90 seconds will never be enough to reflect on how our teaching landscape at Birmingham has changed over the last six months and all the signs are that things will continue to be challenging for a while yet.
But against that challenging backdrop we have seen fantastic examples of creativity, a teaching community that has come together to support our students and look after each other, and huge efforts to ensure that bi-modal teaching is a success.
I ran my first, synchronous online teaching recently. Some of it went well – the Chat in Zoom was buzzing with lively discussion. Some of it not so well – I lost my internet connection twice and was grateful to find everyone still in the virtual room when I got back!
These sorts of issues won’t disappear and teaching is going to look very different this year. But when things are challenging we need to remember that at the heart of this enterprise are human beings – us, our colleagues and our students – working together to make this year a success.
That’s why, alongside the digital support for bimodal teaching HEFi has also put together a range of resources drawn from best practice across the sector to ensure that we can support each other as a community: through effective personal academic tutoring that puts students and student voice at the centre of our efforts, through a commitment to inclusive practice that recognises that we are all individuals with diverse backgrounds and experience, and through an approach to curriculum and assessment design that promotes learning, whether in person, online or a combination of the two.
Follow the links in this MicroCPD to find our resources.