Psychology students to benefit from digital workbook

Associate Professor Frances Martin, together with a team of researchers from the University of Newcastle and Southern Cross University, has successfully obtained funding that will go towards helping students improve their written scientific communication skills.

The grant for $48,000 was approved by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research to implement an interactive digital workbook that will help students distinguish between examples of good and bad writing.

Frances Martin explained in her proposal that many students enter first year lacking fundamental writing skills which are critical for success in higher education. The digital workbook will be implemented to first year students and will follow the principles of multiple exemplar training to provide feedback for students, resulting in a better understanding of ability to use good writing.

Approximately 60 examples of good and bad writing have been compiled from student papers through the University of Tasmania during a preliminary stage of the project. These examples will vary from a sentence to entire papers and will be assessed by the team who will rate them and provide notes that explain the rating given.

These examples will be compiled into the interactive digital workbook which will be downloadable across multiple electronic devices.

Participating students will also complete a survey and an evaluation on the effectiveness of the workbook for analysis to help determine whether the project could be extended across other disciplines.

Congratulations Associate Professor Frances Martin.