{"id":1893,"date":"2021-07-15T14:06:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T13:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/?p=1893"},"modified":"2026-04-01T16:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:33:12","slug":"now-for-something-completely-different-life-as-a-fellow-of-the-itl-when-interrupted-by-a-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/2021\/07\/15\/now-for-something-completely-different-life-as-a-fellow-of-the-itl-when-interrupted-by-a-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"ITL Fellows: Now for something completely different – life as an ITL Fellow (interrupted by a pandemic)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Jennie<\/strong>Jennie Blake is Head of Teaching and Learning Development in the University of Manchester Library an<\/span>d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>is a\u00a0<\/span>National Teaching<\/span>\u00a0Fellow<\/span>. In this post<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0Jennie\u00a0<\/span>continues our Institute Fellows series by reflecting on\u00a0<\/span>the evolution of\u00a0<\/span>her\u00a0<\/span>project<\/span>\u00a0from initial F<\/span>ellowship interview to project close.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My story is probably a bit different\u00a0from\u00a0my fellow Fellows. From the start, when I arrived at my interview slightly over-excited by the prospect of maybe, perhaps, becoming one of the\u00a0Inaugural\u00a0Fellows, it was clear that this was an opportunity to get some work done that could impact teaching and learning\u00a0University-wide.\u00a0And I had a plan!\u00a0I was going to look at\u00a0the\u00a0small changes some teaching staff had made\u00a0to their teaching\u00a0(did they stop handing out photocopied notes? Did they start to build interleaving or spaced retrieval into their courses?) and see how those changes felt to the staff\u00a0(did it make the process easier? Student assessments stronger? Could it be tried by someone else, somewhere else?).\u00a0I wanted to take a series of small changes and show their impact, and thus, maybe, encourage others to give these little things a go.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That was in February. By March, life was both on hold and in upheaval, and it was clear\u00a0that little changes were a thing of the past. With my original idea\u00a0-suspended, and, let\u2019s be honest, life having taken an unexpected turn, I was asked instead to use some of my background working on academic advising to support an\u00a0international benchmarking exercise<\/a>\u00a0on the expectations for advisors around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Academic Advising: where do we sit? And what do we need?\u00a0<\/h5>\n

With a new plan, and an\u00a0absolutely amazing\u00a0student partner, I started to work with others at the Institute to figure out how we might support staff acting as academic advisors to ensure that students could get the support they needed to succeed whilst at the University. This is a question that has been asked time and time again (I had already asked it myself in a prior role!), so it was important to me that what came out of the work this time was practical, actionable,\u00a0and sensitive to the contexts we are operating in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With those caveats in mind, I worked with my student partner to survey and interview a range of academic advisors and students. It became clear that, as we already were aware, academic advisors often became a single point of truth for students\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a single point of pressure on an individual relationship to be or know everything a student might need (whether this was the intention of the role or not).\u00a0Students noted that they sometimes felt reluctant to reach out, and advisors noted that it was often a lonely role, without an organised community of people to rely on, share questions with,\u00a0or bounce ideas off.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think the original idea was that I might come up with some training needs to support those taking up the role of academic advisor but (as will surprise no one who\u00a0knows\u00a0me) I suggested something completely different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I was asked to come up with some training\u2014I\u00a0ended up suggesting a complete support structure instead!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luckily, Fellows are\u00a0given the space\u00a0to\u00a0explore\u00a0different ideas and travel slightly different roads, and I have found that\u00a0the work I did is being circulated, looked at and taken\u00a0seriously. Although I didn\u2019t get to investigate what I originally intended to (and quite honestly still really,\u00a0really want to!), I feel like the work I did will support staff and students at Manchester and make a positive contribution to the work we all do here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The very best bits\u00a0<\/h6>\n

In addition to the feeling that I have been able to make a difference, the most amazing bits of my Fellowship were the\u00a0chance\u00a0to work with two incredible student partners, Oladamola Arasanmi and Upendo Ipini, and the rest of the team at the Institute.\u00a0My student partners were\u00a0truly co-researchers, helping with survey design and analysis, working to reach out to students and staff,\u00a0and putting together the report at the end.\u00a0They were an\u00a0inspiration\u00a0and it was a privilege to work with them for the duration of my Fellowship. Finally, the rest of the team at the Institute made swapping projects, keeping in touch during a pandemic, running a research project from home,\u00a0and all the myriad opportunities and responsibilities of the Fellowship feel both smooth and exciting.\u00a0So many things were stressful during this\u00a0year\u00a0but\u00a0the Fellowship was an absolute pleasure from start to finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

To find out more about Jennie’s Fellowship project, you can get in touch with her on\u00a0jennie.blake@manchester.ac.uk.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Related<\/h1>\n

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Academic Advising and professional development<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
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Applied Employability: Giving students a picture of their future selves.<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
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Contact Us<\/h4>\n

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+44 (0) 161 306 6000<\/p>\n

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Find Us<\/h4>\n

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The University of Manchester
Oxford Rd
Manchester
M13 9PL
UK<\/a><\/p>\n

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Connect With Us<\/h4>\n

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