Modules and classes

No matter what your subject, your TILL classes will be taught in seminar groups - there won’t be large lectures, or halls full of people you don’t know. Because all our students are mature learners, it seems much more productive to have conversations with you and draw on your experiences, rather than tell you how the world should be; it’s one of the pleasures of our classes that there is a great diversity of learners from different backgrounds, and there is much you can learn from each other as well as from the lecturer. So classes tend to be small, most often on a weekly basis during the semester, and almost exclusively taught in the evenings, so you can continue being a parent, worker, carer, and all the other things adults do.

In terms of physical locations, our classes are spread throughout the University. There’s more information in the TILL Virtual Office in MOLE2 about the venues for specific modules, so if you have any questions, please have a look there.

Modules are chosen before the start of the academic year - if you’re beginning your studies, it should be part of the information we collect before you start, and if you’re continuing, you generally choose your modules in May for the following September. At the start of each semester is a three-week add/drop period where you can change this selection; it is possible to add and drop modules beyond these three weeks, but there may well be financial penalties. It is also worth remembering that if you’re receiving Student Finance England support or a University of Sheffield fee waiver, you need to take a minimum of 40 credits per year to retain your funding. It is possible to take modules in full-time departments, subject to availability on their courses; please discuss with your programme director for more details.

All of our modules are evaluated with a standard module evaluation form. We do this because we want to improve our provision each year, and students are often the most valuable source of information about how our teaching has gone. Programme directors collate and write responses to student module evaluations; and these responses, including details of actions taken, are made available to students via the TILL Learning and Teaching Committee and on uSpace. If you think something isn’t going well in your module while you’re taking it, then please get in touch with your programme director, and we can try to put it put right before the end of the course.