Design for online – opportunities to enrich your students’ education for semester 2 and beyond

Preparing for semester 2

2020 has certainly been a very challenging year so far, but it seems likely that there will be a slow relaxation of social distancing during the rest of 2020. With this in mind, we should probably be designing semester 2 with the expectation that lectures and large group activities will still be fully online. By taking what we have learnt from semester 1 and utilising best practice from elsewhere, we have the opportunity to make another significant step in online learning as an institution – towards an approach that is designed for the online environment and builds on its advantages.

To assist with preparation for semester 2 and beyond, Educational Innovation are running a number of initiatives during the break. These comprise:

• an intensive Winter School MPLF (run twice)
• A one-day symposium run jointly by faculties/schools, Educational Innovation and Student Life
• Creating professional videos with expert videographers

Symposium: Teaching well and supporting students during COVID-19

A one-day symposium will be held on 8th July, before the MPLF intensives, as a joint venture between Educational Innovation, Student Life and the faculties/schools. The symposium will celebrate and share ‘simple, but different’ COVID-related teaching and student support activities by Sydney colleagues during semester 1, 2020. Come along, be inspired and share your experiences of shifting to remote learning.

Winter School MPLF intensives

These two intensive sessions will combine modified Modular Professional Learning Framework (MPLF) modules to equip staff with the tools to redesign their curriculum, delivery, student support and engagement, and assessment approaches. They will be delivered by Educational Innovation with assistance from experienced teachers from across the institution. They will emphasise how sound pedagogical principles (i.e. good teaching) are key to successful student outcomes and how key technologies can assist. Each intensive is identical and runs over 2.5 days, from 13-15^th July and from 27-29^th July.

Create professional videos

To assist online teaching for semester 2, Educational Innovation are also offering up to 45 minutes with expert videographers to produce short professional videos for units of study – typically about 5 minutes in length. These videos might be used, for example to welcome students and introduce the purpose of the unit and its teachers. These videos will be recorded in a teaching space on main campus where appropriate social distancing can be maintained. You’ll be able to discuss the script with an educational designer prior to filming and there will be a teleprompter available for pre-prepared scripts. The video team will edit the video promptly with an estimated turnaround of 1 week. This service is designed to complement the DIY studio and other techniques for chunking lecture and instructional media covered in the MPLF and COVID resources.