What will be expected of you as a student presentation

							 Student Services




 What will be
expected of you
 as a student?

  Orientation 2011
   Angela Dierks

          www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
               Student Services

Getting to the other side




                         www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                              Student Services

             Our expectations
•   Keep contact details up to date
•   Be an autonomous learner
•   Attend lectures and seminars and be on time
•   Stick to deadlines (especially for course work)
•   Get organised
•   Be prepared to work with other students
•   Develop academic skills and thinking
•   Be ready to accept new challenges
                                          www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                          Student Services


             Contact details

• Ensure that your details are up to date on
  the My Birkbeck profile
• Check email correspondence regularly




                                    www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                                  Student Services


           Autonomous learner
• Take on the responsibility to ask questions and to
  ask for help
• Take appropriate action if experiencing any
  difficulties (eg using College services, using support
  info on My Birkbeck website)
• Only few hours are scheduled as directly taught
  sessions. Be prepared to spend most of your time
  studying on your own without clear direction

                                               www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                            Student Services

   Attendance and time keeping
• Expectation is that you attend all sessions;
  some courses have a percentage attendance
  rate
• Erratic attendance and late coming
  detrimental to learning; expectation is that
  students are committed to the course


                                       www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                           Student Services


          Dreaded deadlines

• Non negotiable for handing-in of course work
  (unless you have mitigating circumstances)
• Allow sufficient time for your assignment;
  note deadlines down in calendar
• Seek help on producing academic work or if
  struggling with your IT skills

                                     www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                          Student Services

            Being organised
• Absolutely crucial to succeeding as a
  student
• How much time can you dedicate to
  study? Draw up a realistic schedule
• Prioritise – identify what needs to be done
• Have a weekly and study plan
• Organise your study space
                                     www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                           Student Services

         Working with others

• You are not alone
• Studying with peers helps you perform better
• Group work common in many subject areas,
  including group assignments



                                      www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                         Student Services

     Working with Blackboard
• Some Birkbeck courses use a Virtual
  Learning Environment (VLE) called
  Blackboard
• Shows course material, reading/learning
  material, course work tasks and
  discussion groups
• Check regularly for news and
  announcements
                                   www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                                 Student Services

     Academic thinking and skills
1. Reading and researching theories and studies
2. Understanding and expressing ideas in own words
3. Applying to theory to ‘real’ world problems or issues
4. Analysing information
5. Thinking critically
6. Formulating your own thoughts (copying directly from
   others is called plagiarism)
7. Presenting your final judgement
These skills can be learned! (www.bbk.ac.uk/ahead)

                                              www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                                      Student Services

          Accept new challenges
“The student is perforce required to venture into new
  places, strange places, anxiety provoking places. This
  is a part of the point of higher education. If there was no
  anxiety, it is difficult to believe that we could be in the
  presence of a higher education.”
 (Barnett 2007: 147)

“ The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lit.”
 (Plutarch c46-127AD)


                                                     www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
             Student Services

Accept new challenges




                       www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                                  Student Services

              Creative thinking
Below are four simple questions. Try to answer all of them
  before looking at the answers.
#1: How do you put a giraffe into a fridge?
#2: How do you put an elephant into a fridge?
#3: The King of the Jungle is holding a meeting for all of
  the animals. One of them is not there. Which one?
#4: You are standing on the bank of an alligator infested
  river and have to get to the other side. What do you do?



                                               www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck
                                                     Student Services

                      Creative thinking
And now for the answers to the four questions:
#1: Open the fridge, put the giraffe inside, and then close the fridge.
#2: Open the fridge, remove the giraffe, put the elephant inside, and close the fridge.
#3: The elephant. The elephant is in the fridge.
#4: You swim across the river because all the alligators are attending the meeting.

    This is what the questions are trying to find out:
#1 checks to see if you try to make simple things complicated and make assumptions
    about problem boundaries. Nobody actually said that the fridge was not big enough
    to put a giraffe inside!
#2 tests your ability to consider previous actions. Who says that they are four separate
    questions?
#3 simply tests your memory.
#4 checks to see how quickly you learn. After all, you must have answered question 4
    correctly.



                                                                          www.bbk.ac.uk/mybirkbeck