Disaster!
The thing I had been dreading most happened. No Students turned up!
It was never going to be a big teaching group, but there were 8 students booked in, and I was beginning to relax a bit. However, on the day, they were all no shows!! I could have cried!
Is it possible that the students turned up and were unable to find us in the Old College Library? If they were from other sites, then yes. I suppose that is a possibility.
I was told however, that it is not unusual for students to not turn up to lectures and tutorials, so it is not wholly surprising when they don’t turn up to extracurricular sessions, which of course this was.
I realised very late on, that although the session was advertised through ASO, and some course tutors, I had not put up any posters in or around the library, which was a big oversight on my part. It was a concern of mine from the beginning that no one would turn up, yet I did not take any steps to reduce the risk of this from happening other than asking others to spread the word. I will be better prepared next time!
I am of course disappointed that all of the preparation for the event, did not produce the required results. However, the session did run with a few colleagues who stepped in to save the day, and the observations did go ahead. But the results will surely not be as positive as they might have been, and I’m going to have to do it again at some point.
Until Information literacy is fully embedded into the curriculum, this will continue to happen, and students will slip through the net. So, we will continue to embed where we can and play bigger parts in course delivery where we can until those bridges are built, through stronger links with academic staff/team members.
In the meantime, I’m reliably informed that food is a great motivator, (I myself, am motivated by food it seems!), so maybe pizza may be on the menu next time, or something a little less messy like a pack of biscuits, (this usually does the trick in school).