Library
Students should have contact and engagement with Library Services in Flying Start.
Please contact your Academic Librarian to make links.
Hud Uni Challenge cards For Flying Start, would you like a set of playful challenges for your students? These playful challenge cars are aimed at a mixture of teambuilding and exploration of the campus, in particular, to make new students feel engaged and comfortable exploring the campus.
It could take anywhere from an hour to half a day… and as it’s around the campus, you don’t need to find a room for this one!
If you want some, let Jane Wormald (j.wormald@hud.ac.uk) know. More details and instructions will come with the cards!
Library Flying Start ideas – Business School
Activity one: Library & IT online scavenger hunt
Summary
An online scavenger hunt in which teams of students work together to find answers to set questions, by using online library & IT resources that they will need during their BS course (e.g. ebooks, Reading lists, HudStudy, Office 365).
Click on the headers below to learn more.
Aims
- Introduce students to Library & IT services, particularly online services.
- Scaffold students to develop library skills required for their studies.
- Support students to develop good online study habits, making appropriate use of available library and IT services.
- Encourage students to work together in teams with new people to reach a common goal.
- Foster a sense of belonging within the university – library is ‘their library’.
Activity
- Students encouraged to form teams to work together to answer a series of questions.
- To find the answers, they will need to interact with important online library & IT services (including Library Brightspace induction module, Reading Lists, Summon, Library Subject Guides, ebooks, Office 365, HudStudy module).
- Questions/ target resources can be adapted to suit subject groups: Law; Accountancy, Finance & Economics; Management; Marketing; Transport & logistics (incl. Analytics); Travel, events & hospitality.
- Answers lead to letters which can be rearranged to form a word related to library/IT services and Huddersfield (e.g. Brightspace)
- Students submit team entry on Brightspace with an answer to the tie breaker (e.g. “I should start my research on Summon because…”) and a photo (optional). Prize to be offered to winning team if possible.
Students will be asked to get into groups with the aim of creating a shape (creature) using all their bodies
Example Questions
You can use our library search engine, Summon to find books, ebooks, journal articles and more. Link to a video on How to find books and articles using Summon.
To access Summon from any web browser, go to https://library.hud.ac.uk. Find this book: Mullins, L. (2016). Management and organisational behaviour. 11th edition. Once you have found it, answer questions 3 & 4 below.
3. On which floor of the library can you find a print copy of the book?
4. Which animal is on the front cover of the ebook?
[Tip: To access the ebook, you will need to click on ‘full text online’ below the title , then login with your university username and password].
Activity Two: Business School reading community
Summary
Brightspace forum to encourage Business School students and staff to interact and get to know one another through discussion of their own choice of reading. Reading chosen as an ice breaker topic and to encourage students to develop reading as a study habit. Moderation and discussion prompts provided by Business School Librarians and other interested staff.
Click on the headers below to learn more.
Aims
- Foster sense of belonging to a learning community of students, academics, librarians and other professional services staff.
- Encourage students to communicate with new people including other students and staff.
- Support students to develop good study habits (reading).
- Familiarise students with communicating online using Brightspace forums and discussion threads in an informal online space.
Activity
- Many universities have found talking about books to be an effective way of creating a sense of community and belonging amongst new students. This often takes the form of selecting a shared fiction book for a ‘big read’ by any interested staff and students across the university, accompanied by a forum for book-related discussion (https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/reading-matters-why-were-bringing-freshers-book; https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2017/07/21/4490/; https://www.cilip.org.uk/page/KUBIGREAD).
- Assigning a set book to read as an online community-building exercise (rather than a voluntary group) risks overwhelming/alienating some students, particularly those who have been out of education/the reading habit for a considerable time, those who do not enjoy that genre of book, and those with reading difficulties. There are also cost and access issues with providing a single book/ebook to all students. However, the benefits of a reading community for new students could be achieved in a more inclusive way.
- The proposed Business School reading community would be a more inclusive online forum promoting all forms of reading, which encourages all students to participate by reading their own choice of material, including fiction and nonfiction books and articles. Initially students could be asked in as little as a sentence to recommend to others an interesting book or article which they have read recently. Freedom to choose sources which interest them and community recommendations from others with similar interests aim to motivate reluctant readers to ‘get back into reading’.
- Librarians would be available to moderate and oversee the forum, and post new topics for discussion. Academic and professional staff would be encouraged to join in the discussion – providing an opportunity for tutor presence online and informal interactions with students but without placing additional workload demands of moderating a forum at a critical time of the academic year.
- Suggestion for initial thread: ‘Tell us about something interesting you’ve read this summer’ – all students encouraged to post one sentence and comment on/react to a post by one other person initially. (To encourage participation, the forum could lead to an answer in the library scavenger hunt activity, or a screenshot of a comment in the forum could be submitted with their hunt answers to enter the competition).
- Potential extension topics: A book/article that has inspired me; Spine poetry (see images below – this has been popular on our library social media accounts); Share your Shelfie photos; Reading journal articles; FT.com news articles; Best book endings/best opening lines.
Wellbeing and Disability
Wellbeing and Disability Services will have staff available to support students as they adjust to life at University. The service can support students with early difficulties such as homesickness and the feeling of being overwhelmed by everything in those first few weeks. The Disability Team will be able to advise on reasonable adjustments, updating medical evidence/Educational Psychologists assessments and sources of funded support such as through the Disabled Students Allowance.
The service is aware that some Schools may benefit from additional support or additional information being made available to cohorts that have a high number of students with disabilities in them and may not be fully aware of the support available.
The Wellbeing Team are able to deliver workshops to students through the Flying Start programme. The aim of these sessions would be to support student transition to university; managing the challenges of student life and the development of coping strategies and skills at an early stage.
Flying Start Workshops
We can deliver workshops around the following subjects:
- Identifying causes of stress, normalising this as a part of student experience and ensuring coping strategies are in place
- The importance of sleep in looking after yourself and the benefits to your learning. Tips and tricks to get good sleep
- Relaxation; why it is important to plan this into your life. The benefits of mindfulness as well as an opportunity to participate in a mindfulness practice
- Looking after your physical and emotional health
All of these workshops will include signposting to the Wellbeing and Disability Service.
Workshops would normally be 60 minutes in duration
Workshops will involve group activities which require students to talk to one another and share ideas. We can discuss tailoring group activities to meet the interests of students or align them to the subject they are studying. In order to do this, we would welcome collaboration with the school.
Alternatively, we can discuss delivering a bespoke workshop if you know there are particular challenges your student group faces. We would be happy to discuss this with your team to identify how we can prepare a session for you.
In the first instance enquiries should be directed to studentwellbeing@hud.ac.uk
Link to further information about the wellbeing and disability service.
Careers
Here are three sessions designed for Flying Start:
Graduate Attributes Reflection Session
This session is intended to run at the end of the Flying Start programme to encourage students to share and reflect on their experiences.
Alumni Session
This session aims to raise aspirations of new students but allowing them to hear from alumni as to how they have used their degree in their current career. As well as alumni telling their story, they are encouraged to reflect on how their time at Huddersfield developed skills, qualities and attributes that led to success in their graduate career.
Networking Session
This session introduces the concept of networking in an accessible way, it can be used as a stand alone session or is a great icebreaker for other activities.
HudStudy can provide support for students with planning and collaboration using Office 365 tools and Mind Mapping software.
Introducing Enterprise Education – for ALL students
Contact: Nicola Walker (Enterprise Coordinator) BIC Ext 3908 n.j.walker@hud.ac.uk
The word ‘enterprise’ is often confusing to students, graduates and staff, and often thought to be just for those people that want to start a business. That’s not actually true and so we wanted to get involved with Flying Start this year to help support the programme and clear up some enterprise confusion!
The University’s Enterprise Team support students and graduates who want to explore self-employment, freelancing and business start-up. We call this entrepreneurship education, and increasingly, the careers of many of our graduates will include at least some elements of self-employment.
However, all students can benefit from enterprise education, which includes key skills and attributes such as creativity, problem solving, team work, pitching and presenting. These are essential skills for all-round employability; something which is a key aim of the new University strategy map.
By engaging with students during your Flying Start projects, we can help equip them with the tools they will need to get a good start at University and also, break down some enterprise myths! See here for more information on Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Education https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaas/enhancement-and-development/enterprise-and-entrpreneurship-education-2018.pdf?sfvrsn=15f1f981_8
Students’ Union: Academic Societies Flying Start sessions
Click on the headers below to learn more.
Representation
The Students’ Union have written a guide for Course Leaders to support the recruitment of Reps, this can be found in the Course Leaders training resources.
Liberation
Ever wanted to be part of a special group that talks about things that matter to you? That’s what Student Networks are all about. We have five groups, like that focus on different important topics. These groups are for people who might not always have their voices heard. You can choose from: Women’s Network (for gender-related discussions), Global Citizens Network (for international and cultural matters), Disabled Students Network (for accessibility and support), BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) Ambassadors (for diverse voices), and the LGBT+ Network (for LGBTQ+ topics): Student Networks (huddersfieldsu.co.uk)
Welcome Events (formally Freshers’ Week)
During the Welcome period there will be a range of events happening on and off campus. From The Welcome Fair (meet the SU, clubs, societies and get freebies!), Campus Tea Party, Hudcrawl, Family friendly events (bring the kids!); there is something for everyone. If you are looking for team building sessions then group bookings can be made for your cohort to attend the Roller Disco, Lazer Tag or HudLive. For more information and booking details please contact the Events Team: students.union@hud.ac.uk the majority of events are free of charge but some events do cost.