Most people believe that university is just lectures, sitting in a large lecture hall taking notes. In reality this is far from the case. At Portsmouth for my course there are very few lectures - just two a week, one for Law for Journalists and one for Theorising Mass Media, the rest of the time is taken up in seminars and workshops.
Seminars take place in much smaller groups - ranging from 10-25, much more like college or sixth form classes. Teachers take what has been explained in the lectures and ask questions and create discussions. Take my law seminar for example; questions are asked as well as the topic being covered in greater detail. Seminars are much more exciting than lectures and also provide the opportunity to make new friends and get settled into class groups.
Tutorial groups are also small and take the same form as seminars. People from the same or similar courses are placed together in classes to learn Study Skills. We meet once a week for an hour but also gain a personal tutor, rather similar to a form tutor, whom can be contacted with both academic and personal issues.
The last lesson type for my course in particular is workshops. My personal workshop is at 9am on a Thursday for 2 hours, not my most productive time but oh well! It is in these times that we learn the skills needed to be successful in newswriting and actually put it into practice!
I love how diverse the learning plans are, it's hard to get bored!
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