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Guidance on academic continuity

TLDRoffon

This guidance is part of the planning work taking place to enable the university to continue to operate if there are site closures or groups of staff are asked to work at home due to Coronavirus.

We know the following good practice is already taking place across many parts of the university.  However we are sharing the following approaches, for all Module Leaders when planning for potential disruption.

1. Check your Moodle site has all the learning resources present for the rest of the term, including revision (where relevant). Please do not wait, have the materials ready now, even if you do not display these to students until they are needed.

2. Starting now, each week, use the Moodle Announcements or Q&A sections, to let students know what teaching activities are relevant for the week, and where they can find the resources to support these, which will help students who are self-isolating.

  • Using the Q&A function means all students benefit.
  • Using the Announcements rather than email to communicate with students on items relating to your module means if a colleague needs to help, they will know what you have already advised students.

 

3. For students who are self-isolating or in the event of a campus closure, please use either live-recorded lectures or pre-recorded lectures (Panopto) so that students who are self-isolating can keep up with their studying while at home.

  • If you would like to use any live recorded materials from last year, Module Leaders can do this. We will not do this automatically (see link to instructional videos).
  • If you need to demonstrate anything on university specialist equipment or software to provide support student learning, then consider recording the activity and making it available on Moodle.
  • In addition, consider using live streaming for teaching sessions so that students can ask questions, making use of the webcast functionality within Panopto.

You can find instructional videos, rules and regulations and security information on our website and also linked from staffdesktop.gre.ac.uk

Are you set up to work remotely?

4. Do you have a lap top or computer you can work from remotely and access to the internet? If you do not have access to a lap top or PC at home please speak to your line manager.

5. Have you set up Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)? This allows you to access university systems when off-site. If you have not already done so, please do this as soon as possible. 

6. If there are any activities in your daily routine that will be problematic to do if you work from home, then please highlight these to your line manager.