At the outset of this miniproject there were several factors that pointed to the need for increased attention to be paid to study skills. Certainly there was a perception that students from a more diverse background than ever lack key abilities, such as time-management and written an oral communication, which would characterise any educated person and are a prerequisite for further study at HE level. In mathematics, this shows up most clearly when extended written work is required and assessed, for example in final year projects. The Subject Overview of MSOR (Q07/200) highlighted the need to develop and embed provision for ‘generic transferable skills’ that it found were not well developed in the MSOR HE sector. It is certain that employers value students with such skills.
Whilst most staff agreed with the Subject Overview’s assessment of the problem, many would have been reluctant, unable or flatly refuse to embed study skills activities into their modules. This could have stemmed from the attitude that such skills “should have been taught at school”, or a feeling that they should be taught be some sort of central university provision such as a Learning Support Tutor. Passing the buck in this way gives a strong signal to students that mastering study skills is not essential, or that it is some sort of remedial activity. In point of fact, all students (including postgraduates) would benefit from further developing good study habits and actively achieving enhancing their transferrable skills.
Given that many students, especially those most in need of development, are assessment driven, maximum benefit would therefore only be realised when study skills are fully integrated into the teaching, learning and assessment of a range of mathematics modules that forms the core of their studies.
This miniproject aimed to enhance an existing study skills website by:
1. monitoring and analysing website usage;
2. promoting the site to educational and professional bodies;
3. editing the site based on feedback from other experienced staff, especially statisticians and a maths specialist librarian;
4. strengthening general advice for gathering data and using statistics, writing programs and using internet and database search techniques;
5. improving functionality and student interaction experience to create a dynamic learning environment;
6. customising the site to an MSOR student specific version;
7. customising the site to create a MSOR staff specific password-protected version; and,
8. improving accessibility functions within the site.
An additional output of this project was a six-fold A4 leaflet, ‘Study Skills for the Mathematical Sciences’.