Support for moving education online, 2020-21

As we have said to returning students and offer holders, much of their teaching next term will be delivered remotely and enhanced with in-person activities on campus where that is safely possible.  This is an update on the support and guidance available to help staff to prepare to deliver the content of programmes online. There is a lot of information here, linking to further resources on the Teaching and Learning Portal.

If you have any questions or feedback for the Teaching Continuity and Education Delivery Team, please contact VPEDU.teaching.continuity@ucl.ac.uk. 

What support is available for staff to prepare for Connected Learning?  

1. Staff training 

Connected Learning Essentials, our online staff development programme, addresses the essential elements that supports colleagues to adapt and build materials for a move into an online environment.  Faculty Education teams are invited to talk to their Arena Teaching Fellow or Digital Education Advisor to arrange an in-faculty course to focus on discipline-specific considerations. 

Arena Centre Connected Learning Live events are 40-60 minute sessions that explore selected areas in more depth including: managing group dynamics online;  interactive teaching tools; online labs; remote assessment; online research methods and fieldwork; Alternative field trips.

ISD will be hosting interactive sessions for staff new to live teaching platforms. The sessions on Blackboard Collaborate enable teaching staff to try out the platform in a live environment before term begins.  It's an opportunity for you to explore, ask questions and practise using the platform, with dedicated support on hand. 

There are a limited number of places, so we encourage sign-up by those who feel they would benefit from further support after completing the initial training. 

Sign up to a session, taking place between Monday 7 September to Friday 18 September.

2. Resources and guidance  

The Programme Readiness Toolkit supports programme and module leads to prepare for teaching in 2020-21. There are ‘top tips’ and a small number of hyperlinks to key resources to help colleagues to access support help, guidance and resources as they develop and adapt their programmes and modules.  

The Moodle Baseline helps staff how best to structure and design online learning resources and activities in Moodle, so that it’s easy to navigate, engaging for students and meets your legal obligations.  

An information hub for labs and practice-based teaching is being developed, highlighting good/best practice, novel solutions, online strategies and other resources, as well as giving guidance to help staff address potential issues in time for Term 1.  

3. Assessment planning  

In 2020-21, we will again be unable to deliver face-to-face invigilated exams (central or locally organised) as we have in the past.  Students need clarity about how they will be assessed, and we have our Competitions and Marketing Authority obligations.  We need to learn from the experiences, both positive and negative, of this year’s round of alternative assessment in planning assessments next year.

We are developing our digital assessment capability to offer short, timed, online and un-invigilated exams. Guidance for online assessment and an assessment tariff  are now available.  We have successfully delivered 24 hour timed online exams this year, and we will be able to support the same delivery next year.

Our new e-exams project will be a pilot only next year and we will at best be able to offer a very small number of such exams. 

To comply with consumer legislation, we updated the Module Catalogue in early August, before students register for their modules.  

4. Tools and platforms   

The capacity of Moodle is being increased to cope with anticipated additional load in Term 1 and we ar providing guidance on how to gain online access to cluster room applications; how to support remote practical, lab and studio work; options for online social spaces for students; and running welcome, induction and informal events.  We continue to recommend:

• Lecturecast for pre-recording lectures  
• Blackboard Collaborate or Zoom for any live classes, (students in China experience problems connecting to it so we will be providing a licence for Zoom to support affected classes)
• Mentimeter, an online student response tool for online and face-to-face teaching
• Reflect (educational blogging platform), MyPortfolio (for student-led portfolio and reflective work) and Office365 tools to support student-led learning activities.

See more about recommended tools and platforms from UCL Digital Education. 

5. People   

Education Planning Support teams have been established, with Faculty Education Teams led by Vice-Deans Education and supported by Learning Technologists and Arena Teaching Fellows, and departmental teams - including Connected Learning Leads, e-learning champions and Covid-19 Education Mitigation Coordinators.  In addition, funding is available to support:  

• Online Postgraduate Teaching Assistants to support large modules with cohorts greater than 80 students and
• Student Content Developers, who work with module leads on developing online learning materials and activities.

6. Campus and timetabling  

An Emergency Timetabling Policy was approved and a revised Timetabling Process and timeline has also been developed.  You can find the Policy here together with FAQs that provide some further granularity about how the Temporary Operating Model will operate in practice. The Central Timetabling Team has been working closely with faculties and departments to implement this.  

7. Education Town Halls 

Education-related Town Halls have been run since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, including topics:

• Timetabling
   
• Assessment planning
   
• Online teaching

• Laboratory and practice-based teaching. 

View upcoming Town Halls and view past recordings and slides.  

Access the Town Halls