Tuesday 8 December 2020 saw another of CQSD’s T&L showcases, designed to help colleagues share practice, ideas, strategies and experiences. The theme for this showcase was using module roadmaps and weekly plans to help students. With the shift to blended and online learning, these documents were designed as a resource for staff to use to help students make the transition to this new T&L environment, and navigate their way through their learning materials, activities and teaching sessions.
A module roadmap template had been designed for staff to use to help students understand how their module would be delivered in a blended mode: how lectures would be delivered; which activities students would complete; which technologies would be used, how the module would be assessed. The weekly plan template had been developed for staff to explain what each week of the module would like look and what students would need to complete by when. It is expected that staff use the module roadmap. Use of weekly plans is optional but good practice, and students have reported finding them very helpful.
In this showcase, following an overview of these tools, Dr Julia Rodriguez Garcia (Food Science & Technology) and Dr Kai Li Chung (Psychology, UoRM) kindly shared how they had used them to help support their students and the overwhelmingly positive feedback they received. It was particularly interesting to hear how Julia had encouraged her students to use the weekly plan to develop their own study timetables to help with their time management and organisation.
Dr Julia Rodriguez Garcia (Food Science & Technology, SCFP)
Dr Kai Li Chung (Psychology, UoRM)
There has been a lot of positive feedback from students (RUSU survey of Academic Reps) on having support to navigate through their learning in this blended environment and understanding what they need to do by when, especially in terms of using their asynchronous materials to be ready and prepared for teaching sessions.
A recording of this 60 minute showcase can be accessed here – you will need a UoR Learn account to view it.
You may also find the following resources helpful:
- Module Roadmap Example (Shakespeare)
- Weekly Plan EXAMPLE (Shakespeare Week 1)
- Blackboard Threshold Standards – advice on designing your Blackboard module
Lauren McCann & Jo Cordy (CQSD)