The University has agreed an approach to teaching for the rest of academic year 2020/21. Departments have created contextual plans to help give a clear picture to students and staff about how teaching delivery will work for the rest of the academic year. This page is to support you thinking about how to deliver your department’s contextual plan.
Contextual plans
Contextual plans help provide a clear, holistic approach to the student experience over the remainder of the academic year as a whole. Your department contextual plan should have the Course Delivery Principles at their heart and identity where/how to enrich the curriculum, offer different learning experiences, promote the support offer, etc.
Key elements of a contextual plan
The plans will address:
- How the Course Delivery Principles will be implemented with a focus on student experience and outcomes, within the local context.
- How the local teams will provide a full and inspiring schedule of purposeful activities – building confidence and adding value.
- How the local teams will move smoothly between Tiers and back to f2f on-campus delivery as soon as circumstances – we need to recognise the importance and value of f2f on campus delivery and to move to this as soon as circumstances allow. All students must have the opportunity to engage in a compelling on-campus experience throughout the remainder of the academic year.
This should include:
- face-to-face teaching
- access to resources – whether on campus, online, or loan
- synchronous learning – lectures/seminars
- social learning activities – peer to peer
- virtual events – masterclasses; employer/industry engagement; placements
- applied learning – specialist estate, linking theory to practice
- online/remote support – academic advising and the support triangle supervision; technical support
Implementing your contextual plan
Your department’s contextual plan was formed based on learning from experiences and feedback during semester 1. Course and module leaders should also reflect and look at evidence of learning from semester 1 when thinking about implementing their department’s contextual plan.
- What worked well which should be continued?
- What worked for some modules and should be rolled out wider?
- What did students feedback should be improved?
When implementing the contextual plan, it’s important to keep student outcomes front and centre.
- Level 4 students will need a focus on progression to level 5
- Level 5 students will be concerned about finding a placement or progression to level 6
- Level 6 and 7 students will need support in finding employment or further study opportunities
Further supporting resources:
Example teaching delivery patterns, which mix online and face-to-face teaching
Inclusive Practice information to assist in thinking about how plans will impact students
Assessment Essentials contains information about designing and delivering a variety of assessment types