2017-02-15

First meeting of the FMHS TLC in 2017: Ready to Rock and Roll with Teaching a.k.a Where can I get support for my students when needed so they can make the best start in their semester of learning?

2017-02-15 (Weds)
501-110
12:15-12:45

Attendance & apologies Links to an external site.

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Facilitator: Anuj Bhargava, Michelle Honey, Lynne Petersen, Louise Carrucan-Wood
Note-taker: TBC

Introduction to Panel Guests

Brian Stanney - Equity Office - Manager of Students with Disabilities

Kathleen Stone - Student Health and Counselling Centre - Practice Nurse

Frances Clements - Philson Library - Subject Librarian in Medical & Health Sciences

William Nepia, Ruby Timmo, Susanadaisy Jensen - MAPAS - MAPAS Liaison

Brígida Figueira - Central CANVAS Facilitator Team

Meeting Agenda

12.15-12.20 Welcome back to the TLC in 2017 - 5 minutes

12.20-12.40 Panel Discussion - 20 minutes

Guest panel members share information about discuss can we go to access support for our students, and ourselves, as we launch into the teaching and learning semester.

12.40-12.45 Q&A - 5 minutes

Meeting Notes

Welcome back

Anuj welcomed everyone and acknowledged the past leadership group from 2016: Jenny Sim, Angela Tsai, Trudi Aspden
Anuj welcomed our guest Panel and thanked them for joining us today.

Panel Guest: Kathleen Stone from University Health and Counselling Service

FMHS Health and counselling

https://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/en/faculty/about/student-support-services/health-and-counselling.html

Offers a combined health and counselling service available to any student in the university
There is a health clinic - up at Level 3 on the other side of the Eye clinic
One GP and a counselling service - 2 psychologists and a counsellor are there 3 days a week
Auckland based students would need to leave their PHO/GPs to enrol with this clinic - so mostly the clinic supports students from outside Auckland
Enrolment is honoured straight away
only $12 to see a doctor
all GP services are available
Nurse also does lots of support of sexual health, contraception, travel, medical, dressings
students can waste less time by enrolling here at the university - accessible, no travel and low price
the centre also does vaccinations
they can not just see someone on a casual basis
not available for staff
they can assist with compassionate consideration processes
the main city campus is much larger
the files from this campus can be accessed in the city so a student can go to the city if that is more convenient especially over the Christmas period

Question: How does the counselling service work? How can a student access the services?

Kathleen's answer:

A student needs to come and sign up first although there are emergency spaces/appointments available for walk up for urgent care needs
The student needs to go online to complete a questionnaire to match the person straight away with the right counsellor - the counselling service looks at their answers and matches them with the right person
6 free counselling sessions available per year per student for free

Question: What to do as a teacher when a student will not go to seek counselling but we can see they are in need/in distress? Can we refer students as teachers?

Kathleen's answer:

The student ultimtely needs to make that decision
Michelle suggests that the SON tries in these situations to meet with students and they will encourage them to seek support asap - i.e. walk them to the lifts! (O:
If there is a real crisis situation, there are urgent appointments available

Question: What happens for out of town students?

Kathleen's answer:

They register here during their study and they become a 'casual' back home in their home GP practice
They only remain with us while they are enrolled as students then they essentially leave the practice when they graduate and go back to or find a new health care provider

Panel Guest: Brian Stanney from Student Disability Services

Visit the FAQs from Equity Office's Student Disability Services at:

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/eo-equity-office/eo-frequently-asked-questions/student-disability-services--sds--faqs.html

Equity Office Student Services information: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/on-campus/student-support/personal-support.html

Students with disabilities information: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/on-campus/student-support/personal-support/students-with-disabilities.html

- Brian has been with the service for 11 years

- UOA supported just under 800 students with identified disabilities last year

- They support any student with any medical impairment beyond 6 months - includes significant mental health, physical disabilities, learning disabilities, visible disabilities, access concerns, hearing or vision impairment

- They play an active role in terms of access (physical and also access to lecture materials, online materials etc.)

- They work closely with Student Learning Team and the Health and Counselling Teams

- Brian's team works in partnership with Student Learning Team

- They carry out in-house assessment for learning impairments via institutional referrals to inform around special testing/exam conditions, alternative learning formats (instead of external testing that costs close to $1000) - it can take 3-4 consultations so it takes a long time to work through the process

- 300+ students came last year with identified learning needs (e.g. dyslexia etc.)

6 people are in Brian's team:

Linda - front port of call for students interested in the service, she is an OT and draws out stories well

Rebecca - based across a few campuses and carries out similar role as Linda does in city campus

Brian - is the manager - handles escalations and has experience

2 mental health advisors - at the more acute and semi-acute end (most referrals from Community Mental Health teams) - people already in care with identified diagnoses

Susanna - Careers advisor - specialised for students with disabilities - upon graduation this can pose unique problems for graduates with disabilities and invisible disabilities

- their team also plays an advisory role to the wider university

- a lot is focused on test/exam support

- limited note-taking service

- rule of thumb: no such thing as a dumb question - so seek advice and encourage students to get in touch if they have identified disabilities or concerns about learning needs/other access issues!

- Kimberley Farmer is first port of call for any serious escalation issues/concerns

Question re: Are there any disclosure policies/guidelines if a student has disclosed regarding a disability/issue re: what information can be shared with other teachers/UOA staff?

Brian's Answer:

There is no official university guideline - Brian's team offers a set of guidelines and can advise staff about what is appropriate
If a student discloses to Brian's team - Brian's team won't share any information about that students' disability with anyone more widely without discussing and having student agreement
Brian's team is encouraging students to disclose what they are comfortable with to empower them to share with teaching staff relevant information about their learning needs to encourage more institutional ownership around different learning needs, styles and access issues

Question: A student I want to send to you re; special support - an anxiety issue - how to approach this sensitively?

Brian's Answer:

The student can be directed through university counselling
But they can also approach us directly- the staff comment this can be challenging with the name "disability" attached to it
Brian's advice: Try to couch it in inclusive terms to the student - his team unfortunately have the disability label that doesn't always signal relevance to all students - but he emphasises that the point of his team's purpose is about inclusion - how the student can adapt and how the university can adapt to support the students - the name of the service can be challenging so try to get the students to look beyond that to realise their may be support available to them to enable our university to be more inclusive of their learning needs/styles
The team works with different students with different learning styles

Fran Clements from Philson Library

Philson Library (Grafton Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences Library)

https://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/en/faculty/for/current-students/doctoral-student-guide/academic-and-learning_support/library.html

- Fran is one of 5 subject librarians - each has a school/area they cover primarily - all are happy to help any student - they welcome any students UG and PG - come in, email, call

- Their contact details are on the web pages

- They can also add their details onto your Canvas sites directly

- Fran's team can support with:

finding information for assignments, finding books, especially for new students, advice about referencing
to support orientations - to introduce themselves and their services and support
happy to do workshops within a course or work to develop online resources
some good generic online resources that can be linked into your Canvas site include:

Information skills online:

https://flexiblelearning.auckland.ac.nz/philson/index.html?t=1397094063

Referencing help

https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/study-skills/referencing#referencing

English Language Enrichment – online resource:

https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/services/student-learning/ele/ele-online

Learning Advisers:

https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/services/student-learning/learning-advisers/learning-advice

Learning Disabilities advisors – Student Learning:

https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/services/student-learning/learning-disabilities-students

Flexible Service for students living outside of Auckland:

https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/services/borrowing-and-requesting/flexible-service

Write at Uni - new website being released by Libraries and Learning Services - see pdf below.
write@uni Learning and Teaching Guide for staff.pdf Download write@uni Learning and Teaching Guide for staff.pdf

For other FMHS-specific library resources visit:

Library resources specific to FMHS: https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/guides/medical-health?FROM_REF=rt-by-faculty

Other information about Philson and UOA Libraries:

Group study rooms are available and can be booked at the desk on a piece of paper
50 laptops that can be borrowed
Student Learning Advisors - Student Learning Services - online form students can sign up for one-on-one support
all workshops are offered in city campus
you can request a workshop to be offered in Grafton
For PG - there is a flexible service for distance students - we will send books out to them (unfortunately students have to bear the cost of sending books back)
Talis - librarians can support with this and/or copyright issues (or refer you to Melanie Johnson)

Question: What sort of things can we suggest to students re: Student Learning Services?

Fran's Answer:

Student can go to the information about Student Learning Support online and state in the online form what they need help with
they will be filtered to the right place - this could be advice about writing style, or grammar - they may be directed to use online resources first
They will not, however, be given proof-reading support

Brígida Figueira from Central Canvas Facilitator team

Canvas Help and Support can be found at:

Canvas website https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/learning-and-teaching/CanvasHomepage/project-information.html

Canvas Guides website https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-4131 Links to an external site. It has most the ‘how to’ in Canvas

Staff Service Portal https://www.staff.auckland.ac.nz/en.html, as there are written Canvas Knowledge Base articles for Canvas FAQs

- Please don't send emails directly to Brígida!

A team of 3 people are based in city campus

- They can come to Grafton - happy to support

- you might have a question about why a student is enrolled in your course when they un-enrolled - that would go to ITS, for example - so if you direct your query to the SSC, it can be re-directed to the right expert to support you

- some questions, such as, why can I not use TurnItIn etc.? - these types of questions can likely be supported by Brígida's team

To find on the website go to: About Us - Learning & Teaching - Canvas

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/learning-and-teaching/CanvasHomepage.html

All of the Newsletters, FAQs, Access to Canvas Course etc. information is there
They have also developed information about "minimum presence" in the Canvas website

Comment from Brígida about how to improve your Canvas course in relation to students with different learning needs:

Brígida is a learning advisor on secondment to the Canvas team
something that a lot of people are not doing is publishing the assessments/assignments right at the beginning of semester so that students are able to see the due dates and instructions for those assignments from the beginning - if you don't publish this information it means students can't see that due date in their calendar and they can't manage their time effectively throughout the semester

Wills Nepia, Ruby Timmo, Susana(daisy) Jensen from the MAPAS Team

MAPAS Team information: https://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/en/faculty/tkhm/contact-us/mapas-team.html

MAPAS Admission Scheme Information: https://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/en/faculty/for/future-undergraduates/maori-and-pacific-admission-scheme.html

Wills welcomed us and thanked everyone for joining the conversation today

MAPAS is a team supporting Māori and Pacific students in our faculty

- Wills looks after "Phase 1 students, Optometry students

- Susana is based at Tamaki - looks after BHSc students (Year 1-3) - she focuses primarily on year 1 which includes biomed students

- Ruby - looks after students enrolled in Nursing, PHarmacy and clinical years of Medicine

- Marcia looks after PG Students and CertHS students

- MAPAS has a building down Grafton Road - students can come and access support there and also there is a space at Tamaki campus

For a student to join MAPAS they have to apply and disclose their ancestry that is Māori/Pacific
They complete a form online and are invited to an interview regardless of which programme they enrol in
General MAPAS interviews are held in December - students and whānau come for a full day - capture information about their aspirations, do maths and English tests and get advice based on their NCEA testing and the interview process as to which programmes of study they will succeed in
Speciality Interviews - come through Michelle's team (Student Centre) then come to MAPAS
Student profiles are developed from the interview process - and then one-on-one meetings are held with the students to develop a plan for them to support them with their unique learning journey
MAPAS is part of TKHM led by Papaarangi Reid - they are also part of the Vision 20:20 team - the vision is by 2020 to have 10% of the health workforce being Māori and Pacific

What does MAPAS do?
- the interview/ MAPAS admissions process

- one-on-one meetings

- looks at financial support, scholarships, academic issues, pastoral issues

- look at cultural side - there are a range of cultural journeys for each individual - cultural support is there for them regardless of how in touch with their culture they are

- often liaise with Kimberley for challenging / urgent needs regarding pastoral support

- MAPAS also works with Disability Services - MAPAS team encourages them to focus not on the "label" but instead on the need - the way to access support is to go and see the Disabilities team because they will help with funding! (O:

MAPAS often works in partnership with the Disabilities team to encourage information sharing where the Māori or Pacific student is happy with that

MAPAS team can support teachers within specific courses eg. Roger, Trudi - they try to set up tutorial support for students from students who have gone through the courses already

1-1.5 hour tutorials for the main courses
Medicine they also do every module
In the clinical wards MAPAS has doctors employed to support Māori or Pacific students in clinical settings

- one-on-one support can also be accessed via additional funding

- MAPAS also sits at Board of Examiners meetings as voting members to advocate for students and also supports with Aegrotat and Compassionate consideration processes

Jenny commented that Medical Imaging is looking at developing an undergraduate programme (currently only 4% Maori and 1% Pacific) so they are looking longer term to engage with MAPAS around increasing engagement and graduation of Māori and Pacific students from Medical Imaging

Question: For students who are Māori/Pacific and who have not enrolled in MAPAS/gone through MAPAS interview process then later after entering FMHS want support, what happens?

Will's Answer:

This can be tricky, and depends on the case
For example, some people feel they are indigenous e.g. they are Fijian Indian - but under the strict definitions of "indigenous" (funding comes from TEC with regards to indigenous funding) and under the Equity Office, Fijian Indian is not counted as a "Pacific" group - so that is very hard for MAPAS because they can not accept Fijian Indian students as MAPAS students

For students who are "unofficial" i.e. they have come later and did not originally enrol but they are Māori or Pacific - they can still fill in the form after the fact and be supported and invited to have MAPAS support

Ruby commented that they MAPAS team members try to go along to the Orientation sessions and capture students who may not have known about MAPAS to pick up new students - eg. SON

- These students can be captured at any time during their first year for MAPAS support