When do you think universities will open?

[googlepoodle]

I would think they would be definitely be working to a September deadlines for the new academic year.
But do we think any sooner? I am professional services staff and currently working from home.

I think it's a trend in the sector. International applications are up by more than 2000 for 20-21 entry where I work

Had an update from HoD today. We’re looking at teaching each module both online and in person. I can’t see how we can do this without a great increase in our workloads.

It's tricky historyrocks but don't you think that the thousands and thousands of folk who won't or don't already have jobs due to Covid would be glad to have to work rather harder to maintain normality for their families, pay their rent and stuff? Serious question - I think your predicament is rather privileged bearing in mind the current scenario.

Historyrocks what a dilemma maybe go on strike. I work for the nhs and my heart bleeds for you

We’ve been told to come up with a contingency plan incase we’re not back face to face in Oct.

Don't worry ontheroses and malificent if unis dont open as normal this autumn several will go under and academics such as historyrocks will be out of work. Hope that makes you feel better.

Do you appear on threads for teachers and forces and tell them they should suck it up?

Wow, historyrocks did not deserve that. This is a thread about universities and it was just a comment. Hardly insensitive in the context of this thread!

Yikes historyrocks. Unless that was done by uploading recordings of lectures online (and we don't have the tech for that, and that wouldn't work for tutorials or labs) that would be unfeasible.

Despite what the experts on this thread seem to think.

what a dilemma maybe go on strike. I work for the nhs and my heart bleeds for you

Gee, malificient, if you would meekly accept your workload being hugely increased, maybe you’re the one who should consider going on strike

Yes but titchy the point you are missing is that if academics across the cojntry pull together with their SMTs many of the at risk institutions may be saved.

It’s difficult though isn’t it? Many academics are already working 60 weeks just teaching a face to face course.

If I was asked to effectively teach 2 courses neither course is going to be particularly good as I wouldn’t have the time to plan or deliver either course as well as what I’d want. I guess it’s doable. I’d end up teaching the face to face one via death by PowerPoint and put the powerpoints online for the online course. 🤷‍♀️

Do you appear on threads for teachers and forces and tell them they should suck it up?

Yes, yes at least one of them does.

The staffroom sends its kind thoughts academics' corner.

We have been told to prep for online teaching until December. From a solely personal standpoint I don't mind this much. We had been dithering around the edges of online delivery for some of our provision and it has, at least, prompted a bit of a review of how and why we do things the way we do. Oddly enough it appears, in the short term at least, to have changed the dynamic between students and staff for the better. They are a lot more appreciative of our efforts, and better engaged

However I work in a healthcare faculty. We simply can't move absolutely everything online. Students need face-to-face clinical skills training, mandatory CPR training before placement etc etc. There are, as yet, no plans for how that will happen.

Already it's a nightmare as some cohorts have lost out on weeks of NHS-based clinical practice that they will have to claw back somehow over the remainder of their programme. Workload has rocketed in terms of marking etc as assessments that would previously have been OSCEs have had to switch to essay formats. Entire timetables are having to be rewritten (also my responsibility, yay).

Lots of our students will have to extend their programme past the end of their final year in order to meet all the professional standards. The repercussions of this will go on for years - fewer graduating students for the NHS this September and for several Septembers to come.

And that's before we even start thinking about the fees issue...

And of course, online for a bit is probably just about manageable for the established cohorts - it's hell for the incoming 2020 lot.

OK,

Of course I'm grateful to have a job, although I have no idea whether that will be. the case in a year.

Nevertheless, moving to a dual approach of online and face to face teaching is going to greatly increase workloads--if you do it well, of course.

Apart from the last few frantic weeks before Easter, none of us have any experience of teaching online, but I know that you can't just replicate what you've done in class and stick it online. The one exception is recording lectures, which we already do. We've already been told that all large lectures are cancelled and we will have to record them.

Other things I've been thinking about

• We're going to have to change our assessment (eg I will have to replace the exam with something else)
• We'll have to ensure all our material is digitised, which is actually going to be a problem for myself and some of my colleagues.
• During the last few weeks of the semester where we taught online, there were plenty of students who did't have the right technology (lots had broken microphones).

I don't know how people who work in labs or have practical teaching/assessment will cope. The move to a dual approach has been decided at the top of the university so it seems people are going to have to try to figure these things out across the disciplines.

I forgot to say that St Andrews has decided to go down the dual route of teaching modules both online and face to face, and I'm hearing from people elsewhere that this is being looked at.

@OhTheRoses it's really not that simple. I have a vision in my mind of a cheesy film collage set to something like 'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now', with academics and professional services staff hi fiving, brainstorming around a whiteboard together and laughing over a well earned beer in the evening. None of this will change the fact that without the ability to recruit students this September, some universities will close.

Yes but titchy the point you are missing is that if academics across the cojntry pull together with their SMTs many of the at risk institutions may be saved.

Really? How exactly do you think we are going to pull together to reverse the crash in student numbers for September?

Apart from the last few frantic weeks before Easter, none of us have any experience of teaching online, but I know that you can't just replicate what you've done in class and stick it online

Well this is it. Learning /developing an entirely new pedagogy and getting to grips with all the tools required to facilitate that effectively is a full-time job in itself. DP does this stuff for a living. He was aghast at the idea that I was just going to have to 'start teaching online' - it's not that simple!

Watching this thread with interest as both a member of PS staff and a Masters student.

Returning to the issue of strike action disrupting studies, there's no doubt it was disruptive, but part of my PS role involves attendance monitoring and it was noticeable that the students making the most fuss about seminars and lectures being cancelled/requesting refunds were the ones with a pattern of abysmal attendance or total non-attendance.

Malificence asserted earlier that their DC would be assessed on work not covered in lectures, which seems a bit far-fetched. Following campus closure, my own uni has issued a No Detriment Policy which specifically says students will not be assessed on content that was not delivered. I would have thought that was standard.

Malificence asserted earlier that their DC would be assessed on work not covered in lectures, which seems a bit far-fetched. Following campus closure, my own uni has issued a No Detriment Policy which specifically says students will not be assessed on content that was not delivered. I would have thought that was standard.

We've been told we will have to make up the material missed from strike-hit lectures as it WILL be on our exams. We were always going to have to make it up anyway as it was a pretty vital section of anatomy for our course - but basically the course have covered that section by me going through the topic outline, googling up what was on it and passing the document around the rest of the cohort!

Our uni announced no detriment - then about a week after that the wriggling out emails started with the "we're looking into how to do this... we're looking into which courses this MAY be applicable to... we expect to announce how this will work in June..." seems to have totally been a PR and "shut the student union up for a bit" measure and they're proceeding as normal.

As for the strikes - I was really fucked off by them - not only the cancelled lectures we're still being assessed on, but the constant disruption to ones that WERE taking place - and my attendance was well in the high 90%s. My uni is pretty much a shower of shit at an institutional level though - my department do their best working through the crap management descend down on high.

Why is it double effort to do on line and face to face? My sons at Bristol already for 3 years had have every face to face lecture recorded - the lecture just presses a button at start of each lecture and then students can watch it as many times as they like later. it is not a separate additional work for the lecturer the way it is done there at least. So this term will all be online and same lectures and students access them as they have done for 3 years if they missed that one or learn by listening to things 20 times etc and want to listen to the recording.

It is standard, Baileys.

We also have a 'Safety Net' policy which ensures that none of the changes to assessments impact on the final award.

No way would students be assessed on subjects they'd not covered.

The process - those aspects of it that are within our control, at least - has been absolutely student-focused.

Yes but titchy the point you are missing is that if academics across the cojntry pull together with their SMTs many of the at risk institutions may be saved.

And the point you are missing is that this topic is for people who work in HE to have a moan/share stuff etc with others in the same boat. It's not AIBU.

(As an aside how does all academics pulling together find tens of thousands of overseas students to start this Autumn?)

Because, Xenia, as has been pointed out several times, good and effective online pedagogy is not about just uploading lecture capture.