Trying to prep for 20/21

[AlwaysColdHands]

Arghhhh!!
We seem to be gearing up for two scenarios:

1. Blended, with reduced f2f, prioritised for year 1, but expectation that all students will come onto campus at some point (staggered times, small groups etc etc). Logistical nightmare to say the least, all delegated down to academics to propose solutions.

1. Wholly online in case of further lockdown

So I may need to transform an undergrad module into an online version with bells and whistles AND got to take on a new postgrad course. How to do this with no school and nursery ???? Dreading the summer and feeling so stressed about September..........who’s in the same boat? 😥
Misery loves company and all that.....

We’ve switched to BB ultra. I haven’t done any training so just muddling my way through it!

Ugh, I'm now in information-overload. We keep getting these massively long documents from the administration and I have no time or brainpower to read through them all. I don't know what's relevant to me. And I have this sense that things keep changing, but I'm not sure if that's real or I just haven't been paying enough attention that things seem 'new' to me...

Got myself in an unnecessary tizzy over timetable. Big meeting this afternoon about teaching this year (which no doubt will make all my recordings so far - I have 5 "big" teaching sessions to record plus one that will be short but complex (I've secured a videographer for that one I think as it involves artefacts and me explaining them, after some back and forth about "can't you use a visualiser" "what's a visualiser, I only have 2 hands and one head, can it video my face? no OK then. What about my body and hands? no OK then")

starting to really freak out now - all sorts of compliance issues on our online stuff and I don't think I have kept up very well (what with family and all sorts of other stuff to also do.....). Oh god - it will all come out in the wash in a couple of weeks. I feel like I have no idea what to say to a bunch of people I cant see or hear about my topics - and will the tech even work?

Also panicking here. Does anyone have tips for how to facilitate seminar discussion when everyone is sitting spread out across a large room and wearing masks? Some of my students are barely audible in normal circumstances!

Is mask wearing in class being made mandatory? We are only having to wear masks in common areas. Masks aren't required when teaching although we have to be socially distanced. I assume this negates the need for a mask. There is no way I could teach wearing a mask - I would be in a perpetual fog the entire time!

Yes, it's mandatory (barring exemptions). Tutors can wear a visor instead of a mask (we have to wear both until the students are seated). But the students are supposed to wear a mask. I just can't see that they will participate in discussion in these circumstances (we have social distancing as well as the masks, and they will be seated in rows, sometimes in huge tiered lecture theatres with no additional microphones).

GCAcademic- The obvious way is to ask them to type into a chat app or use an online resource... Honestly I am not at all sure of the value of being in a room in such conditions. and once the students realise that they may be much happier online.

Its the same for us- no mandatory masks, responsibility on us to clean rooms between classes, classrooms full all day, magic plexiglass screens, air being recycled, no testing.

I am trying not to worry because I assume we will be fully on line within days. Many of our students are coming from areas already in or at the edge of being locked down

Mandatory here barring exemptions though I believe we are free to say they are not required in "meetings" as opposed to classes.

GC, can you use some form of the "speaking object" that you pass around - like, um, maybe a long stick with a tube of hand sanitiser attached to negate the fact that everyone is touching it? (okay, so maybe not such a great idea...)

Masks: I swear just a little while ago we were told no masks in tutorials, but the giant document I just read definitely said everywhere indoors. I can't keep up. I'm not actually in a tutorial until late Oct, so I don't even know if paying attention now is helpful! Although perhaps knowing where the information is to be found might be useful (another problem - is this all just in my email? have they gathered it somewhere? did they send me an email telling me where they may have gathered it...?)

I am also quite worried about the face-to-face seminars. I have classes for translating which will be half online (works well) and half in-person but spread across a large room with masks (now newly mandatory in all inside settings at my institution), and I just think the latter option is going to be so difficult to encourage participation in. They are always nervous about translating 'wrong' anyway, and usually the best way to get around that is to encourage a supportive, warm kind of atmosphere, which is going to be so difficult in this kind of clinical setting! And, like everyone else, I am panicking a bit (a lot) about how many different new policies there are to keep track of now, especially as they keep changing.

It’s unworkable. I teach groups of 10-12 students in seminars and we do close analysis of texts, which is based on sustained discussion. If everyone is masked and distanced, we’ll barely hear each other (assuming that anyone speaks in the first place). No app can substitute that discussion. If we were on Teams, we would at least have a good chance of being able to do so.

We’ve basically been put into this unworkable situation so that our employers can make rental income from their student accommodation. There has been no thought given at all to how this scenario will work from a teaching perspective.

I'm still trying to figure how it is possible to teach a socially distanced seminar and keep an eye on the half of the class tuning in via MS teams that week.

Oh yes, that too @lionheart - we've been told that we do have to provide simultaneous online class for those not able to come in, but it's not yet clear here what that means (a recording? Actual ability to participate?) - so that's yet another thing to worry about. At the moment I am trying to focus on the things I know I can do (finishing seminar design, assessment documents prep, etc.) and hoping the rest gets clearer soon, but admittedly we might now be getting a bit too close to term for that strategy...

We have to provide online as well but not simultaneously. That would be bananas frankly.

Deianira for us it means the seminar group is divided so that one half attends in person and the rest log on via teams (the same principle applies for all seminars since some students won't be able to attend in person). You then have to teach a socially distanced class all the while keeping your computer on so you can monitor the chat and let the other students participate. You then also have to design the seminar and activities to take in the fact that you have two sets of students in attendance.

The College has said that most rooms have been fitted with a giant screen so that the faces of the distance learners can be seen if they want to be on camera.

I think that the socially distanced f2f teaching will be enough of a challenge without dealing with the other part at the same time.

It will be like that game you play when you have to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time.

It is bananas.

I went to a training session today where the convenor stopped to apologise at one point because she hadn't kept an eye on the screen for hands up/chat and hadn't appointed an assistant to do this for her. Everyone was thinking exactly the same thing--that this ludicrous juggling is exactly what we have been asked to do when we go back to teach and what the convenor had, indeed, just been telling us we would be doing.

What about your provision for distance learners, those in quarantine or shielded worstofbothworlds?