Learning and teaching

You will be taught by academics at the cutting edge of their field who are research active and have extensive knowledge and expertise accumulated over time, many of whom are leading experts in their fields of specialisation. Our research feeds directly into our teaching, which means you'll learn about the latest developments within your subject from world-class academics who will challenge, encourage and support you.

You will experience a variety of teaching approaches that are designed to assist learning and maximise achievement.

Individual modules help you to develop sound theoretical knowledge and high-level practical skills. You will undertake formal written work, applied and technical assignments, interim progress checks, and both group and individual project work. Preparation for examinations is supported through coursework, revision sessions, and even mock exams.

Lectures are the primary form of teaching and these are supported by small group sessions and workshops. Many modules require laboratory-based classes and project work is supported through tutorials and individual supervision meetings. Skill development is encouraged through group work, presentations, problem solving activities and a focus on time-management.

Lectures
Lectures are one of the ways to help students develop an understanding of key aspects of the subject. We have modern lecture theatres, equipped with the latest audio-visual and computer-based teaching aids, such as WiFi networking and voting handsets. Lecturers use a variety of techniques to enhance their teaching including group discussions, frequent opportunities to ask (and answer) questions, short tests and in-class solution of problems. Lecture material is available online through the university Virtual Learning Environment.

Laboratory classes
Laboratory classes are an integral part of the taught courses to put the theoretical into practice and develop the technical skills required to work in the IT industry. The school's own computer laboratories provide state of the art equipment for both individual and small group work supervised by lecturers and demonstrators.

Tutorials and example classes
Small group teaching encourages active participation and understanding and is often used in addition to lectures to enhance learning and provide additional support.

Example classes also provide the opportunity to discuss problems with lecturers and demonstrators on a one to one or group basis. Individual, personal tutorials provide pastoral support focusing on professional development, the wider academic context and general well-being.

Project work
Through your course you will undertake both individual and group projects. Project work is an excellent opportunity to explore and develop essential skills such as problem solving, communications skills, time management and teamwork. Project work develops, as you progress through the course, from guided activities to role-based group work to individual research projects.

Members of staff maintain close links with industry to ensure that our courses are up to date and in-line with employer needs. Our close links with industry also means that you will benefit from industrial input into design projects at a variety of levels, from setting projects through to more direct involvement in discussions and consultancy.

Our personal tutorial system will help you to integrate quickly and settle down easily into university life. You will also be assigned to a tutorial group and you’ll have one-to-one time with your personal tutor. The School has a student support team located close to where you work and study, ensuring personalised and direct contact.

We have an active Student Staff Forum chaired by the students with student representatives from all years of all courses and staff, including the Head of School, representing the main School functions. Focus groups of staff and students are used to discuss proposed developments in assessment, curricula and the School environment. The School, Faculty and University Student Education Committees all have student representatives. There is an active Computer Society (CompSoc) run by our students.

You will be assessed via a number of different methods.

Integrated Masters (MEng, BSc)
Our Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence degree course are integrated masters (MEng, BSc) degrees providing you with great breadth and depth of study. You can graduate after 3 years with a BSc degree or continue for another year to complete the MEng, BSc which incorporates opportunities to further specialise in the areas of computing which are related to the research undertaken in the School.

If you choose to do an Integrated Masters (MEng, BSc) you will benefit from a greater breadth and depth of study. You will have the opportunity to work on a group project where you will jointly develop appropriate software systems and further enhance skills which are relevant to the IT profession.

Our integrated Masters will also help you develop practical transferable skills such as teamwork, decision making, delegation, identifying and solving problems, and communications skills. Recent graduates have said that they feel the Masters degree enhanced their employability and that they were able to achieve higher salaries.

Our students often say that project work is one of the most satisfying and challenging aspects of their course. It is an excellent opportunity to explore and enhance skills such as problem solving, communication skills and teamwork which are all vital to help you succeed in your chosen career. Recent examples of final year individual projects include:

• Automatics Detection of Cancer in Lymph Nodes – a system capable of diagnosing a slide showing a section of lymph node as either healthy or cancerous.
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  Eye Tracking with State-of-the-Art Radiography – using ta head mounted eye tracker to help assess the way radiologists view and report on images taken with a state-of-the-art technique.
  
  
• A Parallel Functional Ray-Tracer – exploring Haskell’s support for parallelism and providing a framework for more sophisticated variants of ray tracing.
  
  
• Numerical Algorithms for Predicting Sports Results – details specially created algorithms which make use of data in order to predict the outcome of American Football games.
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  Image-based Location Recognition for Navigating the University Campus – an image recognition system capable of detecting a specific location from a selection of photographs.
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  Recognising British Sign Language Fingerspelling – proposal of a non-motion-based method for the recognition of British sign language fingerspelling.
  
  
• Data Mining Tool for the Extraction of Concert Programme Information – demonstrates automated methods to extract 19th century concert information from plain or semi-structured text.
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  Enhancing Online Photo Sharing with Location, Event & Family Tree Information – a web based photo sharing system that uses specific information to provide enhanced categorization of querying capabilities.
  
  
• Building static robots to solve manipulative puzzles – Can a robot solve a manipulative puzzle faster than a human?
  
  
• ‘Eyes Wide Open’ – Finding Closed Eyes in Digital Photographs – detects closed eyes in digital images and replaces them with open eyes.
  
  
• Surveillance for the General Public – experiments with different ways to represent motion in the screen, in particular through colour.

As a student in the School of Computing, you will study computing ethics as part of your programme of learning. At Leeds, ethics is taught using real life case studies, with input from specialist ethicists as well as your tutors and lecturers. The team responsible for the ethics taught in computing have produced educational material used to stimulate debate in class about topics such as ethical hacking, open source software, and use of personal data.

This ethics teaching will enhance your reasoning and decision making skills which are crucial to employers, and will help you identify and respond effectively to ethical dilemmas that you will encounter in your professional life in the IT industry.

The best aspect of the course was the range of modules. Having the opportunity to undertake a wide range of modules is an excellent way of gaining an appreciation of all aspects of the computing discipline.
Charles, Computer Science

The best aspect of this is course is the variety, it embraces a variety of different but related modules .Each of them developed my skills in a particular subject and together they create specialist knowledge about IT management and techniques. Mohammad Information Technology

I have enjoyed the entire course so far but my personal favourite has been the web development module. I only had a very basic understanding of writing web sites before starting the course but since then I have learned such a huge amount. I also enjoy being creative so this module is great fun for me.
Sean, Information Technology