Read our blog to explore ideas in teaching and learning. Students' first assignments often signal where skills and prior learning are wanting. But acknowledging the extent of these gaps and catering for the learning styles of all students can lead to more proactive approaches to addressing the problem.
In a recent BBC Radio 4 programme on this year’s university experience, one student caller complained that there was not enough contact in his new ‘blended’ course. But, the interviewer countered, the (leading) university in question told us they have been communicating a great deal. Yes, they have, the student replied, but this was, ‘just lots of emails with links to videos’.
I’ve been fortunate to have the chance to work with a wide range of institutions amid the shift to online learning, most recently by supporting academics who have had some experience of online teaching as a result of the pandemic.
Universities were thrust into an emergency online response at the start of lockdown, and some students were underwhelmed with the amount of tutor face time.
To use the cliched term, these are unprecedented times, and students may be wondering if a new term at university will be a lonely online prospect. Undergraduates who were looking forward to their university experience as much a social rite of passage as a route to a career may be feeling shortchanged.
And with students’ expectations of their university experience firmly in the spotlight, taking a closer look at the issues around academic writing can lead to a better understanding of practical ways to deliver on those expectations.
Pearson and Wonkhe have published joint research looking at students' experiences during and after COVID-19. Pearson's Anna Jackson analyses these findings to show what has the most impact on students.
Your faculty meeting starts, and one of the key items on the agenda is a focused discussion about cultural diversity and inclusion in online courses. Of course, you must also consider curricular content, pedagogy, accessibility and universal design, and their impacts on education. All of these affect your students’ learning, motivation, and satisfaction in a course. Where do we even begin with this discussion?
With the rapid shift to whole or part online delivery from September 2020, students will be entering an entirely different experience to the one they would have expected. You are likely to have been busy working to develop content for online delivery and re-thinking your assessment and learning activities. You might also be thinking about how you can prepare students for what to expect when they begin their new online student journey.
In April and May 2020, we asked academics from 29 UK universities about the challenges of COVID-19 in this academic year and how prepared they feel for September.
