Helping students find modules

Jo Strange (UCL Brain Sciences) and Lucy Moss (Joint Faculty of Arts & Humanities and Social & Historical Sciences) share their experiences.

What resources are we providing for students? 

Jo Strange creates Elective Module Directories tailored for her BSc Psychology first and second year students. Lucy Moss creates a Course Information Booklet for Affiliate students from a number of departments across UCL. Affiliate students study at UCL as a student on a Study Abroad (JYA), Erasmus, Independent Affiliate or other exchange programme.

Both administrators have the same goal of easing the stress of selecting and registering for modules from other departments by providing up-to-date information about which modules are available, how students should register for these, any key dates and contacts, and important module-specific information such as pre-requisites and capacity restraints. 

How are these documents created?

Both administrators contact other UCL departments to gather this information and rely upon departments responding promptly with accurate information. The Affiliate Course Information Booklet is more general, as affiliate students do not have a common core teaching schedule. The Psychology Elective Directory only lists specific modules that fit with the students’ Psychology core teaching timetable. 

Jo uses the “Module Availability Report” tool (available on ISD’s Timetable Support webpage) which is able to check for any modules on CMIS, UCL's timetabling system, that do not clash with any given set of modules. This allows her to enter her first years’ core teaching (for example) and bring up the details of modules around UCL that do not clash with this. She can then contact the relevant departments to establish which of those modules are actually open to Psychology first years and gather further details about those. 

What are the challenges? 

The challenge for Jo and Lucy each time these documents are created is receiving prompt responses from a large number of departments across UCL. A fair few prompts and reminders are needed. However, most departments are very helpful as they appreciate the value of these documents both for the students and to reduce email enquiries departments receive from students at a very busy time of year. 

As these documents are prepared in advance of module registration opening, they help to make the students feel prepared when they arrive/return from their summer break.

For Lucy, another challenge is in distribution. If departments don’t check their entries for accuracy and the document is widely distributed, it can be frustrating to make amendments and have to re-issue it. The document is shared with some affiliate partners and also uploaded on the central international student orientation pages for students to download. 

Jo tries to avoid the need to re-issue her directories by only including modules for which she has received updated information. However, there is still the occasional need for updates (e.g. due to a module unexpectedly changing times due to rooming issues). The Directories are made available on Psychology Moodle pages, so are quick and easy to update and students are sent an alert to notify them of changes. 

What are the positive outcomes and possible future developments?

The Affiliate document was created due to many departments experiencing difficulties in advising their own affiliates on how to find modules elsewhere at UCL. Often affiliates have access to a particular range of modules and UCL’s procedures are very unfamiliar to them. This document helps both the students and the departments by reducing email correspondence and confusion. It would be great if the document could be created centrally, as it is currently created by Lucy in her faculty and she has gradually expanded the range of departments to include those popular with affiliates in other faculties. 

The Psychology Elective Directories have the similar benefit of helping the students select modules, saving them hunting for which modules are open to them and fit their timetable. This has resulted in a reduction in queries for Jo and no doubt for the departments running the electives. There is also a webpage created by the PALS Teaching and Learning Manager which gives undergraduate students a more general overview of departments offering elective modules, links to module information and information on registration processes.

It would be helpful if Programme Administrators across UCL were made aware of the Timetable Support tools and how they can be used to create useful documents for the students.