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Professor April McMahon, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, talks about taking a flexible and hybrid approach to teaching and learning in a COVID-19 world.<\/strong><\/p>\n How would you like some salsa or tango lessons \u2013 online? 200 of our students have recently followed a six-week course arranged by the Ballroom and Latin Dance Society (and most of them weren\u2019t even members). The Run Wild Society has created running routes to help students stay fit, or even take up running. And 300 student volunteers from Student Action have moved their intergenerational project onto the phone and are regularly calling lonely elderly residents across Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n Ah, I hear you say \u2013 that\u2019s all fabulous, but that\u2019s the Students\u2019 Union, and students live on Instagram anyway. During the weird days of lockdown though, haven\u2019t we all being learning and building communities online? People are learning to knit online; and everybody seems to be baking, even those who wouldn\u2019t have known their friands from their frangipane before. I have been doing a lot of dance workouts in my sitting room (not salsa or tango, but jumping about has to be better than sitting on the sofa; and nobody can see). And much of this is a genuinely blended experience \u2013 you can ask questions and share results (this scarf is now four metres long, but how do I cast off? If I can\u2019t find any self-raising flour, can I still bake this cake?).<\/p>\n Moving online<\/strong> I am not, however, an online evangelist for teaching and learning. I\u2019m a blended learning evangelist (or if we\u2019re going to get technical about it, a hybrid-flexible learning evangelist). At The University of Manchester we\u2019re mainly not designing and providing wholly online programmes. We can make the online components higher-quality, with better production values, based on appropriate pedagogy for working with online learners \u2013 and our students are guiding us on how to do this, based on their unit survey responses and other feedback (see this excellent blog<\/a> by our careers consultant Amanda Conway). But we also believe passionately in an on-campus experience, and we miss the buzz of our campus full of students. Those students, wherever they come from, love Manchester. They love walking down Oxford Road in Welcome Week and thinking \u2018I\u2019m really a student now\u2019. They want to have face to face discussions with academics and other students, and feel part of an international, intergenerational community of learning. They want to be in labs, and lectures, study in the library and the learning commons, go to the gym between classes, venture out of their rooms in their residences to meet the people they\u2019ll still be in touch with in 30 years. How do we provide that in a COVID-19 world?<\/p>\n A hybrid approach <\/strong> This requires compromise. We\u2019ve already said all our lectures and assessments for Semester 1 will need to be online, which frees up some spaces, helps us accommodate social distancing, and gives clarity for preparation. As much other teaching will be on campus as we can manage safely – which requires a lot of hard work and yes, some doubling up. There will be small group sessions where either we have both on-campus and online learners joining in together; or we need to teach twice, in the two different modalities. Some switching around of elements of the curriculum will be needed, because there are certain practical skills you can\u2019t fully master or assess online (though fewer than we might have imagined back in March).<\/p>\n We need to remember, though, that given a choice, students will often opt for a blended experience. Students are very positive indeed about lecture capture, which lets them revise, or watch back material they haven\u2019t understood the first time. Those who opt for UCIL units disproportionately select the online ones \u2013 why wouldn\u2019t you, because they are beautifully designed for online learning, and also include plentiful opportunities for students to discuss, contribute and work together. When prospective and continuing students tell us they are anxious about some of their learning being online, or all of it being online for a period of time, I don\u2019t think they are really saying they feel online means inferior. Rather, they are expressing an understandable sense of loss and disappointment because their student experiences are not going to be exactly as they had anticipated. <\/p>\n Creating a sense of belonging<\/strong> Now if you\u2019ll excuse me, I\u2019ve got a spot of dancing to do in the sitting room.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=”3.17.6″ prev_text=”Previous” next_text=”Next” in_same_term=”off” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.17.6″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#ffffff” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Related posts” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ locked=”on”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Subscribe” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ locked=”on” \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”sidebar-1″ show_border=”off” locked=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At The University of Manchester we\u2019re mainly not designing and providing wholly online programmes. We can make the online components higher-quality, with better production values, based on appropriate pedagogy for working with online learners \u2013 and our students are guiding us on how to do this. But we also believe passionately in an on-campus experience, and we miss the buzz of our campus full of students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":3388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"[et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]\r\n\r\n When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p> Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p> Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p> However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p> Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p> Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term. Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p> Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p> When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p> To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p>\r\n\r\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]\r\n\r\n [related-posts-thumbnails]<\/p>\r\n\r\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"1_3\"][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=\"Subscribe\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"et_pb_widget_area_3\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"sidebar-1\" show_border=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3389,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions\/3389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSince the long-ago days of lockdown in March, all our teaching, learning and assessment has been online. Every day I hear fantastic stories of how our staff and students are supporting each other, building virtual communities of practice, sharing ideas and improving what we do. Every day colleagues tell me they weren\u2019t sure\u2026but now they don\u2019t want to go back. Yesterday someone said they can\u2019t imagine why all our exams used to involve hundreds of students queuing up to sit in rows in big sweaty halls for hours, and please can we not do that again? We need to recognise that not everyone is going to love everything about these changes \u2013 but we hear many more positive than negative comments. And while we will undoubtedly go back to \u2018normal\u2019 in some respects, there\u2019s a lot we will want to keep.<\/p>\n
\nSo for this coming academic year of 2020-21, we have some challenges. We need a safety-net online version of everything for Semester 1 because we don\u2019t know what this virus is going to do. We don\u2019t know what Government guidance is going to be, or if borders will be open. In line with our values and our social responsibility ethos, we must not exclude students who want to come to Manchester but can\u2019t initially get here. At the same time, we want to encourage students to come if they safely can. So we are talking to airlines to make sure there will be capacity from key countries to get our students here if they\u2019re allowed to travel; and sorting out lots of extra cleaning; and providing washable face coverings for our students and staff. <\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s up to us to explain how we are developing a better blended experience \u2013 with enhanced welcome and induction in the coming year; opportunities to contribute and debate and feel you belong in the Manchester intellectual community, wherever you happen to be in the world; and still that unbeatable sense that yes, \u2018I\u2019m really a student\u2019. We have unprecedented sources of support for students, including more than \u00a31.2m for student hardship raised through the exceptional generosity of our staff, students and alumni. Students have dealt recently with a period of huge disruption in their lives, and they will need support with their confidence, transition into higher education or re-entry to study. But they have already demonstrated extraordinary resilience, adaptability, courage and drive; our Manchester graduates are going to be unstoppable! If we can communicate that and get excited about it ourselves, we\u2019ll build on everything we have learned in lockdown, and have a year to look forward to together.<\/p>\nRelated<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
Colette Fagan and Nalin Thakkar: Getting ready for COP26<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
James Thompson: Our Civic Future<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Nancy Rothwell: Placing Manchester at the heart of our University<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Related<\/h1>\r\n