Welcome to your Sport Coaching course

The course consists of five twenty-credit modules, alongside a further two forty-credit modules make up the MSc Sport Coaching course. The material covered will provide you with a critical understanding of current issues relating to the theory and practice of sport coaching. Some of the topics relate predominantly to understanding your athletes, while others relate to applied coaching practice (e.g., Effective Coaching), however all of the topics covered provide an exploration of the role of the coach, the practice of coaching, the needs of your athletes, as well as research methods and analysis- ensuring that our graduates are going into an industry ready to succeed.

Throughout the award a conscious decision has been made to have a strong link between theory and practice with many assignments requiring students to apply current theoretical and research knowledge to ‘real life’ scenarios. Throughout the course every effort has also been made to draw upon the wealth of research and applied experience which the students and staff team have.

Our MSc is delivered on a part time basis over two years, therefore, you will study one module at a time in a ‘blocked learning’ format. The courses are fully online and there is no formal timetable for you to attend at specific times. Almost all of the content is asynchronous, meaning that we put content up for you to access on a weekly basis and you access and complete weekly tasks at a time that is convenient for you. We have a small number of live webinars, which vary from module to module. As we have students from across the globe there is never a perfect time to do these, so we record them to ensure everyone has access to all the content irrespective of your other commitments. Indeed, one of the early tasks you may wish to create is your own timetable: You will be required to undertake a minimum of 6 hours study per week, in the form of pre-planned activities, therefore, please consider the following…

• What times during the week are you going to be studying?
• When do you work best?
• Will you be breaking up your study into more manageable blocks?

A good study routine from the outset will help establish the foundations for successful online learning.

We understand that most of you are new to the university. Therefore, the first few weeks of study will involve you getting familiar with our systems (e.g., VLE, Teams, Mentoring), academic processes (assessment and regulations), and modules. The first few weeks will be lighter on mandatory reading to enable a smoother transition into your postgraduate studies.

That said, prior to starting your first module, you will be required to access and complete the ‘Sport and Exercise Online Orientation Course’, which is achieved by following the instructions given to you via email closer to the start of the course. See section below for specific details surrounding the ‘Sport and Exercise Online Orientation Course’…

The online course will take approximately 6 hours to fully complete and consists of a series of information to read and tasks for you to undertake via our Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard Ultra). Please feel free to work through the course in your own time, splitting it into easy to manage chunks- much like your main programme of study. This orientation course covers all aspects of online learning that you will experience and focuses on gaining an understanding of the key area of support that are present to you as an online student. The information and tasks within the course are based around key aspects of your postgraduate course and experience. For example, you will be introduced to Blackboard Ultra and online content, library and learning support, the sport staff, and key personnel who will help during your master’s online experience.

One particularly important task which forms part of the orientation course is we want you to download and install SPSS (which is free to access via the university software centre). This is to ensure that you have this software installed and working by the time you get to the ‘Advanced Research Methods and Data Analysis’ module in November. We want to make sure that we have resolved any IT issues before the module starts in order to prevent any delays in completing the weekly tasks.

So, watch out for an email invitation in your university Outlook inbox, where you will find the information that you need to access the online orientation course.

We hope that you find it enjoyable and informative!

Once fully enrolled, you should be able to access the ‘Software Centre’ to download SPSS in preparation for your ‘Advanced Research and Data Analysis’ module. Please not that there are installation guides for both Windows and iOS platforms.

Software link: https://staffsuniversity.sharepoint.com/sites/software/SitePages/Home.aspx

Ensure that you have the most current versions of the software listed below…

• Microsoft Teams
• SPSS
• Microsoft Outlook

Software link: https://staffsuniversity.sharepoint.com/sites/software/SitePages/Home.aspx

Even though you are a distance learning student, and there is not any obligation for you to come onto our Leek Road campus, you are still part of the Staffordshire University family. Therefore, you may wish to visit our ‘welcome website’ which will provide you the link to your new student life. It's all about how you find your place at university, including everything from how to meet friends, feel confident in doing your academic work, being a member of your Student Union and getting involved in Union Societies, Academic Societies, Sports, Volunteering or representing your peers in your School. Part of this Welcome Week - we have an exciting programme of university and course level activities planned for you for your first week in September. We are also building an extended programme for you to join a series of events throughout the first half of the autumn term. Further details will be shared with you via the Welcome website and Students' Union pages over the coming weeks.

Check your email:

Please make sure you check your student email account regularly over the next few weeks. We will be sending you lots of information about the course and upcoming activities. We do not send communications to your personal email accounts.

Academic Skills:

Whether you're joining us from school or college, or you're returning to education after some time away, everyone can benefit from the Academic Study Skills resources provided by the University library.

The Academic Skills team is here to support you throughout your academic journey and to help you gain the skills you need to reach your full potential. They can assist with academic reading and writing skills, give advice on how best to plan assignments, and help improve your time management.

The library's Academic Skills Guides offer the key information to make studying easier and give a comprehensive guide to the learning resources and services we offer.

• Mental Wellbeing - https://www.staffs.ac.uk/study/disabled/mental_wellbeing/
• Student Support - https://www.staffs.ac.uk/students
• Financial Support - https://www.staffs.ac.uk/students/money-matters/student-support-fund
• Study Support from the Library - https://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/c.php?g=654666&p=4599175 and http://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/libraryresources