Hybrid Update #6: Week one feedback
Hi again everyone, I hope this week’s update finds you well as we move into our second week of teaching. I think it’s fair to say that last week was unlike any previous first weeks, with many people I’ve spoken to expressing a mix of uncertainty as we step back into the same physical spaces after so long, and genuinely heart-felt joy at re-engaging with students and colleagues on campus again. In today’s hybrid update, I’d like to similarly reflect a little on how week one has gone for the new service and share some of the early feedback we’ve gather from our remote students. I’d also like to invite any lecturers who used the service to let us know how their experience has gone.
So far, so good?
Not wanting to tempt the fates, but the first week of using our intermediary mode, Capture & Stream, seems to have gone well. We only had a single support ticket raised in Help4u and anecdotal feedback from staff (mainly gained by wondering the corridors of Dalhousie) has been positive. That is just one week and there’s a long way to go before this style of teaching beds in, but so far so good.
We’ll have a better picture as the weeks go by and we gather feedback as well as stats from Help4u, but bear in mind that with C&S being an intermediary solution, our focus is on learning lessons to improve the next stage of the project, Dual Mode.
Support remains available if you need it by dialling *1 on the room phones, which will connect you to remote support through UoDIT End-user Servies or you can be referred to in-room support if needed.
Week one student feedback
We’ve run an initial poll of remote students accessing hybrid teaching sessions and the results are positive:
This feedback was gathered anonymously through My Dundee and targeted specifically at registered remote students with a response rate of around 13% so far.
These are very early days and we’re not ready to start drawing conclusions, but some tentative takeaways are:
- Not being able to hear the lecturer ruins the experience, so please don’t assume your students can hear you – ask.
- Make sure your students are aware of what they should and should not expect from their experience. For example, Capture & Stream microphones are not expected to pick up the class speaking, only the lecturer. If there are questions being asked in the room, a lecturer should echo the question for the benefit of those online.
- Teaching sessions that include polls, group work or other interactive activities that include the remote students tend to score higher in overall satisfaction.
We’ll be posting these surveys fortnightly and tracking the experience throughout term and covering the introduction of Dual Mode. So you know what we’re asking your students, I’ve posted the full survey below:
As I’ve said previously, this feedback is specifically being used to gauge the success of the hybrid teaching modes, not the quality of the teaching or any other part of a student’s experience.
Staff feedback
Hearing from the students is only one part of the equation so we’d also like to hear from the lecturers:
Please use this form to let us know about your initial experiences of hybrid teaching and do share this with any colleagues you know who are engaged in this type of teaching in the first two weeks of term. The form will be disabled Sunday, 10/10/2021 at 22:00.
I’ll reflect on the results in the next update.
Until next time
Short and sweet update this week. Hopefully in the next one we’ll be able to start speaking about Dual Mode – the experience and the installation schedule. Until then, enjoy getting used to that on campus life where it’s happening and have a great week.