Building relationships in the School of Mechanical Engineering

The Academic Literacy team, in particular Anna and Geoffrey, have supported the Professional Project module significantly. They organised some interactive lectures to help students to understand the module requirements. This has been a great support for the module leader. Also, they offered some 1-1 sessions to those students struggling in this module. These sessions were tailored to students' specific needs which were very useful for them. I have received very positive feedback from students about the sessions they offered to students to practice their presentation in preparation for the MSc conference. Overall, it has been great to have this level of support.

Dr Farnaz Motamen Salehi (Professional Project Module Leader)

In-sessional provision at the University of Leeds is embedded, which means rather than offering generic EAP provision, we seek to make our curriculum and materials School, module or even assignment specific. An important way of enacting this “embeddedness” is building collaborative relationships with academics in the School for without their insights it might be difficult to have any certainty about what the end goals of our provision actually are, or whether the provision is fit for purpose.

Building relationships with colleagues in the School is complex. It is both strategic and spontaneous, familiar and novel, challenging and rewarding. It is very much context specific, and though there will be “generally good to know” names/contacts, there is definitely no prescribed model to follow, which is both anxiety provoking and invigorating. In my case, starting embedded in-sessional provision in the School of Mechanical Engineering in September 2020 meant having to begin and build all the relationships exclusively online. Despite my initial apprehensiveness, this paradoxically seems to have facilitated and sped up the process.

Two years in, I would like to share my experiences and shine some light on these “generally good to know” points of contact. Below is a list of important allies in the School and beyond, notes on the nature of our collaboration and communication, and examples of how they helped shape in-sessional Academic Literacy provision in the School.

Director of Student Education (DoSE):

• Extremely important figure at the beginning of the process - responsible for a decision about the model of in-sessional provision (attached to a module or not), and introduction to the Team
• Regular email communication in year 1 (discussing modes of delivery, updates on student engagement, relaying students’ feedback); triannual planning & revision meetings in year 2
• Important to overall strategy (e.g. getting a dedicated email address), a bridge to colleagues in the School (e.g. passing on our Welcome message and examples of our work), and source of knowledge about systems & processes (e.g. granted access to a marking and feedback app)

 

Module Leaders (MLs):

• Important allies all semester long - attendance in my sessions is optional, so MLs’ endorsement has been crucial to the visibility and perceived importance of in-sessional provision
• Regular email communication (updates on students issues, questions about the module); planning and review meetings in year 2; during the pandemic I also offered some light support during online live sessions (monitoring the chat, dealing with simple students’ queries)
• Provided samples of students’ assignments, organized access to observing oral assessment, offered clarification re assessment briefs, and engineering terminology

 

Module project supervisors:

• Important role in 1-1 referrals as they have direct contact with the students
• Receive an “In-sessional tutors: who we are and what we do” message at the beginning of the year (with DoSE’s help) and MLs reminder mid module
• Communication is case dependent: from a single email-exchange to regular comms associated with continued support (e.g. one referral ended up in my shadowing the student, affording a rare sneak peek into the supervision process in the School)

 

Academic Integrity (AI) Lead:

• Potential for in-sessional tutors to explore linguistic aspects of AI violations, run AI workshops, and support students after malpractice meetings.
• Additional support for a module with increased ratio of malpractice cases offered in Years 1 and 2. This included video materials, asynchronous chat, and a guest lecture (linguistic analysis of samples of plagiarised and non-plagiarised answers, linguistic analysis of short exam answers)
• Currently developing a new relationship as there has been a change in the role. I have been given access to malpractice cases, will be developing an AI workshop for the whole cohort, and am now being recommended as a point of contact for students investigated for malpractice.

 

Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied Centre (IDEA) Colleagues:

• collaborating with IDEA colleagues constitutes a fantastic opportunity to learn about working in the School of Mechanical Engineering from a “non-engineer” perspective
• Periodic contact to support students’ video assignment as part of the main module assessment
• Collaboration included: discussing and making suggestions for complementing existing materials, support during live drop-ins, chats about parallel areas of interest (e.g. teamwork)

 

Library Learning Advisor (LLA):

• LLAs bring considerable expertise gained through offering faculty specific workshops and services, and similarly to IDEA colleagues offer “non-engineering” insights into the discipline
• a meeting organised early on allowed us to compare materials and approaches, and ensure we complement rather than duplicate each other’s provision
• we continue to access each other’s materials for further reference, and I sat in the LLA’s online session to help monitor the chat, and further support the students

 

Student Support Office:

• Important role in appreciating whether any identified welfare issues might be language / literacy based, and whether students would benefit from in-sessional support
• I contributed to a Welcome Pack sent to online January cohort

 

The leader of in-sessional provision at the Language Centre

• Extremely important figure at the beginning of the process - responsible for organising the first meeting, explaining the model of in-sessional provision and the rationale behind it, setting initial parameters based on examples of good practice (e.g. things that work / don’t)
• Communication is regular, with a dedicated Team (weekly drop-ins), and semester meetings and away-days. In-sessional shared office is being considered. 1-1 mentoring and support is available when needed.
• Trusts her team to build and manage relationships with individual Schools, thus affording in-sessional colleagues opportunities to exercise their agency and leadership

 

In-sessional colleagues at the Language Centre:

• Continuous source of inspiration and support (“What does everyone else do about…?” and “Is anyone around to talk about.. / check whether…?” have been fairly common conversation starters on Teams).
• Regular communication on Teams, with weekly drop-ins and disciplinary and inter-disciplinary interest groups; regular meetings and away-days
• Collaboration additionally includes: peer observations, a collaborative scholarship project, a website, a slow conference

 

Although some relationships or points of contact seem to have more direct impact than others, it is important to have a look around and appreciate everyone involved in making in-sessional provision in the School happen. I feel privileged to be a part of such a supportive and collaborative community. Without their time and energy investment, in-sessional provision in the school would not be quite in the same place and the last two years would not have felt nearly as rewarding.