The below news item was published in July 2019. For current information about Smarthinking, please contact Dr Neda Chepinchikj at [email protected].
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Get involved! The English Language Support (ELS) project team is looking for more champion courses to trial Smarthinking in Term 3.
Term 2 2019 marked the first trial of Smarthinking, which is the new and official 24/7 online writing support service for UNSW students. In addition to its availability for students through the Learning Centre, a total of nine different courses spread out across five faculties and seven schools added Smarthinking to their suite of tools and resources for their students in Term 2 and became the first champions to trial this service.
Smarthinking has been positively received by students of these courses with 259 individual students engaging in 396 sessions with a Smarthinking tutor to date. Survey results give a strong indication of the benefits of Smarthinking with 69 out of 76 responses (91%) rating their Smarthinking tutor feedback as positive and another 69 out of 76 responses (91%) showing that they would recommend Smarthinking to a friend.
Smarthinking will continue to be trialled in select courses over Term 3 2019, as well. The UNSW Smarthinking team are looking for champion courses that match the following criteria:
- The course is first-year undergraduate or postgraduate;
- There is a significant amount of writing; and
- There is a perceived need of writing assistance for the students.
If you are teaching a course in Term 3 that matches the criteria above and/or if you feel that your students could benefit from additional writing assistance, please express your interest by contacting directly the Smarthinking Lead for UNSW, Dr Neda Chepinchikj, at [email protected].