The transition to undergraduate study is often a challenging step for students as they progress from relatively smaller school/college classes with a high degree of contact time with familiar staff to a university department where one-on-one interaction with staff members is significantly reduced. The first year tutorials module offers one of the…

I describe a novel research-led module that combines reduced academic marking loads with increased feedback to students, and allows students to reflect on and improve attainment prior to summative assessment. The module is based around eight seminar-style presentations (one per week), on which the students write 500-word "news &…

The use of podcasting in higher education has escalated in recent years. The aim of this case study was to analyse undergraduate student use and perceptions of lecture audio recordings in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Leeds. Students completed an online survey over a two-week period based on their use of lecture audio…

National Student Survey (NSS) results show that many students are dissatisfied with the amount and quality of feedback they get for their work. This study reports on two case studies in which we tried to address these issues by introducing audio feedback to one undergraduate (UG) and one postgraduate (PG) class, respectively. In case study one…

Development of skills in bioscience undergraduates is seen as desirable by academic staff, students and employers, and this is reflected across most degree programmes. However, providing the opportunity for students to practise skills may alone be insufficient for their development. With an evident discrepancy between the skills expected of…

Systems Biology, one of the current approaches to the understanding of living things, aims to understand the behaviour of living systems through the creation of mathematical models that integrate the available knowledge of the system's component parts and the relations among them. Accordingly, model building should play a central part in any…

Understanding students' reactions to their feedback to coursework is crucial in being able to deliver feedback which motivates them and helps them to do better. This study focused on undergraduate bioscience students on a variety of degree programmes, at three UK universities, across all years. A questionnaire was completed by students when first…

The provision of timely and constructive feedback is increasingly challenging for busy academics. Ensuring effective student engagement with feedback is equally difficult. Increasingly, studies have explored provision of audio recorded feedback to enhance effectiveness and engagement with feedback. Few, if any, of these focus on purely formative…

The National Union of Students (NUS) National Student Experience Report identified examination feedback as an area where students had particular concerns. This finding was echoed in the authors' institution and triggered an action research project to investigate ways of improving students' perceptions of pre- and post-exam feedback. We report the…

Induction for students entering university at level six is often less in-depth than that for students experiencing higher education (HE) for the first time. A week-long "Enhanced Induction" was developed specifically tailored to the concerns of the staff and students involved in an Animal Science "Top-up" at the University of Worcester. The…

A surge in the amount of information in the discipline of Cell Biology presents a problem to the teaching of undergraduates under time constraints. In most textbooks and during lectures, students in Singapore are often taught in a dogmatic manner where concepts and ideas are expounded to them. The students in turn passively receive the materials…

In order to promote more active engagement of science undergraduates in histology practical classes some technology-based innovations were introduced. First, an interactive pre-lab tutorial was set up using an electronic handset voting system, where guidance on tissue analysis was given. Second, a web-based resource where students could access…

Bioscience employers demand graduates with better practical competence. It is our supposition that, although undesirable, student learning is assessment driven and this is leading students to simply go through the motions in the practical setting (whether field work or laboratory based). In this intervention a Critical Incident Report was…

In the health and life sciences and many other scientific disciplines, problem solving depends on mathematical skills. However, significant deficiencies are commonly found in this regard in undergraduate students. In an attempt to understand the underlying causes, and to improve students' performances, this article describes a ten-year survey…

The first year at university is regarded as instrumental in laying the foundations for future academic success. It is widely acknowledged as a time of great change, both socially and academically, as pupils leave school and encounter a new curriculum and pedagogy. Despite this, the majority of students still enter university with a poor…