Teaching method at the University of Nottingham

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On the first day, at the Erasmus meeting, they told us that it was going to be very different to our universities. And they were right. The method of teaching at the University of Nottingham is based on self-study, they call it in some way. In my university, Valencia, we have two classes for every module each week, one theory and the other practical (one hour and a half or two hours). Whereas in this university you only have one hour a week for each module and they call them lectures: we go and the professors speak and like in a lot of classes, people can participate. Afterwards, you have two tutorials per module each semester, for which you have to pick and if you are not quick enough you have to stick with the dates that do not fit your schedule so, great! In these seminars or tutorials, you have to come having completed a series of questions that they give you, or take advantage of being able to ask about any doubts you might have. In some modules they don't have exams, it is only coursework, they use these seminars to choose the topic and questions about the work I assume (because I still haven't had any).

Apart from that, in the module outlines which is a guide to the module, it tells you what you have to read before every lecture to go alongside the lecture material and so you're not lost. And this can be one or two topics from different books (which are never in the library) and articles that you can find online. Today I have read two articles for the module I have tomorrow and it nearly killed me. I have basically lost the whole afternoon because now I have finished and it's 19:00 and nothing is open...nor is Wilkinsons to buy a desk lamp... and it is because there were 30 pages between the two. It's obvious that I didn't read word by word but I would never have finished otherwise!

In short, I think that this way of teaching makes you do things daily, but also it is impossible to read everything they ask you to.

I'll tell you what the seminars are like. For now, until next week I do not have any!

Bye!

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