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Welcome – please read this first

• This session is run by Karen Foley and Isabella Henman and is recorded with the recording available to view on catch up on a public facing website. Slides are available at the end.

• Poll answers are anonymous to other students, and you may need to scroll to see other potential answers.

• You can also use the main chat pod to chat and share ideas but it does move quickly so don’t worry about keeping up if it is too fast!

We recommend that you always check your sound levels using the audio set up available to computer users (meeting >audio set up wizard) but microphones are not available to use in the session.

If you are on a mobile device please note you will need to tap into polls, chat, slides when mentioned

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Pre session pollsWhat level of study are you?

• Access

• Level 1

• Level 2

• Level 3

• Postgraduate

What would you consider is your main area of study?

• Arts

• Languages (English & other)

• Social sciences

• Business and law

• Science

• Engineering or technology

• Maths

• Health sciences

• Education

• Sports

• OTHER

Have you been to any student hub live online events before?

• No (I’m brand new!)

• No (but have listened to one or more recording)

• Yes last year (any 2019)

• Yes other

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What are student hub live online sessions?

• All student hub live sessions are non modular and focus on skills relevant to study at university level

• Polls are anonymous to other participants but the chat box will have your logged in name associated with your comments

• All online sessions are recorded and available to view on catch up on a public facing website. Small group discussions are not recorded.

• Slides are available at the end of the session and from the main website

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Initial polls

What is your main reason for coming along this evening?

Are you currently...? (please choose the one that is closest)

• Brand new to OU study

• Have done at least one previous OU module (in last few years)

• Have done at least one previous OU module (many years ago)

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student hub live is the OU’s live online interactive platform to support academic

community

Karen Foley is a lecturer at the OU, head of student hub live and chairs Y032. She also tutors in social sciences, psychology and science.

Isabella Henman is an essay writing aficionado and skills trainer. She tutors in science and health sciences at Access to level 2.

The big decision: should I keep studying or

rethink my options?

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This was our advert…

This workshop is a space for students who may feel they have taken on more than is possible right now, and might be considering whether studying is the best option for them. This workshop will provide a space for you to consider your own issues and work through activities that can help to structure your decision. You’ll also find out what options may be available to you and who you can speak to about your own circumstances. While there will be opportunities to talk to other students in this workshop and we will be joined by members of the Student Support Team, it will not be possible to give individual advice during this session.

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Workshop

• This is going to be a structured workshop covering general advice about issues affecting study

• We’ll give advice about where to turn for advice and support

• There is a lot of interaction so please be ready to answer polls (questions) or add to chat pod during the session

• You’ll also get the chance to discuss things with others in a small group

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Session purpose

• Is for:

• Covering general study information

• Give some guidance about what sources of support exist

• Provide a space to share ideas and connect with other students

• Is not for:

• Telling you what you HAVE to do

• Providing any module specific or personalised advice

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First thoughts

Why are you studying? Please choose the option closest to your main reason for studying this year

• Compulsory qualification for employment

• Compulsory module to access another study / job outside of OU

• I need a degree to get into a new career

• I want to get a degree to help me explore potential new careers

• I want to study to see if I can and see what doors exist

• I want to study to keep my brain alive

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Keep the end game in mind

• Think about why you are studying and consider where you can be if you get the module / qualification

• That’s the important thing

• Short term pain might be long term gain

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When lots of things occur

In everyday life how do you react if you have lots of things to do? Please select which of the options most applies to you:

• I select the most important to do first and work through like that, one at a time

• I go back and forth between them all and do a bit at a time but get everything done

• I try and do a bit of each

• I panic and don’t do any as I don’t know which to do when

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Prioritising

• The best option is to prioritise

• The foursquare grid could be useful here

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Four square - prioritising

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What might go where?

• Please use the 4 named polling pods to suggest different things that might go in each of the 4 squares:

• Urgent & important

• Urgent & not important

• Not urgent & important

• Not urgent & not important

Have a look at what others have suggested to see if you agree / disagree

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Four square - prioritising

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Temporary or permanent problem

• If you've got off to a rocky start, but you're confident that you can secure time to study, then the challenge is catching up

• If there are too many obstacles in the way and you don’t have the time you need, you may need to reconsider your options

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Using the right support 1

• Ideally you turn to the appropriate person for support for what you need

• If it is academic then speak to your tutor• Issues may include prioritising the module material,

or thinking about your first assignment

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Talk to your tutor

• If your issues are with academic aspects then do this

• If they don’t know you’re having problems they can’t help

• In some circumstances an extension to a deadline might be possible to help you get back on track

• However it is likely if you are really struggling that you might need to talk to the student support team

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Using the right support 2

• There are specialists within the OU depending on the support you might need, so we’re going to showcase who they are.

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Student support team

• Members of the SST will now outline some of their roles and how they can help

• They will present a couple of case studies which you may see parallels with

• Unfortunately, we cannot deal with any individual situations now but will give you the details of how to contact your student support team at the end

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Case study 1

• Student had concerns around their EMA in September. They originally called as they did not feel able to submit EMA on time due to moving house and having a baby. They were without internet access and were awaiting a response from their tutor. The student initially did not explore deferral, but then broached this in a later conversation with an adviser.

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Case Study 2

• The student initially contacted their tutor midway through their module. The SST had attempted to make contact a number of times, as the student had not submitted TMAs. Because their tutor had contacted the SST through their referral process, help could be put in place

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Contacting your student support team

• To contact your Student support Team, you can use the contact link on your StudentHome page under the module section on the main page of your StudentHome: https://csintra1.open.ac.uk/students/student-support-team.aspx?m=DST206

• You can contact us via the contact form, email, or phone number provided on this page

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Deferring

• This involves moving to the next start date of your module and starting again from the start

• Can you think of any advantages / disadvantages to this approach? Please use the polling pods available for your ideas and look through other’s suggestions

• Advantages

• Disadvantages

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Our ideas

• ☺Allows you to get sorted and get a structure in place to allow you to study effectively at the next presentation

• ☺If you download the module materials prior to deferring you can read through things at your leisure and have a jump start next time

• Some students have the same issues next time round and have ‘buried their heads’ in the interim rather than getting sorted

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Assessment banking

• Probably not relevant if you started recently but this is something to be aware of

• This is similar to deferral, but involves transferring across any marks received so far and restarting from that point

• Can you think of any advantages / disadvantages to this approach? Please use the polling pods available for your ideas and look through other’s suggestions

• Advantages

• Disadvantages

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Our ideas

• ☺Same as deferral although allows you to make the most of efforts so far

• Some students ignore their study up until the point they need to ‘resume’ and have forgotten the basics and struggle as a result

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Withdrawing

• If you feel that the content and level is just too much for you at the moment then you could withdraw entirely

• In this case you might like to look at an alternative module that is a lower level or other ways of building up study skills first so you are in a better position to cope

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Information pollsWhat level of study are you?

• Access

• Level 1

• Level 2

• Level 3

• Postgraduate

Are you currently...? (please choose the one that is closest)

• Brand new to OU study

• Have done at least one previous OU module (in last few years)

• Have done at least one previous OU module (many years ago)

Have you been to any student hub live online events before?

• No (I’m brand new!)• No (but have listened

to one or more recording)

• No (didn’t have time)• No (wasn’t aware of

before now)• Yes last year (any

2019)• Yes previous year

(any 2018)• Yes other

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Discussion activity

• Discuss as a group anything you feel is useful based on the points we have made and talked about today. You might like to discuss prioritising, how you feel about juggling life, or anything else

• Please bring back a few points that you can share with the rest of the group

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Useful points for breakouts

• We suggest you use the first couple of minutes to introduce yourselves and get used to the room. Choose a volunteer to keep the discussion on track and feed back to the main room

• Remember to activate your microphone to speak as per the instructions given.

• Breakout groups work best if people engage and contribute and discuss

• There will be 13 minutes for the breakouts overall – we’ll send regular reminders to let you know how long you have got left

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Breakout activity

• Discuss as a group anything you feel is useful based on the points we have made and talked about today. You might like to discuss prioritising, how you feel about juggling life, or anything else

• Please bring back a few points that you can share with the rest of the group

Remember to check the number of the room

you are in (shows at top of chat pod as “chat x

BREAKOUT y”) in case of connection

issues and for bringing back information.

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This session is currently in breakouts

(small groups). If you are part of this group and have had

connection issues please let us know your room number in the chat box

If you are only just arriving in this room then unfortunately you have missed

the main session. Please log back out and watch the recording which will be

available later this evening

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So….

• What can people share from their sessions? Please use either the chat pod or the anonymous short answer polling pod

L

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Take home message

• Remember why you are studying

• Don’t be afraid to change plans if that helps you here and now, it is better to be honest and do this than struggle and fail the module which is demoralising all round

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Final polls

What do you feel is the main thing you will take away from this session?

What are you going to do as a result of this session?

Which of the following elements of today’s session did you find useful?

• Tutor led explanation

• Opportunity to chat in text chat box

• Opportunity to suggest ideas in polls

• Breakout room (discussion with / learning from other students)

• Breakout activity (reflecting on the concepts in more detail)

• Any other aspect (please give details in chat)

Other freshers week online room sessions:

17.10 12:00 Managing my time

18.10 11:00 Catching up strategically and getting back on track

19.10 10:00 What happens at tutorials and why are they so

important?

This session’s slides are available to download from the link provided. Click on the title then download file and it will download to wherever downloads

go on your own computer.

Past student hub live online sessions here

Visit us at

http://studenthublive.open.ac.uk/

Send us feedback at

studenthub@open.ac.uk

View past (live) recordings on www.youtube.com/thestudenthublive