First year students working in the new laboratories in the School.

In December 2002 the Head of School established a working party (Kate Wilson (chair), Jaan Oitmaa, John Smith, Joe Wolfe) to advise on ways of improving the quality of teaching and learning in the School. The working party produced a report in January 2003 containing 16 recommendations. They emphasized the high priority that the School places on teaching and learning.

The recommendations of the report have been taken very seriously by the School, and are now almost fully implemented. Some highlights are:

• To improve teaching practices, a set of “Guidelines for Lecturers” has been produced by the First Year Director and Undergraduate Teaching Director, containing advice in the areas of course design, assessment practices, learning activities, and student feedback.

• To improve student information, course outlines on the School website have been upgraded to conform with University guidelines, suitable for use as course handouts.

• Improved student feedback mechanisms are being put in place. WebCT pages have been set up for all First Year courses, and higher years will follow. Lecturers have been asked to provide more feedback to students on their progress after assignments and mid-term exams.

• A new special seminar program has been introduced for 2nd year Physics majors, to stimulate their interest in physics, and introduce them to the School’s activities. The program includes talks by staff and students, and tours of the School laboratory areas such as quantum computing (Michelle Simmons), photonics (Mike Gal), and acoustics (Joe Wolfe).

• Under the new Postgraduate Assistants scheme, graduate students working as tutors and demonstrators are given training in a series of workshops conducted by both the School and Faculty.

Chris Hamer