Participants' Stories two
Bree - Undergraduate Student - Student on a low Income
"I tried using the campus counselling services, and now I have structured my study so I am only on campus after hours for library research."
Brigitte - Teaching Staff - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
"The international students in my class have fascinating work to share with the rest of the group. Often they would write a personally meaningful story, for example a travel story about a city in China they had visited or a wonderful cultural commentary on the Chung Sam. The local students were genuinely interested so it provided the opportunity to share some of the international students’ own background. We talked about publishing opportunities, and students would suggest certain overseas newspapers as a good place to present these articles. We expanded our reference of publishing from local press. This experience broadened the scope of my teaching experience beyond my current expertise."
Charles - Teaching Staff - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
"I approached my School and the Learning Centre and we employed someone with appropriate teaching ESL skills to provide some test counselling half a day a week for any student who wanted to have help with their written English. She wouldn't rewrite it for them, but she would take them through the work and address the key problems. And we did this for a semester, and the teacher wrote a report which identified some key problems. But it was actually more useful for the teachers because it meant we understood where the issues were in the native language that would affect the way the students were speaking and writing English."
David - Teaching Staff - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
If I write something on the board there's a corresponding handout and it is also backed up on WebCT for student access anytime. This helps rural students who are studying by distance and international students who may find my speed of talking very fast or my accent difficult to understand. Most issues are resolved via texting or WebCT.
Duc - Administrative Staff - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
"Any student, no what age or circumstance may need some technical support. There are sets of instructions, but I think students can become overwhelmed, stressed or not know the right question to ask. Too many written instructions or pieces of equipment can sometimes make it harder for the students. They occasionally need human interaction and having someone sit next to them to assist can help a lot."
Emily - Teaching Staff - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
After telling students about common problems in assignments, I’d ask them to go back to their own essay and reflect on that and ask themselves if they had those particular problems and that kind of thing. So that's another way of building in explicitness without just telling them what the issues are, but getting them to delve in to work that's very relevant and get them to think about it.
Eva - Undergraduate student - Non English speaking background
In general I found classmates and staff considerate and at times extremely helpful. I try my best to engage in the tutorial and then if I need more assistance I approach tutors or lecturers after class.
Greg - Administrative Staff - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Students needing financial assistance would often initially go to the Scholarships Office who then may redirect them to the Financial Assistance Office. There are a range of scholarships, loans and bursaries on offer and the Financial Assistance Office is a great place to find out about these.