SALTSOC – a student designed online
peer network – a journey from induction
to PDP and beyond
By Sophie Leslie and Nicola Poole
LTDU
• Who we are
• Aims of the unit – QE & PGCE THE & learning
environments
• Retention/Student Experience – Induction Projects
Aims of the Project
• Involve students in redevelopment of the first year
induction period
• Both design and delivery
• Letter to students, quiz, setting up of society
• Outcome – students felt much more engaged with
the induction period, enjoyed interaction with
students from other years
• Next step - to create an area for the society online
Online Peer Network
• Aims
– Involve students in design, administration and
authoring of the site
– Move away from less informal Facebook site
– Link more to curriculum and PDP
– Employability
– Internally viewed by students only (initially)
Partnership with Students
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Who did what
Why was it important?
Gaining the student viewpoint
Consultation with the teaching staff
Technology
• What students wanted
• Process to decide which system
– Involvement of other units
– Benefits of each software
• Change from Wordpress to SharePoint and
now Moodle
Evolution of the process
• Originally built externally to the university system
• Moved to internal university system
• Navigation & design changed to meet the needs of the
students
1) Wordpress
2) SharePoint
3) Journal Club
https://tsr.cardiffmet.ac.uk/Communities/SALTJournalclub/Pages/Home2.aspx
4) SharePoint
5) Next Step?
Lessons Learnt
• Link to Learning and Teaching was crucial
• Not just socially based
• Support for students and staff as new relationship –
drawing up boundaries
• IT Support
• Flexibility of working hours
• Clear point of contact
Quotes from Student Interns
“It has taken a lot of hard work, patience and motivation but
the feedback from students has made it worthwhile. When
something you have done on the network really works and
people use it, it’s quite satisfying. I have enjoyed contributing
to the student experience with something that was not in
place before and that is now hopefully benefiting the students
using it.” - Amanda Evans
“We are trying to develop it into a one-stop shop, with
particular attention being placed on the placement side of
things. We know exactly what is useful to share and what
would be of benefit to the rest of the cohort. My motivation
for wanting to work on the network was to build a resource
that students would really benefit from, that has all the little
bits of information that would take ages to dig out yourself. It
has been easy to work on the network alongside uni because it
is so flexible and fits around all my other commitments. – you
just need ideas and enthusiasm” – Aysha Siddika
“The Speech and Language Therapy network has allowed
students to share knowledge and skills more easily between
each other. It has also acted as a forum for peer support and
has recently been extended to include an online journal club.
All of these things are very important in terms of student
development and wellbeing. The key element to the success of
the network is that it was created by students, for students.
This wouldn’t have been possible without the excellent
support that The Learning and Teaching Development Unit
gave the students” – Ria Bayliss SLT Lecturer
Solutions
• Involvement of programme team
• Focus groups with students
• Sustainability of project - transition from paid
student to embedded within programme
• Aims clearly defined for the student to manage
expectations
• Paid versus unpaid?
• Recognition of work
Dissemination
• Number of networks formed
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Global Campus
PGCE PE
Mature Student
Foundation Dental Technology
• Student presentations
– HEA Wales Student as Partners Practice event
– Student/Staff Publication
Questions?
[email protected]
[email protected]