Teaching online next academic year

[damekindness]

It seems that as we look at our timetable requests for next academic year it seems inevitable the greater proportion of teaching will have to remain online. The logistics of the large and ever growing course numbers being able to fit into our existing teaching areas without any need for at least some distancing is challenge enough. However, add in distancing and it becomes almost impossible.

Hybrid or repeating sessions (presumably we have a matinee and evening performance for our lectures 🤷🏻‍♀️) are being mooted as adjunct plans. Which we have neither the resources( human/good IT) nor appetite to deliver

Another year of this might kill me !

Ours is looking very similar too. Unit needs are being mapped "similar" to 2020 and everything that can be online will be online.

we have been told that lectures are online but we have to have in-person sessions too (divided into small groups and repeated). so it will all be twice as much work as a normal year and the students will still moan.

Same here. Fills me with dread.
The last year has taken almost all my pleasure out of teaching

Us too. I’m looking around to see if I can be seconded elsewhere for a year, I am so beaten down by online teaching and really can’t face another year of it.

I'm sorry to go against the tide here but I'd welcome another year of online teaching. I have all my lecture videos pre-recorded so, apart from re-doing the introductory lectures which are very 2020-specific, I'd have zero lecture preparation/delivery to do.

Seminar/workshop teaching is draining so I'd be happy to return to doing that in-person. However equally, if that also remained online I wouldn't mind.

I suspect we will follow the model where lectures are online, and seminars/workshops are in-person for the most part but with one online seminar for each module for students who opt to study online next year (which our students are being given the chance to do now).

I'd have zero lecture preparation/delivery to do

Probably not wise to advertise that too much. Why pay academic staff salaries if you can press play on previously prepared materials?

@qudylogra

I'd have zero lecture preparation/delivery to do

Probably not wise to advertise that too much. Why pay academic staff salaries if you can press play on previously prepared materials?

I get your point but people seem to forget that lecture material has been recorded for years and years through in-classroom recording technology. This means that universities have had the ability to just press play on previous years' lectures for years. And it hasn't happened in any significant way. So I don't get the concern, hand-wringing about recycling recorded lectures from 2020 specifically.

Moreover, students won't tolerate online lectures forever. They're being accommodating and understanding (well, mostly) at the moment because of Covid. But once the world goes back to normal, they will want in-person lectures to resume and you need lecturers for that.

They'll keep paying us too because at some point the material prepared in 2020 will need updating to integrate and synthesise new material, to give an overview of the contemporary debates. And they need academics for that.

As a student who has just finished a post graduate medical degree - at a RG uni -I think the online teaching is a disgrace. Its not the same as face to face and very low quality compared to the real thing...

Maybe other institutions have better lecture capture facilities, however the videos I've made this year are much better than the 'webcam pointed in direction of whiteboard' lecture capture videos from previous years.

Nonetheless I suspect Universities will come up with a version of hybrid online/in-person teaching for 2021/22 which requires another Summer spent rewriting materials...

@ehtelp

Maybe other institutions have better lecture capture facilities, however the videos I've made this year are much better than the 'webcam pointed in direction of whiteboard' lecture capture videos from previous years.

Nonetheless I suspect Universities will come up with a version of hybrid online/in-person teaching for 2021/22 which requires another Summer spent rewriting materials...

Oh I agree, my pre-recorded videos are much better than the in-classroom recordings. But many of my colleagues did 'live' online lectures which they recorded as you would record a meeting and they were, on the whole, actually much worse!

I meant as a principle, already having the material prepared has existed for years and universities haven't taken advantage so I don't see pre-recorded or 'live' recorded lectures being that much different.

[quote IrmaFayLear]@NoviceGardenLady - you are a disgrace to the profession .[/quote]

This means that universities have had the ability to just press play on previous years' lectures for years. And it hasn't happened in any significant way.

I think this is a bit disingenuous. The current situation is not comparable to the past. Three years ago it would not have been possible for universities to sit students in a room and press play on recorded lectures.

There is already pressure from students to have fee reductions due to the perceived reduction in contact hours and in some cases (like the comment above) perceived reduction in teaching quality. To keep within the advertised contact hours for courses prerecorded material has to be counted as contact hours. The argument for doing so - rather than regarding prerecorded material as supplementary to contact hours - is weakened if lectures are not recorded specifically for each cohort.

Widespread reuse of recorded lectures from previous years could well be used as a reason to halt replacing staff etc, particularly if some kind of fee reduction is agreed. Perhaps this wouldn't be an issue in the highest ranked universities but it surely will be in those that are struggling with finances and student numbers.

I don't agree that the quality of online teaching is lower in my department than that of regular teaching. However, I think it is hard for students to engage in the same way with hour after hour of online teaching, due to Zoom fatigue.

@qudylogra

This means that universities have had the ability to just press play on previous years' lectures for years. And it hasn't happened in any significant way.

I think this is a bit disingenuous. The current situation is not comparable to the past. Three years ago it would not have been possible for universities to sit students in a room and press play on recorded lectures.

There is already pressure from students to have fee reductions due to the perceived reduction in contact hours and in some cases (like the comment above) perceived reduction in teaching quality. To keep within the advertised contact hours for courses prerecorded material has to be counted as contact hours. The argument for doing so - rather than regarding prerecorded material as supplementary to contact hours - is weakened if lectures are not recorded specifically for each cohort.

Widespread reuse of recorded lectures from previous years could well be used as a reason to halt replacing staff etc, particularly if some kind of fee reduction is agreed. Perhaps this wouldn't be an issue in the highest ranked universities but it surely will be in those that are struggling with finances and student numbers.

I don't agree that the quality of online teaching is lower in my department than that of regular teaching. However, I think it is hard for students to engage in the same way with hour after hour of online teaching, due to Zoom fatigue.

Thanks this makes sense

Sorry, I didn't mean that teaching quality itself was worse online. Quite the opposite - generally people put a lot more effort into their teaching this year. I meant 'live' recorded lectures (like how you'd record an online meeting on Teams or Zoom) are much worse than the lectures which are recorded using in-classroom technology. Not necessarily in terms of content but the flow, style, pace, and general 'feel'.

you are a disgrace to the profession

@IrmaFayLear did you actually read @NoviceGardenLady 's post?

She talks about making bespoke, specially made for online lectures, not just recordings of live lectures. She writes about looking forward to in-person seminar & workshop teaching. he also writes about the necessity to update 2020 lectures.

How is that lazy or a disgrace?

That is how lectures work - we write them (it's 50 minutes of talking - around 25 pages of cogent text) - then we re-deliver them each year, adding in new things, or altering or changing or adding as it seems necessary in terns of what students appear to understand, or not understand.

That's why tutorials, seminars, workshops, labs - the really time-consuming & intense parts of university teaching and learning, are far more important. And valued more highly by students and staff than lectures.

My department only offers lectures in the first half of 1st year. After that, we teach wholly through tutorials, seminars, workshops, and labs.

Even then, I teach pretty much the same structure in these teaching sessions, year after year. I'll run a research-led module for 3 or 4 years (while I'm writing the book on the topic), and then teach a new course.

You really need to learn how a university works.

It’s not really the online teaching that gets me
It’s the online bloody exams
They are some open book format which are useless in testing knowledge of the subject material - in some material - eg medicine it IS necessary to be tested on facts and details, in a time pressured situation. But it’s all lazy basically; university management just wants the income, lecturers don’t want to do the work and students get screwed.

university management just wants the income

Fees paid by UK students don't cover the cost of their degrees. If universities were not subsidised by huge amounts of staff unpaid overtime, and external research income to academic researchers (oh those lazy lecturers who don't want to do the work) they'd not work as financial entities.

@RobinHobb

It’s not really the online teaching that gets me It’s the online bloody exams They are some open book format which are useless in testing knowledge of the subject material - in some material - eg medicine it IS necessary to be tested on facts and details, in a time pressured situation. But it’s all lazy basically; university management just wants the income, lecturers don’t want to do the work and students get screwed.

I know this debate has gone on and on and this has been said before but I take issue with this 'lazy academics' narrative

Most of the lecturers I know are working ( and have for the past year been working ) a 50/60 hour week to make sure they can provide the best sort of education and support they can possibly offer given the context they were required to work within.

I know students feel they've had a rough deal from their financial investment (and I stand in solidarity and sympathy with them) - but that's more to do with a global pandemic and some universities prioritising financial stability over student satisfaction.

Not an academic, but a student (STEM), and relatively old for an undergrad (34).

This is year has been incredibly difficult for both sides. The people that teach me have done an amazing job, and I said so on the anonymous feedback forms we have for each module.

It’s been awful not being in the labs, as we are usually in there 50% of the time, and I’m definitely a learn by doing person. However, that’s not been the staffs fault.

Frankly I applaud all of you and I just wanted to hop on to say that.

Thank you. That is very much appreciated.

It’s been the toughest year of my long career and it’s been really difficult for my students. But I’m confident they have learned a lot this year. Even if it’s not what they or I expected.

I'm just back from maternity leave and it's noticeable how ground down my colleagues are. Even the ones who are at the lazier end of the spectrum or take on less of the grunt work are noticeably struggling to drag themselves to the end of the academic year. I'm hoping things are more normal next year, at the very least for assessment. I'm not a fan of online assessment.

It’s the online bloody exams
They are some open book format which are useless in testing knowledge of the subject material - in some material - eg medicine it IS necessary to be tested on facts and details, in a time pressured situation. But it’s all lazy basically;

I think the poster knows this is not accurate.

Most courses are using a mixture of assessments of which an online exam may be just one component. The variety in assessments is higher than usual this year. Many new types of assessment are being used, the design and delivery of which has involved considerable work from teaching staff.

Assessments linked to professional qualifications are being treated with great care. My understanding is that at least some medicine and health sciences assessments are taking place in person, exactly to test the kind of skills mentioned above. Other assessments linked to professional qualifications are being done under controlled conditions e.g. timed, online invigilation. Considerable work has been done to rework assessments in such a way that they meet the accreditation requirements of the professional bodies & ensure integrity.

Thankfully I'm only teaching small group sizes. Our first year is over 300 but has in the past had parallel rooms anyway.