Teaching Block 2

During Teaching block 2 you will spend the majority of your time completing your project. There will be Q&A sessions at the beginning of the second teaching block and various workshops but most of the contact time will mostly be between you and your supervisor.

Other activities during this term will include:

Writing Workshops
Library Workshops
Testathons
Poster Day

As always, see the schedule for up-to-date information.

Managing your project

One of the biggest challenges of the project isn’t the research or the ideas - it’s managing your time across 15 weeks, without regular classes. The key to success is to have a strong project plan that you treat as a living document and keep updating.

One tip is to think of the project in terms of Minimum Viable Product, Beta and Final Release. What do you need to do to get to each milestone? Start with the hand-in date and work backwards, allocating time to the different tasks you need to do, including all the writing tasks.

For example, if you are planning to do user testing, how long will that take to write up, and what do you need before you can start testing (this will be something to test, but also knowing who you’re going to test it on and how).

If you’re someone who finds the idea of unstructured time daunting, make your structure. We recommend meeting with a group of friends who are also doing a final project at least once a week, to talk about what you’ve been doing, what’s going well and what’s challenging. This should be a group of people you can be honest with - and you might also plan to work with them on campus.

If you want more support managing your project, the Study Skills Team have tutorials, drop-ins and workshops to help.

Timetabled events in TB2

Library Workshop

In Week 14 you can meet the Computer Science Subject Librarian, who will give you advice on how to start your research, how to find quality sources, what resources the library has got and even how the librarians can find papers, articles and research for you.

Testathons

On the Wednesdays of Weeks 16 and 20 (the first Wednesdays of February and March) we’re holding Testathons, where students from any CS course (and Years 2,3 and 4 of CS and Maths CS) can come and do user testing/evaluation of their work in progress.

These are co-operative sessions where you ae expected to spend half the session running your own tests and half the session testing other students’ work, so eveyone gets benefit out of it. We’ll invite staff as well - and students without anything to test can come and see what other people are making. Work does not have to be complete - you can bring paper prototypes, rough outlines or work in any stages.

If you come, you must bring consent forms and information sheets for participants - you can find drafts in the the Unit Team Class Materials section and you should check them with your supervisor.

CALD Writing Workshops

The Centre for Academic Language and Development run workshops specially designed for Computer Science students, to give you tips about writing an academic report and give you a chance to get feedback on draft work. They are optional but strongly encouraged.

You have been randomly allocated to sessions in Weeks 21 and 23 and we recommend you go to both sessions. If you can’t make the one in your timetable and want to swap sessions, email the CALD team with your name, your programme, the session you want to leave and when you’re available.

We will send you more information nearer the time.

Project Poster Day

This is a chance to meet your Second Marker for the first time, talk to them about your project, typically using a short slide show or physical poster, and ask them what they expect to see in a project like yours. It’s also a chance to talk to other academics, students and guests about your project, and get valuable feedback you can use to make your dissertation even better, as well as see what other students have been working on.

Poster Day is optional, but we strongly recommend you attend, as it’s a chance to integrate outside feedback into your project to show off the incredible work that you have been doing.

We will send you details of who your second marker is a few weeks before so you can arrange a time to meet them. Please note: if you do not attend Poster Day, your second marker is not obliged to meet you at another time; if they will be away from work that day, they will arrange a different time to meet you.

Further details including the date will be sent out in TB2.