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What do students really think of Talis Aspire Reading Lists?

Natalie Naik

We asked students from Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham what they thought of Talis Aspire Reading Lists. We discussed how they use the lists as part of their studies and how they are introduced to them by the academic, they also told us what they like most about the lists and how they like their lists to be structured and used by the academic.

Lauren, a final year Business Management and Human Resources student at Nottingham Trent University spoke to us from their recently developed library, where she spends a lot of her study time due to the facilities, computers and group study areas.

She told us that the most important part of the course is the resources; the books, textbooks, web articles and journals. For her, it’s particularly important that these are online and accessible through the resource list.

A good reading list is… organised. It should help to find resources and they should be easy to access on any device, whether you are at home or in a coffee shop. As a student, running from place to place, it’s important that she can access the list using her smartphone.

My advice for an academic would be… to create a clear structure, showing which items are core texts and which are general texts or for additional reading.

Watch Lauren’s video below:

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Georgia is a second year Business Management and French student at the University of Nottingham.

She explained that she frequently uses different devices in different situations, her laptop or phone at home and her iPad in lectures as it’s more portable.

She finds the integration with Moodle really useful and so much easier to access. Being able to get resources online from wherever you are is key, as she tends put off going into the library for physical items.

 I like lists that are… divided by exam topics, with core texts at the top. It’s useful when academics are clear about what is most important.

A good reading list is… organised by week or theme, as it makes it easier go back through and find the resource that you need. It’s good to have a range of articles, books and journals, it’s important as a student to have a broad range of resources.

As a second year student, Georgia has found that wider reading and research is becoming much more important as she recognises the need to gather more information than just what is covered in the lecture.

 You can watch Georgia’s video below:

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What do you think is most important about a reading list? Vote in our Twitter poll below:

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