Department of History Staff Student Committee
Minutes of 27 October 2008
Present: Donald Spaeth, Marc Ensch, David Meltzer, Katherine Torlinian, Marina Moskowitz, Alan Daly, Donald Tait, Richard Stratton, Andrew Roach, Steven Reid, Eoghann Menzies, David Talbot, ImranAziz, Gary Hughes, Phillips O’Brien.
Apologies: Lionel Glassey, Dauvit Broun, Stuart Airlie, Stephanie Reid, William Macintosh, Daniel Fleming, Heather Cluness, Christopher Miller.
1. Nomination of chair/secretary; matters arising from previous minutes
Chair (Imran Aziz) and Secretary (David Talbot) nominated.
No matters arising from previous minutes.
2. Courses
1A:
No input from students to representatives
- issues raised that more books are being allocated to short loan. Library representativestated however that with 400+ students in first-level courses even greater allocation from buying budget to course may be necessary and possible.
1C:
No input from students to representatives
- noted that 1C course has own separate mechanism for student feedback, and that this may be a future model for other courses
- issue raised thatone seminar group is exclusively American junior year/semester abroad.
2AM:
No representatives present
- issue raised that no lecture notes are available on Moodle.
- Point made that online seminar signup works well and prevents problems of excessive signups to single session. Point was largely agreed upon.
2EM:
- Some students would like lecture notes to be available on Moodle before lectures for reference. Point was made that this made dissuade some students from attending lecture. Point made that this has not itself altered course attendance in the past, but this point was refuted by others present.
- Question asked if department has ecological policy regarding course handouts and amount of them. Department does not. Much of decision to print materials left to individual students from online sources.
Level 3:
- Witch-hunt course having difficulties because it is taught via video link to lecturer in Crichton. Link has failed several times, and cuts off automatically before lecturer is finished.
- Witch-hunt course also assessed differently on main campus than at Crichton, lecturer unaware of differences.
- Issue raised that international students have been dissuaded from enrolling in level 3 courses due to over enrollment. Point made that previously enrollment was very low and not an issue.
- Issue raised that level 3 students have very limited course selection. Point was made of allowing non-honours students to enroll in honours courses. This was previously frowned upon due to differences in assessment methods between honours and non-honours.
Action: to be raised at departmental meeting.
Junior Honours:
No input from students to representatives
- Question was asked if there was any feedback on the honours induction week. Feed back has been largely positive. Some feedback was critical or confused about the purpose of the movie ‘The History Boys’.
- Point was raised to offer more discussion opportunities among the students during event itself, possibly during ‘audience’ with historians.
- Possibility of extending induction programme to other years?
- Possibility of a day trip as part of induction was raised. Logistics could prevent due to student numbers.
- Issue raised of student cohesion in department due to large numbers and diverse studies. Idea of offering ‘core’ courses suggested.
- Reformation of GU History Society raised.
Action: David Talbot volunteered to look into this. Dr. Moskowitz offered to assist.
Senior Honours:
No input from students to representatives
- Issue raised with not enough available printers on the correct floor in the library. Library says they are working on it.
- Issue raised of not enough digital copies of required readings. Library rep asked about overall response to and use of digital resources. Levels 1 and 2 making good use of and have ample sources. Much less effective for Special Subjects. Point made that JSTOR does not always have most recent works in subject
3. New Courses
- No contention raised to any of the five courses offered, though point made that one is post-grad and not the affair of this committee.
4. Matters Arising
- DPTLA results
- Attention brought to need for broader assessment options and more seminars
- Logistics of more seminars for levels 1 and 2 difficult (400+ students / class)
- Idea raised to replace essay tutorials with extra seminars. Essay tutorials regarded as more helpful
- Issue raised that many students still do not know how to use JSTOR or how to locate valid sources
using Athens login. Library rep says they can work on this and possibly offer more training.
- Some students still confused on how to write essays, what is expected of ‘good essay.’ Department does
not want to specify ‘this is correct essay…’, students should rely on PAL and essay workshops and consult
lecturers. Issue raised that these workshops need more structure, direction on use.
- Question asked what is meant on DPTLA by ‘study choices’ with low marks of 68%. Appears to mean
essay/exam expectations, links to other low marks regarding limited guidance on what is expected.