This presentation, from the HEA STEM Conference 2013, details a study of the availability of information and resources on HEA web pages to support students wishing to undertake a sandwich year industrial placement.
Measuring The Extent Of Online Placement Resources To Support Computing Students - HEA STEM Conference - 18 April 2013
1. Measuring The Extent Of Online
Placement Resources To Support
Computing Students
Nzinga (Ziggi) Deenah and Thomas
Lancaster
2. Acknowledgements
This work has been funded by the Higher
Education Academy (HEA) Teaching
Development Grant “Improving Industrial
Sandwich Year Placements for Computing
Students”.
(This presentation is really of a side-project
supported by that research)
The assistance of Research Associate, Kawal
Banga, was greatly appreciated.
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5. We Know The Benefits…
Work experience
Experience the process of applying for jobs
Enhanced CV
“Out of the classroom”
Paid for a year
Graduate job opportunities with the placement company
Improved final year performance
Soft skills
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7. Why Aren’t Students Biting?
Are we not selling the placement experience?
Do placements not represent good “value for
money”?
Is the whole university experience too expensive?
Is obtaining a placement too challenging?
Are we not actively training students to obtain the
“work skills” that they need?
Are parents dissuading their children from
placements?
Are we lacking administrative support and
contacts?
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8. We Set To Find Out…
How successful are the Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs) responsible for the UK
Computing sector at using placements with
students?
How does the Computing discipline compare with
the other academic disciplines?
What are the initiatives and best practice that
can be shared? What teaching and learning
resources are available for reuse?
How can we ensure that every Computing student
gets the opportunity to take a placement?
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9. We Discovered…
Not many HEIs wanted to share learning and
teaching resources…
We kept asking…
Computing placement officers (or equivalent) at 116 HEIs in the UK
surveyed (76 responded = 66% response rate) – all of whom offered
three year undergraduate degrees in Computing subjects
Focus groups held with staff and students at 10 representative UK
Computing schools
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10. We Needed To Find Out…
Why were HEIs not sharing their resources? Did
they not have them?
Do HEIs advertise the availability of resources on
their websites?
Do HEIs specifically advertise Computing
employability and placement opportunities on their
websites?
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12. What Ziggi did…
Manually searched the web sites of 116 HEIs
during September 2012
Searches restricted to a maximum of 15 minutes
(like a student?)
Tried to identify general information of interest
related to placements and employability
(“placement” defined in its widest sense)
Tried to identify resources for students available
on (or via) the HEI web sites
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14. Yes, There Were Potential
Flaws…
Did we really expect all of this information to be
available to the public?
Is the search provision on many HEI websites all
that good?
Is this really how a student would search (would
they use Google? would they care?)
Does the search provision seek departmental
pages/other web servers, or just a main university
site?
Did Ziggi really not get better at searching as she
went through the 116 web sites?
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16. 79 Out Of 116 HEIs Provided
Computing Sandwich Year
Placements
Publicly Available Publicly Available
Information Information Not
Identified Identified
Key Areas Number % Number %
Initiatives Shown On
61 77% 18 23%
Page
General Placements Page 77 97% 2 3%
Computing Placements
65 82% 14 18%
Page
Employer Engagement
78 99% 1 1%
All 20 ofPage 20 placement providers (according to HESA)
the top
had all three types of placements pages
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17. 37 Out Of 116 HEIs Did Not Provide
Computing Sandwich Year
Placements
Publicly Available Publicly Available
Information Information Not
Identified Identified
Key Areas Number % Number %
Initiatives Shown On
25 68% 12 32%
Page
General Placements
33 89% 4 11%
Page
Computing Placements
8 22% 29 78%
Page
Employer Engagement
32 86% 5 14%
Page
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18. Looked For Availability Of
Resources…
Pre-placement (e.g. training on writing CVs,
attending assessment centres)
During placement (e.g. support mechanisms,
keeping learning logbooks)
After placement (e.g. reflection, debriefing)
Resources did not have to be hosted locally –
links to external resources were considered
suitable (and reuse is to be encouraged)
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19. For The HEIs Providing
Computing Sandwich Year
Placements…
Resources Identified Resources Not Identified
84%
72% 76%
28%
24%
16%
Pre-Placement
Resources During Placement
Resources Post Placement
Resources
78% (62 out of 79) HEIs did provide links to external placement
resources
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21. Are Placement Officers The Right
People?
Are Computing Placement Officers really the people who
teach employability and who develop and share resources?
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22. Other Key Questions
Does the availability of resources advertised on
HEI websites influence student decisions about
which HEI to apply to?
Does the availability of resources advertised on
HEI websites influence student decisions about
whether to undertake a sandwich year placement?
Why are HEIs not advertising Computing
placement opportunities clearly on their websites?
Is there a need for sector wide provision of
resources to support students through the end-to-
end placement process?
Are we just asking the wrong questions?
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24. Workshop Resources
HEA Computing 2013 Workshop
“Improving Computing Sandwich Year
Placements”
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/0
7_March_Computing-Bham-City
Contains copies of talks and notes from the
discussions
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25. Upcoming Workshop
HEA Computing 2013 Workshop
“Improving Computing Sandwich Year
Placements For Scottish HEIs”
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/0
2-May-Computing-RGordon
Thursday 2 May 2013
Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen
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