Compilation of COVID-19 Contingency Posts

I’ve received quite a lot of correspondence about the recent spate of posts and am very glad sharing my own thoughts has been helpful. I’ve listed all COVID-response posts below for convenicence and will update as new ones are added.

I’ve broken them into two themes – Teaching Planning (from a whole-School perspective) and Moving Labs Online.

Teaching Planning

Managing and recovering from serious interruption to teaching

This post was the first in the series, looking at the four stages we are working through from interruption to return to normalcy – currently at the end of stage 3…!

Supporting student study in the “pivot” online

This post looked at how we were helping students adjust to new reality and get their focus back on study, with study prompts and guidance for preparing for a new type of assessment (48 hour open book exams). In addition, some messages regarding student support – see my colleague Chris Mowat’s blog for more detail on this. The text of the handout written is available for reuse.

Five approaches to help students manage information during COVID-19

Chris and I summarised five headline approaches around helping students for thos who haven’t much time to read anything else. It is hosted on Edinburgh’s Teaching Matters blog.

Managing the Open Book Process

This post looked at how we are managing the open book assessment process, in terms of logistics and also how we inform students about the technical aspects.

Guidance for students on helping manage “The 48 Hours” assessment period

This post shares the guide we have developed for students to help them focus on managing their health and well-being for the assessment period. Text of guide available if anyone wants to reuse it.

Micro-structuring student learning with SMARTS

This post looks at issues to consider in planning an online course.

Moving Labs Online

What is an “online chemistry lab”?

This post looks at what it is we mean by online labs, and surfaces some considerations as we all think about online lab teaching.

Moving a (physical) chemistry lab online

This post builds on the previous one, looking at some nitty gritty detail on what it would mean to move an advanced lab class online.

Moving early undergraduate chemistry labs online

This post looks at early undergrad labs, and starts to build something more tangible in terms of how to deliver an lab class based on making claims and seeking further data.

“Two Travellers”, Jack B. Yeats (Tate)