We understand how important Online Option Choice (OOC) is for our students: it’s your chance to shape your degrees, choose to explore new skills and concepts or build upon long-held passions.
Our students have consistently been providing us with feedback on how we can improve their experience in relation to the process of OOC. Below, you’ll find a number of improvements and changes which will be taking place ahead of this year’s process as a result of work by students and staff at the University, Students’ Union and Staff Student Liaison Committees (SSLCs):
- We heard – students querying why option choice traditionally opened on the first day back from Easter vacation.
- So we – have pushed back online option choice by a week. Opening on Monday 23 April this year, our students will have more time to make an informed decision about their options and seek advice from personal tutors and academics.
- We heard – students were concerned about the fairness of the 2017 OOC.
- So we – have purchased a queuing system to ensure Banner Self Service is accessed via a first-come-first-served basis during this year’s OOC. The system will clearly display a student’s position number in the queue and will also allow for messages to be displayed, keeping students informed and up to date with the current situation while they’re queuing.
- We heard – some students experienced technical difficulties while completing OOC due to the high volume of users who were active at the same time.
- So we – have been working to optimise Banner performance to help address potential drops in system speed or effectiveness at times of peak usage.
Specifically for our history students
- We heard – our history students were concerned about the fairness of their programme’s OOC and the levels of competitiveness given the comparatively smaller number of places available for certain modules within this discipline.
- So we – are piloting a bespoke solution for students on history programmes called ‘Choices’. This system will open earlier than traditional OOC and is designed to allocate History modules fairly, depending upon students’ prioritisation (i.e. you select your desired History modules and list them in order of preference). This is not a first-come-first-served system, so there is no benefit to making your choices as soon as the system opens; you’ll stand the same chance as all of your peers because modules will only be allocated once the selection period ends. More information about Choices will be available in the near future.
Find out what other changes have been made due to your feedback on the Student Voice website and through the Student Communications Team’s #ChangesTuesday campaign.
Find out how to give feedback by following the links below:
Students’ Union ‘You Make Change’
List of course representatives
