Developmental laboratory report-writing programme based on progression throughout the year: how to make better use of staff/student time and increase student satisfaction

In this work, an alternative approach to laboratory programmes is proposed in which students are required to submit one report section at a time and the key results, rather than submit complete reports after each experiment. The report sections are selected in order of perceived difficulty. The evaluation results suggest that report writing is an activity that students find difficult and time consuming, and that there is appreciation of only having to deal with one section at a time, and then receiving detailed comments on that section—which will then be useful when writing the complete report at the end of the programme. The study is based on a comparison from three cohorts of the Year 2 programme at Sheffield: from 2013/14 to 2015/16. Across these years, there is an increase in student satisfaction from 64% to 73% as well as an increase in average mark when normalised according to the overall year mark. As well as being positive for the learning experience, it is argued that such targeted reports are more cost-effective in terms of training, monitoring and marking time for the graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). This is significant in the context of increased student numbers and the limited availability of GTAs as they progress through their postgraduate education.