Dr Zena Wood, Lecturer in Computer Science, describes how she incorporates active learning into her teaching.
A research- and practice-led culture
We believe every student benefits from being taught by experts active in research and practice. You will discuss the very latest ideas, research discoveries and new technologies in seminars and in the field and you will become actively involved in a research project yourself. All our academic staff are active in internationally-recognised scientific research across a wide range of topics. You will also be taught by leading industry practitioners.
As this course is run in conjunction with Exeter's Business School, IT Management for Business students enjoy cross-desciplinary teaching, with access to cross-discipline modules taught by subject specialists and “guru lectures” given by IT business experts.
We aim to provide a supportive environment where students and staff work together in an informal and friendly atmosphere. The department has a student-focused approach to teaching, whereby all members of staff deal with questions on an individual basis. We operate an open door policy, so it is easy to consult individual members of staff or to fix appointments with them via email. As a friendly group of staff, you will get to know us well during your time here.
We make use of a variety of teaching styles, including lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. Most modules involve two or three lectures per week, so you would typically have about 10 lectures each week. In addition, workshops and tutorials support and develop what you’ve learnt in lectures and enable you to discuss the lecture material and coursework in more detail. You’ll also need to allow for additional hours of private study and should expect your total workload to average about 40 hours per week during term time.
Assessment
Assessment for all degrees is through a combination of examinations and coursework. Examinations are the more important part of the process, but the assessed coursework will help you to work steadily throughout your degree. This is particularly important in Mathematics where the subject matter develops logically from fairly simple beginnings. Written examinations for mathematics modules are held in January and May/June of the first and second years and in May/June of each subsequent year. Most modules also have either a mid-term test or coursework contributing to the assessment.
Coursework typically contributes 20 per cent to the assessment of all modules except in the final year of the MMath and MSci programmes. In the third and fourth years several modules allow you to undertake further coursework to contribute to your overall degree classification.
You must pass your first year assessment in order to progress to the second year, but the results do not count towards your final degree classification.
Over the summer, I had a 10 week internship with HSBC Global Banking & Markets - the Investment Banking arm of the bank. I was one of five people on the Technology programme, run for the first time in 2011 so we effectively became guinea pigs!
I was placed in the Database Engineering team and was given a specific project to work on throughout my time there. My project involved designing and implementing a Release Management System - a way to manage updates to some of the vital trading applications and deploy the changes into the back end databases. This system was to be used by the HSBC database teams worldwide.
Although this was my main focus, I also took the opportunity whilst I was there to talk to as many people, and see as many departments as I could in order to help me get a good overview of the company and areas I might be interested in for a graduate role. I made some valuable contacts during my time there - some of whom I'm still in contact with now.
I found out about this placement through the Milkround website during my industrial placement year at IBM. I had to complete an online application form, associated numerical reasoning tests and a few weeks later I was invited to the head offices in Canary Wharf for an Assessment Centre starting at 7.10 in the morning! Soon after the Assessment Centre, I received a call informing me that I'd got the job and my start date.
From the whole experience, I've learnt the importance of networking. A phrase I learnt in IBM was 'It's not about what you know, it's about who you know' - and I completely agree. I built up a good network in HSBC and suddenly getting tricky tasks done became a lot easier. If I didn't know the answer, chances are I knew someone who could help me. I also learnt to utilise every opportunity I had to find out more. The placement was only 10 weeks and within that time, I managed to learn a lot about different departments - helping to add to my knowledge of the Investment Banking Industry, but also helping me expand my network.
I came away from the internship with a firm graduate offer - conditional to achieving a 2:1 or above. I'd already identified potential areas of interest within the bank and decided to accept. I'm confident in my decision and look forward to hopefully starting a graduate role there in 2012.”
Kim Hutchinson
BSc IT Management for Business with Industrial Placement
I chose to study at Exeter mainly due to the great location and the excellent reputation of the university. I initially wanted to study Computer Science, but during the application process I persuaded myself that the ITMB programme would be more productive and useful for my future career prospects.
I’m now really enjoying the Computer Science aspect of my course. The standard of teaching in my modules is really good; Accounting 1 and Introduction to Programming have been particularly impressive.
Student life is really active and good fun, and you’re guaranteed to make good friends. I’ve most enjoyed the experience of student living in Exeter.
When I graduate I’m hopeful of my future career prospects in large reputable I.T organisations, and have thought about applying to TeachFirst as well. The programme at the University has helped me realise my strengths and determine what I like and dislike in the field I am studying. I’ve also met many nice peers and lecturers during my time here, and the overall experience has been great.
Thomas White
BSc Information Technology for Management of Business (2nd Year)
