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Further Support and Appointments

Looking for learning development support? Resubmitting coursework? Been referred by a tutor?  

The Skills@Cumbria service offers various learning and development opportunities relating to academic and library skills throughout your programme. We are a team of friendly professional Library and Academic Advisors based in Library Services which is part of Student Services. We provide online resources, including our Skills TV channelgroup workshops, individual appointments, Webinars and email guidance.  See the sections below for more details.

We also provide Subject pages that signpost you to relevant resources for your subject. 

The library provides an out of hours Ask a Librarian service.  This service can help with accessing resources and signposting help (it doesn't provide academic skills support). 

You can contact us via the Student Enquiry Point (StEP) tile on the Student Hub or email us via skills@cumbria.ac.uk

Partner colleges: The services described below are for students studying at the University of Cumbria. Students from partner colleges are very welcome to access the online skills@cumbria resources, and are encouraged to contact their own institutions for academic skills advice and guidance. Robert Kennedy College students have their own resource pages for their courses and can contact Robert Kennedy College Student Care for support with academic writing and referencing. 

 

 

  • Skills@Cumbria website

  • Email support

    The Skills@Cumbria service is staffed Monday to Friday 09:00 - 17:00 (apart from national holidays)

    You can contact us via the Student Enquiry Point or email us via skills@cumbria.ac.uk with queries about referencing, accessing library resources and academic skills.

    We offer feedback on 500 words of a draft written assignment that has not already been assessed by a tutor. Please see our service guidance below. Our offer of feedback and appointments are subject to availability. 

    • We offer feedback once per module - which might be via email feedback OR via an appointment. Let us know if you are in resubmission, as we may be able to offer more flexible support. 
    • In line with academic regulations and to support independent learning, generally, we don't look at the same assignment more than once for a 1st submission.  
    • For dissertation/longer project/double credit modules we can look at 2 different sections of up to 500 words (subject to availability).
    • To get the service that will best suit you, when requesting email feedback, please identify/highlight the 500 words section and share your assignment brief and learning outcomes. Tell us the areas of development you would like us to focus on, eg this might be paragraphing, referencing, academic sources, structure, writing critically, or whatever you would prefer. Or if you are not sure, tell us about your tutor or peer feedback and their suggested areas for development. It's also really helpful if you include your reference list, even if it's not quite complete at that point in time.
    • We will suggest tips and strategies to support your learning development. Our feedback is for guidance as we're not subject specialists and we don't offer a proofreading service. 
    • We can work with you to help you understand grading criteria and tutor assessment feedback. We can't suggest what grade an assignment might be worth as we don't mark assignments; tutors make final grade decisions.

    Turnaround times: In many cases - particularly in response to quick queries like referencing - we are usually able to reply within a working day or two. Please allow up to 5 working days for 500 word feedback requests. If you are seeking 500 words feedback, we encourage you to seek timely advice, eg we recommend being in touch 10 days before an assignment deadline. This allows for feedback turnaround time and also gives you time to process and apply any feedback as you see fit before your deadline. 

    Reference list feedback: we are happy to look over reference lists. We don't proofread whole lists but we will look at a sample of different types of sources (eg book, journal article, webpage/pdf, etc), comment on those and then encourage you to apply that feedback across the rest of the reference list. 

  • Individual Appointments

    We offer 30 minute online skills appointment with a Library and Academic Advisor (subject to availability). We use Microsoft Teams for online appointments as it is useful to be able to share screens. However, you are welcome to use these like a telephone call, if you would prefer not to use your video camera. For guidance on using MS Teams ahead of appointments, see the Microsoft Teams webpage. 

    You can book an appointment here: Book a skills Appointment

    Either: choose an Adviser to see what times they have available, or select the No preference link, under the names, to see a list of all the available times.

     

    If you have any issues with the booking system or can't find an appointment time that works for you, please email us via skills@cumbria.ac.uk 

    Below are some details about the appointment service we offer:  

    • In line with academic regulations and to support independent learning, generally, we don't look at the same assignment in more than one appointment.  If you are in resubmission, let us know, as we may be able to offer more flexible support (depending on availability). 
    • We offer one appointment at a time. Following your 1st appointment, if you and the advisor agree a 2nd appointment is needed, this can then be booked. 
    • If you can't make it to an appointment, please either cancel the appointment via the booking system or email skills@cumbria.ac.uk so that we can make these appointment slots available to other students. 

    Please note these appointments are for library and academic skills with the Skills@Cumbria team.  Appointments are also available for other areas of student support such as SpLD, Mental Health and Money Advice.  Please see Student Support Appointments or go to the Student Enquiry Point to request support from other teams. 

  • Webinars

    The Skills@Cumbria team provide regular webinars on key topics. 

    To book a place and find out more, see the Webinars page.

    New dates for April - July have been added to the Webinars page.

     

  • Group workshops

    In liaison with course tutors, Library and Academic Advisors deliver learning development workshops as part of the curriculum, tailored to the subject discipline and level. Talk to your tutor if you think that a workshop would benefit you and your peers

    Students can also request a small group workshop on a topic of their choice.  Contact Skills@Cumbria via the Student Enquiry Point or email skills@cumbria.ac.uk with your request. Please be in touch in a timely way and allow at least 5 working days for arrangements to be made (subject to availability).

     

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