Working together for student success: a collaborative approach to dissertation support in Sport

Research (Zanin-Yost and Dillen, 2019) emphasises the benefits of academic staff and liaison librarians working collaboratively to support students’ research skills and information and digital literacy. This is particularly pertinent in dissertation/independent research project modules, where students are learning new skills, working independently, have limited contact time with supervisors, and may be unaware of the additional guidance available from librarians.

To combat this, academic Chris Cattell, and school librarian Kathryn Devine, joined forces to offer a student-led dissertation ‘retreat’ for the former’s dissertation supervisees, providing guidance on ethics, searching, referencing and data/reference management tools. The opportunity was well received by participants, the majority of whom were ‘top up’ students. For staff, this collegiate way of working increased mutual confidence and communication, enabling us to provide more seamless support to students during this critical time in their studies. In this presentation, we will talk about our experiences of running the workshop, what we have learned, and the benefits to both staff and students.