TUN feedback - Physics

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_{Please note: comments and responses may have been edited. Information was correct at time of response but may have been superseded. We publish the comments in the language in which they have been submitted and the University's responses bilingually.}

 21/22 Semester 2

• REF:66-2111-2963323 - Enjoying module PH15720

  Your comment: PH15720 - This Module has been very informative on the general practice of laboratory techniques and understanding how lab work will be taught throughout my time here in Aberystwyth, the lab book has proven very useful and the Statistics and Data Handling book has allowed me to understand the fundamentals which go into lab work, plus the help from experienced people who can give guidance as to what I am looking for has been extremely helpful and has definitely in more than one occasion helped guide me in the right direction, overall it has been fantastic and safe to say one of my favourite modules so far!

  Our response:

  Thank you for your complimentary e-mail, it is most reassuring and rewarding  to know that students are happy with the delivery and get sufficient support.

 21/22 Semester 1

• REF:66-2111-3982404 - Reduction in in-person teaching hours

  Your comment: It’s the delivery of my subject and with the restriction of covid I understand that it is not possible to have a completely normal experience with university. But what I am is disappointed, disappointed that of all the subjects in the university, this is the only one I've come across that has last year’s blended status quo of only 4 hours in-person teaching a week. This is where students don't even know who is in their class aside for names on a Teams chat and that it is apparently not possible for a slightly larger department of physics compared with subjects in the same building of maths and computer science. How can only 40% of their seminars be in person and all lectures be online again? I'm just not happy with this situation. It may say on my student record that I'm happy to look into doing more lectures online when what I actually said was, I've had nothing else since I started here, and am finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on due to lack of motivation and social interaction to name but a few. In person social interaction only occurs in my course once maybe twice a week, otherwise I'm still stuck in my dorm on my own looking through lectures and sitting in Teams meetings being told what to do, but I would like to reiterate that I'm not trying to be antagonistic of any of the subject leads and I'm meaning this purely as constructive criticism. However, I am annoyed and let down that nothing has changed from last year to this year with the blended teaching style of the modules. Meanwhile, other subjects go back to fully in-person teaching. I could have gotten a better teaching experience at the Open University, which would have cost me two-thirds as much.

  Our response:

  The physics department has implemented a teaching schedule in the 2021-22 academic year where all laboratory-based modules and projects are in-person (e.g. year 0 lab (S1&2), year 1 lab (S1&2), year 2 sensors (S1), year 2 laboratory (S2), final year experimental projects (S2)) and all lecture-based module have a blended learning structure. For example, a typical 10 credit lecture-based module would have two contact hours of synchronous teaching for students per week (as in pre-covid teaching), one in-person and one on-line. All assessments are on-line. We are currently finalising the timetable for S2 and we would suggest that our students provide feedback through their year representatives to enable a discussion at the November SSCC.