Working with Students

Learning Development work directly with students through the Learning Resource Centre (Building 19.G102). The Centre provides individual consultations for students to seek advice about their academic study, and receive constructive criticism on their writing and general guidance in their ongoing negotiation of academic literacy and learning. Apart from consultations, the Centre offers students workshops and handouts on a range of academic learning matters.

Individual Student Consultations

Students make an appointment with a Learning Development consultant to discuss a particular assignment or concern related to their academic study. These meetings are generally held at the Learning Resource Centre. The benefits to the student are immediate and often very dramatic, reflected in greater understanding and strategic planning for current and future assignments. LD also develops significant insights through this practice into the various challenges to learning faced by our diverse student population. Data gathered from these consultations provides an important resource in the ongoing development of resources and programs at faculty and institutional levels.

Generic Workshops

An advertised set of lunchtime classes on various aspects of academic language and literacy, these classes provide an easily accessed forum for students to address many of their academic learning needs. The teaching/learning resources are continually being developed in response to the needs and interests of students, and survey data gathered from participants also informs LD programs at faculty and institutional levels.

Resources

LD designs generic and discipline-specific instruction for both classroom and self-study modes. Various handouts and brochures are made available online and through the Learning Resource Centre for students to read and consider in their own time. There are also various websites which can be used by students independently and/or as enrichments to LD’s classroom-based teaching. Resources are designed for UOW students, on the basis of the types of academic discourse and communications actually operating across the University.

Discipline-specific Workshops

A group of student preparing for a particular assessment task in a subject might approach LD for a ‘tailor-made’ workshop. The workshop is negotiated, designed and delivered independent of the faculty, but the content is specific to the disciplinary context. This type of workshop often leads to a more networked or integrated approach in later sessions. (See Collaborating with Faculty for more detail on 'networked' and 'integrated').

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