The project idea came from the Team Leader, Noella Kalasa, who noticed early in the year that some of her francophone friends were doing assignments in French, using resources they know from school, before translating the final work into English. In April, Noella had the idea of making a document to share with students, before ultimately being recommended to try a wiki format in an Innovation Lab meeting.

The first phase of the project consisted in compiling resources in a document, and brainstorming a format for delivery. It was decided that foundation vocabulary lists would be the best format for pre-university preparation, tables, which can easily be pasted into online flashcard software, were prepared for each stream with the exception of Science and Technology Studies. Working virtually in a team of six did not pose any issues thanks to the use of a common, shared document, and frequent communication via a group chat. The second phase of the project consisted in building the Wiki. The team decided to use UCL’s Reflect blogging software, and created the site and added to it as the resources were being finalised on the preparatory document. The site was completed in August 2020 with Pages for each stream, as well as one for language and writing, and extra sections, such as revision tips, a contact form, a support (“Where to Ask for Help”) sections, were added to the site following feedback from NatSci faculty and students.

The website, now complete, is set to be released to the incoming NatSci cohort as part of their pre-U package, and to be made available on Moodle as well.

First year students’ ability to access this material a few weeks before starting should allow them to familiarise themselves slightly with the terms they’ll be expected to know going into first term, and will also give our team an opportunity to receive feedback and questions early on, so that we can improve the site and add in missing information if necessary.

Project Group: Noella Kalasa (TL, zcqsnam@ucl.ac.uk); Sunzida Khan; Charlie Rogers; Gracie Enticknap; Choi Kay Yip; Jimmy Salihen