The alternative guide to UCLan
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See the Tag Guide
The aim of the this project was to develop an online, dynamic platform of support to enable students to develop realistic expectations of university. The TAG guide website aims to share current students experiences of all aspects of university to help potential students prepare for university and to support them through their transition into HE.
Executive summary
The second aim of the project was to provide a means for current students to develop their employability. Students could engage with TAG as an extracurricular activity or as a client for assessment. Students were not only welcome to produce content for TAG, but also to work with TAG on the behind the scenes task such as research, communication strategies, etc.
The TAG team wanted to evaluate the impact of the introduction of this tool on students' attitudes towards HE and the impact on the retention figures. The TAG lifecycle should run from the time students are considering applying to university up to their first assessment - approx November - November. TAG was only ready to fully launch in August 2009 and so has not yet completed a full cycle. The University is supporting the TAG initiative so it will run for the 2010/11 academic year. Time and resources have been committed from the project to enable full evaluation to be completed. This evaluation will be made available through the TAG Guide website.
Initial responses from students on the test surveys are that TAG is 'honest and 'realistic' and of the very limited numbers who have responded to our test surveys, 80% agreed or strongly agreed that they would "recommend potential students use TAG to prepare for coming to university". Since August 2009 to March 2010 there have been visits from 72 countries or territories.
The majority of the TAG project has been developed as an open source resource that can be used for educational purposes by other institutions. The TAG team hope to be able to support the development of TAG in other institutions. From December, the TAG project was impacted internal restructures within UCLan. As it was decided to continue the project, TAG has been moved from the School of Public Health and Clinical Sciences to Learning and Information Services, a central university services that is responsible for the Library and IT within UCLan.