Will other unis follow Cambridge and say no face to face lectures for the whole of next year?

[WhatP1antWhere]

If so won’t that cause huge levels of deferring and a tight squeeze on places for the following years coming up. Places will surely go to those who have deferred first.Just feeling for year 11. Exams cancelled, no support from schools, term ending early, Alevels courses going to be disrupted and potentially now huge competition for uni places.

That video is far too accurate YetAnotherSpartacus

We do all of the above and did even before C-19, with the exception of online tutorials or seminars.

"seminars through Adobe Connect" - not heard of this one! We use the Canvas technology and it is dreadfully clunky.

How is the Adobe software?

That video is far too accurate YetAnotherSpartacus

Had you seen it before? It's old now...

@serenada correct - we have a distance learning division which allowed us to pivot quickly for domestic and international students. We make most of our revenue from international so now many have returned home it's critical for inclusivity. I'm the Director of our distance learning courses so we are fortunate that we were already equipped and prepared, there are so many amazing tools that mean recorded ppts are just a small component of delivery.

To the best of my knowledge, there are online learning specialists at many UK universities

There are but they were already working on courses that were specifically designed to be online.

They will have worked on moodle, designed the portal and worked with curriculum heads on how the content is delivered.

They're trying but the work required to get hundreds of courses set up for remote delivery is huge. Most of us are doing all of this ourselves whilst learning the technology as we go along and redesigning courses and modules to work remotely.

@YetAnotherSpartacus @SueEllenMishke check out Aula learning experience platform it's fabulous!

Sorry, finished too soon.

Where the complexity lies however is in the delivery as

1. students are paying and feel they are consumers
2. university accountability for results.

It is one thing to have a free online course by Coursera/Udacity online. Anyone who has completed those courses know that they have pros and cons.

It is entirely different for a UK university, funded by public funds to put its name to courses that haven't been built in line with the latest peer reviewed research and resources. And this is a very new area. I have been researching and working in this field for a long time (I work for a university, peer reviewed science journal on backend coding).

In order for material to be distributed online or physically, it needs to be organized in a way that sits comfortably within the guidelines fo usability. Portals require extensive user experience testing - through proper research designed enquiry. Units of work have to be designed specifically for online use, taking into account retention and focus levels online. All of these things seem intuitive and obvious as we all use the internet each day but actually early online initiatives from universities were disastrous. They didn't function adequately for the needs of the user and cause huge problems for the academics - we cannot just put something up online. Online we scan - we don't read, not accurately or with the precision and focus we require with academic thinking.

There are several specialist fields - learning technologists, user experience researcher, user interface researcher, backend and contend engineers, developers, web designers, graphic designers, audio and video techs, producers. Think of a TV show and what goes in to that only when it is a university it is the official expert - there can be no margin of error.

Had you seen it before? It's old now...

I hadn't. I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

Thanks hernamewasrio will do!

hernamewasrio - OK - but do we need to buy it to use it?

SueEllen - yes. I watch it every now and again and cry silently whilst rocking back and forth gnashing my teeth on a pencil and pausing to laugh maniacally. I also watch Python's Romanes Eunt Domus when I mark papers.

Where I work the plan seems to be big lectures online. Smaller tutorials and courses that require equipment and labs etc..... will be on campus within government guidelines (whatever that may be at the time).

We are modelling on a 20% drop, but apparently they have had a massive spike in international applications (no one was really expecting that!)

@eeyoresstickhouse I think international students are preparing for a tough job market so ourMBA applications are up

but apparently they have had a massive spike in international applications

Interesting. We are expecting a 50% drop in international students.

Python's Romanes Eunt Domus

Life of Brian got me through my PGCE.

Python's Romanes Eunt Domus

That is funny. It gives my husband unpleasant flashbacks though.