How can a “Welcome Site” on NILE help you?

Many subjects in the School of Social Sciences are creating Welcome sites on NILE. They aim to provide information and ongoing help to prospective students considering studying at the University and to support new students in their first year of studies when they arrive.

Faith Tucker (SL- Geography) has provided some feedback from the Geography Welcome site which was made available to guests on NILE earlier this year.

Faith explains in her evaluation document the types of content they provided and which areas were accessed most by students. The most popular areas were “Study with us”; “Assignments”; “Teaching Staff”; “FAQs” and “Useful links”.

In total there were 1131 hits in September 2011 – most occurring between 14th and 20th September. This demonstrates how prospective students utilised the site to supplement their ongoing awareness of the Geography courses.

Direct Student feedback on the most useful areas include::
“the Welcome Week timetable and also getting acquainted with Blackboard before the start of the course”
“timetable, teaching staff, course/module information”
“the module information so I knew what to expect, and the tutors so I knew who was who”

The Geography department will continue to update and use the welcome module and are considering providing a link to the site to those attending Applicant Visit Days in the early part of 2011-12 to evaluate the level of success for students pre-entry.