3.1. SMS Early Warning System
Taking cues from work carried out at the University of Brighton [6] it was decided that
the Short Message Service (SMS) of mobile telephones could be used to great effect.
To avoid presenting the role of Director of Learning Support in a negative light, it was
decided that students should not be required to provide a mobile telephone number,
rather that they should be asked to volunteer it. In fact, nearly all students volunteered
a mobile telephone number.
It was decided that the Director of Learning Support would contact students by
SMS immediately upon them missing any continuous assessment component of the class.
This was completely different to the approach taken in previous years where students
were contacted about missing work at the end of the first semester. For students who
had missed a number of deadlines, the end of the first semester could be too late for
them to do anything constructive and, invariably, they failed the course. It was hoped,
therefore, that contact early in the semester might lessen the impact of missed deadlines
and help more students succeed.
3.2. Extra Academic Support
Traditional methods for extra academic support typically consist entirely of a series
of extra revision classes or large-class tutorials. However, revision classes are usually
optional and tend to attract the only academically committed who do not necessarily
need the extra help [7]. Therefore, it was decided that a more proactive approach was
needed. All students would be able to make use of optional drop-in tutorials, run by
a few members of staff providing one-to-one tuition and students who appeared to be
underachieving would be personally invited to attend. By presenting the nature of this
extra academic support as part of an integrated whole-class approach it was hoped that
a positive academic outcome would be achieved.
4. New Initiatives in the Administration of Level 1 Physics in 2007-08
4.1. Continuous Assessment
Continuous assessment has long been known as a means of helping the weaker students
improve their overall grade [8] as well as improving learning [9]. Therefore, as part of the
overall restructure of the level 1 physics course, the proportion continuous assessment
contributed to the final grade was increased from 20% to 40% with the remainder of
the assessment being taken from an end-of-course degree exam. Previously, continuous
assessment had been attributed entirely to laboratory work.
In 2007-08, the class head introduced a series of four 20-minute multiple choice
(MCQ) workshop-tests for each of Physics 1X and Physics 1Y. These were worth 20%
in total or 5% per test per module. The MCQ format was chosen because it meant that
the tests could be marked automatically, a necessity when the class contains upwards of