Ideas for Mentor and Mentee Resources

Hello everyone,

I've just been working on analysing the gaps in the resources that the University provides for students. In specific I have been focusing on resources that will be vital for the mentors to provide to the mentees of any queries or worries they may have about their own skills and what will be required of them while studying at University level. I want to use moodle to create a mass collection of resources that anyone can refer to in terms of developing themselves and achieving their maximum potential whilst being a mentor and hopefully some of these ideas will be included. In terms of accessing mentors there will hopefully be a section on our moodle page where mentees will be able to select a faculty and then a mentor within that faculty, where a list of times that the mentor will be available can be selected by clicking the time slot automatically booking an appointment. Or perhaps there cam be workshops where several people can fill in specific slot by doing the same process which will indicate they will be attending that specific workshop or group session.

Gaps in Resources

-     Tours round each campus, explaining which building is where. E.g. where is the Atwood, baker, Galton and Murdoch etc. How to navigate yourself round, perhaps to a walk round of the campus starting from the students union.  Perhaps provide a map highlighting where each major building is on each campus. How to find rooms, e.g. explain that ‘E619’ means ‘E’ for Edge, ‘6’ for 6^th floor and 19 for the 19^th room on that floor. Same for other buildings.

-     General skills for students would be useful. Like a guide on how to use Photoshop, A guide on how to use final cut pro or other applications that other faculties need to use.

-     If doing practical work for your course such as media, a guide on how to use the university technology, such as hire the apparatus out and instructions on how to film  video recorder etc. and how to transfer the file onto an editing application.

-     Or how to create your own website, and what apps are available to use this, provide a resource on how to use it.

-      A step by step guide on how to navigate round Moodle, such as how to find the general resources that are available starting from icity, e.g. accessing the school of English resources and their guides on essay writing, structure and referencing.

-      All of the promo videos seem outdated; we need a more contemporary image of the university, so perhaps media students could work on producing an updated video to improve our image, showing we are up to date.

-      If we keep using the blog, perhaps a step by step guide on how to use that, explaining what possibilities there are and what each link does.

-      We need other faculties to follow suit of the English and media resources, which provide referencing guides, how to structure a research report, and to plan and write an essay. Particularly from ELSS, who don’t have any general resources on how to write a good essay or how to structure one.

-       A step by step guide on how to use the Microsoft apps, such as how to use excel and create table statistics and how to do what, PowerPoint slideshows and walkthrough on how to do what and Microsoft Word to double space and present a quality standard academic piece of work.

-      BIAD, practical tools, computer design technology, and a guide to all the resources that are available in the faculty at Gosta Green.

-      Introduction to the grading system, how everything is marked, and the structure of each year in terms of what credits mean. How much each year is worth and the amount of credits you will be taking through. E.g. some modules are 15 credits and some are core 30 credits. I think the University has the right idea by running induction sessions at the start of the first year, but information for people after this seriously lacks such as online material explaining what I have previously mentioned, and ideas such as updating the timetables every year and making them easily accessible (on moodle) for the students to structure their time tables. 

-      Information for academic mentors is seriously lacking, we need detailed resources on how to plan workshops, or other group’s sessions and individual tutorials.

-      Most of the material in the handbook may need to be separated into individual documents e.g. booking a library room, ways to advertise yourself and the scheme to recruit mentees, transferable skill development and CV improvement or a resource on how to make a good CV.

-      Students on HNDs need to still be linked with the University, perhaps integrating the students on those with the first year of degree with freshers and being introduced to the students union etc, they could attend the induction sessions and be provided with all the same resources, having their own University account so they can access the media resources and the library for their own studies for other references.

-      I also think we need to think about encouraging mentors to think about delivering revision sessions, where how to write revision notes and collectively thinking of ideas to w=revise can be discussed. I think revision sessions need to happen more since lectures only provide one revision class normally at the end of the semester before exams, perhaps a few student ran workshops may benefit  mentees and mentors be re-enforcing knowledge from the module.