Are your universities preparing for closure?

[historyrocks]

There’s been a flurry of emails this afternoon asking for immediate information on student assessment and what to do if exams are cancelled. A member of teaching staff (in a different department) is currently self-isolating, which I think has added a new level of urgency to plans.

Thank you! I have Canvas and its 'collaborations' that do.
I see the difference now.

I was quite impressed with it. Students can "raise their hand". You can speak to everyone in the class by typing or with your mic. They can share files with you and vice versa. You share your screen or application or they see you on webcam or a combo. . No doubt it'd take some getting used to but v good from my first impression

I’ve never used that on Blackboard. It sounds better than Teams. I haven’t figured out how I’d use it for teaching. As far as I know, students haven’t used it either.

Well no, it's new to us too. I thought it was wise to try it out in person with my students. We're a computer lab based subject so easy to test in a session. They seemed reassured it would work OK for our subject.

Cambridge cancelled their open day for AMES at very short notice. Expecting many other unis are doing same. Yet families can't change tix at short notice so are turning up anyway in the hopes of looking at colleges or even getting into faculty buildings.

I'm the Head of E Learning. We've been gearing up all week for our academic staff to come off strike on Monday.

The decision has been made to go completely online from the 23rd which gives me a week to train as many as I can (most of whom are deeply reluctant) in the technology that's available. I'm roping in library staff who are being redeployed to become instant trainers.

We have a COBRA meeting every morning and every afternoon. This seems to be standard across sector. The plan is to stay open as long as possible but to always assume we will close tomorrow. At the moment we are writing business continuity plans, identifying key staff, counting who does and doesn't have the kit and broadband to work from home and even counting spare laptops for students in hardship.

Online exams are causing the biggest headache at the moment. There will probably be a combination approach of converting as many to coursework as we can and open book exams putting exam papers on the VLE with timed release. This will probably mean some questions will need to be rewritten and we are now debating how long the exams should be to take into consideration student's own internet connections. Performance exams are causing the biggest headache. We also run many oral exams for languages, not to mention vivas.

I'm looking on the bright side. This could be the tipping point we need to force some of our more ..... staid lectures to modernise their teaching and learning approaches. It also provides us with a way of giving comprehensive feedback on exams that students have been asking for. It's also thrown into very sharp relief who the valuable staff are. It's given my team the opportunity to step up and shine which some have taken advantage of and it's exposed the work dodgers.

We have cancelled all face to face teaching until the end of the academic year. I'm slightly annoyed because, if I'd known this was going to happen I would have been able to brief my students face-to-face before they left for the Easter vacation. As it is, I suspect half of them will be in blissful ignorance until the start of next term. Checking their uni email isn't usually high on their priority list.

So we had an email saying all teaching and assessments are moving online. Nothing about what us support staff are going to do. Skeleton support staff service present daily I would imagine, we have to be present for those still on campus.

We have stopped all teaching now too, just as well because I woke up at 5am worrying about what to advise tutors. Lots of guidance coming through about online teaching, not had a chance to look at it yet but our IT people must be working overtime. Very grateful to them!

Yep all teaching is stopped here now. I won't get about £300 because labs have stopped. I know it's sensible but my funding ends soon so I was doing a bit more teaching to top it up this term!

Gossip from a friend at Oxford is that their cases are all students in the same choir, so I don't know whether the SU will push to cancel clubs /societies soon.

Collaborate is pretty good, I’ve used it before. I’ve also done remote lectures by simply recording audio on PowerPoint, which doesn’t allow interaction but is easy to do, you don’t need anything other than PowerPoint itself.

Business as usual here, apparently. Hmm. Not in a major population centre like London but still...

Unfortunately ds has acquired a cough today so it seems unlikely I will be able to go in to give lectures next week. He's 4 so WFH is not really on the cards in any meaningful way. He's not going to sit quietly if I attempt to deliver them online so that's that, really. I will try and get powerpoints and maybe audio files up in the evenings but to be honest if I'm locked in all day entertaining a preschooler I'm going to be utterly braindead by the time he's in bed each night, so it's going to be a struggle.

My concern is how supportive the university will be in this situation. Will I be in trouble for following official government advice? I wouldn't normally care (MUCH more concerned about my vulnerable students and colleagues than the SMT) but given the strikes my pay has already taken a massive hit recently. If this counts only as unpaid parental leave it's going to sting!

In Oxford here. Christ Church was virtually empty of tourists when its usually heaving.

One bursar told me that 'some colleges are closing but not telling anyone'.

Conferences being cancelled, concerts cancelled, some students self-isolating although the vacation has started.
Anyone else in Oxford?

Also business as usual here--we're going to be given further information on Monday afternoon. Many local universities have already moved teaching online. I think we'll join them by the end of the week.

A quick q re Collaborate- can you also see the students or is it just one way?

You see them as names on a messenger type thing and they can also use their phone's mic for voice chat.

You can't see them via video I don't think

For small groups on Collaborate you can see everyone on video. I have done that in the past for supervision of group projects while on strike (but don’t tell anyone). Be aware that it gives you an insight into their life and vice versa that you need to be comfortable with. Make sure the background doesn’t include your washing or anything else you don’t want them to see. There is a feeling of informality that you need to be happy with, I was talking to final year students that I knew well. If I was teaching a large class from home I think I’d stick to audio, from my office I’d add video for me (even though I hate lecture recording because I don’t recognise the fat old woman in the picture ).

How many of you have students who have come in ill in last week? And do you have any that you know are self isolating? I've got one in each category. Both seemed either not fully aware or were ignoring official advice. One had just come through an international airport too. I'm getting increasingly concerned for my own health and colleagues. The students will be OK. We're at greater risk. We're relying in goodwill and hygiene practice from young people. Many will be great but many need clear guidance and official advice to them has been v late. Lots also dont read email.

Thanks Chemenger and mumtedum. My largest group is 13. I’d much rather see them if possible. We don’t start online teaching until next week so I’m going to see if the students will join me for a dummy run this week.

@ghislaine good luck! Mine found it quite fun. We'll see how doing it for real goes. We're still business as usual but get feeling might change rapidly.

Carrying on here is the official line but also been toLd to make sure all material is on blackboard. I know how to do screencast to record audio over a ppt. Interesting to read you can do it just on PowerPoint itself, will investigate.

Never used Collaborate but could have a look.

Our students have a big exam coming up, no idea how they could sit it at home, they’d just be able to get their textbooks out. We can’t even swap to an assignment instead because the course is validated not just by the uni but also the professional regulatory body. We can’t change assessments. Unless of course everyone just says it’s an emergency do what you want.

Students also have a practice block (nursing) coming up. No idea what happens if they can’t do that. They need to do so many hours to be allowed to qualify. My suggestion has been to teach Year 2 stuff early and then they do extra practice in. year 2.

All face-to-face teaching has been stopped. Spent all day figuring out how to use Microsoft Teams and Collaborate.

I'm just trying to find something educational for the DD's to do. They've been off school for almost a week & it's time they did some work!

Mine has finally closed. I've prepared my first narrated .ppt, which was quite easy, once I got over the self-consciousness. No response from the students on the Blackboard setup. Either it's crystal clear (unlikely), or they're inhibited by the new mode of teaching. Anyone got any experience here? I was thinking of posing an open question to see if I can get the conversation started.

Ours is moving to wholly online support too - confirmed cases in students and staff. I'm already wfh but they're moving all essential support online too (have the infrastructure for it too)

We've finally moved fully online. Tried to upload a three minute test video yesterday and it failed. Not sure if I did something wrong or if the system was overloaded. Now thinking I might just use PowerPoint recordings. Big files to upload, but at least I'll have the file safe on my laptop.