Sports Coaching and Physical Education Fdsc

Teaching

The knowledge, understanding and skills associated with the FdSc course are delivered through a dynamic and innovative range of strategies to reflect the diversity of learners' needs. You are taught through a combination of lectures, seminars, interactive workshops, practical activities, group-based tasks, and individual tutorials. In addition, support is available via Student Services and Academic Liaison Librarian Assistants.    

Vocational placements are utilised within the course, with you undertaking a mandatory placement in Level 5. You are required to independently secure a work placement in an area of vocational interest. This supports the application of theory into practice and provides you with relevant vocational/industry-based experience. The vocational placement also supports the transition of students to articulated degree programmes or employability. The work placement includes, but is not exclusive to, sports coaching and teaching contexts. Therefore, placements can be conducted within the health, fitness, and leisure sector (e.g., event management).

In addition, meetings with Personal Academic Tutors facilitate a positive staff-student relationship creating a supportive learning environment to monitor student performance and progression.  

Contact time

In a typical week students will have around 12-16 contact hours of teaching. In the final year there is normally less contact time in order to undertake more independent study.  

Typically, class contact time will be structured around:

• Theoretical lectures
• Practical Sessions
• Seminars
• Module specific tutorials  

Independent self study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 24-28 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including The Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Timetables

Timetables are normally available one month before registration.

• 2 year full time
• 3/4 years part time

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics, professional practitioners with industry experience, and technical demonstrators within the disciplines of Sport & Exercise Science, Sports Coaching & Pedagogy, and Inclusive Practice.  

Teaching is informed by research and consultancy, and all lecturers on the course have a Higher Education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy.  

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments.  Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments which is graded and counts towards the overall module grade.

Assessment methods include written examinations, essays, reports, portfolios, presentations, and practical delivery.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory modules, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1: Written assessments, paired and/or individual presentations, practical teaching/coaching episodes, and an exam.

Year 2: Written assessments, paired and/or individual presentations, appraisal, practical teaching/coaching episodes, and an exam. 

Feedback

You will receive feedback in a variety of formats for both formative and summative assessments.

Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal assessments within 20-working days of submission.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.