https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback Anonymous feedback can be posted here for course reps to see. en-us 2020-10-08 15:00:23 UTC 2020-10-26 16:29:02 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f4e9.png https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/831840358 I think a massive challenge for current students (also speaking from personal experience) is engagement in lectures and outside of lectures. Because there is no face to face contact we need to work with lecturers to do things that students will genuinely enjoy and want to join in/ engage with
I think this will also help people to settle in]]> 2020-10-15 11:12:03 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/831840358 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/831922226
1) What's working?

2) What's not working? 

3) Do you feel supported? 

4) What do you think of current assessments?

5) Any comments or suggestions? ]]> 2020-10-15 11:58:36 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/831922226 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/832237002 Is the policy still applicable this semester? What about next semester? ]]> 2020-10-15 13:31:32 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/832237002 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/837690017 So Far the lectures for the compulsory modules feel unstructured and hard to follow. They have not been engaging and are hard to understand. Explanations are not clear enough and most of the analogies used are poor and do not connect up to the topic. I and many other students I have talked too feel this way about the course. It also was not made clear who my personal tutor was and when emailing about this I was ignored by the lecturer I had emailed. 
The Africa war and peace module lectures have been a stark contrast to this, they are easy to follow, engaging and make sense. The power points used are full of useful information and the points and explanations made by the lecturer are good and easy to follow.]]> 2020-10-17 14:51:31 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/837690017 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/837799478 So far, the War and Peace in Africa module has been interesting, engaging and one in which the teaching and lecturers style is brilliant. I and many other students feel enthusiastic about partaking in this module due to the clarity and communication with the lecturer and slides/guide provided.

However, the compulsary IR module I have found both hard to understand or even engage in. It has also been very confusing/ difficult at best. Whilst the topic is challenging and I understand it is masters level, the style and approach undertaken to teach it is not beneficial and has been picked up on by many students not just myself. There is an extreme lack of clarity]]> 2020-10-17 16:56:26 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/837799478 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/838973542 I feel as though the Research Methods and Understanding IR modules are quite difficult to follow. The lectures in the past weeks have made little sense to me and others I’ve spoken to, the purpose and assignments of the two modules have also not been set out clearly, as well as what is to be expect for said unexplained assignments. I recognise that there is bound to be a difference in the quality of learning given that our lectures and classes all take place online and that will inevitably limit things and I acknowledge that but I feel as though the lectures for Research Methods and Understanding IR are quite confusing and often futile, they just seem like a conversation with multiple tangents that few things of value can be taken away from. ]]> 2020-10-18 16:25:09 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/838973542 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/838980896 The compulsory modules seem disjointed and confusing, analogies are often vague and more often than not are never linked or related back to International relations. I know other students feel the same lack of confidence in the modules and are worried about how the lack of coherence will effect our ability to complete assignments. However the War and Peace In Africa module has been excellent, the teaching of the module has been clear, consistent and engaging.]]> 2020-10-18 16:33:15 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/838980896 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/838987649 Both the lectures for 7101 and 7100 have both been confusing, which isn't helped with the fact everything is online and that in-person experience is lost (granted that is something out of many people's hands with the current restrictions in place). As many of my fellow students have also touched on, more explanation and clarity on the subject we are studying that day would greatly help us all to achieve the best possible mark at the end of the course. For us, we are doing a masters course under the most bizarre circumstances, and more clarity and guidance in these earlier stages will set us up well to achieve.

The War and Peace in Africa module however has so far been the highlight of the course. It has been very engaging and I thoroughly enjoy sitting in these lectures, as do many others who take this module.]]> 2020-10-18 16:40:22 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/838987649 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/840521417 I think that there is an issue regarding the compulsory modules in that we're struggling to understand their significance. We were sold the idea of this course being on global governance, unique case studies, international relations between different countries/organisations and we haven't really had any of that nearly a month into the course. As I understand it, those modules are the optional ones but I think having the same lecturer for 7 out of 9 hours a week 3 days in a row makes it difficult as there isn't a variety or real-world understanding being taught except for our one optional module. Had we have been able to choose two optional this semester and two optional next semester as we were told over the summer that we would be able to, I think we wouldn't be struggling as much now as we'd be having more of a variety and lectures that we were personally interested in. Also there is confusion around our dissertations, we're not sure when our proposals should be submitted, who our possible tutors are and what topics we could focus on as to my understanding our dissertations should be related to a key area of our supervisor. I think we would also appreciate guidance on the assessments for the core modules as from looking at the essay questions I honestly don't have a clue where to start and it's due in a few weeks. The lecturers themselves are so lovely and obviously very knowledgeable and good at what they do, the course just seems to be disjointed at the moment. ]]> 2020-10-19 10:58:11 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/840521417 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/855227142 I feel quite overwhelmed with the content of both the research methods and Understanding IR modules. That’s not to say that they wont become clear but I think we expected an application of these theories to real world events or organisations and I personally think this would have helped. Sometimes its a lot of information (which I totally expected and understand) but it feels like little relevance and we dont know where this fits into IR in the ‘real world’. I think this is where the optional modules come in but as others have said with only one optional module this semester its a lot of information and little chance to apply it making the whole thing feel very overwhelming. The lecturers are great and have been really supportive and we do understand that at masters level it was going to be harder. I think this is made worse by the lack of face to face but at present there is nothing that can be done about that. I think a discussion over assessments is needed as currently I wouldn’t know where to start and i think an outline of what’s expected in an IR masters piece would be useful. Overall the course is really engaging and interesting but i think some more clarity and application of theory would really help.]]> 2020-10-23 08:22:18 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/855227142 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/862447019 I find the lectures very confusing and, while I think I have grasped the contents of that week through the readings, once class is over I'm more confused than before. The zooms are too long (some 3h, with breaks) and I really struggle to concentrate as I don't find the delivery engaging. To be honest, I don't look forward to those zooms anymore. I enjoy my other modules, but for the core modules I'm just going to need to revisit everything we've done during reading week. I'm going to keep going to the lectures to stay engaged, but I don't think I'm going to get anything out of them going forward. I just go because I know it's the right thing to do for my learning experience, but... ]]> 2020-10-26 16:18:44 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/862447019 https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/862484768 I personally felt really overwhelmed in week 1, but I can see that the course team has really tried to make this online experience as interactive as possible and that's helped. I've really appreciated it, to be honest, so thank you! ]]> 2020-10-26 16:26:30 UTC https://padlet.com/ir_ljmu/anonymousfeedback/wish/862484768