided by the tutor (some staff use a booking system which allows you to sign up to a slot).

Academic staff have something called ‘office hours’ – these are hours of the week dedicated to student appointments, so you should try to book appointments during ‘office hours’ whenever you can.

You may request a virtual appointment on Microsoft Teams if this is helpful to you (for example if you live off campus or have work or care commitments). There may be times when you are asked to meet in person because of the nature of the conversation that is needed. Virtual appointments are there to support flexibility, but they are not a replacement for in-person engagement.

Engagement

There are many opportunities to learn during your programme of study. Learning is a partnership between staff and students and to get the most out of the opportunities available there is a need to engage and commit to study. By attending, participating, working on recommended activities, engaging in extracurricular and by reading widely, as well as by practicing practical skills, your learning experience will be rich and rewarding. We invite and encourage you to engage in your learning journey in a way that helps you to learn deeply. This serious approach to learning mirrors the commitment needed in professional life after graduation.

Independent Learning

Your Course Manager and Course Tutor will set out specific requirements for your course but in general, all students are expected to undertake independent study alongside their taught sessions. This may include reading, attending workshops from specialist services such as library and academic guidance, working in groups with peers, watching videos or working through material to follow up or prepare for a class, researching topics to help more fully understand them, and making notes to help you to make sense of material.

All of your modules are assessed. You may submit one piece of work, or you might complete multiple assessments. The type of assessment will vary – you may encounter reports, presentations, portfolios, practical tests, podcasts, or design and build challenges for example. The assessment that you do has been carefully considered by your tutors and is there to test your abilities and help motivate learning. Many of our assessments relate to real world style tasks, so you will encounter different formats.

The University’s Key Information pages contain a document called Assessment Arrangements and this sets out how assessment works – saying how to submit and when. Please do take a look at this and if you have any questions speak to a member of staff.

There are a few basics around assessment that it can be useful to know:

• Each coursework assessment has an ‘assignment brief’ to tell you what is needed and how your work will be assessed. You should look at the brief carefully and consider the marking criteria as well as the task requirements.
• Assessments are generally submitted through a ‘drop-in-box’ on The Learning Hub or on Pebblepad. Advice and guidance on how to submit via a ‘drop-in-box’ is available on the Learning Support Tab on the front page of The Learning Hub.
• Every module on The Learning Hub has an area dedicated to assessment. Please make sure that you engage with the resources and advice provided by your tutors.
• If you have concerns, please ask the module team in the first instance or, if you still have concerns, the Course Team. We understand that assessment can be daunting, and many queries can be quickly sorted out!

Fairness and Integrity

As a community it is important that we have assessment which is fair to all students, and which is underpinned by integrity. Cheating in any form is unacceptable. We require all students to show good academic practice – that means that you work with honesty in all your assessment work and study.

We have a comprehensive guidance on good academic practice to help ensure that we maintain a fair system where students only submit their own work for assessment. Where students do not demonstrate good academic practice, the university has processes and sanctions that will be actioned.

• Please familiarise yourself with what good academic practice is – for example it means appropriate use of artificial intelligence and citing sources that are used in your work. Guidance is available on the Key Information Page in the document called Academic Integrity and Academic Misconduct – A Guide for Staff and Students.
• Check out supportive study skills resources that help with Academic Practice. Go to the Study Advice area on The Learning Hub (look under the tab called ‘Learning Support’).
• Look out on your email and on screens around campus for workshops to help you to develop skills around academic work so that you can grow in confidence in this aspect of your student life.

We offer support on using Artificial Intelligence for students. Some introductory videos show how Artificial Intellience (AI) might be used to support learning, but they also provide information about when AI should not be used in assignments work. This training is available during and after welcome week. It can be accessed on The Learning Hub from the ‘tab’ called Learner Support.

The University encourages partnership between staff and students to ensure courses are running well and continually evolving to meet the needs of students and employers as well as staff. We have several formal ways that staff and students can come together to work in partnership.

Work with the Students’ Union

Your Students’ Union (SU) works closely with the university to understand the educational needs and preferences of students. The SU sit on formal committees to represent student views and they can contact staff at the University to raise issues on behalf of students. The SU has a dedicated Student Voice Coordinator whose role is to understand and represent students across the University.

Work with Educational Champions

Each year you will have the opportunity to volunteer as Educational Champions (ECs). ECs work to help with course planning and development, inputting student comments into the planning process, and providing feedback to the University on topics that need to be explored (for example the introduction of new technologies or changes to facilities).

Course Committees – A Formal Staff and Student Forum

Course Committees are a specially arranged group of staff and students that meet regularly to review the progress of all aspects of your course. They monitor changes, take forward suggestions for improvements from staff and students, discuss the strengths and challenges of a course, and they monitor whether changes are working well for staff and students. Students are represented on these committees by Educational Champions for each course area.

External Examiners

Each course has an assigned External Examiner to help us ensure our courses are running well. We engage with the external examiner to get feedback on many aspects of the course. ‘Externals’ as they are often called, are respected academic members of staff from other UK universities whose primary role is to provide independent and impartial advice on the academic standards expected of and achieved by students within the programme.  They fulfil this role by reviewing samples of assessed work and meeting with students, in groups or individually, as well as staff members, to review the wider curriculum.  They also attend assessment boards, at which academic standards are verified.

Student feedback and feedback from the External Examiner annual report feeds into a formal Annual Course Report, this is discussed by the Course Committee. These reports are available to students through the Annual Course Report, or on request from your Course Manager.

Information on who the External Examiner is and their university and / or professional associations is available on request from either the Course Manager or the Registration, Assessment, Records and Awards Office (located within the Faccenda Building). Students must not contact external examiners directly; there will be opportunity to meet and engage with them through the channels outlined here.

Students’ Academic Group

Educational Champions are invited to the Students’ Academic Group.  This group provides feedback to decision making committees of the University. For example, they may feedback on plans to change a policy about engagement or attendance, or they could feedback about new guidance for assessment. The Students’ Academic Group has helped to shape new developments across the University such as the introduction of lecture capture.