by Siqi Wang
As an IGP student, I benefited much from last terms and I am willing to share some experience from student perspective.
Personally, I found the weekly tasks (such as reflection) are helpful to foster a consistent learning habit. Because many of my peers are from Asian countries, the study habits tend to be teacher centred rather than independent study, after familiarizing the methods we can be more aware of the ability that needs to develop. Another reason is that the tasks facilitate us to examine learning experience and think out a proper plan, then put it into practice to overcome the weaknesses. Without the reflection journal many of us may fail to figure out our shortcomings.
The online discussion board is one component I liked because being a quite introverted student, speaking is a relatively stressful task for me especially when discussing in a group. The online discussion board provides chances for shy students to state their ideas without feeling stressed or nervous. I recommend to add the discussion board in pre-sessional course as well, and tutors could make comments after discussion to guide students.
According to my own experience, before setting a new task it is very helpful to give an example first and clarify the instruction and purpose, therefore students could be more aware of what they are going to achieve, and following the instructions helps them to state their opinions clearly, such as SAQ, they may be less struggling on it if the structure becomes clear.
Overall, reflection journals, online discussion board and instructions before tasks are beneficial for students and the three components can be recommended to further be added in the pre-sessional course.