The early spring bank holiday meant a shorter working week for me.
Most of the week was being involved in Jisc’s Connect More 2022 event. I was chair for one day and a virtual host for another day. I wasn’t presenting as this was very much a practitioner focused event.
Some great and inspiring sessions.
Politics against entered the debate about in-person teaching and blended learning.
Universities could be fined for failing to return to in-person teaching, minister warns
Michelle Donelan has warned that if universities fail to return to face-to-face teaching, they may face large penalties. The universities minister told The Mail on Sunday she plans to “put boots on the ground” and send teams of inspectors to check staff attendance rates at campuses across the UK. Where universities don’t meet the required standards, they could “potentially be fined…
Helpful rhetoric? No, of course not.
Was involved in a few discussions about how students wanted to return to campus, but not necessarily to attend lectures.
Friday I went to the office in Bristol. It was quite busy compared the last time I was there.
The sector still appears to be reflecting on the concept of hybrid (or hyflex) teaching I read the following summary of ‘Hybrid Teaching and Learning in HE: a futuristic model or a realistic model for the future?’ was a question addressed at a workshop held by the University of Nottingham in early 2022, when universities were ready to turn the pandemic corner. More than 150 participants from around the globe were brought together to share their practice and learn from a community of academic and technical colleagues who had experienced hybrid teaching.
I published a blog post on time. Do you have enough time to read it?
Though I have written about time lots of times over time (well at least the last twenty years); across the sector we are still discussing that we need to provide academics and practitioners with more time. There are still many voices out there, saying that the challenge with engaging practitioners with learning technologies is about providing them with time The trouble with talking about time, is that it is a somewhat simplistic perspective over what is a complex and challenging issue.
My top tweet this week was this one.
Good question
Our staff found a difference between what students say and what they do, eg they said they want to come on-to campus for sessions. We arrange f2f and only 20% of students attend.
How do we account for this when designing hybrid/blended
learning?— James Clay (@jamesclay) May 4, 2022