- Now, at university, you're adults.
So, we don't keep track of attendance in lectures,
sometimes we do in tutorials.
We'd like you to come to everything.
The lectures are where we give you, often, a broad overview
and are really talking about key major concepts,
and our tutorials are where you're going to try
and apply those concepts in active learning situations.
But there's lots of different forms of learning at UTS
in lectures, in tutorials, and workshops.
Caster, from a student's perspective,
do you always turn up to class?
- Yes, actually, I do.
Occasionally, there are some times,
like if I have a doctor's appointment,
or I've got some work stuff,
I just can't come to class
'cause I can't make it 'cause it overlaps,
but for the most part,
I always try to come to class with lectures,
which is where you learn content.
Some of my subjects are recorded
so it's easy for me to just open my computer at night
and actually watch lectures.
Tutorials, which is more of a classroom setting
where you don't necessarily learn content
but the tutor or the teacher reinforces the knowledge,
and I try to go to those because attendance,
sometimes it's marked, sometimes it's not,
just depends on the subject,
but also things like homework might be due.
Assessments, tests might be due.
- Yeah, if you've got questions
about assignments and stuff, - Yeah, questions.
Yeah, questions as well. - that's always the place
to go 'cause your tutor is probably more able to help you,
and it's really important to remember
that this is your opportunity for learning.
You don't have to come to anything.
You could really sit in the bar,
or do anything else that you want.
With lecture recordings,
please make sure you check
with your different subject coordinators
because some rooms aren't recorded,
and tutorials definitely don't have any recordings
associated with them.
In the lectures and the tutorials, Caster,
how do you actually go about learning?
What are the things you do?
- So, in lectures, the subject coordinator or your teacher
usually has a PowerPoint presentation,
and they usually have a few dot points
or paragraphs explaining
the content and what the day's about,
and personally, for me, I still type notes,
just cause it's really fast,
and sometimes it's hard to keep up in the classroom
when your teacher is talking really fast
and you're trying to understand the concepts and ideas,
so I just type 'cause it's easy, and it's--
- Depends, I guess, whether you're faster at writing.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Or at typing.
I'm a bit of a fast typer but slow writer.
- Yeah, and in tutorials, I usually handwrite notes
because it's more, I guess,
a rough kind of learning experience
because you're trying.
The tutor will kind of take main points
out the lectures so I kind of just, to break it up,
mind maps, that's I was getting at.
Mind maps and just rough notes
where I can scribble and cross out stuff,
so it's a bit more informal for me in a tutorial.
- Cool.
And one other thing is that as a UTS student,
you'll get access to Office 365,
and if you haven't tried it, check out OneNote.
It's actually an ability for you to have online notes.
You can handwrite, and you can type.
You can import your lecture notes in there,
and I find that to be a really cool little tool,
and there's even a little app
where when you take a photo of a PowerPoint slide
side on, it'll actually straighten it for you
and import it into the document.
So there's lots of cool technology as well
if you're a tech person, or if you're old school.
I still handwrite sometimes.
- Yeah, just to to add onto that,
even if you miss an idea or miss a slide in your lecture,
don't be too concerned because you actually get them
before or after the lecture anyway,
and you can have time in your own time to go over the notes.
- Assessments is a question students always ask about,
and assessments are really the key points
in which we are checking, as academics,
that you're learning the material.
So there'll be assessments during the semester,
and there'll usually be a larger assessment
at the end of semester.
What sort of assessments have you had
throughout your uni career?
- So, most of the time, during the semesters,
sorry, during the weeks,
the assessment could be like a group report
or an individual essay.
That's the main two months,
and then the subject usually ends with a big final exam,
which is, generally speaking, weighted more,
and that's where you have to, in those kind of exams,
really consolidate what you've learned
and apply it to our cases or scenarios.
- Yeah.
And there's lots of different types of assessments.
So Caster mentioned group assignments and reports.
You might have quizzes that you do in class or online.
There could be presentations.
At UTS, we're really about trying to create
real-world, authentic assessments,
tasks that would be similar
to what you would be doing in the workplace
associated with that subject,
so you get a real feel for what it's like.
Learning is about putting in the right type of effort
as well, so how we design our assessments at UTS
is not usually around memorising.
So I know that sometimes,
high school exams are about remembering facts--
- And the syllabus.
Really, here, we want you to demonstrate
that you can apply what you know in real-life situations
or similar to real-life situations.
So memorising doesn't normally play a large part
in passing our assessments and our tasks.
It's being authentic and engaging with the material deeply
that's going to help you get there.
- Now, when it comes time to exams,
you said that we have lots of exams that are high-stakes.
So in a lot of cases, they're 40 or 50 or 60%.
Where do you go to sit exams?
Are they just in the class?
- A majority of my exams are in a place
called Mount Worth Park, which is a five-minute walk
from the light rail stop.
Most, I would assume, most of your exams would be there,
'cause it's such a large venue;
however, the subjects that have smaller classes
are usually just held on UTS campus.
- Yeah, so your one-stop Student Admin
will be your portal for everything administration.
- And please make sure you check that as well
because your seats change, your location change,
and you don't want to rock up to the wrong venue--
- Yes.
- Or wrong classroom and then be late for your--
- So some subjects, don't always rely on your friends,
because sometimes, some really large subjects
are actually split over two or three venues.
You will get be given a specific seat number,
and most of those exams,
they'll be different formats as well.
So some will be open-book,
where you can take in everything.
Some will be restricted open-book,
where you might get one page double-sided.
- One textbook, yeah.
- Or one textbook.
And then some will be closed-book
where you don't-- - Where there's
nothing at all.
- Don't have anything, but your subject coordinator
will give you all of that information
within the subject outline and reinforce that.
So it's really important that you understand these rules
because if you bring material into a closed-book exam
and you don't realise,
or you get it out, and you think you're going to use it,
then that's in breach of the university's rules,
and the university will charge you
with attempting to cheat within an exam.
And that's a really serious thing.
- And exam supervisors are actually quite strict
because the final exams for your subjects
are centrally conducted,
which means your tutors or your subject coordinator,
who, you're probably familiar with their face,
they're not going to be there on the exam,
so the exam supervisors are quite strict,
and sometimes they actually do go through your textbook
to see if you've written anything.
They check your formula sheets, so make sure your--
- Or look inside pencil cases or on calculators.
- So make sure you're just following the rules,
and it'll be an easy--
- Follow the rules that your subject coordinator sets
and you'll be absolutely fine with that.
Now, what happens if you miss an exam?
Because you might get sick.
Do you know what to do?
- I personally have never missed an exam,
so I don't actually know what to do.
- Well, I can tell you exactly what you need to do.
If you are sick and you miss the exam,
you need to apply for a missed exam.
There's a special form through your online student portal.
It'll give you a piece of paper to print out.
You have to get that filled in by your doctor
within 48 hours of the exam,
so don't leave it too long.
Now, if you think, "Oh, I'm little bit sick,
"but I can still go to the exam," then still go,
but you can apply for something
called special consideration,
which means that in the days leading up to the exam,
you're affected by something.
So at the moment, I've got a bit of a cold.
If I was sitting an exam, I might lodge that application.
Again, you have to get a doctor to fill it out
or another medical professional.
- And is that still within the 48 hours as well?
- It's still within the 48 hours,
as well as those guidelines,
but that means that you're making your tutor
or your lecturer aware that you've been unwell,
especially for myself as an academic,
if I see a student that performs really, really poorly
in the final exam, even though I know
that they've engaged really well in class,
and they've done really well in the class assessments,
unless I have something that says they were sick
or something else happened,
I wonder what happened to that student.
Is there any way that we can help them?
Because as an academic,
I want the best out of all of my students,
and I want to be able to help you
no matter what the situation is.
So if you are sick during semester, not just for exams
or sick in the lead-up to an assessment,
consider lodging an application for special consideration
and talking to your subject coordinators,
'cause we're real people just like you are.
One thing that always comes up
is that in week 10 of session,
when the exam timetable is released,
inevitably, I will get students that come to me
and say, "Amanda, I've booked a holiday
"for when the exam is."
Do you think we can change your exam
if you've booked a holiday?
- No, they won't care.
- No, we won't care. - They won't care.
- Unless it's something really serious,
if it's something that you can control,
like booking a holiday,
and we have a three-week exam period,
if you book that in the last week,
and you're gonna be away,
that's tough luck.
You need to shift your holiday.
Always look on the university calendar for dates for things
so that you know when you can book a holiday
and when you can't because we will not shift exam dates
for that sort of activity.
Now, there are some circumstances
where we will shift exams.
So, if you need to have an operation for something,
and you can't come to the exam,
then we can arrange to have that at an early day.
If you are working full-time
and coming to university part-time,
and your work requires you to be in another country,
in another state, in another city,
then definitely, you can lodge a request to change that,
but for things like holidays
or birthday celebrations overseas,
that's not something that we make changes for.
We also try and make sure
that you don't get overloaded with exams,
so there are processes in place to make sure
that you don't have four exams on a day
or more than three exams within a 24-hour period.
We'll spread those out if that's the case.
- But all of this information
you can see well before your exams,
so there is time to, I guess,
approach your academic or subject coordinator
if you have any problems,
so make sure you give
yourself enough time. - Week 10 is usually
when it comes out, and you'll get all the details
in your one-stop Student Admin,
but you can look at the university calendar
two years in advance,
so there's no excuses for saying,
"I didn't know exams were on,"
because the university calendar is published
two years in advance, so don't make that mistake.
- When it comes to how much time
you should spend on a subject,
according to our calculations,
we expect that for a single subject,
including going to class, doing homework, doing assignments,
studying for the final,
it's somewhere between 120 to 140 hours
for that subject over the 12 to 13 weeks of the period.
When it comes to students,
and for us, four subjects is like
being in a full-time job.
That's 40 hours a week, 40 to 45 hours a week.
Caster, what's the reality?
- The reality is, I know in my experience,
is you really could not find that time to do all that study.
It really just comes down to, I guess,
what kind of mark you're aiming for,
or, I guess, your level of interest in a particular subject.
- Really, the more effort that you put in--
- Obviously, you're going to do well.
- Yeah, that's going to pay off in terms of better grades,
and be careful about thinking,
"I just want to do enough to pass,"
because I see a lot of students who think,
"I just want to do enough to pass,"
and then they end up just falling short and just failing.
That's something to be really careful of.
- And just on that, that's such a good point
because particularly when you're doing a group assignment,
for example, while you might just want to pass,
maybe some other people in your group
actually wanna get a High Distinction or Distinction,
so you have to really come
top-tip in a group report or group assignment.
Actually have a grade in mind you want to get
because that's gonna set the benchmark of--
- And communicate that to everyone.
- And communicate that to everyone,
because if everyone your group
wants to get a High Distinction
and you want to get a pass, communicate to that,
because maybe they might, I guess,
compromise on a grade they want.
- University is meant to be difficult.
It's not meant to be easy in any sense of the word.
We're stretching you academically.
We're stretching you as a person
to help you grow and move outside that comfort zone,
so it shouldn't be surprising if you do find stuff hard,
and you do struggle because we provide
a lot of support for you.
So, Caster, tell me about,
are there any subjects where you struggled?
- Yes, so one of the eight core subjects you do
in a Bachelor of Business is called Business Statistics,
which is focused on probability, regression analysis,
and I know for me, I had the worst time
trying to understand the concepts
and trying to understand all this terminology,
so I actually enrolled in a thing called U:PASS,
which stands for--
- So "U" is university,
and "PASS" stands for peer assisted study schemes.
- Yeah, so basically, you don't learn new content.
Rather, past students who have done really well
in that particular subject
actually reinforce the knowledge.
You get the content.
It's retaught to you, and it's really just a great way,
it's a free service, by the way,
it's a really great way of understanding the content from,
I guess, a student perspective because the tutor,
or the student, has actually done that subject before,
and it's very colloquial, very casual,
ask as many questions as you want,
and, generally speaking, not many people apply
to do them anyway.
I think, when I did mine, it was only ten students,
so you could really easily just ask
the past student a question or a subject.
- Yep.
And U:PASS leaders are all trained, as well,
so we just don't pick students
and throw them into a room with other students
who are struggling.
We train them through a programme of learning
how to not exactly say, "This is the answer,"
but we train them to ask the right questions of students
and structure the right activities
so that you can figure it out for yourself
with them guiding you,
and that's really important because
uni isn't just about learning the right answers to things,
it's about learning the processes on how you get there.
Because in a lot of subjects,
there's a lot of judgement that needs to be made,
and it's not always that "A" is the right answer.
Sometimes "A" or "B" or "C" could be the right answer
depending on how you explain it and justify your choices.
So coming to uni is not just about learning
"A" is the right answer or "B" is the right answer,
it's about learning that process--
- And then there's multiple ways of doing things as well.
- Absolutely, we want to teach you
about different ways of thinking
so that you can go out into the workplace
and apply different ways of thinking
and coming at things with diverse perspectives.
So coming to university
and having a degree in itself
is not going to be enough to get you a job after graduation.
Many years ago, that might have been the case,
but now employers are looking for a lot more.
They're looking for well-rounded candidates
that have different sorts of experiences,
and that can come from your part-time job,
whether that's at McDonald's or working retail somewhere,
or babysitting or teaching swimming,
but the other thing they're looking for
is real-life work experience.
How do you get that as a student?
- So at UTS, we have a free service called UTS Careers,
and they actually help you find any job experience
you're looking for whether it's an internship
in the specialisation you're studying
or if it's just something random you want to do.
You can literally turn up to the door,
say, "I want this," and they will help you find it.
They'll help you fix your resume, cover letter--
- They can even help you figure out what career
you wanna go into. - Yeah, exactly,
and then they'll just guide you through that process,
and it's really, really great to have, I guess,
someone else there to help you through that process
'cause it is quite overwhelming to write a cover letter
about yourself know when you don't know what to write.
So, it is a free service,
and a lot of students don't know that we have that.
- Yeah, so UTS Careers are also on Facebook and Instagram,
so it's worth following them on there.
There's also opportunities in some of our majors
within our courses to do internships.
So, internships can be anywhere from six to 12 weeks.
They're usually 12-week programmes.
In accounting, they're mainly over the summer period,
but if you're doing an internship as part of a subject,
typically, it will be in line with a regular semester,
and quite often you'll have to find your own internship.
They can help you a little bit
in doing that through those different subjects.
- Again, you can go through UTS Careers--
- You can go through Careers.
- To help find an internship, or do something external.
- Yep.
And whether they're paid or unpaid
will depend on the particular area.
So in accounting, our summer vacation internships
are all paid opportunities,
but in other instances, they may be unpaid.
It's always important to check that,
whether your internship opportunity
is a paid one or is an unpaid one.
Now, you never should have to pay someone else
to do an internship.
So if someone says, "I'll give you an internship
"if you pay me,"
if you have to pay, that's definitely worth talking
with the Careers team at UTS about,
just to make sure that that's not a scam
because that's not something that is really common,
that you'd have to pay to do an internship.
- I think what makes UTS unique
in terms of internships and our career services
is that some of our courses you can actually,
you touched upon it before about a subject,
you can actually do your internship as part of your course,
so if you do a Bachelor of Management,
it's compulsory to do an internship,
so I guess being forced to actually get experience
and getting exposure in your relevant major
is quite helpful, but in the Bachelor of Business,
it depends if it's an elective.
- Yeah, the UTS Careers runs Careers Fairs,
so that's one where lots of employers will come
specifically for business students or engineering students
or IT students or nursing students,
and then we'll also have the vacation and internships fair
which runs a little bit later in the year,
but if you're up-to-date with your social media,
with UTS Careers, and UTS Business,
then you'll get all of the information about that.