Progress on Using Student Ambassadors to Broaden Maths

Progress on Using Student Ambassadors to Broaden Maths Support Services John Little supported by the MSOR Network and sigma http: //studentmathssupport. wordpress. com/

overview definition of role aspects of recruitment planned & actual activities outcomes to date recommendations

definition of role “ambassador” = a diplomat sent on a mission to a foreign country?

definition of role to promote services at library sites to gather student proposals for new resources and workshops to evaluate existing and proposed tutor developed resources to make own resource proposals

definition of role to be ambassadors for target groups to help broaden services for target groups e. g. distance learners to work as partners in service development

redefinition of role anticipated direct student engagement at library sites did not materialise Þ changed emphasis towards development of ambassadors’ own ideas and evaluation of tutor resources Þ in future a mix of the two

aspects of recruitment initial aim was to recruit one ambassador for each of eight Schools that make use of maths/stats/numeracy support Þ recruiting seven meant this really was a recruitment process and not a selection process Þ probably better to have fewer ambassadors and more selection

aspects of recruitment probably better to have fewer ambassadors and more selection: • to ensure commitment to tasks • to maximise ambassador availability • to make management and communication easier • UG 1 or 2 possibly more flexible than PG • consider recruiting FT UG for the summer for non face to face activities

aspects of recruitment meet the ambassadors: each contracted for 35 hours at £ 7/hour plus shared access to two moodle materials developers

planned & actual activities (in addition to role definition) • contacting Student Union reps to promote role => positive engagement via phonecall/e-mail • contacting class reps as a source of resource proposals => very little response • development of management reports for year on year comparisons as update of less efficient predecessor process

planned & actual activities (in addition to role definition) • four ambassadors attended one of our two departmental annual planning days and so are directly feeding into our annual plan -mainly in a recommendation on how to improve our communication with students

planned & actual activities the main departure from what was planned was creation of mini projects: • blog maintenance => not much engagement • moodle viewing figures follow up => eventually passed to moodle developer • evaluation of third party resources => aiming to match to resource proposals • an internal policy review => awaiting report from ambassador

planned & actual activities the main departure from what was planned was creation of mini projects: • a review of what other HEIs do => awaiting report from ambasaador • creation of a communications strategy => awaiting final proposal from ambassador • comparison of different moodle content styles => three detailed responses from ambassadors

outcomes to date ambassador blogged feedback on / evaluation of up to 22 proposed resources ambassador creation of five new potentially usable resources ambassador feedback on / evaluation of up to 6 generic You. Tube clips => probable re-recording of audio

outcomes to date ambassador distillation of resource feedback / evaluation => • slides for Articulate conversion too bland • positive about links to video, quizzes and third party resources

outcomes to date broadening of service? capacity to share data quickly recruitment of one or two maths/stats/ numeracy ambassadors confirmed as part of departmental annual plan

outcomes to date broadening of service? we have gained more insight into “hard to reach” faculty through having Business School ambassadors

outcomes to date capacity to share data quickly we can now not only produce automatic year on year comparisons; we can also categorise our data according to target groups and share with management

outcomes to date recruitment of one or two maths/stats/ numeracy ambassadors confirmed as part of departmental annual plan => organisational learning

indirect outcomes to date • filming of five students’ service feedback (including some from one ambassador) -partially arose from discussion at meeting with MSOR mentor • realisation that thesis acknowledgement helps promote stats support

recommendations • beware that you will get a mix of levels of commitment and productivity • wordpress blog works quite well as a means of collating and sharing project information

recommendations • try to get a mix of UG and PG students • a maximum of 4 ambassadors to 1 staff • consider FT UG summer ambassadors

summary definition of role aspects of recruitment planned & actual activities outcomes to date recommendations

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