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Covid-19: Teaching, learning and assessment newsletter
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This is the latest of our weekly newsletters for staff about the work underway to ensure the continuity of Teaching, Learning and Assessment for our students during the Covid-19 pandemic.
 
Today we are covering:

Recovering First-Year Studies Next Academic Year

Following the disruption to Term 3 this year, first-current students on some courses may still need to complete essential study to meet course-level learning outcomes. This is likely to relate to the requirements of the course’s accrediting Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Body (PSRB).
 
We have published new guidance on the small number of cases where it would be appropriate to recover missed first-year studies as students move into the 2020/21 academic year.

Support from the Learning Design Consultancy Unit

We have brought together expert staff to form the Learning Design Consultancy Unit, which is dedicated to supporting you with designing and adapting teaching and learning for online delivery. As part of this support, the Unit is running a series of online workshops, including the following sessions this week:  

  • Retrospective: Agile development supporting the pivot
    Wednesday 15th July 1-2pm
    Led by Diana Shore and Graeme Knowles (WMG)
  • Creating video content
    Wednesday 15th July 3-4.30pm
    Led by Kerry Pinny (Academic Technology)
  • ABC Learning Design Mini-Sprint
    Thursday 16th July 1-2pm
    Led by Robert O’Toole (Academic Technology), Peter Fossey (ADC) and Jess Humphreys (ADC)
Weekly Drop-in Events
Join the live LDCU drop-in sessions to meet colleagues, take part in peer conversations, exchange ideas and help to build a growing network of support for designing and adapting teaching and learning for online delivery. These sessions will run once a week, initially for 4 weeks on the following dates:
  • Tuesday 14th July 1-2pm
  • Monday 20th July 1-2pm
  • Wednesday 29th July 1-2pm
  • Thursday 6th August 1-2pm

Book your workshop place, join a drop-in event or find about more about the Unit on their website.

Student Survey Results


National Student Survey 2020 
Results from the NSS 2020
are released tomorrow morning after 75% of final-year undergraduates (over 3,330 students) completed the survey between February and April. As was the case last year, some of the results at institution and subject level will be made public at the same time as we receive the full dataset.

We are as focused as ever on using feedback from our students to enhance the student learning experience, including through a methodical analysis of and response to NSS results. However, a pragmatic approach this year requires us to focus on the immediate operational pressures relating to Exam Boards and admissions before focusing in more depth on NSS results.

We will share an initial release of the results (university and departmental trend data) with senior teams in each academic department tomorrow and publish a summary through Insite. However, the full dataset (e.g. five-year trend data at the course level, student comments, demographic breakdowns) and analysis will follow in the coming weeks, and we will return to focus on exploring and using the results data with departments later in the summer. We anticipate the results will provide a useful source of information in planning for the next academic year alongside results from the end-of-term survey (see below) and continued engagement with Student-Staff Liaison Committees. 

End of Term Student Survey 
Over the last two weeks, we surveyed undergraduate and postgraduate taught students on their experiences of teaching, learning and assessment in Term 3, and their perspectives on blended learning in the next academic year. 2,767 students responded and provided over 6,500 comments between them. We are currently preparing the data for release to academic and professional services teams in the coming week, along with an institutional analysis of the results for different demographic groups. We will share this via our network of existing NSS and PTES contacts (including HoDs) in the first instance, in anticipation that it will be a timely resource to inform planning for the next academic year. 

Immigration & Compliance Update

2-year Graduate Route work visa for Tier 4 students and potential impact on academic extension requests
The UK Government is committed to introducing a new 2-year Graduate Route work visa. This enables Tier 4 students who complete their degree-level course (Bachelors or Masters degree) by the summer of 2021 to apply for a 2-year post-study work visa, as long as they hold a valid Tier 4 visa at that time. Postgraduate Taught Master's students who started their course in the autumn of 2019 are now approaching the end of their studies, and will already have a Tier 4 visa that is valid until the end of March 2021. While this cohort of students would not normally be eligible for the new visa route, if they are granted a period of 6-month academic extension, they will most likely become eligible for the 2-year Graduate route visa. We are not suggesting that students would intentionally fail or delay submission of their work, but this may be a factor for some students. As such, we would like to alert academic departments to this, in case you experience a higher-than-usual number of academic extension requests.
 
Student Immigration 'Staff FAQ - offer holders for 2020/21 entry' webpage updated with 'online enrolment deadline' and 'physical arrival deadline.'
The Academic Registrar has clarified these two deadlines for international students for all levels of study and all academic departments. There are high volumes of offer holders querying about these deadlines, and if you come across any, you can find the information on the above page. Please do continue to signpost them to the student-facing webpage and new student FAQs.
 
Change of study location reporting arrangements
The Home Office UKVI have confirmed that there is currently no requirement to make a report to them where a student has changed their study location for longer than three months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  If a student has returned overseas or is based at their UK residential address for the foreseeable future while still engaging with their studies, there is no requirement to make a report of this to Student Records.  It is advisable for academic departments to keep track of where their students are, but this information can simply be stored locally.  This is in place until the end of the 2020/21 academic year, unless the UKVI publishes any new guidance in the meantime.  Further information can be found in the FAQs online.
 
Tier4compliance@warwick.ac.uk not available between 17 August and 31 October 2020
Due to resource constraints and priorities of the Student Immigration and Compliance Team during the peak enrolment period, the decision has been taken to stop the monitoring of the Tier4compliance@warwick.ac.uk resource email account between 17 August and 31 October 2020 inclusive.  Staff will be advised to:

  • Refer to the Staff Intranet where the coronavirus FAQ for staff is available in relation to students and the Immigration website to try to seek the answer to their questions.
  • If the answer cannot be found on the website, the email should be re-sent to Immigrationservice@warwick.ac.uk where an International Student Adviser will endeavour to respond to your query.  This resource account will be monitored each day and emails replied to within three working days.

As a reminder, the Tier4compliance@warwick.ac.uk resource account should usually be used where staff have a query regarding a policy relating to Tier 4 compliance.  Any queries that relate to specific student cases should always be directed to the Immigrationservice@warwick.ac.uk resource account.

Queries?

We have launched the Teaching, Learning and Assessment (TLA) Helpdesk as a single place for TLA-related queries to central teams during the Covid-19 situation. We have a dedicated team managing the Helpdesk to ensure your query is resolved sooner and always gets to the right specialist team when needed.  
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If you would like to suggest additional topics to be covered in the newsletter, please email qualitymatters@warwick.ac.uk


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