My first term leading a module during COVID also happens to be my first term leading a module at all – and of course I’m not just leading one, but two! Everything is new, and this brings with it lots of challenges, but also lots of support. While I don’t particularly know what I’m doing this year, the comforting thing is – nobody else does either!

Fortunately, all module & program leads at UCL were enrolled as students on a mandatory online module this summer, which was written to help us learn how to adopt the University’s ‘Connected Learning’ approach.

The module was packed full of ideas to engage students from their computer screens, get everyone involved & motivated, and explain complex concepts in simple terms without necessarily having live feedback or queries from the students.

It was brilliant.

It was also terrifying.

Frequently throughout the module, reference would be made to last year. How did you engage your students on this module last year? How did you collect feedback, and what did you learn from it? How much of this content was made available online last year? How will this need to change during COVID? For me of course, the answer was generally ‘…dunno?’

It’s a strange thing to start from square one during a year like this.

The massive positive, as I said at the beginning, was that everyone else was just as lost as me. Every time I (virtually) ran to someone for help and gave the disclaimer I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING, I was always greeted with a smile, a laugh, and a ‘me neither’. We muddled our way through together. Not one person told me off or said I should have already known the answer to something. A huge range of people patiently (virtually) sat me down and taught me the basics of the systems I was new to, that they were experts in.

One of the biggest challenges was that we re-wrote one of our modules from scratch this summer. As well as having new learning outcomes, themes and requiring 21 brand new lectures and hundreds of new randomized online exam questions, the content itself is also now entirely online and viewable directly in the course page. This includes interactive elements, videos, and different kinds of ‘check your knowledge’ sections from drag and drop answers to standard MCQs, all with a handy progress bar and navigation panels to make it as straight forward and accessible for the students as possible. The formatting was made consistent using HTML, which I was surprised to find I somewhat remembered, having learned it way back during the MSN Messenger days! This module was a team effort and a huge body of work that I’m very proud of having had a hand in.

Aside from developing new content in new ways, there was a lot of other tasks I needed to learn in order to lead modules this year. I was taught to use a range of different central college systems to arrange things like student timetables, exam marking, academic records, and even how to install virtual laboratory simulations within a course page (which by the way – is so much fun).

On that note – particular thanks to Atalanta, Kurinchi, Norman, Darren, Alvena, Zahra, Tope, Lauren, Umber, Faith & everyone else who has taught me how to lead modules over the last few months – I very much owe you all a drink if we ever see each other again!

The collective sense of WE WILL FIGURE THIS THING OUT TOGETHER was a truly inspiring thing.

To be quite honest, there can be times in academia where everyone around you is so deflated or overwhelmed with their own individual academic stresses, that peer support can be truly lacking. But in these last few months trying to get our new online teaching up and running, this could not have been further from the case. Everyone I mentioned above (and more) had time and patience for me when I needed it, and for that I am extremely grateful.

We’re a couple of weeks into term now, and so far we’ve had no major issues or setbacks. My first few Zoom lectures went off without a hitch – no technical difficulties, no complaints, not even one moment of ‘eh I think you’re on mute there Susan’!

The students I have met so far have been motivated, eager and engaged. Even with the majority of cameras off, I can still hear the smiles in their voices. They laugh along, they suggest things, they answer questions – the Zoom fatigue I had expected (that many of us around the world have fallen victim to) was not particularly apparent. I am sure over the course of the term this may change, but so far things are incredibly positive. They are here (virtually) and they are ready to learn.

During one of my online induction sessions I used a poll to see how students were feeling about completing a module virtually. I included a range of answers from ‘anxious’ to ‘lonely’ to ‘excited’ and was giddy to see that by far the most popular answer was ‘delighted to be able to attend lectures in my PJs’!

To summarize, my experience of being a lecturer during covid has been significantly better than expected – so please cross your fingers for me that this continues!