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Hi! It’s been a while since I last
did a video blog; I’ve been doing most
of mine by hand. What I’d like to talk
about today is our Kingston University
online experience. Obviously,
when you go to university you have your
contact time with teachers, you have lectures,
tutorials, workshops and practical sessions
and all those kinds of things
and you can speak to your teachers.
But the online service at Kingston I think is really,
really good. For example, when you’re a student
you will automatically get an ID number
and password and then you get services
such as StudySpace, support services,
library services and job opportunities like
‘Become a Student Ambassador’
and ‘Become a Student Caller.’
You get more job opportunities, information
about money, you get loads of support;
IT support, your bus timetables,
exams and assessment information,
all that kind of stuff, Work Abroad options.
It’s pretty much the university news hub section.
From within the site, My Kingston,
you can go to the Blackboard which is on StudySpace.
On Blackboard it shows all the modules
that you are enrolled in. Generally,
most courses have eight modules per year;
four per semester, although some courses
such as Law have usually 4 modules per year
and they last a whole year, whereas for my
course it is 4 modules each semester.
These are my modules: Artificial Intelligence
and its Modern Applications,
Electronic Business Processes,
Experimental Design, Information Project Management.
MathsAid is a service we use that
not actually a module, it’s a service that
supports students if they have any maths
problems and there’s similar services for
IT students and other courses.
My other courses are: Medical Statistics,
Regression Modelling, Statistical Distributions
and Understanding Information. For example,
if you wanted to find out more about
a specific course, basically what happens
is all your teaching material will get
displayed on the website.
So announcements will be made,
teaching materials, it will show all the lectures
you have to print out and a lot of the
time the teachers will annotate the
notes as well and they’ll put the
annotated versions on. They’ll have questions,
for me like practical questions
and then you get answers later on
to see if you got the right answers.
You get exams to practice and solutions
and you get Assignments and contact details,
how to contact with teachers where
it’s through the email address, stuff like that.
Module Information here shows the
Module Guide so it tells you how your
course is assessed and marked
and how much percent is coursework
and how much is exams. It tells you when
the exams are, everything your module is about.
Another service we have; as soon as you
start off you get an email address
and this is our Kingston University email
address and this is a site we use
to communicate with all our teachers
and fellow students. It’s a standard email
account and as you can see, I’ve got loads
500 emails since I started!
You don’t get spam emails you just always
have something from teachers or support services
coming through to your uni email.
Also, this is my timetable view.
We have my timetable for this semester.
On Monday, as you can see,
I’ve got a workshop from 9-11
and another workshop from 11-1
and then a 2 hour break. Then from 3-5
I’ve got my Medical Statistics class.
And then on Tuesday, I’ve got a whole day off
but then from 4 to about 6 o’clock,
I’ve got a class called Understanding Information.
Generally, you get a 10 minute break
in between a session or sometimes teachers
will dismiss class 10 or 20 minutes early
if we don’t take a break in the middle.
Wednesday I come in at 11 and I’ve got a
tutorial and then I’ve got a workshop for
Medical Statistics where we’re on computers.
Thursday is quite a long day, 9-11. Lecture 11-1,
tutorial and then got a 2 hour break
and then from 3 to about 5, I’ve got a lecture
for Information and Project Management.
And Friday is my day off! As you can see,
Saturday and Sunday too.
I wouldn’t want to be coming on a
Saturday or Sunday. A few kids asked us at a
recent Year 11 day, they asked do you go to university
on a Saturday and I just laughed;
I couldn’t go to university on my weekend.
Another service that we get, especially if you
have any IT modules or whatever software
your module requires, you'll be allowed
to download this at home so you can use it.
For me, I can download Windows 7 Ultimate Edition,
Visual Base Studio, Microsoft Projects,
all this stuff. Microsoft Office OneNote,
games software, developing tools, robotics stuff,
XP, all that kind of stuff. I’m not even
too sure what all of these are but some
of these I would use for my course .
Almost any software that you have,
that you need for your course,
it should be available for you to use.
Finally, one of the other main services
that I feel that Kingston University
offers is the iCat services.
This is our library which you can pretty
much access from the university to get
the hard books, or you can use it online
and you can reserve books, you can view
over 80 or 70,000 journals and e-resources,
you can locate where your books are,
can find out which campus your books are at
– usually at your relevant campus.
You can look at what DVDs they have
and DVDs are free.
You can even download the app on your mobile.
You can view journals and you can
borrow journals as well. They’re free
and can help you with your assignments.
You can check your account
and you can see if you have any fines.
It seems I’ve got some fines.
Yeah, I’ve got about £5 of fines because
I borrowed loads of DVDs and books
and didn't return them back straightaway
so I need to pay that off. It’s only about a fiver;
I just haven’t got around to doing it.
You’ve got database lists; there are such big
resources to use.
I think that’s pretty much it.
Those are the main things.
Any questions, just ask on the AskUs website.
Thanks for watching!