Evaluating the Impact of ‘You Can Do It!’ Catch-up Sessions

• Project Team: Zoe DoyeIeman HassanJoanna RobsonJudith Wilson-Hughes
• Subject Discipline: Social Sciences and Global Studies
• Theme: Assessment
• Project Aim: Enables more students to achieve their study goalsImproves and enhance the learning experience of students
• Status: Live
• Date: May 2022 to July 2022

We have been trialling tutor-led module-wide ‘you can do it’ catch-up sessions on three modules within SSGS (DD102 – 20J and 21B, DD206 – 20J and DD308 – 20J).  DD206 and DD308 ran these sessions initially, with DD102, concerned at high numbers of students not submitting their TMA03, swiftly following.

Although there has been variation in approach according to module level and assessment strategy, these sessions share a common purpose in targeting students who have not yet submitted their TMA sometime after the TMA deadline has passed (the length of time after the deadline has varied but generally between 2-3 weeks).  These sessions are not a replacement for tutorials or tutor support, but an opportunity to get this specific group of students together in a supportive space and to help them think strategically and positively about their learning and study strategy.

According to the data, these sessions have been enormously successful based on the number of students attending.

Anecdotally, students gain the following from the session:

• Catch up quickly
• Plan for the next TMA
• Get focussed
• Feel more positive about study
• There’s strengths in numbers “Really helps to know I’m not alone in my struggles”

Informal feedback from students (generally via their tutor) has also given us a glimpse of how important emotionally these sessions have been to the students, especially when faced with the challenges that COVID presented.

What we would like to do now is to more systematically survey the students who attend these catch-up sessions in order to gain further understanding of the importance of these sessions in emotional as well as practical/strategic terms.