MY EXPERIENCE AT SUSSEX DURING AUTUMN TERM

This is the continuation of my previous post "my experience at Sussex during Autumn term.

Practicals: Certain courses were laboratory based and I attended the practical sessions. In the autumn term, the Cell & Molecular Biology and Human Physiology courses had three and two practical sessions respectively. The Practicals were conducted in batches of students and since the labs could accommodate only 60 students, each batch normally consisted of 50-60 students. The pre-practical sessions, which were of one hour duration, helped the students to perform practicals in laboratory. Laboratories were always set before the start of the practical sessions by the technicians. There were demonstrators and tutors to conduct regular practicals. The students were required to bring the printout of the procedure of experiments in the lab which was available on Study Direct. As soon as students entered the lab they had to wear their lab coat, hand gloves and goggles without which the students were not allowed for the practical session. The duration of each practical session was three hours. The technicians arranged the required quantity of glass wares, instruments (microscope, pH meter, spectrophotometer, water bath, gel electrophoresis set, stirrer) and chemicals on individual tables to perform the experiment. Wide range of Eppendorf pipettes with disposable tips and minimum quantity of chemicals were used. The students performed the experiments easily without moving here and there in search of chemicals and glass wares or equipments. There were no laboratory journals in any of these courses. Instead of this, students are expected to answer the online quizzes/ tests on practicals.

One of the regular practicals in Cell & Molecular Biology on “Bacterial Growth and Expression of the Escherichia coli Lac Operon” was considered for the assessment (15%) of the course. The students had to submit the data in MS Excel, graph, calculations and answer a few questions. The submission was in week 8 and 9. Similarly one regular practical out of two in Human Physiology was counted for 40% of the assessment of the course. This is called course work and students have to submit in duplicate by using the submission cover sheets designed by the respective school. Tutors are expected to return a copy of the course work to students within 15 working days of the date set for submission with comments. Comments of the tutor are to advise the student in developing their knowledge and abilities in the subject.
 Learning: The students studied by using the lecture notes/power point slides, prescribed books, journals, research articles and by attempting online quizzes and tests. The seminars and tutorials helped  them in understanding the concepts better since they were conducted in smaller groups of students. In the course “Essential Skills in Biomedical Science” two open book tests were conducted and these tests helped students both in learning and answering the unseen examinations. The model MCQ paper and past question papers were available on Study Direct which helped the students in preparing for the examinations in week 10. The contributory and non-contributory submissions on time made the students study compulsorily. The Peer mentor support in studies and the meetings with academic advisors equally played an important role in the learning process.

                                                  Arrangements on lab. table

                                                           Gel Electrophoresis units

                                                      Spectrophotometer

                                                          Demonstrators

MY EXPERIENCE AT SUSSEX DURING AUTUMN TERM

This is the continuation of my previous post "My Experience at Sussex during the autumn term".

Programmes and Courses: The University of Sussex offers foundation, undergraduate, postgraduate and research degree programmes in Arts and Science. There are 13 Schools of Studies and 22 departments on the campus. These Schools and Departments have different undergraduate degree programmes which are specialised in certain areas. The duration of the undergraduate degree programme is three years and it is credit based. The student has to decide the degree programme at level 1(first year of study) and accordingly right courses are to be chosen which are most relevant to the final year. The undergraduate courses have certain number of credits. A student is required to take 120 credits in an academic year. The academic year has three terms - autumn, spring and summer. The credits a student can take at different terms of an academic year are- autumn or spring only - 48; autumn and spring terms combined 96; spring and summer terms combined 72. The credits of courses are multiples of six. They are either 6, 12, 18, 24 or 30. Sometimes there are 15, 30 and 45 credits at the final stage of undergraduate programme. The credit is determined by calculating the required learning hours on the basis of 1 credit for 10 hours of learning. The credit volume reflects all student effort, including independent work and assessment such as formal taught contact hours, independent or guided study, revision and assessment.
Students have the freedom to select courses from different levels (years) and combine courses from different disciplines to construct their study programme. Many combinations are possible, subject to timetable compatibility and agreement with the academic advisor.
Teaching: Each course has a course convenor and it is the responsibility of each convenor of the course to organise the course contents, method of assessment and time table to implement the course. The duration of  the winter course was 10 weeks (4 Oct. - 10 Dec.).  This information is available to the students for all the courses (that too at different levels of degree programmes of the University), before the beginning of the autumn term of the academic year, through an online learning environment of the University of Sussex called “Study Direct”.

I found the course contents of all the courses on the Study Direct. Each course had a specific course code, (e.g. C7004 for cell and Molecular Biology), level, credits, term and academic year. All the course contents were uploaded under certain subtitles like Outline, Resources, Assessment, Teaching and Contacts. These subtitles gave the information on course learning outcomes, course contents in brief, lecture wise power point slides, reading material such as books, journals and web based resources. The titles and dates of submission of essays, assignments were also known to the students. Study Direct also provided the information on practicals and seminars. In the pre-practical sessions, procedure to carry out the experiments in the regular practicals was available for students. The type of assessment, its weighting and schedule was mentioned. Ten weeks' teaching schedule specified the course code, term, academic year, the name of tutor, day, time, name of the building where the lecture/seminar is held, room number and week pattern. The contact details of the course convenor/s and tutors with their details like the name, place of work, email address and office contact number was available for students on Study Direct. Only the students who had registered for the course could access Study direct.

The lectures were held in lecture theatres if the number of students registered for the course is high (300) or in lecture halls if it is low. Seminars were conducted in the smaller class rooms (seminar rooms). The Lecture theatres/halls and seminar rooms have multimedia facility including computer and PAS. Lectures were podcasted. All the tutors confidently used technology while teaching. The duration of the lectures and seminars were one hour each. The initial forty five minutes of the lecture class were utilised for teaching the course and the last fifteen minutes for discussion and solving the subject difficulties of students even though the tutor provided an opportunity for interaction while teaching. The seminars were conducted in groups and each group consisted of 15-20 students. Certain points raised in the lecture class used to form the base for discussion in the seminar class.

Please look for learning process and more in my next blog.

                                                              Lecture Theatre

                                  

                                                                  Lecture Theatre

                                                                    The Tutor

                                                    Seminar room

MY EXPERIENCE AT SUSSEX DURING AUTUMN TERM

This is the continuation of my previous post “My Experience at Sussex during Autumn Term”

I experienced the teaching, learning and assessment methods of three Courses- Cell & Molecular Biology, Essential Skills in Biomedical Science and Human Physiology. I got the opportunity to interact with the faculty of three subjects, viz. Economics, Sociology and Computer Science. Through interactions, I was permitted to access the study material of respective subject through an online learning environment of University of Sussex “Study Direct”. I accessed the course material of three courses in Sociology and one each in Economics and Computer Science. The courses were 1.Themes and Perspectives in Sociology I, 2. Globalisation, 3. Death of Socialism, 4. Introduction to Economics and 5. Introduction to Computer systems.

1. Themes and Perspectives in Sociology I: This course was for level 1 and spread over three terms, autumn, spring and summer. The autumn term course T & P I had 12 credits and focussed on the perspectives on capitalism and social order. There were ten lecture topics. The course was based on lectures (1hr.lecture/week), seminars (1hr.seminar/week) and reading. More stress was given on substantial amount of reading so that the students understand lectures better, participate actively in the seminars, and write essays better and consequently perform better in the examination. The course was assessed on a course report written by the tutor for individual student based on attendance, participation in seminars and submission of non-contributory essays not more than 2000 words in length in week 6 by the student. All students were warned and told to read the rules of “Plagiarism and Collusion”.

 2. Globalisation: There were two courses on globalisation. The course in the autumn looked at concepts, history and perspectives on globalisation, cultural globalisation and global cities. This course was for level 3 and had 30 credits. It had one hour lecture and two hours seminar every week. Assessment of the course was entirely on essay to be submitted in the beginning of spring term. The length of essay is 6000 words.

 3. Death of Socialism: This course was for level 3. It was taught by ten 2 hours weekly seminars and there were no lectures. There are two versions of this course, Polces and Sociology. The Polces course was of 24 credits and was assessed by one course work essay of 2000 words in the autumn and a 4000 word extended essay to be submitted in the summer term. The sociology version of the course was worth 30 credits and assessed by one coursework essay of 2000 words in the autumn and a 6000 word extended essay to be submitted in the summer term.

  4. Introduction to Economics: This course was for level 1 and 12 credits, offered in the autumn term.  Every week there were two lectures of one hour each and one hour seminar. This course provided an introduction to the fundamental principles of Economics. The first half of the course dealt with microeconomic issues, including the behaviour of individuals and firms, their interaction in markets and the role of government. The second half of the course was devoted to macroeconomics and examines the determinants of aggregate economic variables such as national income, inflation, and the balance of payments, and the relationships between them. This course also provided students with a basic introduction to mathematical economics and the topics covered include solving linear equation, differential calculus and discounting. The course was assessed on course report written by the tutor based on the performance of students in weekly online tests and participation in seminars.

 5. Introduction to Computer systems: This course was for level 1 offered in the autumn term and had 12 credits. The course emphasised on the key elements of a computer. How information is stored: from transistors to files. How information is processed: from logic circuits to programs. How information is transferred: from buses to the internet. Computers and the physical world: peripheral devices and embedded computers. Operating systems and virtual machines. The history and the future of computing. This course was delivered through two lectures, a seminar and practical every week. The duration of lecture and seminar was one hour each and two hours for practical. It was assessed by course work (30%) and written examination (70%).

I contacted the course convenors of Environment Management and Sustainable Development, Human Computer Interaction and Introduction to Philosophy.

Please look for methods of teaching and learning in next blog. 

                                                            At Freeman Centre

MY EXPERIENCE AT SUSSEX DURING AUTUMN TERM

The Autumn term of the University of Sussex started on 4^th October 2010. I joined  the 'Science and Technology Policy Research Unit' ( SPRU) Freeman centre on 4^th October 2010 as a Visiting Fellow.The main objective of my visit to the University of Sussex is to understand the various processes of teaching, learning and assessment adopted by the University including the use of technology in the teaching-learning process.

As soon as I joined Sussex , I thought of joining the Life Science Courses as it is my area of specialisation. But I got the opportunity to attend the lectures of first year Economics. I attended one lecture on Introduction to Economics. After a gap of two days I also got the permission to attend the lectures of Cell and Molecular Biology Course. By the end of the first week of October 2010, I started attending lectures of three Courses-1.Cell and Molecular Biology, 2.Essential Skills in Biomedical Science and 3.Human Physiology. I discontinued attending the lectures of Introduction to Economics since it was not related to my subject. The Cell and Molecular Biology and Human Physiology are laboratory based courses and I also attended the practical classes.

1. The Cell and Molecular Biology: This course was for level 1 and had 24 credits spread over two terms namely, Autumn and Spring. In the autumn term the course had two hours of lectures per week, three tutorials and three practicals. The lectures and tutorials were of one hour duration each and each practical was of three hours duration. The aim of the course in autumn term was to give a solid understanding of the structure and function of key cellular macromolecules, in particular, nucleic acids, proteins and fundamental aspects of gene structure, function, including mechanisms of transcription and its regulation, RNA processing and translation. Simple experiments in the practicals showed the laboratory techniques in nucleic acid isolation, the study of gene expression and protein characterisation.

 The course was assessed by only one regular practical of this term and the marks were counted to the final course marks (15%). A short answer (MCQ) test (35%) of one hour duration  was given in Week 10 that covered all course materials, including Lectures, Tutorials, and Practicals. There was negative marking system for wrong answers.

2. Essential Skills in Biomedical Science: This course was in Autumn term for level 1 and had 12 credits. There were two hour lectures and two hours for self directed teaching per week.

This course had two components, data handling and essential skills. The main purpose of the data handling part of the course was to help students to acquire the calculation skills which would enable them to  interpret results from frequently used biochemical techniques. This  provides a foundation for the practical work they do, not just during the first year, but in many of the courses the students would opt in their future degree program, and, particularly, in their final year research project. The ‘essential skills’ component aimed to introduce students to the basic skills needed for life at University. It included significant transferable basic skills, which promote personal development and academic performance. Key under-pinning skills for success included how to extract information from journal articles, citation and referencing, annotated bibliographies, scientific writing and statistics.

This course was assessed in week 6 and 9 by conducting short tests and each test formed 50% of the assessment of this course. There was negative marking for wrong answers. Prior to these tests open book tests were given as  formative tests.

3. Human Physiology: This course was in autumn term for level 1 and had 12 credits. This  course was dealt with circulatory and respiratory systems, digestion and kidney function.  There were two lectures per week of one hour each. There were two practicals and two seminars per term. The practicals were of three hours duration each and two seminars of one hour duration each. The practicals stressed on data collection, analysis and practical write up.

The assessment of this course consisted of a practical write-up and an end-of-term test.

Any one practical write up was required to be submitted in week 7 as the part of assessment (worth 40% of the course).

There was an unseen test (MCQ) in the final week 10 of the Autumn term. It is worth 60% weightage of the total for the course. There was negative marking for wrong answers.

Please visit my next blog for continuation of this.

BRIGHTON PIER

The Royal Suspension Chain Pier was the first major pier built in Brighton, England. Generally known as the Chain Pier, it was designed by Captain Samuel Brown, RN and built in 1823. The pier was primarily intended as a landing stage for packet boats to Dieppe, Seine-Maritime. But now  Brighton pier is a Family Entertainment Centre. It has Food Court, Restaurants, Fairground, Bars and Something for Everyone! The main attractions are ghost train ride. Brighton Pier has fun-tastic rides for the children! This is a Palace of Fun and amusements.

BRIGHTON SEA FRONT

AUTUMN TERM ENDS

Today, i.e., Saturday (11^th December, 2010) is the tenth week end of the Autumn term of the academic year 2010-2011. The University of Sussex has three terms- Autumn, Spring and Summer during  an academic year. The duration of each term is ten weeks. The autumn term had begun from 4^th October 2010 to 10^th December 2010. The students have a winter break (four weeks) from 11^th December 2010 to 9^th January 2011.  I noticed that a large number of the first year students who were staying on the university campus have started going to their home town from yesterday i.e., Friday evening soon after finishing of their examinations ( in the tenth week of the winter term). I met some of these students and interacted with them. Some of these students  are moving to their home town because they are “home” (local) students.  Whereas “overseas” (international) students are going to stay in the campus. The local students will  return back to the campus by 8^th January 2011 since the spring term will commence from 10^th January 2011 and will continue till 18^th March 2011.A few of the local students have decided to  stay in the campus for few days  and then they will go home for Christmas. The international students intend to work (to earn money) during the winter break.