Measuring the extent of online placement resources to support computing students

Transcription

1 Measuring the extent of online placement resources to support computing students Nzinga Deenah Birmingham City University Millennium Point Curzon Street, Birmingham Thomas Lancaster Birmingham City University Millennium Point Curzon Street, Birmingham Abstract During recent years UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have faced increasing pressure to enhance the employability skills of students and graduates through such initiatives as sandwich year placements. The relationship between these industrial placements and the employability of students has been widely explored. The positive association between the two seems to be accepted by practitioners and educationalists alike. In order to support students with obtaining placements, HEIs need to provide students with work-preparation skills and learning resources. Provision for these should ideally include digital formats. This paper presents the results of an analysis of the content of 116 UK HEI websites. The study was intended to identify the placement information and learning resources available on the websites and focused towards the Computing discipline. Whilst 110 out of 116 (95%) HEIs provided general information about placements on their website, only 73 out of 116 (63%) provided a specific page for Computing. An analysis of the availability of placement learning resources also showed that this was very mixed across the sector. The paper is intended to share the best practice for the provision of online placement resources in use across UK HEIs. This approach can then be duplicated at a local HEI level to support students in the acquisition of placements and the gaining of work-experience. Keywords Employability, student placements, resources, computing Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission The Higher Education Academy

2 1. Introduction One of the key drivers behind making students employable and providing them with work experience whilst at university is the move towards industrial placements being a standard part of their course. Dearing (1997) recommended that every student should be provided with the opportunity to undertake a placement. The particular benefits of the industrial sandwich year placement, where a student spends a year between their second and final year working for an organisation, are well established within the Computing academic discipline. The placement experience allows students to benefit from working in a real organisation, to develop their interpersonal skills and to return to the classroom with a greater motivation to succeed and to progress into the world of work. Despite these benefits, the percentage of students undertaking a placement seems to have been reducing. Part of this appears to be linked to a general decline in the Computing job market within recent years. It is believed that employment prospects for Computing students are improving and so industrial sandwich year placement opportunities will be available in greater numbers. Students are now beginning to take into account the availability of placements when selecting which courses to study and which Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to apply to. Key Information Sets (KISs) information is now available for students to review online when selecting courses. This contains information about the employment obtained by previous graduates and the salary that went with this employment. The way in which courses and resources are marketed online is more important now than ever. It is necessary for HEIs to provide information, education and learning resources to meet the needs of the prospective student body. This paper reviews a process of content analysis of existing HEI websites to identify current practice regarding the provision of placement information and student resources. It is intended that the best practice identified can be replicated locally by HEIs. 2. Methodology A multi-faceted quantitative and content analysis research approach was used within this research. The aim was to identify current online web pages and resources provided by HEIs offering degree level computing courses to undergraduate students. As a part of the wider Higher Education Academy (HEA) funded project to which this research study is attached, 116 HEIs providing three year degree level Computing courses across the UK were identified. A number of sources were used to gather a definitive and current l i s t. These resources included identification using a subject search on the

3 Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (2012) (UCAS) database, use of the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing (2012) (CPHC) databank and the incorporation of data from a number of smaller sources. The process for producing the list of HEIs also identified whether or not the HEI provided a sandwich year placement option for Computing students. Out of the 116 HEIs, 79 (68%) appeared to provide the option of sandwich year Computing placements. 37 out of 116 (32%) did not have the provision of sandwich year placements attributed to them. It should be noted that the HEIs who did not provide sandwich year placements may have provided work experience of another type, such as giving students day release from their studies to allow them to work in industry or the provision of short-term placements during vacation periods. The HEIs may also have provided sandwich year placements for academic disciplines other than Computing. The process taken to identify placement information was as follows. The web site for each HEI was manually searched and analysed for placement information during September Each site was studied for a maximum of fifteen minutes. This time duration was chosen to reflect a realistic search for placement information as would be carried out by a student. Not all resources made available by HEIs will have been found and recorded. For instance some information may have been invisible to searches from off-site users. Information available on HEI websites may also have been present but also not have been identified due to the time limitation put in place for the manual search process. Specifically, identification was made as to whether or not the HEI websites contained information about the following key areas: placement resources, placement initiatives, a general placements page, employer engagement information and a specific Computing placements page, whether for traditional full industrial sandwich years or for shorter time periods. A selection of different search terms were used to identify the placement information. These included employability, placements, professional placement, sandwich year placement, learning resources, placement resources, placement initiative, employer engagement and services for business. The remainder of the paper presents the key findings from this research study. 3. Key Observations A notable initial observation showed that 110 out of 116 (95%) HEI websites provided general information on placements. 6 out of 116 (5%) of HEIs did not have a visible placement page on their web site. Since opportunities for work experience should be a key part of any Computing course, the fact that 6 HEIs did not clearly provide this information has to be seen as concerning.

4 Figure 1 presents of a comparison the information provided on the websites of the HEIs that supplied sandwich year Computing placements with those HEIs that did not provide sandwich year Computing placements. HEIs With Sandwich Year Computing Placements (79 out of 116, 68%) Information Information Not HEIs Without Sandwich Year Computing Placements (37 out of 116, 32%) Information Information Not Key Areas Number % Number % Number % Number % Initiatives Shown On Page 61 77% 18 23% 25 68% 12 32% General Placements Page 77 97% 2 3% 33 89% 4 11% Computing Placements Page 65 82% 14 18% 8 22% 29 78% Employer Engagement Page 78 99% 1 1% 32 86% 5 14% Figure 1 A Comparison Of The Placement Information Available On HEI Websites A further analysis of the data in Figure 1 revealed that only 70 out of the 116 (60%) HEIs provided all three of the General Placements Page, Computing Placements Page and Employer Engagement Page. These did include all 20 of the top 20 placement providers, who were identified by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) as providing 70% of all placements within the UK. Combining the figures showed that placement initiatives were visible on 86 out of 116 (74%) websites. Figure 2 further compares the resources made available for students on the websites of the identified HEIs. These resources may be hosted and prepared locally. Alternatively, they may be links to external resources. All are classified depending on where in the placement process they are used. Examples of pre-placement resources include training on interview techniques and writing CVs. Examples from during the placement include expected duties and support mechanisms. Examples from the post placement period include debriefing and reflection. Further, the HEIs that make any use of external resources are also identified. HEIs With Sandwich Year Computing Placements (79 out of 116, 68%) Resources Resources Not HEIs Without Sandwich Year Computing Placements (37 out of 116, 32%) Resources Resources Not Key Areas Number % Number % Number % Number % Pre-Placement Resources 57 72% 22 28% 22 59% 15 41% During Placement Resources 19 24% 60 76% 3 8% 34 92% Post Placement Resources 13 16% 66 84% 0 0% % Links To External Resources 62 78% 17 22% 24 65% 13 35% Figure 2 A Comparison Of The Resources On HEI Websites

5 The results in Figure 2 demonstrate a positive trend, that HEIs are providing their own resources and they are making use of those provided externally, such as Gradcracker, Step and Year In Industry. However, whilst pre-placement resources are commonly made available, fewer resources are evident once a student starts their placement or are provided to allow them to re-evaluate after the conclusion of their placements. These are all areas where improvements should be possible. 4. Conclusion Overall, the results from the content analysis of the HEI websites showed mixed provision of resources and that there are improvements which can be made across the sector. As well as training and resources, HEIs need to publicly provide information showing the benefits of placements to encourage more of their students to take up such opportunities. Such provision is already common in the HEIs that provide the majority of UK placements. Further quantitative analysis as to whether placement information and resources can be found by searchers is needed at the departmental Computing level rather than the institutional level. Such analysis is also needed within other STEM disciplines. The good practice whereby HEIs are seen to be promoting existing external resources that meet the needs of their students should be continued. A lot of useful placement resources are available on a national level. HEIs do seem to need additional support to identify which of these resources are useful for them and how they should be used. Further study is needed to identify areas in which placement resources are missing. Finally, help should be available to enable to HEIs to develop resources to fill these gaps in a collaborative manner. Acknowledgements This work has been funded by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Teaching Development Grant Improving Industrial Sandwich Year Placements for Computing Students. The support of Research Associate, Kawal Banga, was appreciated. This included preparing the initial list considered definitive of HEIs offering Computing undergraduate courses, providing research for the wider HEA project which has fed into this paper and developing consistent terminology for use throughout this research. 5. References Dearing, R. (1997), The National Committee Of Inquiry Into Higher Education: HE For The Twenty-First Century. London: HMSO The Council of Professors and Heads of Computing (2012), [2 July 2012] Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (2012), [2 July 2012]