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Learning Support News Student and library services Update for academic staff - september 2021

Welcome to the first newsletter of the new academic year 2021/22. As we get ready to welcome students back to campus don’t forget your Academic Librarians are here to help with any library related queries and to offer academic skills support. More information is contained in this issue below.

How we can support your students to find the resources they require to succeed

Welcome week

Your students can find out about the range of resources and support available from Student and Library Services by attending an induction session. These informative introductions can be done either face to face or online and takes about 30 minutes.

Please contact your Academic Librarian to arrange an induction.

LibQuest online library activity

1st year students will be able to take part in an interactive Sway quest, through which they will explore the Library's online facilities and learn about the online support available to help them succeed in their academic studies. They will be given a number of clues and tasks to complete regarding key online Library services. The tasks will be completed individually, but there will be online support for them to ask questions.

Continuing support

As your students progress through their studies, their searching and analytical skills will need to become more sophisticated. They are expected to search beyond Discovery and Google and use some of the specialist research databases which we subscribe to. Your Academic Librarians are happy to work with you to develop your students’ information literacy and literature searching skills as this is our particular area of expertise. If you want your students to produce well developed, structured searches, here are just some of the ways we can help:

  • bespoke timetabled face to face sessions in a computer lab delivered at the point of need (can be delivered online via Teams or Collaborate if your students are working at a distance).
  • recorded session via, e.g. ReView
  • freely available online resources to embed in Blackboard, e.g. https://libguides.tees.ac.uk/searching
  • one to one tutorials
  • collaborating with you to produce resources such as workbooks using Adobe Spark

Get in touch with your Academic Librarian to find out more.

Revamping your teaching materials

Try 5 of our top tips to update your module resources ahead of Semester 1:

1. Is your referencing up to date?

Check you are following up to date referencing guidance. Did you know Cite Them Right is now in its 11th edition. Borrow a print copy or check our handy referencing guide for online help.

2. Case studies

You can find a range of real world examples to support your teaching by using the advanced search in Discovery to combine your topic and ‘case study’. Our subscriptions often include case study material, for example Sage Research Methods Cases.

3. Sound & Vision

We have a range of specialist resources which offer audio and visual material, including Box of Broadcasts, British Library Sounds and British Cartoon Archive . We have a handy staff guide on using video and audio recordings.

4. Employment and Enterprise

Why not use some of our business and industry databases to incorporate data, information and examples into your teaching? We have UK and global resources covering industry insights, performance analysis, finance and marketing – find our database recommendations on the Business & Management LibGuide.

5. Subject specific resources

For the specialist resources for your subject area see your subject LibGuide. These guides can be linked to your BlackBoard Ultra module page so that they are readily available to students. This will happen automatically in the future but for now the instructions are available on the BBU Knowledgebase: https://eatsupport.tees.ac.uk/staff/knowledgebase/ultra-libguides-and-readinglists/

Ever wondered where your students are accessing their reading lists from? Here is a snapshot from August. As you can see, as well as our UK students, we have online visitors from around the globe. All of usage statistics can be seen here https://libguides.tees.ac.uk/RLO/weeklyusage.

Check, edit, publish!

Remember to check, edit and publish your Semester 1 reading lists – they are already visible to students, but may need updating. This has many benefits:

• Advance funds - It is especially important that reading lists for undergraduate students are up to date so students can spend their Teesside University Advance funds wisely. See below for more information on Advance.

• Accessibility – Prioritising ebooks and online resources reflects the hybrid model of delivery and removing out of date items ensures resources are relevant.

• Availability - The earlier you publish your lists the quicker the Library will be able to order new resources and updated editions.

Linking your reading list to your module on BlackBoard Ultra

In the previous version of Blackboard, Reading List links were added automatically to each module. For the time being, until software is developed to do the same thing in Blackboard Ultra, you will have to do this manually. The instructions for academic staff on how to link your modules in BBU to the relevant reading list are available on the BBU Knowledgebase: https://eatsupport.tees.ac.uk/staff/knowledgebase/ultra-libguides-and-readinglists/

Advance at Teesside

For those who are unaware the Teesside University Advance Scheme gives eligible students an Apple iPad, the Future Facing Learning toolkit, a keyboard case and up to £300 credit for learning resources. For more information see https://www.tees.ac.uk/sections/fulltime/advance.cfm

• In 2020/21 71% of funds were spend on books

• The ratio of e-book purchases to printed books 1:25, showing the enduring appeal of printed books

• The inclusion of other products within the scheme and most notably mobile data has increased engagement

• Book bundles are the most popular offering. 89% of course leaders recommended book bundles in 2020/21

• 49% of book purchases across the scheme are for books recommended by course leaders

SAGE Research Methods

Continuing our feature on resources available from Student and Library Services. This month we are focusing on SAGE Research Methods .

What is it?

SAGE Research Methods is a database and research methods tool created to help academics and students with their research projects. Watch a short two minute demo of SAGE Research Methods below

Benefits to you:

  • SAGE Research Methods links to over 175,000 pages of SAGE’s book, journal and reference content. In addition to its traditional text based resources it has an impressive collection of videos on a wide range of methodology subjects. Click the link below for an example.
  • The content of the database is not subject specific so it can be used by anyone in any discipline looking to conduct research. The material ranges from introductory level resources, such as "What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative research?" to in-depth look at triangulation and mixed methods design.
  • The Project Planner tool can support students and researchers from the initial research design stage, all the way to writing up their findings.

Next month – Succeed@Tees workshops are back. Find out what’s new and other support offered.

Credits:

Created with images by geralt - "books smartphone hand" • picjumbo_com - "student notebook female" • Wokandapix - "teach word scrabble" • Pexels - "concept man papers"
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