Writing Online Exams

Rachel Horrocks Birss Blended Learning, Lightning Sessions, Study Skills 9th April 2021Academic Skills, Blended Learning, challenges, Digital, exams, Lightning Sessions, online, online tools, revision, self-care, time management, university, wellbeing 0 Comment

Online exams might be new to most of us, but they’re no more difficult than traditional exams. While there are some challenges, like sorting out your tech set-up, there also are some unique benefits, particularly in terms of wellbeing.

In this Lightning Session, we cover all aspects of writing online exams, from putting your wellbeing first to managing your time to handling tech errors. Watch the recording, then scroll down for our top tips!

1 Write Healthy

Traditionally, exams were short and intense. While some online exams will just be 2-3 hours, many others will give you a much longer period, anywhere from 12 hours to a week! If you have one of these longer exams, it’s vital that you don’t work constantly during that period. In fact, it’s often best to write the exam in a 2-3 hour period, just like before.

Here are a few wellbeing tips for extended online exams:

Set up your space. Find a quiet spot, and make sure your desk is tidy. Gather everything you need, like pencil and paper, and make sure your phone is on silent or in another room.
Establish boundaries. These can be interpersonal (make sure your family or flatmates know not to disturb you) or personal (decide what time you want to stop working every day, and stick to it).
Eat, sleep, and exercise. Make sure your exam doesn’t interfere with these important activities. You should also drink lots of water and eat healthy snacks during the exam, and even take quick breaks to stretch or meditate.

2 Write Smart

Running out of time during an exam is a major worry for many students. Even in a longer exam, it’s important to know how to plan out your exam to get the most out of your time.

Read the full paper. Before starting to write, make sure you know exactly how many questions there are and which ones you’ll answer.
Make a plan. It’s helpful to allocate a certain amount of time to each question, ideally based on how much the question is worth. If you’ve got one question worth 30% and one worth 70%, then you don’t want to run way over time on the first question and end up only half-finishing the longer one.
Know how to avoid plagiarism and collusion. You can read more in our Collusion vs. Collaboration guide, but the key thing is to follow the Academic Misconduct Statement you’ll find in your exam module. This says that you aren’t allowed to talk to anyone (including friends, family, coursemates, or university staff) about your exam. Sending a friend an encouraging “I know you can do this!” text before the exam starts is okay, but definitely steer clear of any chat about which questions you’re answering or what sources they’re using.
Finish Well. Leave a significant chunk of time at the end to go over your exam. This allows you to fix any errors in your work, and it also means that if something goes wrong during the upload, you still have plenty of time to fix it.

3 Troubleshooting Your Tech

If something goes wrong during your exam, don’t panic! There are all sorts of ways to fix any error that comes up. Here of the first things you should do:

Read the error message. Error messages on My Dundee are generally fairly good at telling you what the problem really is, so take a minute to read it carefully.
Clear your cache and cookies. If you’re getting an unusual login pop-up, follow these instructions to clear your cache and cookies, or try using an incognito browser.
Try a different browser. Often, simply switching browsers will get around unusual errors.
Save as a different file type. If your file won’t submit, switching to another format (such as PDF) often helps. You can do this easily in word with the “save as” function.
Compress your images. If your file is too big to upload, follow these directions to compress images in your word document.

We hope this Lightning Session has made you feel more confident about writing your online exams! You can find more top tips in our Writing Online Exams Guide, or in our Revision Bites resource.

Revising for Online Exams

Rachel Horrocks Birss Blended Learning, Study Skills 9th April 2021Academic Skills, Blended Learning, challenges, Digital, exams, Lightning Sessions, online tools, recall, referencing, retrieval, revision, self-care, time management, university, wellbeing 0 Comment

Revising for online exams involves many of the same techniques and strategies as in-person exams. It’s important to focus on active rather than passive learning and to practice information retrieval and recall. If these terms are new to you, then check out our Effective Revision lightning session, or our Revision Bites resource for more information.

That said, there are several key differences between online and traditional exams. For starters, online exams tend to be “open book,” meaning you’re allowed to use notes and textbooks during the exam. This may feel like it makes the exam easier, but, actually, it means that the focus shifts from memorising to understanding. Rather than cramming your head with facts, your revision should be about making connections and figuring out how to use the information.

Also, the technological aspect of online exams may be daunting for some of us, particularly if we’ve got slow devices or internet. Fortunately, there are several ways you can test the technology ahead of time so you can have more confidence on the day!

To learn more, watch the recording of our Lightning Session, then scroll down for our top tips!

1 Revise Healthy

Revision can be a stressful time, so it’s important to prioritise your wellbeing during these weeks. Here are a few top wellbeing suggestions:

Take breaks! When you feel your focus lagging, get away from the screen for a little bit. A quick cup of tea, a brisk walk, or even a few minutes enjoying your hobbies will rejuvenate your mind.
Establish boundaries. Ideally, you’ll have a separate place to work (ie, a desk rather than your bed) away from where you typically relax. At the end of the day, leave the work behind and focus on relaxing, instead!
Remember to eat, sleep, and exercise. Research shows that healthy food improves your brain function, while exercise and sleep are essential for memory consolidation.

2 Revise Smart

The most important thing is to know the format of your exam. How many questions will there be, and will they be short-answer or essay length? Will you have a choice between questions? Are you expected to refer to secondary sources, and, if so, do you need to provide full references? If you’re not sure about your exam format, then you should check My Dundee and email your tutor if you have further questions.

Once you know the format, it’s important to focus your revision on understanding, rather than memorisation. If your exam is open book, you don’t need to cram facts into your head! Instead, make sure you have well-structured notes that are easily searchable (ctrl + F is your friend!). If you need to reference, make sure you have a full bibliography of all your sources before the exam begins. Having a solid grasp of how your module fits together and knowing where to find everything is key for an online exam.

3 Test Your Tech!

To make sure everything goes smoothly on the day, you should use your practice exam module to get familiar with the tech before the exam. You can find your practice exam module on My Dundee, but if it’s still locked, you can see what it will look like in the recording of this Lightning Session.

It’s important to practice uploading your exam paper, just to test how long it takes. This will also let you know if you’ve got the right kind of file. It’s also best to do your test using the same equipment you’ll use for the exam; there’s no point making sure everything works on your phone if you’re actually going to write the exam on your laptop!

We hope this brief overview helps you prepare for your upcoming exams! For a more comprehensive guide, see our Revising for Online Exams resource, or check out our Writing Online Exams Lightning Session!

Revision Research

Rachel Horrocks Birss Blended Learning, Library, Lightning Sessions, Study Skills 7th April 2021Academic Skills, Blended Learning, challenges, Digital, exams, library, Lightning Sessions, literature search, online, online tools, reading, referencing, research, revision, university 0 Comment

A key part of revision is research. Whether you’re actively seeking out new papers or just brushing up on material from the module, finding and reading the right information will be central to your revision.

Typically, we’d associate revision and research with going to the library. While we are not yet back to pre-COVID normality on campus, the Library is still available as a place of study for those who take solace among the books, provided COVID safety restrictions are adhered to. A key one of the restrictions is pre-booking your study desk before attending the Library, as we are still operating at reduced seating capacity. You will also need to abide by social distancing of two meters and wear a face covering throughout your stay at the Library.

The Library offers more than just a quiet space for study, though, as it also provides you with access to the resources that your lecturers recommend you read for your module. Most lecturers use our Resource List platform to organise the reading for a module. Revisiting this list should be on your revision agenda, making sure you haven’t skipped over anything important and supplementing your course notes with evidence you can cite in exams.

To learn more about the library and resource lists, watch the recording of our Lightning Session. Then, keep scrolling to read our Top Tips for making the most of your revision time!

Top Tips for Research

Before beginning to research, it’s important to know what you’re looking for. The questions below will help you identify how much reading you need to do and how to focus on key sources.

How many sources you will realistically need to cite or refer to during your exam? This will vary depending on your exam format and your tutor’s instructions.
What sources are key to the module and would be expected to be referred to in an exam answer? For example, is there a key theorist or expert in that area, or a core text your lecturer used?
What are the key points you can distil from an article and how do these fit into the learning objectives of the module?
Do you have any gaps in your knowledge? The recommended or further reading suggestions in the Resource List might held fill these!
Will you be expected to format references in a certain way during an exam? Having references prepared and ready to copy and paste into an answer will save time and avoid stress!
Organising and cross-referencing your sources by topic in your notes can also help you to structure your exam answers and find the information you need under time pressure.

Effective Revision

Rachel Horrocks Birss Lightning Sessions, Study Skills 7th April 20217th April 2021Academic Skills, active learning, challenges, exams, Lightning Sessions, productivity, recall, retrieval, revision, time management, university, work 0 Comment

Do you spend hours revising but struggle to retain the information? Feel like no matter how hard you work you can never do yourself justice in exams? What if it’s not you, but rather the way you’ve learned to revise that’s the issue?

Research suggests that many common and popular revision techniques, such as re-writing notes or memorising PowerPoints, are highly ineffective and inefficient. That’s because they are passive revision techniques, which lead to short-term, surface level learning.

Using more active techniques encourages deeper, longer-term learning and should (hopefully) lead to better marks.

Watch the recording of our Lightning Session on ‘Effective Revision’ then scroll down for some tips on how you can start to incorporate active techniques into your revision.

Tip 1: Don’t change everything overnight

While you want to maximise your revision and minimise ineffective techniques, it’s better not to change too much at one time. Think evolution rather than revolution.

Try out one or two of the suggested active techniques and incorporate them into your revision. Over time you can explore more of these techniques and build a toolkit of approaches that work for you.

Meanwhile, look out for passive techniques which take up a lot of your time for little or no reward, and start to replace them with the active techniques that work for you.

Tip 2: Two key concepts

Active learning is all about information retrieval or recall. Put simply, the more often you have to retrieve or recall information from your brain, the more strongly you’ll reinforce that learning.

Another key concept is spaced practice. Research suggests that spreading out your studying over a longer period of time is more effective and leads to better learning than if you spend the same amount of time crammed into a shorter period.

This means that the earlier you start revising the better, and that doing some work as the semester progresses will reduce the number of hours you need to put in come exam revision time.

But it can also help in the revision period itself. Imagine you allocate two hours to a particular topic. It will pay to spread that two hours out over several weeks, perhaps in half-hour slots, rather than spending two hours on the topic in one sitting then ticking it off as done. Hopefully, you can also see how this approach would also allow you to build in that element of information retrieval we mentioned above.

You can read more about these concepts in Revision Bites.

Tip 3: Find the active techniques that work for you

Popular active revision techniques include:

Flashcards
Past papers or sample papers
Teaching or discussing a topic
Study partners or groups
Brain dump
Creating mind maps

We discuss these – and many others – in more detail in the Lightning Session and on Revision Bites, so be sure to check both out if you haven’t already. But be aware that not every technique will work for you, and not every technique which works will do so in every situation.

Your goal is to arm yourself with a range of options which, over time, will allow you to approach revision and exams with real confidence.

This blog post was written by Dr Gordon Spark, Academic Skills Centre.

Developing Confidence

Rachel Horrocks Birss Lightning Sessions 12th March 2021Academic Skills, challenges, confidence, imposter syndrome, Lightning Sessions, self-care, university, wellbeing, work 1 Comment

For many of us, feeling confident at university isn’t something that comes naturally. When we’re surrounded by so many intelligent people, we might feel like we’re not as smart as everyone else, or like we don’t belong. This feeling is called Imposter Syndrome, and almost everyone experiences it at some point- even academics at the top of their careers!

Even if we aren’t naturally confident, the good news is that there are all kinds of tips and tricks we can use to develop our confidence while at university. Watch the recording of our Lightning Session, then scroll down for our top tips!

1. Get Organized

Confidence is all about having control, and the best way to feel in control of your life is to get organised. This will typically involve using a diary and/or a to-do list to keep track of your tasks and make sure you start your assignments on time. When you’ve got everything written down and planned out, then you can move forward with your work, without stressing about whether or not you’ve forgotten something.

2. Stay Positive

As human beings, we often tend to focus on the negative. When we get an exam back, we notice the one question we got wrong, not the nine we answered correctly. To improve your confidence, take steps to remember the good things you’ve accomplished, like keeping a folder of positive feedback or a “Done” list of everything you’ve accomplished that day/week/semester.

3. Watch Your Self-Talk

All human beings have something that psychologists call our “explanatory style.” For an example, when you get a good mark on an essay, do you think “I’m a good writer,” or do you think, “My marker is really generous”? Similarly, if you do poorly on an exam, do you think, “I’m so stupid” or do you remember that you had a migraine that day, so you couldn’t do your best work? The way that we explain events to ourselves has a massive impact on our confidence, so the next time you find yourself explaining away a positive event or blaming yourself for a negative event, take a moment to notice your self-talk and consider other, more positive, explanations.

Report Writing

Rachel Horrocks Birss Essays, Lightning Sessions 24th February 2021Academic Skills, Lightning Sessions, reports, research, university, writing 0 Comment

Report writing is a skill required in many disciplines, such as Life Sciences, Engineering, Business, and some Medical disciplines. It is different from essay writing in a number of key respects but follows many of the conventions of academic writing.

We normally write reports in response to a problem: something has gone wrong and we require a solution. This is particularly true in industry and business where processes can break down and solutions need to be found and evaluated. Reports are very rarely written when everything is working perfectly!

Most reports that students write will be relatively short and normally be part of a response to a particular experiment or situation you have been presented with.

Watch our Lightning Session to learn more about report writing, then scroll down for our top three tips!

Tip 1: Know the Purpose

What is the purpose of your report? Before you start writing, it’s important to know what your report is for, and who will be reading it.

Here are a few reasons why we write reports:

To describe something
To specify (technical)
To evaluate options and make recommendations
To enable discussion

It is worth considering who your audience is for your report, and to be aware of their needs in terms of how technical (or otherwise) your report ought to be.

Tip 2: Know the Format

The format of a report varies depending on what’s known as the “House Style” of your discipline. I’ll outline a generic report writing format below, but I always advise students to become familiar with the requirements of their discipline: this will often be outlined on your Module Handbook or in the VLE Module for that subject.

In very broad-brush terms, here is a standard format for a report:

Abstract
Introduction/background/aims & objectives
Methods & Materials
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
Recommendations for future action
Bibliography
Appendices

Tip 3: Know the Style

The style of writing adopted in a report can be more factual than you might use in an essay, and be more to-the-point, i.e., less discursive. However, particularly in the discussion and conclusion sections you will still be expected to discuss and analysis the results of the work you have presented, so there will still be elements of essay writing style in your report.

Reports rarely use the 1^st person, and lists, tables and bullet points are perfectly acceptable as part of your writing. Headings are also encouraged in report writing whereas they are discouraged in essays. Appendices may be used as a way to include more detailed information that is useful for your reader, but not required for the main part of your report, i.e., the questions for a survey or data tables, for example.

There are examples of reports in all walks of life, but the best way to improve your report writing is to read academic reports in your own discipline. Reading published reports in your discipline will give you a better idea of the expectations your tutors will have of your work.

This blog post was written by Michael Allardice (Academic Skills Centre).

Finding Your Academic Voice

Rachel Horrocks Birss Essays, Lightning Sessions 23rd February 2021academic, Academic Skills, challenges, Essays, Lightning Sessions, university, writing 0 Comment

Have you ever been told you need to ‘write more academically’? Ever had feedback that you need to develop a more academic voice’? Ever wished you knew how to ‘write like an academic’?

Such feedback is not uncommon and, whilst the advice itself is often valid, when it’s framed in these ways the comments can be confusing, demotivating and in some cases downright unhelpful.

It is important to communicate your ideas, arguments and findings in an appropriate and confident manner. But this is sometimes presented as a greater challenge than it really should be. Whatever your level of writing, you can – over time – develop a style of writing (and presenting) that is appropriate to your discipline area.

Have a look at the recording of our Lightning Session on ‘Finding your Academic Voice’ then scroll down for a summary of the three key steps you can take to develop your confidence in this area.

Step 1: Apply the simple conventions of academic writing

There’s no single set of conventions that apply to every bit of academic communication. For example, there is a clear distinction between the style of writing in Science subjects compared to say Humanities. Likewise, the ‘rules’ may change slightly depending on whether you’re writing ay a formal essay, a piece of reflection, or a report.

So it’s important to recognise the conventions for the specific type of writing you are doing, and then to apply these conventions to that work. We explore the common ones in the Lightning Session, so go back and have a look at that part of the recording if you’re still not sure what they are.

Step 2: Talk the language of your subject

As well as the general conventions mentioned above, every subject or discipline has its own language or technical vocabulary – words and phrases that someone outside of the discipline may struggle to understand but which instantly convey meaning to those in the know. Using this language confidently and competently is a key step in developing a confident and effective academic voice.

One of the great ways to develop your confidence here is to pay attention to the reading that you do. How do other people write about your subject? What kind of language do they use? Beyond just the vocabulary though, pay attention also to how they make arguments, how they use evidence, how they attempt to persuade you as the reader.

Step 3: Keep it simple, clear and authentic

People often fall into the trap of trying too hard to sound ‘academic’. Academic voice does not mean writing torturously long sentences or having a thesaurus beside you so you can find a fancy long word to replace a perfectly adequate short one.

If you’re following steps 1 & 2 then you’re well on your way to developing an authentic and effective academic voice. The final step is to write as clearly and simply as possible. The great thing about this is that, as you develop your confidence, that ‘simple’ level of writing will naturally increase, so that over time you will find yourself using more complex language and putting more of your personality into the writing.

But don’t force it – if you’re at the start of that journey, focus on doing the basics well and things will evolve naturally from that point.

This blog post was written by Dr Gordon Spark (Academic Skills Centre)

Getting the Most from Recorded Lectures

Rachel Horrocks Birss Blended Learning, Lightning Sessions, Study Skills 8th February 20218th February 2021Academic Skills, Blended Learning, challenges, Lightning Sessions, online lectures, recall, recorded lectures, revision, university, work 0 Comment

Recorded lectures are a now-familiar feature in many modules and degree programmes. As more and more of us spend more and more of our time engaging with online recorded lectures, it’s important that we understand how to engage effectively with this ‘new’ way of learning.

Sometimes, you can both attend the lecture ‘live’ online and watch the recording afterwards. In other cases, there is no live option and viewing the recording is your only way of engaging with that lecture.

Either way, recorded lectures present both benefits and potential challenges. While they let you organise your time flexibly, it’s also easy to feel overwhelmed by the volume of material you need to get through. Likewise, although looking over content again can be helpful in certain circumstances, it’s easy to find yourself spending an unsustainable amount of time on each recording.

The solution is to understand what you need to get out of these lectures and to develop an effective set of strategies for engaging with the material. That’s just what we discussed in the Lightning Talk on ‘Getting the Most from Recorded Lectures’, so why not watch the recording of that workshop now, then scroll down for our top tips?

Tip 1: Do some Prep

One way you can engage more effectively with recorded lectures (in fact with any kind of lecture) is to do some preparation to work out what you need to get out of the lecture.

For example, you might begin by brainstorming what you already know about that topic. If parts of the lecture cover things you’re already aware of, there’s much less need for you to make notes on those sections.

Doing this also helps you to highlight questions that you might have about the topic – you can then be particularly on the lookout for parts of the lecture that cover the things you don’t yet understand fully.

Tip 2: Watch Straight Through

One of the downsides of recorded lectures is that it becomes very easy to spend hours on each lecture. While it’s tempting to keep pausing the lecture replaying sections in order to make more detailed notes, this will likely result in an impossible workload.

So, try not to press the pause button. Instead, if there’s a bit you might want to go back to later, quickly note down the time in the video but keep watching. It may be that after you’ve watched the rest of the lecture it makes more sense anyway, but if not, you’ll easily be able to go back and fill in the gaps.

Tip 3: Review, Recall, but don’t Repeat

Don’t be tempted to listen to the lecture over and over. It’s good to have the recordings there as a safety net, but they’re not recorded with the intention that you should spend hours and hours on each one. Instead, review what you’ve taken from the lecture and identify any gaps in your knowledge and understanding.

For example, simply take a blank piece of paper and quickly brainstorm everything you can remember from the lecture, then use your notes to work out where the gaps might be. You can then revisit selected parts of the lecture to shore up those gaps, or you could do some additional research into the topic.

For more information on review and recall, including more suggested strategies, see our Revision Bites resource, and particularly the section on Building Recall.

STEP UP to Blended Learning

Rachel Horrocks Birss Essays, Lightning Sessions, Study Skills 8th January 20218th February 2021Academic Skills, challenges, focus, lectures, Lightning Sessions, motivation, online lectures, Procrastination, productivity, recorded lectures, self-care, time management, university, wellbeing 2 Comments

Welcome to Semester Two!

Whether you’re returning to campus or staying at home, this is hardly the semester any of us wished for. The recent lockdown and increased restrictions are challenging for us all. If you’re struggling to stay motivated while working from home, or you just can’t get used to recorded lectures, don’t worry– you’re not alone!

To support you in this challenging time, the Academic Skills Centre has created resources addressing these two key issues: Online Lectures, and Focus and Motivation.

For more support in a whole variety of areas, check out the full programme of Lightning Sessions.

Independent Learning Units

If you prefer working in your own time, log in to the Blended Learning for Students organisation on My Dundee. There, you’ll find two new units: Focus and Motivation, and Getting the Most from Recorded Lectures.

These units contain our top tips for learning in this new environment. You’ll find text, videos, and quizzes to help you test your knowledge. Each unit will take approximately an hour to work through, and you can dip in and out as you like.

Lightning Sessions

To kick off the semester, we ran two Lightning Sessions at the beginning of semester. The sessions lasted just 30 minutes, and we converted them into blog posts afterwards! Whether you missed the sessions, or you want a refresher, you can find both of them on our blog.

Getting the Most out of Recorded Lectures

Extracting relevant information from online lectures is a whole new challenge. Learn how to get the most out of your online lectures, without having to re-watch the recording seven times.

Focus and Motivation

Without as many on-campus classes and social opportunities, it can be hard to stay motivated. Watch this session to learn how to be more focussed while working online, and how to motivate yourself in difficult circumstances.

Managing Stress

Rachel Horrocks Birss Lightning Sessions, Study Skills 15th December 2020productivity, self-care, stress, time management, university, wellbeing, work 0 Comment

It’s hard to work when we’re feeling overwhelmed. Whether we’re struggling to keep up with deadlines, or we’re handling difficult circumstances in our personal lives, most of us will experience at least some level of stress while at university.

The first step to managing stress is to realise that stress isn’t a sign of weakness. Rather, stress is a physiological response to a perceived threat. Feeling some stress about an assignment isn’t a sign that you shouldn’t be at uni. Rather, it’s a completely normal response to a challenge.

Secondly, stress isn’t all bad. In fact, low levels of stress can actually increase our productivity! When stress gets to be too much, however, it’s important to seek help. If stress is impacting your physical or mental wellbeing, you should talk to a trusted friend, or get in contact with the University’s counselling services.

Finally, stress isn’t something we’re stuck with. While we can never totally eliminate stress from our lives, we can improve our response to it. By applying some targeted strategies, we can learn to manage stress and stay happy and healthy in the face of challenges!

To learn how to manage stress, watch our Lightning Session, then read the tips below.

[To skip the intros, jump straight to 2:17]

In the Lightning Session, we discuss at least a dozen different ways to manage stress. Here are our top three:

Take Care of Yourself

When we’re busy, self-care becomes the first thing to go. While we may not all have time for leisurely bubble baths, it’s important to take care of ourselves in several basic ways. Getting a good night’s sleep, exercising, and eating healthily are all major contributors to our overall wellbeing. If we’re feeling stressed or sad, going for a quick run or walk outdoors can have a significant impact on our mood.

It’s worth prioritising these things, even if that means we have less time for work. Going to bed on time, then waking up refreshed, will make you far more productive than staying up all night trying to finish your essay. If you take good care of your body, you’ll be able to get more done in less time.

Break it Down

Don’t try to get everything done at once. Instead, break your large tasks (such as “write essay”) down into manageable chunks (for example, “write introduction” or “research for 45 minutes”). Big tasks are unmotivating and can be overwhelming, while smaller ones give you that all-important sense of achievement.

It’s also okay to work for shorter blocks of time. Rather than setting aside a full day to work, try working in smaller segments, perhaps just 20 minutes to an hour. Working for shorter periods, then taking intentional breaks, will help you maintain focus, which makes you more productive.

Do the Things You Love

When we’re stressed, we feel like we need to work all the time. In fact, the opposite is true. During stressful times, it’s important to stay connected to the things that are important to us. This could mean spending time with family or friends, playing a sport, or working on a creative project. Doing enjoyable activities is actually one of the best ways to manage stress, which increases both our happiness and our productivity!