In March, a collaborative effort across the University was made to transition our teaching online and as the new term approaches, lots of work is already underway to prepare teaching for the new academic year.
Preparing for Teaching in 20/21
Delivery will be via a blend of face-to-face (F2F) and online learning, providing as much F2F teaching as is possible within government guidelines and aiming to provide all students with some F2F teaching. Alongside this, preparations are being made for teaching to be delivered online, with the ability to deliver programmes where possible at any time without any F2F contact, should we encounter further lockdown restrictions.
Curriculum changes for 20/21 – Sustainable teaching in uncertain times
The curriculum that the University will be offering in 20/21 has now been established, with simplifications where possible to make the delivery of the curriculum more sustainable within the limitations of the pandemic.
Modules we will offer for the coming academic year have been decided, which enabled the Online Options Choice process to run last week, letting us know the volume of students for each module. Programme and Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) teams are currently assembling an Addendum to each Programme Specification, which will be shared with offer holders and continuing students on 7 August.
From 7 August onwards, the focus will shift to establishing which activities can be offered F2F and which online, to ensure we deliver our staff and students the best possible experience in a safe way.
The lead for this work is Professor David Wheatley.
Support for teaching in Academic Year 20/21
Having developed and published the Common Framework for Online Education – the University-approved standard for all our online delivery – the Centre for Higher Education Practice (CHEP) is now offering support to academic schools and programmes with its implementation in feasible and relevant ways.
The ‘Team of 25’, comprising representatives of every School across the University, has been created and is now working closely with colleagues in CHEP and the Digital Learning Team to enable all module leaders to prepare their Blackboard sites in line with the Framework.
As the essential platform for online delivery, Blackboard is having a facelift as it moves to a cloud-based version in August. A student competition to design the new landing page has just been launched (closing date 12 August).
Contact Dr. Helen Carmichael or Bobbi Moore, for more information.
Professor Alex Neill, Vice-President (Education) said: “I’d like to thank all our colleagues who are working so hard to ensure that we will continue to deliver a high quality educational experience for our students this coming academic year, despite the challenging circumstances we find ourselves in.”