Goldsmiths - University of London

3D Graduate

Departmental Responsibilities in supporting 3D Graduate

It was originally agreed by the Personal Working Party that students’ engagement with PDP would be facilitated through the personal tutoring system, with all undergraduates being offered up to three personal tutoring sessions per year: a group session and a one-to-one session in their first term, followed by a second group session held in the spring term. The sessions would be structured to help students engage in the key concepts underpinning PDP, such as reflective learning and action planning, and to encourage student to complete a PDP Portfolio.

The success of this system has been mixed . In a number of departments it succeeded in giving more structure to the personal tutoring system and by helping some students to identify pastoral issues at an early stage in their academic life. In most departments the system was less successful; students felt ‘paper-fatigued’ from the paper-based early form of PDP and they disliked discussing their personal issues in a group. Departments found running the sessions difficult; as an un-assessed initiative which seemed disconnected from their core academic studies it was difficult to get students to attend. There were also far more fundamental logistical issues related to room-booking and large numbers of students and small numbers of tutors.

These issues have been taken into consideration and as a result the new recommendations for delivering 3D Graduate, which we defined in the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy are far less prescriptive  It is recognised that individual departments will want to implement their own individual structure and strategies for engaging students in 3D Graduate processes.

Central to the 3D Graduate experience is the notion of academic development and supporting students in making the transition from one learning experience to (an often radically) different one. For that reason we believe that personal tutors should remain at the centre of delivering 3D Graduate albeit with a more flexible remit for how they should be engaging students in 3D Graduate strategies. The responsibilities of personal tutors are now therefore:

• To ensure that all students are introduced to 3D Graduate and in particular to highlight how 3D Graduate and PDP relates to the department’s approaches to learning and teaching;
• To inform students of the different ways that your department supports them in the transition towards taking responsibility for their learning;
• To inform your students of what departments offer by way of academic skills development;
• To encourage students to engage with the 3D Graduate website and to support students who wish to compile a PDP portfolio;
• To continue to provide broad learning and pastoral support and to refer students to other support services if the problems identified by students are outside of the personal tutors sphere of expertise.

It is recognised that most departments will wish to adopt their own strategies which will better suit the specific needs of their students and departmental structures, and still provide the structured support that will help students to develop the attributes of a Goldsmiths 3D Graduate. Although the structure as defined by the personal tutoring working party may suit some departments, it is assumed that most will wish to adapt their own departmental and discipline specific approaches. For example in Computing, sessions have been run to promote a discussion with students about what the learning outcomes associated of their programme of study actually mean and what will be required of students to successfully achieve them. In 08/09 Drama will be running one day workshops on ‘Professional Orientation’ to help students recognise the employability skills they are developing through their programmes.

All departments are being asked help students in developing the attributes of 3D Graduate through their approaches to Learning and Teaching. To establish what your department is doing, please speak to your Departmental Learning and Teaching Chair or the Learning and Teaching Office.