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:
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We have published an updated, more detailed version of the guidance on how changes to teaching, learning and assessment in 2020/21 will be approved. This guidance provides more detail on the different approaches to teaching, learning, assessment and student support that can be approved at each of the different levels (tiers 1 to 3). We have also set out a timeline for approving these changes, with submissions for approval at Tiers 2 and 3 to be made by 04 August and processed during August.
The underpinning principle remains the same: where changes within modules align with the University’s strongly preferred approach for delivery next year, departments are free to approve these and update their records in the module approval system. Where changes go beyond the strongly preferred approach or have a broader impact on the course, they will be escalated for faculty (tier 2) or institutional (tier 3) approval.
The course changes form and guidance on making changes to module records will be shared with senior teams in each academic department in the next week.
Read the revised guidance on Approval and Quality Assurance for teaching, learning and assessment in 2020/21.
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In our guidance on 2020/21 delivery models that we published last week, we outlined our strong preference for asynchronous online lectures. We’re aware that this preference has raised some questions in departments. We wanted to provide the context for this decision, as well as to assure colleagues in departments that we will support requests to offer synchronous online activities where this is the best way to achieve the principles we set out last week to develop online learning activities that are inclusive, active, participatory, purposeful and collaborative. In line with much of the sector, the approach we outline can be characterised as, ‘design for asynchronous, only use synchronous when it adds value’.
Read more about our prefered approach to asynchronous and synchronous online delivery.
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As part of the overall approach to teaching, learning and assessment in 2020/21, students need to be well-supported in moving to a blended learning approach so that they have the best opportunity of succeeding in their studies. For current first-year students moving into their second year in September, this should include some form of ‘bridging’ support as previously outlined.
Having run a successful first iteration of the Warwick Online Learning Certificate (WOLC), we are repurposing it as a ready-made component that can be built into the bridging activities delivered by academic departments. Using WOLC – either in its generic form or with some disciplinary adaptation – forms part of the University’s strongly preferred approach to the delivery of teaching, learning and assessment in 2020/21. Where a department wishes to take a different approach to achieve the same outcomes, a case can be made with the course changes form and submitted for approval (Tier 3) by early August.
Read the new guidance published on bridging activities for students moving into the second year.
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Communications to students
In tomorrow’s student newsletter, we will reiterate our plans for a coordinated release of results by level this year and introduce how the September exams session will work. Namely, we will confirm to students that:
- The September exams session will run 02 September to 15 September and will be wholly online, much like the summer exam session that has just concluded.
- Any student required to take a resit or a further first attempt of an assessment will be scheduled to do so in the September exams session through an online assessment, or through the summer where it is an assignment (e.g. an essay) that does not require a set window of time as an exam would.
- All online assessments scheduled in the September exam session will be taken online at home, except in a very small number of cases where students will be unable to successfully complete their online assessments at home in September. Further detail on this will follow shortly.
Approval of additional assessment methods
Where an assessment component to be sat in September already has a method approved that can be delivered online, departments should continue utilising one of these methods. Where an assessment method needs to be adapted for online delivery in the September resit period, approval should be sought for an alternative assessment.
Read more about plans for September assessments and the approval of alternative assessment methods.
Relationship between resit assessments and the graduation benchmark
In response to feedback from a number of departments, we have today provided additional clarification about the impact of marks from resit and first sit assessments on the graduation benchmark that we have introduced as part of the safety net package for undergraduates.
Read our updated guidance on the graduation benchmark for finalists and the impact of resits.
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As planning for next academic gains momentum, we are moving from an emergency ‘incident management’ approach to decision making and back towards greater collaboration with across the Warwick community, including with our students.
To support academic departments in collecting practical student feedback efficiently while attention is currently focused on this year’s Exam Boards, we are rapidly developing a short end-of-term survey of students. It will engage undergraduate and postgraduate taught students over a three-week window from Monday 29 June. The survey will partly evaluate the experience of students over the last term (online assessments, WOLC etc.) and partly seek their suggestions on how we teach, assess and support them in a blended environment next year.
This week, we will write to departmental contacts for NSS and PTES to share the plans in more detail before following up in next week’s staff newsletter with an update to the wider community. While we appreciate any additional time pressures are challenging right now, we hope that with that a small message from encouragement from different colleagues who students know will help to achieve a good response rate in a short amount of time.
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The Office for Students has notified us that the publication of the results of the National Student Survey will be delayed by two weeks until Wednesday 15 July. This additional time is being used to complete an assessment of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the results data and to determine any impact of the presentation of the results. Having achieved a 75% response rate at Warwick, with the majority of responses submitted before the lockdown started, we are confident that our own results will be robust.
As the publication date falls at a time when staff in academic departments and central teams will be focused on Exam Boards, student results and confirming plans for 2020/21, we will only provide a basic release on NSS 2020 data by department and course on 15 July. We will pause further work on the results until August when we will be in a better place to consider how they should be used over the next academic year.
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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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