At City University London all our programme and module specifications are written so they are aimed at the students. In order for these to be clear for students here are some tips to making these clear.
10 Tips for writing student facing documents
The purpose of writing student facing documents is to ensure the students are clear about their programme and modules, what they can expect from them and what their role and contribution will be.
- Make the module and programme sound interesting and tell them what they will gain from the module and programme.
- If you have elective modules ensure the students know what their choices are and they choose the right one for them.
- Tell them what they will be able to do and what they will have achieved by the end of the module/programme in terms of knowledge and understanding, skills and values and attitudes
- You need to tell them how they learn, the strategies you use and why, such as lectures, seminars, laboratory sessions and tutorials and what they need to do in each
- Where on line tools are used make sure they know if they have to use these and why it will enhance their learning.
- There are students directed hours in your module and programme but students need to know what they should do in this time and how this will help them learn.
- All your students will be assessed during their module and programme and they need to know what formative opportunities there are for them to practice for their summative assessment and how they will get feedback.
- Tell students what the summative assessments require them to do, what they need to do to pass in terms of the criteria and marks and how and when they will get feedback.
- Guide the students to resources such as books, journals and websites that will help them learn.
- Ensure the students know about any professional accreditation for the programme and the sorts of career they can pursue with their degree.
