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Case Study D: Identifying Students in Need of Targeted Support
journal contribution
posted on 2017-09-12, 10:54 authored by :: National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education:: National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher EducationThis module (General Chemistry) has a large and very diverse cohort; with many students who have do
not have a Leaving Certificate qualification in chemistry. It is also an Autumn semester module, so these
students are only just being introduced to third-level modes of teaching and learning. As such, many of
the students need support with the module. In addition to support provided by the module leaders and
Department, they also have supports available to them in the Science Learning Centre in the University
of Limerick. There they can visit postgraduate tutors with a background in chemistry for one-to-one or
small group sessions, on a drop-in basis.
It was not clear that the students who might most need the support, eg, those at risk of failing to
progress, were made sufficiently aware of/were using these supports. Hence in Autumn semester 2016,
the module leader, in conjunction with the Science Learning Centre (SLC), trialled a new collaborative
approach. The module leader identified students who had poor module engagement (VLE visits, lab
attendance) and quiz scores by week 4 of the semester. These students were then sent an email by the
Coordinator of the SLC informing them of the SLC services. The Coordinator of the SLC then looked at
impact of participation by all students for this module in SLC services. In the following Spring semester,
there has been ongoing collaboration for two chemistry modules, one taught by the same lecturer. In
this case students who had scored a C3 or less in the Autumn semester module were emailed and given
the opportunity to attend specialised tutorials revising some of the material from the Autumn module
that they would need for their spring modules. These revision tutorials ran for 4 weeks.