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Needs Improving
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- The complimentary videos shown during the lectures- some were directly related to the content to help consolidate theories and concepts, some were food for thought which kept the interest factor high.
- The tutorials blended in well and James was good at getting everyone familiar with each other.
- James is a great facilitator of the unit and was very approachable when help was required.
- In the end I enjoyed getting out of my comfort zone by putting my assessment out in the public arena for others to comment on. I was very nervous at the beginning and didn't quite like the idea but I really felt it made all students closer in their experience of the unit and got us used to future endeavours relating to peer reviewing.
- I really enjoyed this unit. Thanks James.
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- The I.T based assessments, whilst a great original way of assessing our knowledge on the subject, I felt advantaged certain students who were familiar with the wikipedia content. For an assessment to be fair, all students should be on a level playing field regarding access to resources and capacity to complete an assessment. I felt that certain students would have been able to concentrate soley on the content of their assignment whilst others would have had to split their time between assessment content and wiki coding. However, it was not an impossible skill to learn but to be fair on all, all students should have similar knowledge of how to write a wiki before undertaking the assessment.
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- Unique assessment, interactive tutorials, challenging but achievable unit requirements.
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- Less focus on student contribution in the assignment - not many gave/appreciated feedback
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- This was my favourite unit this semester.
- The textbook is really interesting and tied into the other third year psychology units this semester. It was also useful outside the classroom.
- I really liked that we got to pick our own topic for the book chapter.
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- The tutorials were great. Lectures were packed full of information which could be a bit hard to follow along with, but the tutorials made it much easier and the activities were great, not the usual just sit there and talk which made it more interesting and fun. Assessment was different to other subjects but it was really interesting, too.
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- The online presentation was tricky. Maybe allow for more time next year?
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- The textbook is a fantastic resource,
- the tute activities were well designed (interesting, and helped to explain the material),
- the assessment task of the book chapter was great
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- Although I enjoyed the social contribution aspect of the book chapter, in future courses it may be useful to assign people to small groups to provide feedback to one another throughout the course of the semester, rather than providing feedback at random. That way the feedback could be consistent and focused throughout the progression of the chapter, as I imagine people would be more invested in their groups chapters.
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- The teacher was extremely helpful during the tutorials and made them fun, especially with the first intro class where we got to know one another. We did activities that helped us remember things better and had the opportunity to learn more about wikiversity.
- The textbook we read was an easy way to learn about the different topics and wikversity was something new I feel I've learnt a lot about and can use in the future.
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- The methods of assessment were a bit unfair I feel. 17 quizzes for a 13 week semester is a bit much, especially when some weeks required us to read 3 chapters a week amongst our other units too. Not all chapters were short either.
- Wikiversity was difficult to learn how to use if you haven't used Wikipedia before and there wasn't much mention about pages our teacher had created to help us with it.
- While assessments were due at the end of the semester, there was not enough time given for the quizzes. Making them due at 9am on the Monday of week 14 didn't allow much time and I found since there was no final exam and no assessment based on the lectures, that I was unmotivated to attend them, so tying them into an assessment piece or a quiz of some sort would be beneficial because there was a lot to learn from them.
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- The lecture information was interesting.
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- The whole Wikiuniversity way of doing things was horribly offputting and I really did not enjoy it at all. Multiple times I thought about dropping thee subject simply because of this design. It looks messy, it was hard to find things, assignments were confusing and took ages just to work out how to use the different parts of the website. Tutorials were boring because they were so focused on the stupid Wikiuniversity thing. Don't do it again!
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- The book chapter assessment was extremely helpful and rewarding. It's the first time I've been able to learn a completely new skill set and implement it into my University work. The tutorials and instructions given by James were clear, concise and beneficial to developing my skills. Being able to choose my own research topic meant I was engaged and motivated more than I ever had been at University. The book chapter assessment was also the first time I wanted to display my work to University peers and my friends and family. Really glad I took this unit :). I also liked the social contribution component which emphasized the collaborative nature of Wikiversity.
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- I thought the multimedia presentation time limit reduction was actually a detriment to the assessment. Although, I understand why it occurred I think a little bit of flexibility in the time e.g. 3-4 minutes or even a 30 second buffer each way would have been beneficial. Especially, with the emphasis on clear and concise vocal recording.
- Additionally, although the quizzes did help to consolidate my knowledge they were solely linked to the textbook chapters. That and the fact that assessments were based on personal topic choice made the lectures seem kind of redundant. I think the unit could be improved by greater integration of lecture materials with assessment items e.g. a mid semester exam instead of quizzes that have a combination of questions sourced from the textbook test bank and influenced by lecture content.
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- The assignment (Book Chapter) was very interesting and set up in such a way that really allowed me to take pride in my work as well as motivating me to do my best work.
- The quizzes instead of tests really helped take the edge of this unit as the assignment is so large.
- The unit was very well thought out and organised, thank you!!!
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- Less information on the lecture slides, sometimes it took away from what James was saying because I was trying to read the information as well as listen.
- The textbook really worked as a revision of the content of the lecture content so the heavy info slides were not necessary.
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- Really interesting content. Tutes were really good in applying what we'd learnt, really good use of applied knowledge. The videos and quizzes we did in them too were good.
- Once I got over the initial scariness of wikiversity and everyone able to edit things, I thought it was really cool how we could look at the topics other people had done and read their books chapters and view their multimedia presentations.
- And two attempts allowed on the quizzes was much appreciated, as was the dedicated time in the lecture as to how to do a multimedia presentation.
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- This unit was a lot of work, but that's not unusual for a psychology unit, and I understand there is a lot of content to cover.
- I really struggled with the 9am submission time for assessments. I am and always will be someone who leaves things to the last minute (it's a personality factor as I have discovered in my book chapter) and I was up all night on a few occasions doing the assignments. Would have much preferred a 5pm Mon due time, as then I could go to sleep and work on it the next day.
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- really enjoyed the assessments in this unit, i enjoyed having James as the lecturer and the tutor found it easy to ask questions and get answers, This is the second time i have had James as a lecture, my favourite part was probably how James actually made the effort to learn everyones names and ask how the assessments were going and made an effort to get feedback.
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- i understand the idea to be intrinsically motivated to completed the moodle quizzes on time, although i believe i would have preferred to have a end time each week for each Moodle quiz, just me personally as i found myself doing 4 in the last week to catch up. i found screenr difficult as it wouldn't pick up the mic on my computer (i understand it won't be used next year)
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- the feedback and results need to be provided earlier.
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- Loved the book chapter assignment and how it challenged me to do something different other than the usual essays, reports etc. The assessment layout was great too, the quizzes throughout the semester really challenged me to keep up with my readings and test my knowledge as I went along - rather than trying to remember all the information and not properly taking it in for a final exam.
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- Definitely returning marks back when they say they will. If we are expected to have something submitted on time, we should receive marks back on time. Understandably, sometimes marks cannot always be returned on time therefore continuous feedback throughout the marking process should be given so students are kept updated and not left waiting because of the ambiguous time frame provided
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- James was thorough in tutorials and made them as interactive as possible.
- The selfdirected learning tasks were good for students like myself who work full time and allowed to work through at their own pace.
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- I strongly believe that assignments should not be done on a platform such as wikipedia. Further to this, it is unfair to include criteria for assessment on formatting using that kind of program. It becomes an issue when more emphasis is placed upon the layout, presentation and physical factors of a page, rather then the research, depth of information and academic value.
- Further to this i found myself questioning why the multimedia assessment had such an emphasis on the quality of the presentation more than the content? It astonishes me also that it is fair to expect students to summarise a 4,000 word assignment into 3 minutes, giving enough depth for the presentation to stand alone and not miss important areas.
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- James Neil is a fantastic lecturer that has produced in my opinion the best assessment in the entire degree. The ability for a student to realise that his/her assessment will be forever public and even usable to others is a great motivator compared to a mundane assignment that will be thrown in the trash 5 minutes after receiving the score.
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- James is great! Really interesting topic made even better by such a devoted an enthusiastic guy
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- It was hard that the book chapter and multimedia task equated to 70% of the grade. I feel like if you bomb the chapter then you bomb the multimedia which essentially means failing. One way to fix this would be a 20% final exam or a multimedia task based on a topic unrelated to the chapter
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- It was so great to have a lecturer who genuinely cares and is interested in helping me to successfully navigate my way through the course. He was fantastic at providing feedback in a friendly and timely manner. I can't say how much I appreciate James'attitude and assistance.
- Although the Wiki page assignment scared me (as I had never done anything like it before) I can happily say I gained a lot of knowledge and skills throughout this assignment. I also loved that the quizzes were split up over the semester rather than one big stressful exam at the end!
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- Perhaps availability of modules/slides earlier than week of; I like to get ahead where I can as I work every week day.
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- I really liked the quizzes - they motivated me to read the textbook, and I felt like my learning was in my own hands, which I liked. I also really enjoyed the book chapter, as I was able to pick a topic of interest to myself.
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- I really enjoyed his teaching style. He is very knowledgeable and approachable.
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- I loved the book chapter - I found it really rewarding being able to see my published work on-line.
- It was also really fun creating the multimedia presentation. I was really proud of the finished product! The lecturer was wonderful- fast responses to any queries I had and great at explaining concepts!
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- Keeping up with the quizzes was extremely difficult. Having more quizzes than weeks is a little crazy. Maybe make each quiz worth more too - 1.73% isn't enough for the amount of time it takes to study for them.
- Also maybe make the social contributions due earlier, this will prevent people from editing submissions of other people's book chapters at 4am without their knowledge. Otherwise, it's not fair to those who finished early to have all their work undone at the last minute.
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- I liked the different layout and the book chapter assessment.
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- The quizzes were open a couple of weeks late which really impacted on my study plan, the fact that they don't look like they will be open any longer has made things a touch more stressful as I feel behind!
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- I have found the wiki page challenging and rewarding. The delivery of the unit allowing flexibility was really awesome to fit with a sometime challengeable life.
- James works incredibly hard to deliver some really fascinating information.
- This has been my favourite unit at the university so far and I find the elements incredibly real world applicable.
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- Giving us the option of choosing our topic was great, it gave me the opportunity to research what i am interested in.
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- Maybe a bit more focus in class on the assessment to make sure everyone has a clear understanding of what to do.
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- quizzes should be best mark out of two
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- Dr Neill was fantastic, i felt his attention to detail and dedication to student learning was the best I've experienced in almost 3 years at UC. I would happily recommend any course he was lecturing and look forward to taking his stats course in the new year.
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- Although interesting, new, and different I have to admit i did not enjoy the use of wikiversity or the online presentation. I felt that my work being open and exposed for criticism whilst I developed my ideas was off putting and often impacted my train of thought.
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- Content was interesting and applicable to real life. The unit was well organised and the teacher was helpful. Assignments were interesting and challenging.
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- In regards to the social contribution aspect of the book chapter assessment. Spelling and grammar edits and suggestions for improvement were helpful however, I did not find the direct editing by other students helpful. Another student re wrote my whole introduction using words I did not agree with. This was no problem I just changed it back however, I believe it would be better to make the social contributions aspect spelling and grammar direct edits only and then suggestions for improvement so students can choose to take on the suggestion or not.
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- Content, interesting method of presenting assessments. lecturer was always available and helpful and very knowledgeable.
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- Honestly the lecturer is brilliant but his lectures were very boring because he never varied his tone of voice. I had a very difficult time staying awake.
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- Book chapter assessment was really interesting and actually fun to complete
- Delivery mode is very convenient
- No exam is also convenient for those who work full-time
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- Shorter or less intense lectures, they are very draining because they are so content heavy
- One hour tute every week rather than two hours every two weeks
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- It would be nice to spread the assessment so that we have a better idea of how we are tracking instead of getting to the end and not knowing.
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- The quiz's should be graded on a highest score basis rather than an average
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- The use of wikiversity as part of our major work was hated by most people I spoke to in the unit. The forum was completely irrelevant and made an already challenging assignment nearly impossible.
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- the use of wikiversity made it very difficult to begin assignments, I felt more of my time was put into working out how to present the information on my chapter rather than the information itself, so it would be good to adapt this assignments focus towards which media is chosen.
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