[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″]<\/p>\n
Associate Vice-President for Blended and Flexible Learning, Professor Danielle George, shares her experiences of preparing for Semester 1.<\/strong><\/p>\n Last month I was told I had the worst academic role in the University. In my next meeting I was told I had the best job in the University. I agree with the latter and it is certainly an interesting time to start a role as Associate Vice-President (AVP) for Blended and Flexible Learning!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n September is usually very busy for most of us but this year it\u2019s like preparing for semester 1 in a 10 times speeded up version of reality. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to switch our entire Teaching and Learning operation to one of online delivery overnight. There have been some amazing accomplishments to prepare teaching materials by so many people since our rapid exit from campus in March. Rather than simply replicate traditional lecture courses, colleagues have taken time to think about the opportunities the new medium affords us such as asynchronous discussions and drawing upon a different range of resources and tools.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s an understatement to say the start of the 20\/21 academic year presents us with additional challenges to overcome. I think it\u2019s also fair to say that semester 1 won\u2019t be exactly the perfect blended provision we would ideally like for students or staff. What we\u2019re doing represents a marked shift from how we\u2019ve done things before. It will be tough for lots of academics to teach online if they have little or no experience of it, so it\u2019s key that we get the necessary support required in a short time frame. Otherwise we face frustration and errors, which will make educators and students feel stressed or vulnerable. Technology is one of the keys to enabling a successful transition to more blended learning and so I formed the Online and Blended Working Group (a great mixture of academics from across the Faculties, PS and ITS colleagues) which is taking a tactical approach to get the right tools in place to ensure a successful start to the year. We are also investing in more learning technologist posts so we have colleagues who can support us in designing our teaching materials and bringing them to life.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We\u2019ve got various initiatives we are currently progressing in order to provide our new and existing students with a seamless online teaching offering. We\u2019ve achieved a great deal already and we have more in the pipeline. We\u2019re looking at subtitle and transcription service for pre-recorded teaching and learning content as well as for live teaching, combining remote and on-campus access to IT Clusters and, something we have historically thought more about for research \u2013 export controls.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Many of us also have a whole a new set of vocabulary to learn: what is blended, flexible, online, flipped \u2026and do we all agree on the terms??, does face to face teaching mean on-campus or can that be on Zoom?, \u2026. the list goes on. To help us get to grips with this I recommend watching a video made in FSE Teaching College<\/a> by Steve Pettifer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In recent months the timetabling teams deserve the Mastermind trophy. Every year it\u2019s a complex problem to solve. A computer can easily check that a timetable has no clashes but a clash-free timetable cannot (in general) be guaranteed, so finding a timetable with the minimum number of clashes is a genuine mathematical challenge. Add to that our reduction in estate use due to much-needed safety measures and \u2026 oh my head hurts now. (The ability to solve timetabling efficiently hinges on one of the foremost unsolved problems in mathematics: the so-called \u201cP vs NP\u201d problem but that\u2019s for another day). But I know how committed many staff are to ensuring we have some timetabled teaching activities on campus in semester 1 as we recognise how important (socially distanced) on-campus activities are for the wellbeing of our students. One of the functions of face to face education is that it does a lot of the organising for a student: here is a timetable, here are locations to be in, here is where the resources can be found, etc. The physical structure of a campus is also a time and planning structure which helps our students enormously. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the spare minutes I\u2019ve tried to let my thoughts wander to a longer-term strategy and what a successful blended and flexible learning strategy looks like for us. The short answer is \u2013 I don\u2019t know yet, but I think that\u2019s ok, as I haven\u2019t yet had the chance to chat to colleagues across the University and gather your thoughts and opinions. So that\u2019s my next task. I am going on the road (so to speak) and attending as many open meetings, FLTs, School, Departmental and Division meetings as I can to discuss my thoughts so far and to get your ideas. What do you want our teaching provision to look like in five years\u2019 time? How best do we utilise our assets such as UMW<\/a> and UCIL<\/a>? Should we provide degree apprenticeships? What about micro credentials or joint degrees with other institutions globally, or CPD? Any and all suggestion and comments are most welcome, and I look forward to chatting to you at an open meeting near you.<\/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":" It is certainly an interesting time to start a role as Associate Vice-President (AVP) for Blended and Flexible Learning! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":3414,"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-3330","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\/3330","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=3330"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3441,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3330\/revisions\/3441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Related<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
April McMahon: Replacing Blackboard Learn with Canvas by Instructure<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Colette Fagan and Sarah Sharples: Making the Leap: Accelerating the path from research excellence to...<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Danielle George: Blended and flexible learning \u2013 a look back and the road ahead<\/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