The Hybrid Teaching Exchange is where colleagues can share work in progress, learning, insights, ideas, plans and resources to support hybrid teaching.  The aim of these 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.

Highlights in this digest include reflections from some of the more than 1,300 staff nominated by students for a Students’ Association Teaching Award.  They include details of significant innovations and adaptations in teaching practice, provide a sense of the challenges faced by staff, their commitment to students and the value of this feedback from students – this year more than ever.  Other themes feature in this digest are a return to assessment and a focus on resources to support equality, diversity and inclusion.

The Student-Led Teaching Awards: Building Communities of Practice and Communities of Learning

“The Teaching Awards are a form of teaching; it’s students teaching the University about what they value” (Dr. Crispin Jordan, 2021 Award Nominee).

This year’s Student-Led Teaching Awards have celebrated hundreds of members of staff, with over 2,800 individual nominations submitted by students. Explore how nominees have successfully adopted the Hybrid Teaching model on a dedicated section on The Edinburgh Hybrid Teaching Exchange. Winners are announced on Wednesday 12 May.

• Listen to the first episode in a series of in-depth, candid, and important conversations with Award Nominees produced by EUSA and the Hybrid Teaching Exchange. This episode features Dr. Crispin Jordan and Dr. Glen Cousquer in conversation with Grace Lavender, Student Council Facilitator, and 4^th Year Religious Studies Student.
• Discover how Nominee Dr. Nikki Moran, a Senior Lecturer Reid School of Music, adapted her creative pedagogy for hybrid teaching and learning and how it helps to remember you have a back and a bum. You can read more about her nomination in her reflection.
• You can also read reflections from over 60 additional Award nominees on our reflections page.
• For an overview, insights, highlights, and lessons from this collection of reflections, visit our regularly updated post that also contains visualisations and captured quotations.
• Finally, you can revisit student expectations from Semester 1 of Semester 2 through The University Students’ Association survey.

Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 on Student Assessment – Part 2

Since our last update in March, we have produced and curated content on the ongoing impact of the pandemic on students’ performance in assessment. In addition to new content, you can visit a collection of alternative assessment methods on our Alternative Assessment page.

• There’s a new 12 min Podcast episode with Neil Lent and Celeste Mclaughlin from the Institute for Academic Development that explains the issues around academic misconduct and changes to student assessment as a result of the pandemic. This conversation builds on our previous episode on assessment with Prof. Judy Hardy.
• Explore a curated list of useful internal and external resources, upcoming IAD workshops, and scholarship that gives historical context to the discussion as well as practical strategies for assessment design and student feedback from The College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
• Watch our 2 min Explainer Video featuring Prof. Judy Hardy that captures some of the key changes to assessment.

Recent Additions to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: Microaggressions, Internationalisation, and OERs.

• Read the latest edition to the Microaggressions collection; Recognising and Counteracting Microaggressions against students from working-class and low socioeconomic backgrounds. These resources were co-produced by Rayya Ghul from the Institute for Academic Development with students at the University of Edinburgh to help staff understand and recognise microaggressions.
• Discover different perspectives on internationalisation in an internationalised university in our curated collection of posts that capture the voices of students and staff as active stakeholders across schools, units, and departments.
• This curated selection of Teaching Matters posts, highlights the development of Open Educational Resources (OER) services at the University over the last five years and showcases the uses of OER in teaching across schools and departments addressing issues such as LGBT+ health, sustainability and access.

And finally…

A reminder that our March digest  included support for Semester 2 and links to several other resources and approaches that colleagues might find helpful in the coming months.

This will be our final Hybrid Teaching Exchange digest for academic year 2020/21.  We’d like to thank everyone who has contributed.  The site provides a fascinating glimpse into some of the thinking and effort that went into reconfiguring and adapting teaching to the challenges and unpredictability of the last year.  Many of the materials produced will be used to inform and support teaching and learning in 2021/22 and into the future.  In the short term we will be feeding insights from the site into the Curriculum Transformation Programme.

All good wishes for 2021 and beyond

Authors: Erin Brown, Marketing Campaigns and Research Officer, Edinburgh University Students’ Association, Joe Arton, Academic Developer (Learning and Teaching Enhancement) in the IAD,  Jon Turner, Director of the IAD and Ros Claase, Senior Service Excellence Partner.