Courses are designed to provide many opportunities for students to learn, including content delivery such as lectures, seminars, on-line content, and/or demonstrations or workshops; tutor-set activities such as set reading, problem sets, online work sets and lab or workshop tasks; peer and group interaction; independent reading and study; completion of formative and summative assessment; engagement with feedback received on work; experience related to their studies such as in placements and through visits and employer interaction.
By ‘Delivery’ we refer to the learning activity that is planned as part of all students’ course experience, as would be described in course and module documentation and included in students’ study hours. The extent of delivery will vary vastly between different courses and between different levels of study (see the Progressive Learning Strategies section for further information).
Course documentation will portray the intended student learning experience in two places. In the validation document, or the developmental commentary for re-approvals, course teams should explore their approaches and link, where appropriate, to pedagogical theory and University expectations. More significantly, in the course handbook, they should provide students with clear guidance on the learning experience. The course handbook should make clear to students what is expected of them in order to achieve academic success, for example in terms of engagement with the subject, with course teaching and learning approaches, with the content and activities included i Brightspace, with set and forther reading, and with formative and summative assessment. Course teams should further prepare students for all their learning experiences, for example through pre-entry guidance, on-course diagnostic assessments and embedded study skills development, formative exercises and assessment tasks, and underpinned by academic tutorial support.
The expectation is that courses and modules are designed to provide a holistic learning experience for students that will usually:
Students’ learning and teaching experiences will incorporate a combination of:
Each 20 credit module involves 200 hours of student learning, and as set out in the template, each module specification will indicate the proportions of this learning time that students will spend in each of the six types of learning activity (a. to f. above). Course teams are expected to explore these types of learning activities further in the course handbook and through induction and ongoing support to ensure students understand the purpose of learning activities, how to prepare for their engagement with them, and how to review and expand their learning following the activities.