The Hybrid Teaching Exchange is a University of Edinburgh website where colleagues can share work in progress, learning, insights, ideas, plans and resources to support hybrid teaching for 2020/21.  The aim of these email digests is to provide an overview of the site and highlight new and existing content that we hope will be useful and of interest to you and colleagues. Since the last digest, we have expanded the depth of content in existing themes and added a new theme Supporting Mental Health, Wellbeing and Resilience.

Reflections on Semester 1

Throughout Semester 1, the Exchange has documented the University-wide experience of transitioning to hybrid during Covid-19. Contributions have included departmental plans, strategies and personal narratives from staff and students. Highlights from Semester 1 include:

• Insights from colleagues on how the strategic, technological and pedagogical challenges that surfaced with the transition to hybrid have been tackled, along with  contributions from students sharing their experiences.
• How Equality, Diversity, Inclusion can be addressed in hybrid teaching and learning.  This includes thinking around equality, equity and social justice in hybrid education; how to design assessment for social justice; approaches to inclusiveness, access and diversity; and how teaching staff can recognise and counteract racial micoaggressions.
• Contributions that share advice, resources and approaches.  This includes guidance for students (also useful for staff) on how to focus on pre-recorded lectures; experience of using the University’s media recording services;  and examples of colleagues adaptation in running a local field course, working in partnership with student societies and the Students’ Association; and a creative use of  minecraft in teaching.

Looking Towards Semester 2

In Semester 2, the Exchange will continue to support hybrid teaching and learning by being comprehensive, iterative, responsive and practical. For example, in order to answer some of the mental health and wellbeing challenges of Semester 1, we have introduced Supporting Mental Health, Wellbeing and Resilience in a digital environment as a new theme. Content that colleagues may find useful while preparing for Semester 2 includes:

• An overview of the support and advice available on how to get started with Digital and Online Teaching;  including links to support and training from Information Services and support for hybrid teaching from the IAD.
• Ideas and guidance for developing and running live co-curricular sessions;  how to build community and presence in digital environments; guidance on running educational activities outdoors along with conversations and resources to support Place-Based education and shared learning spaces; infographics for tutors and demonstrators with quick tips and key resources on various aspects of teaching; and ideas for socially-distanced in-person small group teaching.
• Advice on how to manage challenging behaviour online, respond to microaggressions, and build and support hybrid values.
• Resources to support staff and students’ health and wellbeing and personal reflections on the experience of providing that support.

Contribute and Feedback

Please do consider contributing to the site or making use of the comments sections and let us know if you have suggestions for future themes and topics.

We’d also welcome your feedback on the site in the comments sections and we are currently running a five minute usability study (link to 5 minute usability survey).

Best wishes

Jon Turner (IAD Director), Joe Arton and Ros Claase (Hybrid Teaching Exchange Curators)

j.d.turner@ed.ac.uk

joseph.arton@ed.ac.uk

Rosalyn.Claase@ed.ac.uk